Read Falling for Hope for Free Online Page A

struck.   The thing about their screams?”   Her words were almost a whisper now.   “They were like a woman’s
scream—high-pitched and eerie.   And you
heard the scream before you saw the panther, because you never saw a panther
until it was falling out of the treetops, falling on top of you, ” she said,
her voice rising a little as she straightened, her right brow raised.   “Once, there was a woman who needed to
journey up the mountain to reach her home.   It was night, and she couldn’t wait until morning.   She couldn’t afford to hire a man to come
with her, and she didn’t own a gun.   So
she took the fastest horse she could find, and she began to race up the
mountain, toward the summit.   The horse
knew that there were panthers in the woods, so it balked at the slightest
shadow.   The woman could sit the horse
pretty well, but not well enough.   So
she lost her seat, and the horse ran away through the dark.   Now it was only that woman, with her
knapsack, alone in the silent woods.   But the woods didn’t stay silent for long,” whispered Amy, sitting back
down in her rocker.   She let it rock
once, creaking in the quiet.   “The
scream came through the trees toward this woman, who began to run, sprinting up
the mountain on foot.”   Amy rocked
again.   The chair creaked louder and longer.
    “What happened then?” asked Aspen
quietly.   Amy stared up seriously at the
gathered women, folding her hands in her lap.
    “Well, that’s just it,” she
murmured.   “We don’t know.   The woman disappeared.   Vanished.   Was it a panther that got her, or the mountain itself?   Did she get lost, or did she get
mauled?   All we know is that on stormy
nights like this, you can still hear a woman screaming if you listen very, very
closely…”
    Silence fell over the group as they
stilled and listened.
    Outside, another crack of lightning
lit up the sky, and thunder made the cabin shake.
    Every single woman—including
Amy—jumped.
    Laughter cut the tension, Hope
leaning back in her chair and chuckling as the rest of the women continued to
roast their dinners, Cole trotting to the kitchen for the hot dog buns.  
    Throughout all of the ghost stories
told that night, and despite the alluring scent of delicious fire-cooked food,
Chris failed to make an appearance.
     
    ---
     
    “Oh, my cheeks hurt from smiling,
and my stomach hurts from laughing,” said Amy, grinning at Hope as they shut
the door to the bedroom behind them.   Rain pattered the roof overhead, though the thunder and lightning seemed
to have moved off for the night.
    “I look forward to this week every
year so much, I can’t stand it,” Hope confessed, pulling off her socks and
tossing them into the small dirty clothes pile.   Her pants followed suit, and Amy felt a small blush begin to
creep across her face.   “I mean, we all
hang out all year, you know?   But up
here, it’s different.   It’s better.   We’re freer.   We’re who we were meant to be, you know?”   Hope peeled the shirt over her head and
turned around.
    “Yeah,” said Amy quietly,
swallowing.
    In the dull light of the one small
lamp, Hope’s body was outlined, illuminated.   And as the taller woman stepped forward, wrapping long fingers around
the curve at Amy’s waist, Amy felt her heart beating so hard that it was all
she could feel, all she could hear, drowning out the sound of the deluge
outside.   Here, in the warmth of the
cabin, Hope’s mouth pressed down upon hers, and Amy wrapped her arms around
Hope’s neck.
    “You know,” Hope whispered, “I’ve
been giving it some thought.   I think
it’d be best if I talked to Chris when I was calm and clear-headed, and I know
how to get that way…   I’m going to go
for a hike tomorrow,” said Hope quietly, letting her mouth slide down to Amy’s
neck, as Amy shivered against her.
    “A hike?” asked Amy, voice
weak.   Hope began to tug at her shirt.
    “I just need to