Ranger

Dispatch patched me through to Russ.

Russ said he'd see if they could get a chopper up the next morning.

Weather was iffy.

He'd do what he could.

I hung up.

I took the cot out of the cabin and moved it back into the tower because I didn't want him to come back and find the cabin locked with me in it and figure out where I actually was.

I put bedding on the tower cot and I arranged it so it looked slept in.

I made a body shape under the blanket with some rolled up spare clothes.

Then I went down to the cabin and I locked the door from the inside and I sat against the wall with the bear spray in one hand and the hand axe in the other and I waited.

The thing I want you to understand is, I don't know if I thought he was coming that night.

I thought he might be.

I didn't know for sure.

I wasn't going to sleep in the tower.

I wasn't going to sleep at all.

He came at about 1.30 in the morning.

I didn't hear him arrive because I was in the cabin with the door closed, and the cabin is stone and wood and thicker than the tower.

But at about 1.30 I heard the tower trap door open and then close.

And then a minute of quiet.

And then a voice from the tower calling my name.

Becca, calm voice, friendly.