Riding the Pause Read Free Page B

her feet trapped in the boots all day, the flat rubber flip flops felt like she was wearing nothing. Grabbing her small Ziploc bag of personal items, she headed off to the luxury of the semi-permanent porta potty. There was no running water, but at least she wouldn’t be crouching in the bushes.
    By the time she got back to the shelter, the man was pouring steaming water into a chipped enamel cup for tea. With the sun going down and since she’d stopped moving, she could feel the cold creeping in and knew she ought to start her new stove to heat water for dinner and her own tea. She dug in her pack for the drawstring bag that held her food and pulled out the small pot that held her tiny camp stove and fuel. The guy at the outdoor store raved about how light the stove was and how easy to use but with its spindly burner attached to the canister of fuel, it was a lot more intimidating than her old stove had been. Maybe she’d be better off just trying to heat water over a fire, she thought glancing at the steaming pot.
    “You can have the rest of the water if you want,” said the hairy man. “I’m finished with it. My name’s Cash, by the way.”
    “Rachel,” she said, extending her hand.
    Cash shook it, his grip warm through the calluses on his hands. “Nice to meet you.”
    “Are you sure?” Rachel asked eyeing the hot water with envy.
    “Of course. I’ve been here for a couple of hours. I already ate and cleaned up. The rest is yours.”
    “Thanks,” she said with a smile, digging through her food bag for the package of instant mashed potatoes, a beef stick and an apple. It wasn’t the most nutritious meal, but she was only going to be on the trail for a couple of days and the potatoes were light, warm and filling. “Have you been on the trail for long?” Rachel ripped open the package of instant potatoes and poured in hot water, giving the pasty white mixture a quick stir before filling her cup for tea.
    “A while,” said Cash. “I’m heading back north, thru-hiking to Maine.”
    “I always wanted to do that, hike the whole trail.”
    “You should. I’ve done it a bunch of times,” he said. “Some parts of the trail are nicer than others, but the people are great everywhere.” He gave her a smile and Rachel was surprised at how straight his teeth were. Part of her had bought into the hairy toothless redneck stereotype, and she was a little shocked to see that it wasn’t true.
    Rachel took her dinner and tea and scooted closer to the fire, tugging her fleece tighter around her against the chill. They sat in silence, watching the flames dance and the light dim while she ate, and he sipped his tea. After a day spent in the quiet of the woods, surrounded by the reassuring scent of the campfire and the radiant heat of the flames warming her through, Rachel felt a thin trickle of peace settle into her, drowning out some of the noise in her head.
    She finished her dinner and cleaned her cup and spork, packing her trash in a Ziploc before hanging it and her food from a tree to keep it away from the bears. She turned back to the shelter in time to see another hiker emerge from the dark outside the campfire. He looked like a college kid, with a huge pack and a couple of weeks’ worth of beard but nowhere near Cash’s level.
    She nodded and smiled as he and Cash introduced each other and started to talk. But she felt like she’d almost captured some kind of peace sitting at the fire and she didn’t want to risk losing it. She wanted time to think and while her body was tired from the exertion of hiking, it was her mind that was exhausted. She murmured her good nights and climbed into her sleeping bag, tugging her hat down over her ears so she could drift to sleep to the soft murmur of their voices and the scent of wood smoke.
     
     
    When Rachel woke the next morning, the young hiker, she never caught his name, was gone already, and Cash was still asleep. She made a quick trip to the facilities,