The bear saw Adele at the same time as she noticed it. It was a smallish black bear, perhaps a yearling cub, and she felt no fear of it. It snuffled, and then began to waddle closer, its round ears perked forward.

Carl laughed delightedly. “Look, Mummy! A doggie!”

“No, sweetie, it’s a darling little bear. See, he’s friendly.”

Asafel had vanished, as he tended to do when not called on for awhile, so he was not present to prevent what happened next. Carl reached his arm toward the little bear, who plopped down on his hindquarters, looking so much like a teddy bear that Adele smiled.

A shot rang out, and the bear slumped to one side, collapsing bonelessly to sprawl on the earth.

“Mummy, wha’ happ’n?  Why de bayer fa’ down?” Adele shook her head, gazing helplessly around. Who had fired the shot? She huddled on the ground, clutching both boys to her breast, when George arrived on the scene, sweaty and furious.

Without preamble, he launched into Adele. “For Christ’s sake, woman, what were you thinking? Dragging these boys this far from safety in bear country? You’re goddamn lucky I showed up in time! That thing could’ve ripped Carly’s face right off his head!” With a steel-toed boot, he prodded the bear’s limp carcass. A thin trickle of bright red blood flowed from a small hole in the bear’s forehead.

“Not a bad shot, though, eh?” he grinned, proud as all get-out. The thing about George was, he never stayed angry for very long about ordinary things like his eldest child nearly getting mauled by a bear. And he loved to kill things.

Adele was too stunned to respond. Her head still rang from the sound of the shot, and the hammering of her heart would not slow down. The little bear’s open, curious expression was imprinted on her retinas like the afterimage after a camera flash.

“Mummy, de bayer bleedin’!” Carl wailed. “Is de bayer hurted, Daddy?”

“Damn rights that bear is hurted,” George said. “That bayer is hurted right to death, honey. He’s not going to hurt you now. Everything’s okay, eh?”

Carl’s shocked face crumpled and he began to wail. “De bayer! I want de bayer! Daddy kiwwed it!” He buried his face in Adele’s breast and sobbed heartbrokenly. Scotty’s ‘welcome home Daddy’ grin dampened slightly and he looked in puzzlement from Carl to George. Then he broke into giggles and waved his arms to be picked up. “Da Da!” he gurgled.

George swung Scottie up into the air, eliciting more giggles. “There, at least somebody’s happy to see me! What the hell’s going on, Adele?”

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