”Okay!” Skippy looked perkily grim. ”Here’s what we’re going to do now. We’ve got a course set up—you can see the entrance to it over there.” She pointed and they all looked over to where a trail was clearly marked. ”It’s a ten mile path, and along the way there are different stations and obstacles you have to get through.” She handed each one of them a bag. ”The object of this is for all of you to get through.” She gave them a look. ”All of you, not just some of you, okay? You all have to get back. All of you. Everyone get my point?”

Kerry muffled a wry chuckle.

“Great,” Mariana sighed, “I can see where this is going.”

Skippy looked at them as though waiting for more commentary, then she shook her head and went back to her program.

”Okay. In this sack is your lunch and a snack.” She held up a sample. ”The directions are on the top.”

Dar laughed on seeing them. ”You guys shop on the Military channel by any chance?”


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Skippy scowled, in a nice way, at her. ”Anyway, at each station is a check point. You have to get this card stamped at each checkpoint.

About halfway, there’s a cabin with water and juice, and things like that,” she exhaled. ”It’s not a race, okay? The purpose is to make you work together, to get through the obstacles.”

”We got that point,” Duks informed her. “Yes, we understand we are not to leave any of our colleagues behind.”

”Right...okay...well, go on. We’ll have dinner waiting for you guys when you get back.” Skippy made shooing motions with her hands.

”Wait, you want us to walk for ten miles?” Eleanor objected. ”You must be joking.” She glanced around for support. ”That’s ridiculous.”

”It’s not that bad,” Kerry told her kindly as she moved closer to the Marketing VP. ”Really.”

”Oh no, no, no way.” Eleanor backed away from her. ”I’m sorry.

I’ve had enough.”

”Look.” Skippy clasped her clipboard to her chest. ”This is the important part of the seminar, okay? I have to write a report on your group for your leadership team, and it’s based mostly on this exercise.”

“Yes,” Steven spoke up suddenly. “You don’t want to be the one with the bad marks in that report, do you, Eleanor? We know YOU

don’t want this to be a failure.”

Dar’s eyes narrowed.

Mariana exhaled. ”Come on, Eleanor. God knows I’m not up to walking ten miles, but we’ll get through it.” She glanced over at Dar.

”Let’s get going. The sooner we start, the sooner we finish.” She shouldered her pack. ”We can rest along the way, right?” This she directed at Skippy.

The guide smiled in relief. ”Right. There are benches and things for you to rest on. It’s not an endurance race or anything,” she assured them. ”And there are water fountains.”

The group moved off reluctantly and approached the path, passing the sign and entering a tree lined, fairly well marked lane covered in sand and pine needles.

A grumpy silence held over them and they strung out a little on the path, with José and Steven deciding to set the pace and Dar choosing to bring up the rear. Kerry casually dropped back next to her.

The wind picked up a little and blew the leaves against each other, whistling lightly around them and isolating their conversation.

”Having fun?” Dar inquired.

”Mm, not really, but did it seem to you like Mary Sunshine back there was awfully glad to get rid of us?” Kerry asked, adjusting her canvas pack to settle around her slim waist, instead of over her shoulder. ”Here, let me get yours. It’s easier to carry this way.” She adjusted her companion’s pack, slipping her arms around Dar for the moment needed to fasten the straps.

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attention from their grousing coworkers stomping ahead of them.

”Yeah.” Dar glanced around. ”I don’t think we’re going to rate a good report from her. We’ve been sort of uncooperative.” She took a breath of the cool air and felt her temper settle a little. ”This is kind of nice, though.”

”Wait until we get to the obstacles.” Kerry chuckled, rolling her eyes. ”Hey, you know, I had the weirdest dream last night.” She missed the sudden, startled glance in her direction from Dar. ”We were riding a horse and you were wearing armor.”

”What?” Dar started laughing. ”You’re joking.”

”No, no, really.” Kerry chuckled too. ”I know, it was really strange, but it was really vivid, too. I could smell the horse and the leather stuff you were wearing, and the armor was some kind of brass.”

Dar didn’t reply. She went silent for a moment and paced along, thinking. ”Well,” she finally said. ”I guess it was the atmosphere then. I had a pretty strange dream too.” Then she fell silent.

Kerry waited for a long minute. ”What was it about? Was I in it?”

she coaxed, interested.

”Yeah,” Dar responded. ”We were on a hill, someplace I didn’t recognize really, over some river. It was warm out and we were just out there, watching the clouds go by.” She paused. ”You were sleeping. You had your head resting on my leg.” She tapped her thigh.

Kerry waited. ”And that’s strange?” she queried, puzzled. ”I don’t get it.”

”You were pregnant,” Dar said, very softly. ”That was the strange part.” She walked on a few more paces before she realized she was walking alone. With a start, she stopped and looked behind her. Kerry was standing on the path, staring at her. ”Hey, it was just a dream.” But she felt the question in her own voice and knew Kerry had heard it.

Kerry took a breath, then started forward, breaking into a trot and catching up with Dar. They continued walking in silence for a little stretch.

”That is strange,” Kerry finally said. ”I mean, it’s kind of a shock to hear that, it’s something I...” she hesitated. ”I know I don’t have to worry about that anymore, unless I want to...um...you know.” She looked up at Dar’s face, seeing the odd hints of tension around her eyes.

”Uh, have you...I mean, do you want...um...”

”No, no.” Dar lifted her hands and let them fall. ”Kids and me, they don’t mix well,” she stated firmly, then hesitated. ”I mean, well, I um...I mean, if you wanted...someday...I think...um...” She fell silent, then peered at Kerry. ”You know?”

Kerry’s face wrinkled up into a confused grin. ”I think so, but it’s not in my plans anytime soon, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

”I wasn’t worried,” Dar replied instantly. ”Not at all. I was just saying that...um...it’s possible to get used to anything, if you know what I mean.”


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Now, Kerry smiled. ”I know what you mean,” she reassured her boss. ”But that’s a strange image, for a dream.”

”Well, what about me in armor?” Dar asked, glad to change the subject. ”Maybe it was those sandwiches we had last night. I’m still not sure of what they were.”

”Maybe,” Kerry agreed softly. ”Jesus, I haven’t thought about being pregnant for...” A pause. ”A while.”

A gust of wind blew past them, lifting up dark and pale hair and whipping it around both their faces. They’d let the group get a short distance in front of them and the winding path had isolated the two of them briefly.

Dar glanced over and saw the look of quiet, grim introspection on her lover’s face and she debated with herself, whether or not to push Kerry on the subject. Finally she sighed, and flexed her shoulders. ”You, um,” a light shrug, ”Want to talk about it?”

Kerry regarded the passing trees thoughtfully. ”Not really much to talk about. It was just mostly stupidity on my part, when I was home last year,” she related, in a quiet tone. ”They were giving me a hard time. I felt lousy,” A slight pause. ”I felt ugly,” Kerry wryly corrected herself. ”And I went to a party with some old friends from college, got drunk until I didn’t know half of what I was doing, and ended up in bed with some guy I hadn’t seen for five years.”

She studied her boots, remembering just how disgusted she’d felt when she woke up. ”I wasn’t on the pill, of course,” she snorted softly.

”I got lucky, nothing happened.”

Dar snuck a look ahead of them, then settled an arm around her companion’s shoulders, pulling her close. ”That’s lousy. Sorry you had to go through it,” Dar stated gently. ”I can’t tell you how mad that makes me.”

”That I’d do something that stupid?” Kerry asked bitterly. ”Yeah, well, I was pretty mad at myself too.”

”No.” Dar kissed her head. ”That your parents made you feel that bad about yourself.”

”Don’t put the blame on them, Dar.” Her lover shook her head.

”They didn’t make me go to that party, or get plastered, or jump in bed with that guy.”

”I know,” the executive agreed, with a sigh. ”But I think you did that as a reaction to how you were feeling. When that guy came on to you, it made you feel better about yourself, didn’t it?” She felt Kerry’s shoulders move a little in a shrug. ”Didn’t it? I bet he was good looking.”

A hazy memory surfaced and Kerry’s nostrils flared. ”Yeah,” she admitted wryly. ”He looked like that guy from Dune,” she admitted.

”He was really cute and he told me he thought I was cute, and I...” A long sigh. ”I guess I really needed to hear that then.”

She glanced up at Dar, who was still walking along with her arm 76

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around Kerry’s shoulders. ”He was a nice guy, too. He called me the next day, all panicky because he hadn’t had protection on, and telling me he was healthy, and saying he’d ‘do the right thing’ if it turned out I was pregnant.” She had to laugh. ”It was surreal.”

Dar laughed gently. ”Well, you’ll never have to get me drunk to make me tell you how cute you are, okay?” She hugged Kerry.

The blonde woman rested her head against Dar’s arm. ”You make me feel so wonderful, did you know that?” she replied simply. ”It’s such a pleasure to be in love with you.”

Dar blinked, speechless for a few heartbeats. ”Likewise,” she finally managed to say, faintly.

They walked along in silence for a few steps. “Boy, that was like a burst of compressed love packets, wasn’t it,” Kerry finally said, with a little laugh. “Did I blow it with the milk? I thought I was doing so good till then.”

“Who cares?” Dar shrugged her shoulders. “Half the building knows I’m a MacArthur Dairy commercial. Don’t worry about it.”

A yell up ahead distracted them. ”Oh hell.” Dar’s face took on an annoyed look. ”Damn, for ten cents I’d just lose this place.”

Kerry patted her companion’s belly. ”All of us have to get through, remember? C’mon, let’s see what they found.” She disentangled herself from Dar’s grip lengthened her stride, climbing up the tiny, root encrusted rise and peeking down the path.

The rest of the group was standing on the edge of a slice across the path, into which a creek had carved itself deeply, causing a chasm about fifty feet across.

A single, braced rope bridge went over it, consisting of a simple strand, with two others running alongside.

The entire thing was

suspended over the water about twenty feet, providing an annoying, but not lethal drop if one got dumped off the bridge.

The object, obviously, was to get to the other side. If one walked carefully it seemed achievable enough.

The problem was the fifteen foot python wrapped around the rope, sunning itself. ”Oh boy,” Dar muttered, coming up behind her. ”This could get ugly.”

”Now what?” José turned and put his hands on his hips. He was wearing a pair of coach’s shorts and a polo shirt with the name

”Marelito Bowling League” on it, with black socks and sneakers. ”We go back, si?”

”Hell yes,” Steven agreed. ”That’s it.

No way, no how am I

messing around with a goddamned snake.”

Eleanor was seated on a nearby log, fanning herself, and the rest of them were peering at the snake uncomfortably. They turned to look at Dar when she edged closer. ”To hell with them.” José decided. ”We don’t have to put up with this.”

The tall, dark haired executive put a hand on either rope and her Hurricane Watch

77

hiking boots on the very edge of the bridge. ”Well, hold on,” she murmured, taking a step forward and letting the rope take her weight.

”Dar.” Kerry’s voice objected instinctively.

”Hey, crazy woman, get the hell back here!” José yelped.

”Ah, my friend,” Duks went to the edge of the bridge, ”you don’t need to go over there.”