Read Dark Mountain for Free Online Page A

you’re not planning to screw the guy
. We’ll see, she thought, we’ll see.
    He took out the other packs and propped them upright against the rear bumper. He handed Karen her floppy felt hat. She put it on, and turned up the front brim.
    “Gabby Hayes,” Scott said.
    “Gee, thanks.”
    As he opened the top of his Kelty bag to put his shirt away, Karen heard a car engine. She looked up the shadowy road. A station wagon appeared, bouncing over the ruts.
    “Is it them?” Benny asked.
    “Yep,” Scott said. “Looks like they made it.”
    The driver, a broad-faced, florid man with a bald crown and a red fringe of hair over his ears, pulled in beside them and stopped. “How’d you beat us up here?” he asked as he climbed out.
    “Sheer skill,” Scott told him.
    They shook hands.
    “Karen, this is Arnold Gordon.”
    “Call me Flash,” he said.
    “Nice to meet you,” Karen said, and shook his big hand.
    The others climbed from the car: a thin teenaged boy with his father’s freckles and a full head of red hair; a short, rather chubby woman with a pixie haircut; two slim girls, maybe ten years old. Though twins, the girls were dressed differently; one wore her blonde hair in pigtails, while the other had a ponytail. That should help me keep them straight, Karen thought.
    Scott and Flash introduced everybody around. Karen repeated the names to herself, and called up associations to help her memory. Flash Gordon was easy. Nick was Nick Adams of “The Big Two-Hearted River,” a Hemingway story she’d taught last year. Alice was a toughy. Alice, malice, phallus—no, no. Well, she’d have to work on that one. Rose and Heather, flowers. Careful you don’t call themTulip and Dandelion. “My Wild Irish Rose,” Scottish heather. Remember, Rose has the ponytail. Rosy pony.
The Red Pony
. That should do it.
    “…three-legged race at the picnic,” Julie was saying to Nick.
    “Oh, I remember that,” he said, blushing. “And the egg toss.”
    “Sure. It broke all over you.”
    With a nod, he excused himself and turned away to help his father unload the car. The entire family had matching red Kelty packs: two huge ones like Scott’s, a slightly smaller one for Alice, and a pair of child-size packs for the girls.
    “Arnold tells me you’re a schoolteacher,” Alice said.
    “Yes, that’s right. High school.”
    “Our Nick’s quite the student. He makes straight A’s in math and science.”
    “That’s very good.”
    “I was at the top of the class in math myself when I was in high school. Of course, that was a long time ago. I planned to be a teacher, too, but then Arnold came along and I never got around to finishing college.” The challenging look in her eyes made Karen uncomfortable. Did she expect a reprimand for giving up school?
    “From the looks of your children,” Karen said, “you made the right choice.”
    The hardness left Alice’s eyes, and she smiled. “Well, thank you.”
    “We’ve already secured the fire permit,” Scott told Flash.
    “They got a head around here?”
    Scott pointed to an out house nestled in the shadows of trees a short distance away. “All right, gang, let’s hit the facility. Enjoy it, ladies. It’ll be your last look at a toilet seat for the next week.”
    Alice made a face at him.
    “Gross,” said Rose of the ponytail.
    Benny met Karen’s eyes. He looked amused.
    The entire group started toward the stone building.
    “Is it all right to leave the gear over there?” Nick asked his father.
    “Who’s around to meddle with it?”
    “How was your trip up?” Scott asked.
    “That one-lane death trap was a bitch. Poor Alice, she nearly laid an egg. Did you happen to run into a camper the size of a bus?”
    “Did we.”
    “I had to back halfway down the mountain to let it by. A real bitch.”
    “Wasn’t much fun,” Scott agreed.
    Nick watched Julie waiting by the out house. Soon the twins came out, and she pushed in. When the door banged shut behind