It was a little loud to talk in the open Jeep while they were out on the highway. Jack thought that he was still hungry, and that the food was going to get cold before they got back out to the pine barrens. Once they pulled off onto the dirt road that led back where he was going, he asked Vixen if she’d like a hamburger and to share his fries. “Afraid your choice is loaded,” he said. “Onions give Stas dog farts.”

“Yeah, sure,” Vixen smiled. “I didn’t have much of a supper.”

“Then give Stas the plain burger, give me one of the others and have one for yourself,” he said. “I can eat while I’m driving.”

Predictably, Stas inhaled his burger in about three seconds flat, and then hung his nose over Jack’s shoulder. With that for inspiration, Jack pretty well inhaled his as well, partly to remove the temptation, but he was hungry as well and his dinner had just been cut in half by his gentlemanly gesture. Vixen ate about half of hers, picked out the onion, and gave the rest to Stas.

After a while Jack turned onto the two-rut road heading back to where he’d seen the Kirtland’s Warbler. He explained to Vixen how he’d seen the bird flying around while driving down the two-rut, and had spent several days wandering around out there until he found the barren nest, then more time trying for the photos he’d gotten this afternoon. He didn’t mention the other photos he’d taken; it wasn’t really something he wanted to get into with her just then. She wasn’t a girlfriend, after all, just a friend, another Spearfish Lake High School outcast, like he was.

“That sounds like a lot of work,” she said.

“Well, it’s something I want to do,” he told her, “and the work was worth it, at least assuming those photos come out.”

“So is that what you want to do? It doesn’t seem like you can make a living watching birds.”

“I didn’t think so either, until I met a guy who is a professional,” he explained. “He was really, really good. It turns out that his job is to do field population studies, for universities, the Department of Natural Resources, and organizations like that. I mean, he just goes out in a designated area and counts birds – what species there are, whether they’re nesting, things like that. I don’t know that I necessarily want to do that, but I’d like to do something scientific that involves birding. That involves college, grad school. The amazing part is that my folks met him too, and he convinced them that it really is something that can be done if you work hard enough at it.”

“God, I wish I had something like that. I don’t have the faintest damn notion of what I want to do. All I do is read fantasy books, and sometimes write some really bad stories. I think it would be neat to have a dream like that, and be working toward it. I don’t know much about birds, other than I can tell a seagull from a sparrow, but it would be fun to have an interest and a goal like you do.”

“Well, I’d take you with me some time,” he offered. “It mostly involves sitting around quietly and spending a lot of time looking at them.”

“I might just take you up on that,” she said. “It’s got to be better than what I’ve done this summer. All I’ve done is read and listen to my mother bitch.”

By now Jack was getting close to the place where he’d parked earlier. In fact, there was the place where his tire tracks pulled off the two-rut road. As he got set to turn, he glanced on up the two-rut, to see that the tracks he’d made earlier had been largely obliterated, so somebody had been up the road or the women from the ritual had left, or something. It only took him a second to establish that before he turned the Jeep off the road and followed his tracks back into the scrub pine. “Well, all right,” he said. “We’re here. This is probably about as alone as you can get around Spearfish Lake. There probably isn’t anyone around for miles. Now what is it you wanted to talk about?”

“Oh, nothing in particular,” she said, turning a little to face him. Although the sun had long set, there was still some light in the sky, so he could see her clearly. “Like I said back in town, I just wanted to talk to someone, just to have someone to talk to. It’s been damn lonely and boring this summer, and at that I’d rather be alone than have my mother in my face. So I decided to get out of the house tonight just to see someone, and this shit with Mary Lou had to happen. I don’t come up anywhere near her standard of coolness, so that means she thinks she has the right to put me down whenever she wants. God, I hate to say it, but it felt so good to knock her on her ass that I’m only a little ashamed of myself. It won’t make up for all the shit she’s given me, but at least it’s something.”

“I know what you’re talking about,” he agreed, taking his cups of funny tasting Coke and water from the other bag she had put on the floor. He took the cap off of the cup of water and set it on the back seat floor, and was immediately rewarded with sounds of slurping from Stas as he continued, “I put up with all that jock shit myself, and I avoid them as much as I can. You know the best thing about when school lets out for the afternoon? The jock assholes are all in practice, so there’s a couple hours I don’t have to watch my back.”

“Yeah, shit, I agree. It’s a little different for girls, but I’m damn glad I don’t have to play their game. What makes people like that, anyway?”

“I don’t know,” he replied, shaking his head. “Dad says that people like that usually grow out of it or get it kicked out of them, one way or another, but it sure seems like it takes a hell of a long time for it to happen.”

“Yeah, for sure. God, it makes you wonder. Some people get all the luck. The pretty ones and the athletes get it all, and the rest of us just have to look on and try to put up with it.”

“You know, there’s one thought that has occasionally comforted me over the years,” he smiled.

“What’s that?”

“Put on your mystic hat and look into the future,” he smiled. “I mean, just imagine Frenchy and Mary Lou ten years from now. They’re riding on top now, but the meek shall inherit the earth after all.”

“I don’t follow you, but I get enough of that Bible shit from my mother.”

“I’m no religious nut,” he said, “but sometimes the Bible gets it right. Like I said, look into the future with your imagination. Take Frenchy. Yeah, sure, he’s tough, he likes to fight, right? That makes him a pain in the ass for the rest of us, right?”

“Well, yeah,” she conceded. “He’s really a pain in the ass.”

“OK, let’s take a few other facts into consideration. He’s a C and D student, if that, so he doesn’t have the grades to get into college and he isn’t smart enough to do it anyway. So, from his viewpoint, anyone smarter than he is must be something lesser, since he thinks he’s the king of the heap because he plays football.”

“Well, yeah, that’s obvious.”

“Football may be a big deal in this town, too big a deal, considering that they went two and seven last year, and that was a good year over the last four or five. Now, he may be a good football player for a two and seven team, but he’s not spectacular, and there aren’t going to be many colleges beating down his door looking to give him a scholarship, right?”

“That is a comforting thought when you look at it that way,” she smiled. “Maybe that’ll take him down a notch or two.”

“Not likely,” Jack smiled, “at least not for a while. He’s going to think that since he was a big deal in football in Spearfish Lake, that’s going to mean that he’s going to be a big deal, period. Well, being a big deal in football might well give him a leg up on a job at the plywood plant. Now, that’s going to be more money than he’s ever seen before, so a year from now he’s really going to think he’s King Shit, right?”

“Yeah, and he will be.”

“No he won’t,” Jack laughed. “He’ll think he’ll be, but look ahead another ten years. He’ll have earned his money, I grant you that. But you know what it’s like working in a place like that? It’s hot, it’s smelly, it’s noisy, he’ll be on his feet all goddamn day running a chipper or shoving composition board around, his back will be killing him, and when the time comes to knock off, he’ll be beat to shit. So after work he heads over to the Pike Bar and loads up on a few beers, then heads home.”

“I get it,” she laughed. “So he gets home. He’s late for supper, Mary Lou will bitch at him because he’s late and she’s been putting up with three screaming kids all fucking day. She’s not the trim little cheerleader any more, she dresses like a slob because nobody cares anyway, her hair is a mess, and she’s got an ass that could masquerade as an eighty pound pumpkin. The beer and the noise and his sore back will have him all pissed off, and he won’t put up with that kind of shit from her so he pops her one. Then the neighbors call the cops and he winds up in the slammer.”

“That’s it,” he laughed. “Doesn’t it serve both of them right? Especially since you’re working at something you like to do, maybe making better money, in some place you like rather than sad-assed old Spearfish Lake, but most importantly, enjoying yourself since your life isn’t such a fucking dead end? ”

“Well, at least I hope my life isn’t going to be such a fucking dead end,” she sighed. “But I don’t know what it is that I want to do.”

“It’s not like you have to know tonight,” he told her gently. “You’ve got a few years to figure it out, and maybe it will take being in college and out of Spearfish Lake to get you there.”

“There is that,” she agreed. “I think being away from my mother will do me as much good as anything. I don’t know where I’m going to college but it isn’t going to be close. So where are you going to school?’

“I haven’t worked it out yet, either,” he replied. “From what I can tell, nobody offers an undergraduate degree in ornithology. It’s all graduate school stuff. However, it comes out of wildlife biology, and there are a lot of programs for that. I just need to figure out where I can go that offers me the best chance to move on into ornithology. I’ve got a list, but I’m still whittling it down. I’m kind of hoping that I can go to some school in some other part of the country, maybe Florida, where the birds are a bit different than they are here. Money gets to be an issue, though, so I don’t know if I’ll be able to go out of state.”

“Money’s going to be an issue for me, too,” she sighed. “At least Dad acts like I’m going to get some support, but I think my mother would just as soon keep me home so she can bitch at me.”

“What’s the deal with you and your mother, anyway?” Jack asked. “It seems like you don’t get along very well.”

“We don’t,” she sighed again. “There’s lots of reasons, but the big thing is that church is a big deal in her life and I’ve sort of turned my back on it. She doesn’t like that one bit, she thinks I’m going to hell as a result. The simple fact of the matter is that I’ve put a lot of thought into it and there are plenty of things that just don’t make sense to me. I may think different about it when I get older and don’t have her shoving it down my throat, but the more she shoves the longer it’s going to be before I can think about it constructively. So we fight. I mean, not hitting, but there’s a lot of yelling going on. Dad is forever stepping into the middle. I can only get shoved so far, and then I shove back.” She stopped, shook her head, and continued, “I guess Mary Lou found that out tonight. I’m probably going to catch hell for it, but at least I have that much satisfaction.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, “she’s not likely to let it go.”

“I don’t think my mother is going to let it go when she hears about it,” Vixen shook her head. “It’s going to just be something else to bitch at me about.”

“Well, for what it’s worth, I’ll be glad to tell her as an eyewitness that you were just defending yourself from verbal and physical abuse.”

“And she’ll tell me I should have just turned the other cheek. And, my God, she’d just absolutely shit if she knew that I was parked out here with a guy. She’d be absolutely convinced that we only came out here to screw each other silly.”

“She can’t be that bad,” Jack shook his head.

“Jack, I’ve never had a solo date with a guy, and I don’t think we can count tonight as one. Not that anybody would want to go out with me, anyway. I mean, hell, I’m skinny, I’m ugly, and I’ve got a face that looks like someone stomped on it with a golf shoe a few hundred times.”

“You actually think all that matters? I don’t think you’re that skinny, and you’re not ugly. You’ve got acne, but so what? You’re just putting yourself down. You’ve listened to people like Mary Lou too much.”

“I wish you were right,” she sighed, “but all of that means that I turn guys off.”

“I don’t think so,” he said defensively. “Otherwise we wouldn’t be sitting here talking about it. I think you’re friendly and intelligent, and I for one would like to get to know you a little better. I don’t think you’re worthless like you seem to be saying.” He decided to throw a little negativity back at her, just to put things in perspective. “I admit, I’m no prize, and most girls would rather be dead than be seen with a nerd like me. But shit, that’s all a bunch of Mary Lou stuff, and I know I’m leaving it behind. Maybe someday someone will appreciate me for what I am.”

“Now you’re the one being negative,” she replied, catching him at what he was doing. “I think you’re a smart guy who happens to be rather nice, or you wouldn’t have stepped in for me tonight and we wouldn’t be here. And I really appreciate it. Even though this isn’t a date, it sort of feels like one a little.”

“Yeah, it does,” he said, “and it feels kind of nice. Tell you what, though. Let’s treat it like a date and try to talk about happier things. You say you read a lot?”

“Oh, yeah, lots and lots of fantasy,” she smiled. “In fact, I’m getting a little tired of it, since that’s about all I’ve done all summer. It’s mostly stuff that I’ve read before.”

“What are you reading now?”

“I just finished Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey,” she replied. “You ever hear of it?”

“Can’t say as I have.”

“It’s real neat, maybe some of the best fantasy that I’ve ever read,” she replied. “Very complicated, but a very well-designed world that makes some sort of sense. The characters are very well done, especially Phadre, the main character. She’s well, she’s a little kinky, if you know what I mean. It’s all a series, there’s supposed to be another book coming out soon, so I decided to brush up on everything.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever read any of that kind of stuff. I’m not much on fiction. What do you mean by a very well-designed world?”

“Well, it’s very complete,” she replied. “It’s kind of a takeoff on Europe, set in a sort of medieval era, but a lot is different. For example, the religion is important to the people and the story; it’s kind of a takeoff on Christianity, but it takes off in a completely different direction with completely different results so it doesn’t much resemble Christianity at all. The basic premise is “Love as thou wilt,” and the expression is encouraged, rather than suppressed. It’s pretty different from a lot of fantasy fiction.”

“How’s that?” he replied, genuinely curious.

“Well, a lot of fantasy religions in fiction are sort of based on the European traditions of magic and religion.”

“That’s all Christian in one form or another,” Jack observed, not terribly interested in the discussion but wanting to keep her talking about something she liked.

“Well, yes and no,” she replied. “Otherwise we wouldn’t have stories of, oh, elves and fairies and witches and mages and pagan stuff like that. You know Summer Trevetheck?”

“Yeah, sure,” he replied, his ears perking up. “I’ve gone to school with her as long as you have.”

“Well, we were talking about Kushiel’s Dart one time, I guess last winter, and she said that a lot of religion in fantasy seems to be more or less loosely derived from Wiccan beliefs.”

Wiccan! The word echoed around in Jack’s head. He didn’t know much about it, but he knew what it was, and it was a piece of the puzzle from earlier that seemed to fit as soon as he heard it. Maybe it was the key piece.

Trying to cover up his interest he asked casually, “Does she know much about Wiccan beliefs?”

“I’m sure she knows something, but then I know something about it, too. You don’t read as much fantasy as I have without picking up a little bit of it. Summer doesn’t read as much fantasy as I do either, but she seems to get more out of it.”

“Are you friends with her?” he asked, wondering if the sight from the afternoon could be easily explained after all.

“No, not really,” Vixen replied. “A little bit, enough to be able to talk about books at lunch once in a while if we happen to sit together. I mean, it’s more interesting to talk about than who’s dating who, who’s broken up with who, and what a jerk Mr. Ordway is, if you know what I mean.”

“Yeah, I know exactly what you mean,” he replied, resolving to draw the conversation away from Summer and pagan beliefs. “I don’t have any real close friends at school, but every now and then I manage to have an interesting discussion at lunch, something other than sports or who’s going to kick whose ass.”

“I’ll bet you don’t get the chance to talk about birds very often,” she smiled.

“No, unless it’s hunting season and people are asking me where the hell the geese have gone, or something like that. I tell you what, the average goose is more intelligent than we give them credit for. They know when hunting season is and they stay the hell away from hunters. You can go out on the back side of the point the day before the season opens and sometimes count hundreds of geese. When the first shot is fired, they disappear like magic.”

“Where do they go?”

“I’m convinced that geese can read signs that say ‘No Hunting’ because you can find them right behind those signs for the duration of goose season,” he smiled, letting his thoughts about pagan rituals head to the back of his mind. He’d decided before that he wasn’t going to say anything about Summer being involved in the ceremony he’d seen earlier, and he’d already pushed the limit. Saying much more, at least right now, might let the cat out of the bag, so talking about geese was safer. “You know the pond out in the park behind Hannegan’s Cove? That’s in the city, so no hunting there, and sometimes you can see literally wall-to-wall geese, too many to count. I took a series of photos one time to count them and got over six hundred. Six hundred geese in a small park pond is not a happy thing, partly because of the pissed off hunters, and partly because they shit all over everything.”

“That’s got to be a sight to see,” she replied, sounding interested. “Do you go out there often?”

“Once in a while,” he said. “I mean, a Canada Goose is a Canada Goose and there’s a pot load of them out there. Sometimes, though, some migrants will drop in. I got photos of Snow Geese and Brant out there last fall. Snows aren’t real common passing through, but the Brant was a new one to me. That was pretty neat.”

“I’ll have to remember that,” she replied. “I think ducks and geese are kind of neat. Maybe you’ll have to take me out there some time, or to some of your other bird watching spots.”

“Well, if you want to go I’d be glad to take you,” he said, actually amazed to hear it from her. “There’s a lot to learn and I don’t know it all by any means, but it can be a pleasant way to pass the time.”

“Right now, it sounds a hell of a lot more interesting than sitting around the house, bored to tears, reading books I’ve already read two or three or five times before. I’d love to go with you and learn some of that stuff.”

Well, I will be damned, Jack thought. He’d never imagined a girl in Spearfish Lake saying that to him. Never, ever. So what if it was Vixen Hvalchek, and so what if she wasn’t the prettiest girl in school? A birding friend of either sex around his own age was something he’d never dared to even dream of.

“Works for me,” he replied, still amazed. “How about tomorrow afternoon? I’ve got something I need to do in the morning, but I’d sort of figured on going out on the point looking at water birds in the afternoon. It’ll be a good way to get you started.”

“I think it’ll be all right,” she smiled, a little surprised at his positive reaction. “Mom will probably be home, and if she doesn’t get all bent out of shape about me going out bird watching with you, I’d love to do it.”

“Is there a chance of that?”

“Hell, with her, who knows?” Vixen shrugged. “I can’t figure her out. It won’t be like we’ll be going to see some dirty movie down in Camden or something, and then finding some place to park until the wee small hours of the morning. Which makes me think: she really wouldn’t be happy with me being out here with you, or out with anyone without her knowing about it. I sort of snuck out for ice cream as it was, so maybe we’d better head back to town. There’s still a chance that we can make it back before she gets home. If she finds me asleep in bed she shouldn’t be any the wiser.”

“Well, I guess,” Jack sighed. “That doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t like to sit here and talk with you some more.”

“Me either,” she agreed. “I know we haven’t talked about much, but we can do it tomorrow some too, can’t we?”

“Probably less than you think,” he replied as he reached for the key. “For the most part, we’ll have to keep the talking real quiet.”

“We’ll find time,” she grinned as he started the Jeep. “What time tomorrow?”

“Don’t know,” he replied. “I ought to be back by noon, but you never know what’s going to happen. And I suppose I should have some lunch along in there, so that’ll add some time. Say around one or two, to be on the safe side. Should I call first?”

“Yeah, I think so. That’ll give me a chance to break it to her, and for her to lecture me a bit about boys who only want to get into my panties.”

“Maybe she’ll take it innocently,” he replied as he backed the Jeep up to turn it around.

“As if,” she snorted. “You don’t know her.”

“She might surprise you.”

“That would be a surprise.”

It took them fifteen minutes or so to get back to Spearfish Lake, talking all the way, except for the couple miles out on the state road, where Jack was driving too fast to make conversation comfortable. He knew where she lived – it was a small town, after all – and drove right to her house, pulling into the driveway. “Are you sure you want to stay here by yourself?” he asked. “There’s still a chance someone could come along.”

“Not real likely,” she shook her head. “Most of the football team and the cheerleaders are probably still knocking back the Pabst, bragging about how they’re going to kick our asses. I doubt if anyone is watching, and I won’t turn on any lights other than the ones that have been on all evening. If somebody does come I just won’t answer the door. As far as that goes, I’d rather be caught by the football team than being caught necking with you in the driveway.”

“We’re not necking,” he protested.

“We’re sitting in the driveway in the dark, talking. If my mother saw us we’d have been necking, even if I’d ridden home in your trunk. She’d think the worst of us no matter what really happened.”

“I suppose,” he sighed.

“On the other hand,” she grinned, “If we were going to get accused of it we might as well enjoy it.” She leaned over and drew him toward her. “Thanks, Jack,” she continued. “You saved my ass tonight, you and Stas. I have to give my hero his reward.”

It wasn’t a long kiss or a deep one, not that either of them had much to compare it with, but it was a kiss that went deep enough and went on long enough that neither of them really wanted to stop, either.

“Wow,” she said after they came up for air. “My first real kiss, and it was a good one, too. Thank you, Jack.”

“Thank you Vixen,” he said. “It was my first, too.”

“Maybe it won’t be our last,” she smiled. “I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

“I am, too,” he replied, just a little dazed at what had happened.

“I’d love to do it again right now, but I think maybe I better get inside or else we run the risk of Mom really finding us necking. If that happened, it could well be our last kiss. Be cool, Jack. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She hopped out of the Jeep and headed inside, turning at the door and giving him a little wave before she opened it. As soon as the door was closed, Jack started the engine and backed out onto the street. Damn, what a day, he thought as he turned toward home. After everything else, I come out of it with a girlfriend, too. Well, maybe a girlfriend, the first step to having one. Shit, who ever thought that would happen?

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