couldn’t be the ‘it’ they’d hit. Liberty picked the rock up, balanced it in her hands near her small shoulders, and prepared to heave it toward anyone who looked into the pit.
The footsteps stopped. The air was still and the woods grew silent. Liberty waited, finally peered up at the opening, curiosity getting the best of her. “Holy shit, man. Oh man,” Ray said.
Liberty didn’t understand, but the terror in his voice was clear. His fear fed hers. She put the rock down, sat on top of it, and hugged her knees.
“I swear to God, brother, that isn’t what I shot at.”
“How the hell did she get out here?”
She. The word resonated in Liberty’s head.
Sam started to whimper and babble nonsense.
“Knock it off, dumbass. We gotta hold our shit together,” Ray said.
Liberty heard a grunt. It sounded like one of them fell.
“What the hell you do that for?”
Ray ignored Sam’s question. “You drop anything out here?”
After a few seconds, “I don’t think so. Why?”
“You better know so, because we’re going back to camp, packing our crap up, and getting out of here. We ain’t coming back because you realized you lost your fucking hat full of hair samples in these woods,” Ray’s voice grew louder.
“So we’re just gonna leave?”
“You wanna stick around, pray or something?”
“I just thought—”
“You think whatever you want. I’m going to the truck.”
Leaves crunched and Sam hollered, “Ray! Wait up, Ray, I’m coming.”
Their voices reached Liberty as they walked, but she didn’t listen. She continued to sway back and forth inside the pit, knowing two things for sure.
One, her mother’s body lay out there in the woods.
Two, she was dead.
* * *
She didn’t know how long she’d lain there, but early dawn hinted the night had passed. When her father finally came, he found her in the shadows of a black cherry tree, curled up on a bed of blood-soaked leaves next to Sarah’s dead, human body. Death had broken the curse. It always did.
He touched Liberty's shoulder, tried to pull a little. Nothing moved her. He let out a deep growl and yanked her arm. She let go, kicking him in the leg on instinct. He turned and raised a fist to her. Unable to communicate in words, it was common for the Sasquatch to lash out physically, but she didn’t care. She flinched, but an image of her mother appeared in her mind, and she didn’t cower an inch.
They stared at one another for a long moment, her pale green eyes into his dark brown, as she willed him to do it. Grief filled her, but frustration had, too. She hated him then. He’d allowed the others to mock his wife. Her mother. Hadn’t protected Sarah against the taunts and ridicule. And now he’d arrived too late and looked no different than when he showed up late for dinner. Liberty met his gaze with indifference, like he’d looked at Sarah. He lowered his hand slowly, not striking her.
Liberty watched as her father, bending down, lifted Sarah up over his shoulder and started off. Her mother looked so small and pale, like a child. Liberty hurried to his side so she could hold Sarah’s hand, maybe offer some comfort to her in a spiritual way.
When they reached the dugout, he lowered Sarah into it and stood still a moment, looking at his wife. Liberty studied his aura, but it remained a guarded dark gray. What did he feel? Was it pity? Relief? She didn’t believe it could be love the way he handled her like a deer carcass. Unable to bring herself to assist in the ceremony, she sat nearby and watched as her father filled in the hole.
With every push of soil Liberty said goodbye to a memory. Push--Sarah’s laugh. The hollow thump of dirt as it landed on the body--gone was the mischief in her mother’s eyes. Another--Sarah’s hands in her hair. All the things Liberty cherished were gone, one excruciating thud at a time.
After a while, she imagined when he could no longer see skin, her father stood, gathering bundles of twigs and in the pit they went. Boughs of pine on top of the twigs, and Sarah’s big dreams for her children were gone. As he neared the top he added large rocks, followed by a last layer of soil. In the end, the only thing left for Liberty to add were the lessons Sarah had taught her, and those she wanted to keep. Intertwined so completely within herself, burying one of