Carmela Bearzetti's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

A week after the lieutenant left her office, Carmela stood at the tree line and watched the den from a distance. The bears were deep in their winter sleep. The honey was inside, stacked in jars along the den's cold walls. She had the lieutenant's map. She had the bees' silence. All she needed now was to walk in and take it. She slipped through the tarp-covered hole behind the den. The tunnel was narrow and cold. It opened right under the storage room, just as the map promised. Carmela climbed up and stood among the sleeping bears. Their breathing was slow and heavy. She worked fast, lifting jar after jar into her sack. On a low shelf, she found a thick book bound in leather. Paw prints stained its cover. Every jar, every pound, every winter's count was written inside in the boss bear's own claw. She tucked it under her arm. Then she set her decoy jars on the shelves where the real honey had been. The fake labels glowed yellow in the dark. Pineapple jelly. A joke only she would understand. Carmela climbed back through the tunnel before dawn. The honey was hers. The ledger was hers. Somewhere in the den, a bear shifted in his sleep and did not wake. By the time he counted his jars in spring, she would already own what he thought he was counting.