Burden to Bear (2 page)

“Better get to that movie,” said Wilson.  “Want to grab coffee on the way?”

They both grabbed a coffee from a nearby coffee bar, and walked arm-in-arm to the theater. 

“What’s showing?” asked Sarah as they approached the ticket office. 

“Horror flick, it looks like,” replied Wilson, starting at the marquee.  “Do scary movies frighten you?”

“Not if you’re with me,” Sarah said, loving the pressure of his arm against her.

Wilson purchased two tickets for Hotel Macabre II, and they entered the dark theater. 

The movie bothered Sarah a bit more than she would have thought.  She was not a fan of slasher films, but she had played down her fear of horror movies because she wanted an opportunity to cuddle with Wilson in the dark. 

After one particularly gruesome scene, Wilson noticed that she was visibly shuddering.  He put his arm around her.

“We can leave, if you’d like,” he offered. 

“No, I’m just cold,” Sarah lied. 

Wilson removed his coat and tucked it around her snugly, then wound his arm around her again.  “Cold no more, my lady,” he said.

Sarah snuggled up against him.  

CHAPTER TWO

Sarah did not sleep a wink that night.  She tossed and turned, got up and drank a glass of warm milk, returned to bed, and tossed and turned again.  She could not stop thinking about Wilson.  Each time she began to finally relax and fall asleep, she would remember how amazing it felt to cuddle with him in the movie theater.  Then she would get butterflies in her stomach, and she found herself wide-awake once again.

Although her first date with Wilson was absolutely perfect in every way, there was one area that bothered Sarah a bit.  Wilson had not tried to kiss her.  He had insisted that they part outside the movie theater, and then he had paid for her to take a cab home.  She tried to ignore the feeling, but she was a little depressed about the whole night, and doubted herself.  The part of her that lacked self-confidence argued that maybe Wilson was not really attracted to her, after all.  Perhaps she would never hear from him again. 

She knew all these feelings were silly.  The reality of it was that Wilson had manners, more than any man she had ever dated.  She told herself that Wilson most likely considered it uncouth to kiss a girl on the first date. 

She dragged herself out of bed at 8 a.m. for an early morning study group at the university library.  She mechanically showered and dressed herself in simple jeans, sneakers, and a hoodie. Then she trudged to campus through the drizzling rain.

Douglas was the only one in the study group that had arrived on time.  He was slouched in one of the big chairs near the library entrance, staring moodily through the windows that overlooked a dark city street.

“Hi there,” Sarah mumbled, pretty much falling into a companion chair.  “Why did we schedule these things for 9 a.m. on a weekend?”

Douglas snorted.  “It was that girl Anna’s idea, and now she’s not even here. How are you?”

“Wonderful – I think,” shrugged Sarah.  “Or awful.  I don’t know.”

Douglas opened his eyes a little wider and observed her with concern.

“I’m fine, really,” Sarah said.  “I just went on a date last night.”

“Oh.” Douglas shook his head knowingly.  He was familiar with Sarah’s self-doubting attitude in regard to men she dated. Then he sneezed.  The heat was on in the library, and he caught an odd whiff of something, probably coming up from the basement of the building through the heat register.  He sneezed again.

Sarah was oblivious to his reaction.  “I mean, everything went so great, and I thought the guy really liked me, but—” she sighed.

Douglas put his head in his hands.  There was a really strange smell in the room.  He felt a little nauseous.

Just then, Anna and a few other students in the study group showed up.

Douglas welcomed the escape from Sarah’s conversation.  He usually loved talking to Sarah, but once she began discussing her dates, she prattled on for a long time and it was inappropriate for him to say what he really thought. He was also grateful for the opportunity to leave this particular room.  The smell was overwhelming.

They both pulled themselves out of the deep comfortable chairs.  Sarah hung her coat on a hook near the entrance and then trotted after them to one of the study rooms.

A couple hours later, they emerged, full of knowledge, but cranky.

“I’m ravenous,” said Douglas.  “Let’s get lunch.”

“Ok,” agreed Sarah.  They stopped at the university cafe.  Each ordered a burger.

After devouring the food, they both felt better and began conversing like normal.

“Did you have a late night?” asked Sarah.

“Yeah,” said Douglas.  Douglas was a bouncer at the Holiday Club on the weekends, though he did not do it because he needed the funds.  His family was from old money.  They had built railroads in the late 1800s, and still owned the country’s major railway system.  Douglas was majoring in engineering so that he could help modernize the design of the railway.  His family covered his tuition payments, but like Sarah, he chose to live off-campus and pay his own rent.  He preferred having a bit of independence.

He finished his burger and then asked the question he knew Sarah was just waiting for him to ask.  “How was the date?”

Sarah was thrilled to relate every detail of the date. “Wilson is so perfect.  We have so much in common.  I met him in Lucky’s Coffee Shop last week, and we just clicked right away.” 

Douglas listened patiently.  When Sarah came to the part of the date where Wilson neglected to kiss her goodnight, he sighed in relief.

Sarah noticed his reaction.  “Look, Doug, I realize that it’s kind of icky, us being like brother and sister and all, but I actually wanted the guy to kiss me. I really like him.  And you don’t have to make that face!” She smacked him playfully.

Douglas smiled.  “It’s cool.  It’s cool.  It’s just nice to see the guy has a little respect.” 

To himself, however, he thought, “That guy is crazy.  What a missed opportunity!  Sarah is the sexiest woman alive.  I could kiss her right now.”  He gathered up the wrapper from his burger and picked up his empty cup.  Then he walked them over to the trash receptacle so that he would stop ogling Sarah and stop thinking about kissing her.

After they left the café, Sarah suddenly remembered that she had left her coat hanging inside the library.  Douglas offered to retrieve it.  Sarah turned down his offer but proposed a race.

“It’s right near the entrance, you know, where they have all those hooks,” Sarah explained.  “Let’s see if I can still run faster than you.  Ready, set, go!” 

Douglas jokingly leaped into the air and charged down the hallway, just as he had done when they were both seven years old.  Sarah followed him, trying to run, but was overcome with giggles at the ridiculousness of their endeavor.  Douglas was so gargantuan and hairy that when he acted childish, it made it all that funnier.

Douglas was well ahead of her, but slowed to a jog when he reached the library.  He grabbed Sarah’s coat from the hook.  Immediately, he smelled the nauseating odor from earlier that he had attributed to the university’s heating system.

All joviality left him.  He held the coat to his nose and sniffed deeply.  Without a doubt, the smell was permeating Sarah’s coat.  “Now where have I smelled that before?” he wondered.  He hastily decided that he would not mention the smell to Sarah until he did a little more investigating.

Sarah came skipping up behind him, but stopped when noticed his change of mood.  “What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Nothing,” Douglas said innocently.  “I’m just ready for a nap. Too much running.  I’m out of shape.”

Sarah laughed.  Douglas lifted weights and ran a few miles a day.  There was no way that a short jog to the library had left him winded. 

She grabbed her coat and sprinted away.  “Race you to the bus stop,” she yelled, leaving him in the library.

***

Later that afternoon, all six-foot, five inches of Douglas Amador stretched out lazily across his living room couch.  His feet hung over the arm of the couch.  He was enormous man.  Although he was a very clean person, his hair and beard were a bit unkempt.  He was not very stylish.  Most of his clothes were comfortable and practical. Sophisticated girls never noticed him because he refused to dress in the latest fads, or groom himself constantly.  He was not shy, but he preferred spending most of his time alone – or with Sarah.  He had loved Sarah since first grade, but had never told her.  He had never kissed her.  They had always been best friends and had made a joint pact to attend the same college together.  He wished he could tell her how much he loved her, but he was afraid.

Douglas was harboring a secret.  His blood was not purely human.  His father’s side of the family, while famous for building the nation’s railroads, had successfully concealed their real identity.  Each year, for several weeks of the summer, they traveled to ancient forests in the northlands, and transformed into hideous creatures.  While in the forms of these monstrous supernatural beasts, they roamed the forests, attacking and feeding on the wildlife. These creatures most closely resembled bears; therefore, the Amador family referred to their altered bodies as “were-bears.”

Douglas initially learned that he was a were-bear when he was thirteen years old.  His father and grandfather told him that they were going on a glorious vacation to their chateau in the mountains.  They congratulated him that he was now old enough to join them.  He remembered feeling so proud and mature.  The elation ended, however, that night after they arrived at the family’s chateau in the mountains.  There his grandfather revealed the family legacy to him, performing reenactments of were-bear transformations and kills around a roaring fire.  Douglas remembered laughing at his grandfather. He believed it was all a ruse.  However, at sundown of the second day, when his bones cracked and stretched and his body sprouted tufts of animal hair, he immediately comprehended the reality of the situation.  His father and grandfather had spoken the truth.  Both men transformed then, too, and they summoned him to roam with them through the mountainside, hunting and slaughtering the plentiful game.

Douglas treasured the three weeks each year he spent in the ancient forests.  In his human form, he was quiet and anti-social.  When a were-bear, he was a powerful and a dominant male.  High school was tough for Douglas.  The other students avoided him.  He was taller, more muscular, and more awkward than the other boys his age.    He often found himself dreaming of the few weeks of the year that he could wander the mountains, wild, free and uninhibited. 

Douglas knew that if he were one hundred percent human, he would have told Sarah a long time ago how he felt about her.  However, he loved her too much to burden her with his secret.  Now, that he was older, he had additional concerns.  His father had explained to him that were-bear pregnancies were difficult and dangerous.  His mother had died in childbirth with a younger sibling that had not survived.  He knew that Sarah was looking for the perfect husband, so that she could someday have a house full of children.  Douglas believed that he was not husband material.  Moreover, he did not feel he could ever endanger Sarah with a were-bear pregnancy.   Douglas was pretty sure that even if she made it through the pregnancies, Sarah would never forgive him for making their children into supernatural monsters.   So he clung to her, year after year, resigning himself to friend status while longing to be so much more.

He was devastated when Sarah dated other men.  Fortunately for him, Sarah was exceptionally sweet and naïve, and completely unaware of how gorgeous she really was.  She tended to accept dates with overly confident and handsome men who had the balls to ask her.  Unfortunately for her, most of them seemed to be more interested in her voluptuous body than in her sweet personality.  Usually the relationships lasted less than a month. Sarah then discovered the guy was not willing to commit to anything serious.  Douglas made sure he was always there for Sarah in the aftermath of the breakup, trying to soften the blow. 

Douglas’ mind returned to the abominable odor he had smelled on Sarah’s coat earlier that day.  He suspected it was emitted from someone Sarah had been with the night before.  He suspected that Wilson, her date from last night, was another mystical creature.  Douglas was aware of supernaturals all around the city.  He picked up their scents constantly.  Most were well-behaved around humans, and kept their predilections to themselves. There was an unwritten code among the contemporary were-creatures and other paranormal folk that human beings were off-limits for feeding.  This was necessary in order to co-exist peaceably with them.  For this reason, Douglas and his family, although they could transform at almost any point in time at will, chose to only do so a few weeks a year, and quarantined themselves to the desolate mountains in the north when they did.  This was to protect the humans and themselves.  For as long as they kept their status quiet, and no human was harmed, they could continue to peaceably survive and multiply.

Douglas’ phone vibrated, and he tapped the screen to check his messages.  There was one from Sarah.

“Wilson called me.  He wants to go out again (smiley-face),” she wrote.

Douglas tossed the phone down on the couch and rubbed his eyes.  Wilson was trouble.  He could smell it.

***

That Friday night, Wilson came to watch Sarah perform at the Holiday Club.

He had reserved the table closest to the stage, and even before Sarah and the band stepped out, he was seated there, gin and tonic in hand, his long legs stretched out before him.  He was decked out in an expensive black turtleneck, designer jeans, and a sport coat.  Sarah felt butterflies fill her stomach as she spied on him from behind the closed curtain.

The guitar player, Lana, who was the only other girl in the band, grew curious at what was holding her attention for so long.  She peaked out behind the curtain, too.  “He’s yummy,” Lana said, licking her lips playfully.  “And he looks like he’s rich.  Do you know him?”

Sarah felt a small twinge of jealousy.  “He’s my date tonight,” she said.

“Lucky you!” exclaimed Lana.  “Where do I find me a guy like that?”

“He’s unbelievable, right?” asked Sarah.

Lana tittered.  “You’re so smitten.  And he’s going to be after he sees you in that dress.”  She smiled reassuringly.  “Are you about ready?”