Flash! Fiction 3 by Peter McMillan - HTML preview
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41
He nearly missed the bus to Montgomery, because the summer final went long. Jesse was a third year student majoring in everything.
Finally, a break — two weeks out west, roughing it.
Forty-eight hours to get there — northwest Wyoming — and the final eight it was just him, the driver, and some guy chanting in the back of the bus.
At the bus station in Salt Lake City, the ticket agent had chattered on and on about the bear attacks and the rescue helicopters and tried to get Jesse to go to San Francisco instead.
He didn't. In a general store two blocks from the entrance to the park, he met a girl from the BSU. She had a summer job there.
Jesse wasn't looking for anyone or anything familiar, so he pretended to be in a big hurry. Besides, he was embarrassed to be seen with that accent.
Back on the road, he hitched a ride with family. The girl, a high schooler, had got her parents to pick him up. In her high-pitched, precocious tone, she explained it was because he was so "cute and interesting and hardly dangerous looking." That made Jesse feel uncomfortable. He let on he needed to throw up, and they pulled over right away. He motioned for them to keep going.
After that unpleasantness, Jesse decided to take the next trail into the backcountry. It was narrow and empty, probably because it was off to the south away from the big tourist attractions.