Lindsey looked between her cards. She had a four, and knew the sasquatch had one too, but decided to go easy on him. “Any sevens?” She put her cards in her lap and held up seven fingers. “Sevens?”

The sasquatch counted her fingers, then checked his hand. He shook his head. “Ooh. Ooh.”

“Darn,” said Lindsey, drawing a card. Feeling parched, she then reached into her backpack and extracted her water bottle. Its lightness reminded her it was empty. Looking around, she asked, “Hey, do you have any water?”

“Ook?” asked the sasquatch, tilting his head to the side. Lindsey pretended to drink from the water bottle. Seeing this, he understood, and quickly nodded. “Ook! Ook!” He took the water bottle from her and shuffled off with it.

When he returned it was full of snow. Not exactly what Lindsey wanted, but she put on a smile. “Yay! Thank you,” she said sweetly, as he ran to deliver it to her.

Just when he reached her, one of his large, clumsy feet fell on the slick plastic banana Laffy Taffy wrapper. His foot slipped out from under him, and he pitched forward. “Aah!” yelped Lindsey, before he landed on her.

It was at that moment that Alicia and Chase showed up. There was a moment's silence as Alicia and Chase surveyed the scene of the sasquatch on top of her.

“Lindsey! Nooo!” shouted Alicia.

“Not hurt Lin!” shouted Chase, rushing forward. “Get off, bad sassy!”

At the sound of the commotion, the sasquatch looked up. He saw Chase rushing toward him. His eyes were immediately drawn to her blonde hair. Stunned, he quickly got off Lindsey. Could it really be? There were two of them! Two golden sasquatches! Two friends!

Chase hit him on the head with her ski pole.

“Oooh! Oooh!” he moaned, grabbing his head in shock.

Before Chase could whack him again, Lindsey sat up and grabbed her wrist. “Whoa! Hold on Chase, it's not what it looks like,” she said. “He fell on me by accident! I really don't think he means me any harm.”

“Really?” asked Alicia.

“Yes, really,” said Lindsey. “We've just been sitting here playing Go Fish. He's harmless.”

“Hmm...” said Chase, not quite sure. She lowered her ski pole and told the sasquatch. “Well, okay. If you friend of Lin then that fine. But one sign of sassy be bad, will hurt!” The sasquatch listened to this, then nodded.

“How about that?” asked Alicia. “I think he understood.” He leaned forward and sniffed Chase's hair. “Well, maybe not.”

Chase hit him on the head again. “No! Bad sassy!”

“Ooh! Ahh ahh!”

“Not eat me and not eat Lin!”

“I don't think he was trying to eat you,” said Alicia.

“Him think smell good, want eat,” said Chase. “Know that sniff.”

“He's just curious about you,” said Lindsey. “He's lonely, you guys. I think he just wants a friend.”

Sensing hostility (and sensing it very vividly at that), the sasquatch looked around for something to calm the mood. Did he do something wrong? He spotted the cards lying on the floor, and picked up his hand. “Ook ook!” he grunted, holding the cards out to them in goodwill.

“Hmm? What this?” asked Chase. “Him give cash?”

“That's not cash, those are playing cards,” said Alicia.

“Aw, he wants you guys to play cards with us,” said Lindsey sympathetically. “Why don't we play a couple games, then we can go. Okay?”

Chase and Alicia looked at the sasquatch uneasily, then at each other.

“Well...okay,” said Alicia finally.

…...............

“Wow,” said Flor, opening the door to their room. Her hair was full of snow, and outside the window nothing was visible except the sheet of falling flakes. “That sure got ugly.”

The two of them had ended up having a nice morning together. Flor's hangover wore off fairly quickly once they were out in the fresh air, and they were able to get a few good runs in before the snowstorm worsened.

Caitlin took off her jacket and shivered. Flor turned up the thermostat. “No kidding. It's two in the afternoon and it almost looks like it's night out,” she remarked. With a sigh, she added, “I wish we had more time, since it's our last day and all.”

“Well, maybe it'll settle down a little and we can get back out there.” They finished getting their heavy layers off. Flor spotted the TV remote on one of the beds, so she sat down on the edge of the bed and picked the remote up. “What do you think, want to find a movie until then?”

“Sure,” said Caitlin. She climbed onto the bed too, propped up some pillows against the headboard and sat up against them. Flor did the same.

“Sounds like you're having fun, huh? Guess our first date is going pretty well, then,” grinned Flor.

Caitlin smiled tolerantly. “It's skiing. I'd have fun whether you were here or not.”

“Ouch,” Flor laughed.

After a moment's hesitation, Caitlin added, “But seriously, you are making this really fun. You're a fun person to hang out with, you're always making me laugh. I like you a lot. Not that way, but...”

Flor wasn't going to let that go. “Not what way?” she teased.

“You know.”

Flor leaned her head on Caitlin's shoulder. Caitlin didn't protest. “No, really, I don't. Whatever do you mean? Tell me.”

Caitlin sighed and looked away from her. “You're so annoying.” She added wearily, “I mean not in a romantic way.”

“Really? Why not?” asked Flor. She set the remote down, not bothering to look for a movie anymore. Caitlin didn't have anything to say to that, either.

“Because I'm straight?” Caitlin replied.

“No way, me too!" gasped Flor. "We have so much in common. I love dicks and all that.” Caitlin laughed.

Flor took Caitlin's hand in her own. Caitlin looked at it and blushed. “I like you too, Caitlin. Just so you know.”

“G-gee, I couldn't tell.”

“Except it is in a romantic way.”

“Gee, I couldn't tell!”

“Oh yeah?” asked Flor. Something in her voice caused Caitlin to turn her face back towards her. “What else can I do to make you get the message?”

They were suspended in silence for a moment, looking into each others' eyes. Caitlin's heart pounded. Flor's hand felt warm. They both sensed that nothing could stop what came next, and it was only nerves and the mutual disbelief that this was really happening that allowed them to delay it as long as possible.

The kiss. Caitlin felt it in her whole body, a thrill that made her heart leap. In closing her eyes, she shut out all her inhibitions and maybe-I-shouldn'ts, and just let herself ride a swell of excitement.

When Flor brought her free hand to Caitlin's cheek, Caitlin snapped out of it. She opened her eyes and quickly pulled away.

“What happened?” asked Flor, a bit short of breath. “Did you remember you're straight?”

Caitlin didn't have a witty answer. “Yes, actually.”

Flor leaned in to kiss her again.

“W-wait,” said Caitlin. “That was a mistake. I really don't think-” Flor silenced her with her lips.

Caitlin put a hand on Flor's shoulder, but didn't push her away. Instead, she gave her a gentle squeeze. After a moment, she realized her eyes were closed once again. She moved her hand to Flor's head, to run her fingers through her dark hair. Lips never parting, she let Flor lower her onto her back.

..........

Chase needed to be taught the rules of go fish as well before they could play. Once she was, they got a nice, slightly awkward game going.

“Lindsey, do you have any kings?” asked Alicia. Lindsey handed one over.

“Leash have six?” asked Chase.

“Nope, go fish,” said Alicia.

Chase drew a card. She grinned in excitement and showed the card she drew to everyone. “FISH six! FISH six! That count?!”

“Yeah, that counts! You have a pair,” said Alicia. Chase proudly laid out her two sixes on the floor in front of her.

“Gold Sasquatch of Bald Ridge, gimme that two!” said Lindsey triumphantly.

“Ook ook,” said the sasquatch sadly, handing it over.

“Hey, Lindsey, could you move over?” asked Alica, nudging her. She glanced up at the ceiling nervously. “I'm sitting right under a stalactite.”

Lindsey looked up at it and laughed. “What, you think it's gonna fall on you? They're, like, rocks, aren't they? It's not going anywhere. Besides, that's a stalagmite. The ones on the floor are stalactites.”

“No they aren't,” said Alicia. “The ones are the ceiling are stalactites.”

“Nuh uh.”

“No, really. I remember that from science class,” said Alicia. She smiled and said cheerfully, “You can remember because the ones on the ceiling have to hang on 'tite!'”

“I thought the ones on the ceiling had to hang on with all their 'mite,'” said Lindsey.

Alicia looked up at it and thought about it. “No, it's the other way around.” But now she wasn't sure.

Lindsey took her phone out of her backpack and put an arm around the sasquatch's shoulders. She aimed the phone at herself and started recording. “First indisputable evidence of a sasquatch, bitchessss!” she told her instagram followers and winked. She nudged the sasquatch and prompted him, “Go on, say something!”

“Ook ook.”

She ended the recording and let go of the sasquatch to add some hashtags. “Hashtag, proofofsasquatch. Hashtag, realyeti. Hashtag, goodvibes. Hashtag, messingwithsasquatch. Hashtag, hotties! Hashtag, winterhotness. Hashtag, ilovethishat. Annnnd post.”

“What a historic moment for mankind!” said Alicia happily.

Lindsey put her phone away. “See, you guys? The sasquatch is cool. Do you believe me now when I say he just brought me here because he wanted a friend?”

Chase was still unconvinced. “Hmm...” She looked at the sasquatch to interrogate him directly. “What want Lin for? Why take? Give truth.”

It took the sasquatch a moment to understand what Chase was asking. She was asking why he brought the other female golden sasquatch here, the long-haired one. The answer was simple. All he wanted was a friend. All he wanted was to bring someone to his cave, to have someone there with him, so he wouldn't be so lonely. But how to convey this? Maybe with a hand signal?

With his left hand, he made a circle with his thumb and forefinger to represent the mouth of his cave. Then, with his right, he extended a pointer finger to represent Lindsey. He slipped the finger into the hole. He did it a couple of times to make sure his message came across the way he intended. “Ook ook ook ook!” he grunted excitedly.

“...Oh my,” commented Lindsey.

“At...least he's honest,” said Alicia.

Chase watched the finger going into the hole, not understanding. Then, it clicked. She jumped up to her feet and pointed an accusatory finger at him. “Want eat Lin! Put Lin in mouth!”

“...I don't think that's it, Chase,” said Alicia.

“Okay, so maybe he did want me to help him put a few more missing links in the chain,” Lindsey conceded. “But we've worked it out! He knows we're just friends now, and he's fine with that!”

Alicia looked at the sasquatch thoughtfully. “Well, it's true that guys are perfectly content with being nothing more than friends...but how do you know for sure that sasquatches are the same way?”

Their conversation went over Chase's head. “Us must go! Sassy mad for food!” insisted Chase, clenching a fist and assuming a fighting stance. “Leash, Lin, run! Will beat sassy to death and catch up!"

“Nooo! Don't beat him to death!” exclaimed Lindsey. “He's just misunderstood!”

Alicia put a hand on Chase's shoulder. “I think she's right, Chase. If he wanted to hurt her, he probably would have done it by now. Remember, he doesn't know anything about humans, and we don't know anything about him. Let's try to understand each other, okay?”

The mountain girl felt herself relax at Alicia's gentle touch. Her fist opened.

Alicia was right, of course. The sasquatch was totally different from them. It would take effort on their part, on Chase's part, to bridge the gap between them. Not only was Alicia right, her words unintentionally caused Chase to draw some parallels between the sasquatch and herself. She knew the same thing Alicia said about the sasquatch could easily have been said about her, when she first came to Sunnycrest. How much of this same patient understanding had Alicia employed to get their relationship to where it is now? Now that she had a taste of how hard it was to understand someone, to be receptive to their differences and meet them halfway, her gratitude for what Alicia, as well as Caitlin and Lindsey, had done for her deepened profoundly.

“Okay,” said Chase. “Us end card game, then go?”

Alicia smiled. “Sure, that's fair.”