The Altar Girl: A Prequel

CHAPTER 6

Nadia stood in front of her lean-to staring down the barrel of the gun fearing her heart might stop beating any second. She hadn’t been this scared since she forgot the Ukrainian words to Hail Mary while saying morning prayers in her parents’ bedroom. Her father had been shaving at the time, and when her voice stopped he bounded out of the bathroom, face foaming with lather, and slapped her in the head so hard she fell over and broke her nose.

She’d seen guns before. Some of the counselors for the boys — ROTC types that didn’t party with the girl counselors — brought their hunting rifles with them to summer camp. But this gun was different. It was shiny and beautiful. This one looked more like something a private eye on TV would carry to look cool. Whatever it was, it sure didn’t belong in the forest. Neither did its owner or his girlfriend.

“Sorry, kid,” the Kangaroo said, as he lowered the barrel of the gun toward the ground. “I have a bad back. This thing weighs so much I took it out of the knapsack and stuck it in my belt. But that’s no good either. I didn’t mean to pull it out and scare you.”

Nadia breathed easier. Only then did she realize her teeth were chattering.

“I told you not to bring it,” the Giraffe said. “But you had to be such a man, didn’t you? As if the entire camping thing wasn’t stupid enough, you had to go bring that gun with you. What you should have brought was something for all these damn mosquitoes.” She slapped her neck. “I hate insects. I hate the outdoors. I hate this place, and I fucking hate you.”

Nadia’s mouth fell open. A woman giving her man the f-word? That was unbelievable. If her mother had ever said that to her father? Oh, man. That would have been ugly.

“Let’s make the best of it,” the Kangaroo said, “and focus on the task at hand.”

The Giraffe swatted at her ears again. “This is ridiculous. They’re eating me alive here. You’re a banker,” she said, spitting the words at her boyfriend. “You belong in the city. I’m a law student. I belong in the city. What possessed you to drag me out here to this godforsaken, living hell? And what possessed me to say yes? This is the stupidest decision I’ve ever made in my life.”

The Kangaroo shook his head in frustration. He knelt down by the fire so he was eye to eye with Nadia and smiled.

“Honey, is there an adult with you nearby?”

His choice of words dropped him a notch right away. Nadia hated to be called “honey.” It was thick, sweet, and came in a jar. None of those descriptions applied to her.

“Nope,” Nadia said. “I’m alone.”

The Kangaroo laughed in disbelief. “No way. You’re alone? You can’t be alone.”

Nadia explained that she was alone on a Ukrainian girl scout survival test, and that her father or brother were camping somewhere on the trail, probably half a mile or so away. At least that was her best guess.

The Giraffe was smiling at her now, too. It was a heckuva smile. Nadia imagined being half as pretty as this woman. She’d have friends and no one would pick on her. What a life that would have been.

The Giraffe said, “Do you have a walkie-talkie from RadioShack or something like that, to talk to your father or brother? If there’s an emergency?”

“Nope,” Nadia said. “All I have is a whistle. I’m only supposed to use it if I’m in serious trouble. Like, really serious. But I do know the way back to the trail if you’re lost.”

“It’s a bit more complicated,” the Kangaroo said. “We’re with another couple. My brother and his wife. And my brother’s hurt. He tripped and rolled down a hill. His forehead is bleeding and we think he broke his leg. We need to get him some help.”

“Do you have a first aid kit?” Nadia said.

“Yeah,” the Giraffe said. “We put a bandage on his forehead, but there’s nothing we can do for his leg. There’s no way he can walk.”

“Was there an Ace bandage in the first aid kit?”

“I think I remember seeing one,” the Giraffe said.

Nadia knew what needed to be done. She was trained in first aid. She could help these people and it was her duty to do so.

Nadia said, “Do either of you have a poncho in your knapsack?”

“No,” the Kangaroo said. “But I have an umbrella.”

“Yeah,” the Giraffe said, rolling her eyes. “A Burberry umbrella. Number one on the list of essential camping equipment. No, I don’t have a poncho either. It wasn’t supposed to rain. We’re hiking for the day. We got lost because Magellan here forgot the compass in the car. He couldn’t read the map when we took a detour off the trail.”

“It’s hard to read a map without a compass,” Nadia said.

The Kangaroo sighed as though he’d had enough of people making fun of him, but the Giraffe rewarded Nadia with a belly laugh and a smile. Nadia savored an adrenaline rush. They were pals, she and the beautiful Giraffe. This made her a cool girl for the day, didn’t it?

Now that they were buddies, Nadia would do anything for the Giraffe. Even sacrifice her poncho, which truly was essential survival equipment.

Nadia removed the poncho from her lean-to and folded it into a square. Threaded her belt through the sheath of her Bowie knife so that the giant blade hung down her left leg, and attached her canteen along her left side. Then she stood before the strangers with her hands at her sides, like a gunfighter from her brother’s favorite spaghetti westerns.

“We’re good to go,” Nadia said. “I know first aid. Lead the way.”

They laughed at her. At first Nadia felt her face start to burn. But then she realized they weren’t making fun of her. They were laughing in a nice way. They appreciated that she was trying to help, but they doubted she could help the Kangaroo’s injured brother. Nadia understood that they probably thought she was too young to know what she was doing.

To ease their minds, she told them exactly what she was going to do, step-by-step. When Nadia was done, the couple glanced at each other with shocked expressions and didn’t say another word.

Nadia added two logs to her fire to make sure it had plenty of fuel and followed the couple deep into the woods, leaving the knapsack and camp behind her.