“Only his. Not hers,” said the second man, the man Mattie thought of as her stranger.
No, don’t think of him that way. You don’t know anything about him. You don’t know if you can trust him. And if you think kindly of the stranger then William will see it in your eyes.
“She must be here,” the stranger said.
Mattie saw his shadow at the front window, knew he was trying to see inside, but she had pulled the curtains tight and she wasn’t moving. He’d never see anything in the cabin that way.
“Come on,” the second man said. Mattie heard impatience in his voice, like he’d already had enough of indulging his friend’s whim. “She’s not here. This might not be where she lives, anyway. There’s something more interesting here. Come look.”
“It’s got to be where she lives,” the stranger said. “Where else could they have come from?”
“Who cares?” The second man’s voice sounded farther away.
Mattie wondered what had caught his attention. Could he be interested in the storehouse? That was the only other building in front of the cabin.
If he tries to break in there, I must go outside, because I can’t just huddle here while someone steals our winter stores. I’ll have to say something, stop him somehow. Though I haven’t the least idea how.
“Obviously I care, C.P.,” the stranger said. He knocked again and Mattie just barely managed to stifle a scream.
“I can’t believe we’re wasting this much time looking for some weird married girl you bumped into on top of a mountain. You could just ask out a girl from work, like everyone else. Or go to a club. Or a bar. Or sign up for one of those singles adventure groups.”
“Stop being dumb. This isn’t about sex.”
“Then what is it about, Griffin? I thought we were up here to investigate a sighting, not hunt around for some girl.”
Griffin. His name was Griffin.
“You didn’t see her,” Griffin said. “She was scared. And . . .”
“I know you think you saw her somewhere before.” C.P. sounded skeptical.
“I did,” Griffin said. “I just can’t put my finger on it.”
“Listen, I think we should get out of here. If she is home she’s clearly not welcoming visitors. Besides, there were all those private property signs posted.”
Mattie’s eyes widened. There were private property signs around their cabin? How had she never noticed them? She knew how to read.
William probably doesn’t let you go anywhere near the signs. The signs are only important to keep away people who might drift in this direction, and he’s always made certain that you won’t accidentally encounter anyone. But the whole mountain isn’t private. Griffin and William both said something about the clearing and the caves being public land.
“You said that guy had a gun, right?” C.P. continued. “Anyone who lives alone in the middle of the woods with a bunch of ‘keep out, private property’ signs posted is not going to welcome unexpected visitors. We should move on before he comes home and decides to shoot us on principle.”
“Yeah,” Griffin said.
He still stood very close to the door. His voice was so close that Mattie almost imagined he was inside the room with her.
Maybe I could trust him. Maybe I could. He seems kind. He sounded worried when he talked about me. Maybe . . .
“And the property is marked on the map, so we don’t even have an excuse. Anyway, come and look at these prints in the snow,” C.P. said. “These look a lot like the ones you took pictures of yesterday.”
Mattie heard Griffin move off the porch. She unwound her coiled body and slid her stockinged feet over the floor cautiously, so as not to make a sound. She wanted to see the two men. She wanted to know what they were doing.
She twitched the curtain aside, just a fraction of an inch, just enough to make a slit to peer out between the curtain and the window frame.
The two men were crouched in the center of the clearing inspecting the prints in the snow. They had their backs to the cabin and all she could see were their caps and their large backpacks—Griffin’s orange, C.P.’s blue. Their voices were low and Mattie couldn’t make out what they were saying. Her stranger—Griffin, his name is Griffin—took several photographs with the camera that was still slung around his neck.
Both men stood, their eyes on the ground, and carefully crept around the clearing, stopping occasionally to take more pictures.
Mattie released the curtain and inched back when she realized that they were going to follow the creature’s tracks around the cabin. She didn’t want them to accidentally catch a glimpse of her. They passed within a few feet of the window, and she caught some of their conversation again.