Experience Tumblr Like Never Before
“What happened to your truck?”
The woman leaned a bit, like she’d just noticed the damage.
“Dunno,” she answered, leaning back with a frown. “Found it that way.”
Taryn dropped the bag in the bed, then clapped the dust from her palms.
“Looks like an animal got it.”
The woman shrugged.
“S’pose it does,” she said.
“Some kinda grizzly?” Taryn asked, crossing her arms over her chest and cocking one hip out to the side.
“Could be.”
“You don’t seem real concerned,” Taryn remarked with a lopsided smirk.
The woman shrugged again.
“Not my truck.”
Taryn didn’t say anything more for a moment, the pair of them studying the scrapes. She glanced over just once to get a glimpse of the woman, of the way she tilted her head like in thought. She should leave it alone. But she pushed anyway.
“You got cameras at your place?”
The change in the woman was immediate. Her head snapped around. Her face became edgy and hard.
“Why?” she demanded.
Taryn wasn’t ready for the sharp note of suspicion.
“You got a grizzly you prob’ly should know,” she explained. “What if it comes after you?”
The woman seemed to relax. She pulled the keys out of her pocket and spun the ring once around a finger. It landed in her palm and she closed it.
“Ain’t got grizzlies up there,” she said, and this time, she seemed almost to chuckle.
“This whole area’s got grizzlies,” Taryn countered. She waved toward the store. “My boss hit one just last week.”
Another shrug.
“Won’t hit any grizzlies drivin’ up there.”
Taryn raised her brows and gave up.
“Thanks for loadin’ me up,” said the woman, and she tossed out a light smirk and pulled on the door handle. Taryn watched as she climbed into the seat, flinching a bit when the door clattered shut. The woman looked small as she leaned out the window and glanced back at her. “See you next week.”
The truck choked for a second and then roared back to life. Black smoke spat out of the tailpipe. Taryn backed up a step, waving the cloud out of her face.
“Yeah,” she called out over the ruckus. “I’ll be here like always.”
The woman nodded, then rolled up the window. The truck clunked into gear and lurched forward. It grumbled when she reached the hill at the end of the driveway, then splashed through the pothole on the shoulder. Taryn’s eyes followed it until it disappeared behind the bend in the road, and only when the sound of its engine faded back into silence did she turn back to the mill to close up.