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Show 8. II. Stephanie with the lunch pack and JD carrying his camera reached the beaver dam early the next morning. It was a three mile hike, easy because they followed the power lines, but she was beginning to lag. "Wait up!" she yelled at her brother who was fast disappearing down the deer trail he was following. Stephanie wasn't sure JD even heard her. Sometimes he could be so exasperating. She tried again, "Hey, mountain man. Wait up!" she put a good bit of holler in it this time and he turned around, at least. He motioned for her to be quiet. She froze. Minutes passed, but she was glad for the breather. The October sun was already hot on her back. She carefully slipped off her parka and stood waiting for a signal from JD. Then she saw them. The elk. A cow with her little one, coming to drink. "Oh, they're beautiful!" she said, catching her breath. "And they don't even know I'm here." A new movement caught her eye as an enormous bull, balancing a rack of record proportions, came out of the trees and down through the meadow. Cautiously, he joined the other two at the stream that flowed out of the beaver dam. She spotted JD. He was so close! He could easily get a picture. "And they're posing," Stephanie marveled. "They're grouped. Like they know." She felt like clapping her hands. She had stupid impulses, JD often told her, but how she wanted to rush up and pet them! Down from her, frozen to his vantage point, JD felt a trembling start in his diaphragm which became a shudder when it reached his shoulders. He set the distance and the aperture of the camera, all without inhaling, then in a slow motion sequence that stopped at every frame, he fixed his eye at the view finder. Click. The sound shattered his eardrums. Then click. And click again. The calf looked up and flicked its ears at JD, before prancing sideways with a stiff-legged gait. The bull elk, too, raised his head, testing the air. Then, as silently as they'd come, they slipped away. With an imperial glance over his shoulder, the big bull sauntered after his womenfolk, pausing only once to crop the grass and enjoy the sun. Soon they were lost in the depths of the aspen again. It was like a disappearance act. JD came running back up the game trail they'd followed to the dam. He's thrilled right out of his skin, Stephanie thought. |