The B Girls

Break A Leg





They made one stop at a wilderness outfitter for small daypacks and basic supplies.

"I found something that will take us right to the exact spot we want." Lucy held up a phone-sized bit of electronics.

"What is it?" Jane asked.

"Off-road GPS. You just enter the map coordinates you want to go to and follow the arrow."

"Can't you just use the one on your phone?" Jane asked.

"The sales guy says this will work even if there's no cell service and service is bad up in the wilderness area."

"Belle must have had one too, that's why she had those coordinates written down," Mae said.

"Exactly and now we have them. With the GPS and a map of Cohutta, we'll be able to find the homestead with no problem."

"I seriously doubt it'll be that easy," Jane said.

"You really should do something about that pessimism," Mae said.

Jane just shook her head.

Lucy handed over her platinum card. The salesclerk bagged up their supplies.



###



It was almost noon when they pulled into the parking lot closest to the coordinates. Mae turned off the van and Lucy stared through the windshield, speechless. The three sides of the parking area not bordered by the road they'd just left were a horror show of nature run amok. The trees were too close together and the shorter underbrush was lush and tangled. The ground wasn't close to level or even sloped. It all seemed to go mostly straight up or straight down. The whole of it looked like it was made to keep humans out and hide nasty surprises for anyone stupid enough to venture in.

Lucy looked at her compatriots and saw signs of impending mutiny. "Don't worry, the map shows a road. We'll be fine." She opened her door and got out.

Mae and Jane followed suit but neither looked happy about it.

"Maybe we should try the police again," Mae said.

"It's just a hike through the woods for God's sake." Lucy refused to listen to her own doubts.

"Let's just get it over with," Jane said.

They slathered themselves with SPF 100 and tightened the laces on their cross trainers.

Lucy figured they were either completely nuts or incredibly perceptive about their need for a change and their ability to find Belle. Hopefully they'd come out of it unscathed. Or at least not permanently damaged.

She surveyed the perimeter of the parking lot and found a track that seemed to correspond to the map and went in the direction the GPS arrow pointed. Best of all, it seemed to take advantage of the landscape in a way that meant the up and down wasn't as steep as the ground on either side of it. The track was twisty and disappeared from view within fifty yards or so but Lucy was sure it had to be the right way to go.

"All we have to do is follow this until it forks, then go east to Breakleg Creek. The old homestead is on a hill above the creek," Lucy said as she led the way out of the parking area.

The Forest Service map identified the old overgrown track as a jeep trail. No Jeep or any other vehicle had used the trail for years. The Forest Service had closed the wilderness area to motorized traffic a few years ago and the wilderness was taking over again.

Jane cast a wistful glance back toward the parking area as it disappeared from view. "Breakleg Creek? That doesn't sound very promising."

Mae frowned at her. "We're not doing this for fun."

"Ouch! Damn it," Jane stopped and hopped on her right foot muttering more curses under her breath.

"What now?" Mae asked.

"I stubbed my toe on a rock. I think it might be broken."

"It's not broken. You'd still be yelling if it was broken," Lucy said.

Jane gave her the evil eye. "Well it hurts."

"Just sit down for a minute," Mae said.

Jane looked around at the foot high weeds on the track and the dense forest on either side and shuddered. "No thanks. Anything could be crawling around in there. I'll just walk it off. The throbbing is slowing down."

"Next time we should probably wear hiking boots," Mae said.

"There isn't going to be a next time," Jane said. "If we had any brains, there wouldn't be a this time."

"Let's just keep moving, before we change our minds." Lucy was already starting to miss the air-conditioned van. But she'd gladly put up with some sweat and a stubbed toe if it meant finding Belle in one piece.

They trudged on for another fifteen minutes before Jane started muttering under her breath.

Lucy didn't blame her. Mid-August in the deep South is hot, humid, and generally miserable even up in the mountains. Today seemed especially stifling without a hint of a breeze. Pushing through the heavy, still air was a chore.

"How far was the fork supposed to be?" Jane asked.

"A little less than a mile from the parking area."

Jane stopped and slapped at a mosquito. "Shouldn't we be there by now?"

"We should be close," Mae said.

Lucy's tee shirt was starting to stick to her body and she had a sick feeling her deodorant was going to fail soon. She eyed her companions.

Jane didn't look any better, her blond hair was two shades darker with sweat and plastered to her head.

Mae didn't exactly look fresh but she didn't seem to have as many working sweat glands. Her hair still had some shape to it and her high-tech tee shirt wasn't sporting sweat marks under the arms.

Chances were huge they were in way over their heads but she didn't see that they had a choice. Waiting until Wednesday and relying on the cops wasn't an option.

Jane slapped at another mosquito. "What the hell were we thinking using Skin So Soft instead of Off?"

"We'll live," Mae said. "Aunt Belle needs us and I'm tired of being boring and predictable."

"Didn't you tell me you actually went deer hunting and killed a deer?" Jane said. "I hardly call that boring or predictable."

"I was twenty-two and still trying to convince Chip we were compatible." Mae paused, looking smug. "I'm still a great shot. We go skeet shooting every once in a while. It makes Chip crazy when I outshoot him."

"So why not try out for Olympic skeet shooting or something?" Jane slapped another bug and made a face as she wiped the remains on the back of her khaki camp shorts.

Lucy stepped on something hard and sharp and felt it through the sole of her tennis shoe. No wonder they made hard-soled boots for hiking. "I'm not sure they have skeet shooting in the Olympics. But I've seen it on ESPN."

Mae nodded. "I've seen those women on ESPN too. They wear pretty cute outfits even if they are plastered with sponsor logos."

"So you think you might actually try some competition shooting?" Lucy asked.

"Who knows? A woman with a tattoo is capable of anything," Mae said.

Jane looked at Lucy. "What're the odds this is a wild goose chase?"

"I have no idea. I assume the map of the cave is still hidden where Paul put it unless Belle already found it. Either way we'll learn something."

Jane didn't say anything.

Lucy gave her a quick pat on the shoulder. "We'll get through this. You'll see. Maybe we'll find Aunt Belle and the Declaration."

Jane bared her teeth in the semblance of a smile and kept trudging.

They reached the fork in the track five minutes later and stopped to look for the best way to head through the woods to the creek.

"Time for you to dazzle us with your compass skills," Jane said.

"I don't need skill. That's the beauty of GPS. I'll just get it to remember this place." Lucy tapped the screen. "And then find the homestead coordinates I put in earlier . . . And presto, an arrow pointing the way we need to go. That way," she said. The arrow pointing to the right.

Jane walked to the edge of the track and looked down. "This is such a bad idea."

Lucy stepped up next to her and saw what she was worried about. The land dropped off sharply for fifteen feet or so and then rose again for twenty. The ravine or dip or whatever you wanted to call it, cut across the direction they wanted to travel. The underbrush was so thick you could hide an elephant. Of course you'd never be able to get an elephant in these woods to begin with.

"They aren't kidding when they call this a wilderness area."

"Didn't you ever play in the woods when you were a kid?" Mae asked with determined cheer as she stepped up next to Lucy and looked over the edge.

Jane just stared for several seconds. "This is crazy. I don't think this place is for amateurs. I'm not even sure we can get down there without a rope."

"It's not that bad," Mae said. She paced several yards in either direction before stopping and pointing. "There's a trail right here."

Lucy and Jane looked where Mae was pointing.

Calling the narrow, ill-defined gap in the trees and brush a trail was giving it way too much credit. It did seem to meander in the general direction they wanted to go, but the terrain still looked dangerously steep.

Jane rolled her eyes. "Maybe a rabbit would call that a trail. I call it an invitation to disaster."

"We have to at least try," Mae said. "I'll go first." She was looking a little pale, but before Jane or Lucy could object, Mae took one sidestep over the edge.

"See," she said, "you just have to take it slow," she lifted her second foot, "an----OH!"

Her foot slipped out from under her and she started sliding down the hill on her side.

"Shit," Jane said.

"Double shit," Lucy said.

They stared for the several long seconds it took Mae to slide to a halt in an awkward sprawl on top of a laurel bush two thirds of the way down.

"Are you okay?" Lucy called down. Just how guilty would she feel if Mae had something broken?

Mae managed a weak wave but it looked like she was having trouble catching her breath.

Seeing her in distress made Lucy wince. "We have to get down there." She tried to act confident, but she figured they were all going to break their damn fool necks.

Jane nodded. "Let's go." She followed Mae over the edge.

"Be careful. You don't want to wind up on top of her." Lucy stepped off the road. What was a broken neck between friends? Besides, they deserved whatever they got for not being better prepared. Of course, getting better prepared would have taken precious time. Time that Belle might not have.

It wasn't possible to walk down the hill, it was too steep. It required a combination of sliding, crawling and sidestepping, but they finally made it down to Mae's side.

She was struggling to get her limbs back in the right places so she could sit up. Jane gave her a hand and she managed to flounder her way upright.

"Guess I should have been a little more careful." She reached up to brush leaves and dirt from her hair. "At least we're almost down the first hill."

"You've got to be--"

"Are you sure you're not hurt?" Lucy overrode Jane.

"Just a few scratches and a bruised dignity. I got a little dizzy looking down the hill. I'll be ready to go on in a minute."

Jane looked at the two of them as if they'd lost their minds. "You two do realize one of us will probably wind up with something broken?"

"I'm willing to take the chance," Mae said. "No more taking the easy way out. Giving up at the first bump in the road."

Jane snapped the nails of her thumb and ring finger together, an impatient, annoying habit she fell into when she was nervous or angry. "This might be the most insane stunt I've been a part of since the unfortunate testing of the no nudity rule on Panama City Beach my Junior year of college."

She stopped clicking her nails and smacked herself in the forehead. "Oh wait, how could I forget, Saturday night when I was old enough to know better, I got tattooed."

Lucy watched as Jane's expression changed from sarcastic to stunned surprise. "What?"

Jane blinked and shook her head. "Epiphany."

"About?" Lucy prompted.

"I'm such a shit sometimes."

"And your point?" Mae said.

"No, I mean I hate to admit it but sometimes I feel a little smug about the fact that I never turned into a soccer mom. No Junior League. No ALTA, tennis. I convinced myself I was different. Braver, more independent. Now I realize I just fell into a trap of a different kind. I'm my own stereotype. The hard-charging, driven real estate woman complete with two hundred dollar haircut, expensive suits and dramatic make-up. And let's not forget the manicure. I'm just as boxed in as every other woman I know. Or at least I was until I left the reservation with you two."

"Glad to be of help," Lucy said. "But I think you're being way too hard on yourself."

Jane stood up and offered Mae a hand. "Let's get this over with. I suppose I can climb and slide a quarter mile if I have to."

Lucy took Mae's other hand and they pulled her to her feet.

They scrambled the rest of the way down into the narrow gap and half-climbed, half-walked up the far side.

Jane cringed every time she put her hand down into the weeds and underbrush. "I don't even want to think about what might be hiding in these deep leaves."

"Nothing too dangerous I hope. Just keep making noise to scare off the wildlife," Mae said.

They reached the top of the rise. It was a relative high spot and gave them their first decent view of the quarter mile they had to cover.

It wasn't good. It also wasn't as bad as the twenty yards they'd just walk-crawled. The land continued in steep ripples, but not quite as steep, so they made more forward progress with each vertical foot they covered.

Lucy tried hard not to think about the fact they were going to have to do the whole thing in reverse to get back to the van.

At least, there were no witnesses to the ridiculous spectacle they made.

Mae had on tailored khaki shorts and a white high tech tee shirt designed for gym workouts. She even had little white pom-poms on the back of her socks. Lucy knew because she'd spent the better part of two hours almost face-to-face with them. Who knew you could still buy socks with pom-poms?

Jane's camp shorts and silk tee shirt were better. At least she didn't have pom-poms on her socks.

Lucy figured she was the one closest to being sensible in her old comfortable jeans and her five dollar navy blue Fruit of the Loom tee shirt. She only wished she owned a pair of hiking boots.

They topped yet another rise and finally--thank God--heard the gurgle of water below. The creek wasn't visible but there wasn't any doubt it was there.

What wasn't there was a clearing or any other indication there'd been a cabin or homestead nearby.

Mae looked worried. "We're lost."