Sheep's Clothing by Gary Lewis (free ebook reader for pc txt) 📕

"I'd really like to skip this whole camping trip with them and spend it alone with you in there," David smiled as he nodded at her front door.

His words rushed from her stomach into her chest as she considered it for a second. "But they'll think-"

"Think it's one of us if we don't show. I know," David said with a reluctant tone. He put the car in reverse and wrapped his arm around the back of her seat to look behind them while he backed out.

Janice remained quiet for the entire drive as she took in the night air and savored the moment. It felt almost surreal. Sitting with David at her side made her feel not only safe, but as if no matter what happened, it was alright as long as it was with him.

Though the moon was only half full, its light cast across the branches to spread eerie shadows that stretched claws across the dimly lit dirt road surrounded by forest, shadows that snaked and clawed their way through the ground only to be obliterated by David's headlights.

"We're almost there, babe," he said, reaching his right hand across the center console to grasp hers. She thought for a moment. It wasn't just his headlights. David's light illuminated her shadows and drove away the darkness. The time is right. Janice turned to him. "Me too," she said quietly.

"What, Jan?" He glanced over for a second as he slowed down just a little.

"I love you too, David."

She felt his fingers grip tighter as they accelerated toward the trailhead.

Red taillights reflected back through the darkness as they slowed their approach at the parking area.

"Looks like the gang's all here," David said as they pulled in between Vance's pickup and Sarah's car. Another car was parked on the other side of Sarah's. Janice struggled through the dark to see it.

"Is that?"

Terry's gray station wagon sat apart from the others. "Yeah," David chuckled. "I guess he's competing with me for Pine Bluff's most clunker junker." Janice rolled her eyes and smiled as David turned on his flashlight.

"They could've waited here for us," he said as he stood in front of the car, waiting for Janice to walk over beside him. "Stay close."

She'd spent her entire life being meek and protected, but tonight, amongst the loud song of crickets and at David's side, she knew that she had nothing to worry about. Janice grabbed the flashlight from his hand and shined it upward in her face, attempting to make a scary grin. "I'm not afraid," she laughed as she turned to take the lead. "You just need to tell me where to go, mister."

She heard his footsteps as he briskly caught up to her and the dark forest squeezed out every inch of light aside from their own. An owl hooted from somewhere behind them as they delved deeper into the woodlands and further from the world. Their flashlight was the only thing that separated their path from the pitch black wilderness. Crunching through sticks and leaves while pushing apart bushes and vines, they tread into an unknown realm where they didn't belong. But Janice felt okay with that. She slid her fingers down David's forearm to his wrist before clasping his hand in her own while they strolled between the chipping wooden bark of evergreen and conifer towers that crowded the darkness around them.

#Vance#

"How much you want to bet they don't show and we're left right where we started?" Vance asked while he squeezed his empty beer can, crushing it before tossing it into the crackling fire.

"Did it really have to be so big?" Sarah asked.

"What? This?" Vance chuckled. "That's what she said." He motioned both hands toward his groin.

"The fire, dumbass."

"Hell yeah. Ward off evil spirits and shit," he said, taking a moment to stare across the sky in a slow circle that stopped at the fire tower. "Or summon them." A loud belch issued forth from the pool of booze in his belly. "Whichever comes first."

"So y'all used to come up here often?" Terry asked, still seated on his self-proclaimed favorite log that Vance had to help drag onto the clearing.

"Oh yeah," Vance lurched over to grab Terry's shoulder and tug his nimble body back and forth. "Buddy, I've got some stories, lemme tell ya."

"Oh no," Sarah covered her forehead and looked down.

"But, oh yes!" he shouted, realizing how loud he was getting before pausing for a moment.

"It was a dark," he said slowly in a loud tone. "A dark and stormy night. The moon was full," he swept his hand out across the sky.

"Okay,” Sarah said. “Now he's officially full of shit."

Vance laughed and lightened his voice. "Alright, so it wasn't stormy, but the moon might've been full."

"Anyway, I get David and Tony, we must've been about ten. I get them to sneak out. See, back then their mommy and daddy were kinda..." Vance started shoving his index finger through a circle in his other hand and winked at them. "You know."

"Yes, Vance, we know." Sarah said, folding her arms.

Just then, Vance remembered the story he was trying to tell. "Oh yeah. So, I got them to sneak out with me and Sarah."

"How'd y'all get around?" Terry asked as he poked at the fire with a long, slender stick.

Sarah walked over to sit on the log beside Terry and laughed. "His dad had him on the weekends. He used to pass out drunk and this guy would climb in his old beat-up pickup truck to drive home to his mom," she said. Her giggle began to fade with the random snaps and pops of the fire issuing forth embers between Vance and them.

"So, as I was saying," Vance continued as they sat at the log looking up across the fire at him. "I always had to listen to Tony all the way up here, whining about if we get in trouble." Vance stopped for a moment trying to remember where he left off.

"I think you've