Totally Fiction

"yeah, hi" Kimberly said into her phone. we were so close to lake pueblo, and this was Amanda's on duty day. when we got there, Kimberly and I would spend a night camping, then, she would make one of two youth presentations, the next one the following day. it would be very fun, exept that Amanda was going to be off for all of the two days of presentation, and she had already left for the day today. I wasn't going to get to see her. back to the present. "uh huh, so don't, like, put me in a situation." a smile spread across her face. "how are the dogs?" she asked, I was guessing it was Trae, her fiance. their beagles were so cute. "oh, great! so you'll be able to do that? I bet this'll put her over the moon." Trae said something to her and there was a pause. "no, I told her you weren't coming." she laughed delightedly. "yeah, you'll have to go up." "ok, looking forward to it. bye." she snapped her phone shut. "Trae?" I asked her. she nodded wistfully, swerving when I half-shouted, "Kimberly, that's the exit!" and then we laughed our heads off. if I couldn't hang out with Amanda, I wouldn't trade hanging out Kimberly for anything. when we'd caught our breath, I asked "how are the pooches?" I saw a flicker of something that I couldn't place cross her face for a moment, then she smiled. "pickles got a...uh..." she snapped her fingers, waiting for something to come to her. ''whatchamacallit...a diagnosis from the vet, and it's not cancer, but they have to run one more test, so Trae has to go back up to woodland." hmm. "okay, there it is!" my voice rose in exitment as we turned into the park.

"ok, is my collar straight now?" Kimberly asked me. I was battling desperatly with her stuborn collar, which refused to unbend, then it finally decided to give up, straightening at my sharp pinch. "yeah, now it is, okay, you can do this, I'll have dinner ready when you get back." I told her, grinning. I'd go to her presentation tommorow. she took off in her car and I sat back on my heels, deciding to start with cleaning up the inside of the tent. it wasn't ten minutes later when I heard a diesel moter pull up and stop, presuming that a ranger had finally come to tell our across the road neighbors to turn down their stupid sterio, which had been blaring rock music for our whole stay. but the flashlight was shining into our tent, and then a female voice with the slight accent that I seemed to be encountering alot of down here, called out, "park ranger, anyone home?" the voice was trying desperatly not to laugh. then I remembered the faintly glowing embers in our campfire pit. crap! I thought as I opened the zipper and crawled out. and froze. even in the dimming light she looked just like the picture that I had stared at for half of the ride, tracked twice into my photographic memory. I started trembling, salty water gushing out of my eyes. "heard you were coming." Amanda said, taking her finger off the nightsky press and hold emergency light and coming over to hug me, trying to soothe my tears. "I'm sorry." she told me. "bad timing for me but you do need to douse that fire, before an on duty ranger shows up." I pulled back to see her, and her symbolic tinkerbell stickered truck. she wasn't wearing her uniform, but that wonderful sweater that seemed to be mocking the brown one I was wearing. hesitating to come out of her embrace, I then ran past the fire to the bucket of water that we had set aside and lugged it over to the pit, and she strolled over to help me. I poured half of the water out and handed it the bucket to Amanda, who doused the other side. "now?" "now we sit in the tent and catch up." she slung her arm around my shoulder and walked me back to the tent. we crawled in and started talking,

"so Kimberly told me you were talking to a picture frame, tell me a bit about that." when we'd gotten in, I'd cuddled up against her, and now she giggled as I leaped up to bring it from my suitcase. I'd finished all of the stationary with notes to her that I never sent. "yeah" I choked. "my ranger picture!" she cried. "ok, then, where was it, missy?" she asked me, messing up my orange mane. I pulled the drawing out and gave it to her, then showed her the notes, starting with my most frantic, 'oh crap, Amanda, I deleted my only pictures of you and I'm never gonna get more!' then to the one I had most recently written on the way to the park. "wow. you really...oh, god I'm so sorry, sweetie." she sounded just the same as when my parent's had had dinner with her. she turned me around so my back faced her and pulled the hair tie out of my pony tail, brushing through it lightly with her fingers, then starting in with a braid. the same braid she'd taught me so long ago. tears streamed out of my eyes again, and I wiped them away. "i talked to it." I admitted to her, nudging the picture frame. her hands stopped moving for a moment, then continued to weave my hip length hair. " I really missed you, Amanda. you have no idea how much." came out, thick with tears. she started the long part of the first braid and said, "i know you'll kill me if I say it was for the best, so I won't say it, but it was for the best. I'm just worried about what's gonna happen when you have to leave on wednesday." she tied off the first braid and started on the second. I honsetly didn't know what I would do, but I knew for certain that I wasn't leaving without pictures, I'd brought my camera. "it wouldn't have been like that if you had kept in touch. I lost you. I cleared my memory card, forgetting the photos that were on it. but you have to keep in touch. I can deal with this if you do that." her smile plaited it's way into the end of my second braid and she turned to look me in the eye for a moment. I hugged her again. how had I survived those nine months with just a picture and an email? I got behind her and started to weave her hair into two of the same type of braid. she was silent at first, then when she felt what I was doing, exclaimed, "you remembered!" she had taught me how to do this a long time ago. "how could I not?" I asked her. she was looking at her ranger picture. "i love that it looks nothing like me, no offense. was this what you wanted me to look like?" she questioned. "no, I was trying to keep my mind open, I could have done much better if I'd had a true thought about it." which was only partially true. I finished the first braid and she ran her hand over it. "perfect. I taught you well." she said.

when we both had plaited hair on our heads and grilled cheese in our stomachs, I asked her about how she'd come. "you can't figure it out?" she'd asked me. "you were there when I told kim that I'd be able to do it." that had been her? they were good. it all came back to me, this had put me over the moon, and I hadn't brought her cinderella movie, so she would have to come back to woodland park so I could give it to her. and to use her baked goods certificate. she'd brought pjs, so we took turnsgoing outside and changing. I pulled out the extra sleeping bag and we settled in for the night, leaving a grilled cheese just inside the tent for the Kimberly, who was, as expected, running late. I'd told her people would want to talk to her. Amanda and I talked into the twilight, then I drifted off, vaugly aware of five or so cars passing, they had very bright headlights.

Amanda told me all that had gone on in her life, the date for her marraige to justin, and when she was going to be up in woodland. I gave her the same info, skipping the middle one. Kimberly came home and we were passed out, me smiling, my head against Amanda's shoulder. Kimberly didn't wake up Amanda to tell her that she still had dogs at home, just called Justin to tell him to feed them. it was a good night, but even better the next day. Kimberly woke me up chatting with Amanda, my camera in her hands, they were looking at my photos. I wasn't strong enough this early after waking up to do any damage, so since Kimberly was sitting on the end of my bag, I gave her a little kick in the back. she turned to me, looked back at Amanda, and they burst into giggles again. "that my camera?" I asked them groggily. Kimberly waved me over and I crawled out of my bag and went over to where they were circled and reached for it. there were new pictures on it, I went to the beginning of them, it was obviously Kimberlys work. there was one of Kim's sandwich, then one of me, fast asleep with my fingers curled around Amanda's sleeve, her pulling on it, trying to undo my grasp. one of Kimberly with a glowing smile on her face, then more of Amanda and I sleeping, finally some pictures of Amanda, just her. looking at the camera and looking past it, smiling and with a vauge expresion on her face. much better then the ones I'd found on picassa web. '' did you take those with the ISB setting?" I asked them. Kim nodded. that had been my ultra violent headlights. "thanks guys," I told them. Amanda came to sit next to me and we rolled up our packs. it was one of the best days I'd had since I'd met her.