Hunting

Let me say right now, I am not a hunter. Really no one in my whole family hunts. My Dad used to pretend to hunt. Every year he would get out his bow and put up hay bales in the back yard to practice on. I used to love to watch him and he got me my own bow so I could shoot with him, much to my mother's disapproval. She said it was unladylike to shoot a weapon. Can you imagine that. Here was her very own girl child who caught frogs and carried them around in pockets, who wanted to wear jeans all the time, who was the neighborhood Indian leg wrestling champion, and she thought I might be unladylike if I shot a bow and arrow. Poor woman. At any rate my dad ignored her on this and we practiced Saturday mornings.  Then bow season came around and each year my dad would get his license and plan where to hunt. He spent a lot of time checking gear and maps and talking about his hunt. And each year he would go hunting and come back without a deer. I was mystified. He always hit the target in the yard. Why couldn't the man get a deer? Then one day I just asked him and he told my why he came back without shooting anything. He said he always found a deer and every year he would quietly take aim and pull back to shoot and then the doe would lift her head and look at him. He said those eyes were so sweet and gentle he just couldn't shoot. Even as young as I was then I understood. He really just wanted to be in the woods. He didn't have the heart to be to kill something. That was alright. We kept it our secret.
When I was in college my boy friend asked me if I wanted to go hunting with him and I said sure. Turns out he wasn't after Bambi, no, he was going for bear. I was not given a gun. My job apparently was to just be there for moral support. That and to set up camp and cook the food while the "men folk" were out there facing the dangerous wild animals. On the third day the "men" said they were having no luck because I was too noisy so I was told to be sure and stay on "my" side of the mountain while they hunted in the other direction. No food needing to be prepared at the moment I decided to explore my side of the mountain. I wandered around and saw alot of wild life, deer, a fox, rabbits , a weasel and a pair of big owls. I guess it was only bear bothered by my noise. A bit after noon I came across a downed tree and behind it I saw a little cave. I decided to explore. Hunching down a bit I entered and waited for my eyes to adjust and I saw it. Just inside the cave was a bear. It wasn't a big bear but it was a bear. We stared at each other then we both screamed at the exact same moment. We sounded exactly alike! Startled by that I stopped screaming and so did he. We stared at each other for a good long minute then realizing I was standing two feet from a wild bear I screamed again .....and so did he! I back pedalled and fell on my behind just outside the cave. He tried to run past me and tripped over the tree and landed on his behind. We sat there for a moment and stared at each other from about three feet. Slowly we both stood up. Our eyes met. He seemed to say to me in that long look, "No one has to know about this, us screaming like little girls." I nodded at him and we parted, him to quieter woods and me to the camp. Turns out I was the only one to even see a bear the whole trip, but I kept the secret and I believe the bear did too.