Campfire Part 1

Chapter 1

Sheri was dancing in her underwear in the narrow space between the two twin beds when Ashley opened the door of the bathroom that separated their dorm rooms.

“When are you going to finally give up the 1980s?” Ashley asked while Bruce Springsteen’s rough baritone wailed, “This gun's for hire even if we're just dancing in the dark.”

“Shit, what are you trying to do?” Sheri spun around at the sound of Ashley’s voice. “You scared the crap out of me!” Sheri made no attempts to cover her nearly-naked body. She just brushed her long brown hair out of her face. “I thought you were in class.”

“Cancelled.” Ashley walked to the IPad’s external speakers and punched the volume down. “That’s a pretty fancy matching bra and panty combination you got going on for history class. Are you hoping to get lucky?”

“Screw you. No, it’s just, I feel more in control—you know with power-woman confidence, when I’m wearing a matching bra and panties.” Sheri went to the tiny closet she shared with her mostly-absent roommate. Every inch was filled with clothes and shoes. She tugged at a white blouse that was wedged in between countless other items of clothing on the rod, and then she grabbed a pair of jeans from a hook on the back of the closet door. 

Ashley watched her, and then without preamble asked, “so…do you know who Robert Cooper is?” She snuggled in amongst the pile of pillows on top of Sheri’s thick comforter and kicked off her black leather Vans.

“No, should I?” Sheri pulled on her jeans and then finished buttoning her blouse.

“What about DB Cooper?”

Sheri kneeled down in front of her closet. “Yeah, of course, everyone knows the notorious DB Cooper.” Sheri looked over her shoulder from her position on the floor where she was pulling out unmatched shoes. “Ah ha.” She tossed out a knee-high brown riding boot.

“I love those. I wish you had a normal-sized foot. If you did, I would so borrow these. I don’t think I could get my big toe in this tiny thing.” Ashley held up the boot and ran her hand across the smooth brown leather. She dropped the boot and looked over at Sheri, “For your information not too many people know about DB Cooper anymore. The only reason I know about him is because of you and your crazy interest in unsolved crimes. If having an assload of useless information about true crime makes someone a good mystery writer well then you’re going to be more successful than Angela Lansbury.”

“She wasn’t a real author. It was a TV show.” Sheri pursed her lips and shot Ashley a disgusted look over her shoulder.

Finally, Sheri pulled her head out of the closet and flipped over on her bum to pull on the matching boot she just uncovered from the closet. “I bet I could find ten people who’ve heard of DB Cooper before you could find ten who haven’t.”

“Whatever, only if they’re like sixty,” Ashley rolled her eyes. “Focus for a minute, will you?”

Sheri shrugged and crawled over and grabbed the boot Ashley had just dropped. She was trying to ignore the irony of Ashley telling her to focus.

“So…it turns out Robert Cooper is DB Cooper.” Ashley sat up on the edge of the bed.

“You just made that up. No one knows who DB Cooper was. Last thing I read was from like three or four years ago when some girl was claiming he was her uncle, but her story didn’t add up. I think she was saying his name was LD Cooper though—not Robert.” Sheri got up and began kicking all the stray shoes back into the closet while quickly

closing the door to trap them inside.

“I didn’t just make it up. I assure you; it’s the truth. How much time do you have before your next class?” Ashley pushed her feet back into her skateboarder shoes without unlacing them.

Sheri looked over at the digital clock on her nightstand next her bed. “I got like an hour and half. It’s going to take longer than that for you to prove to me that you know anything about DB Cooper.”

“No, come on. Trust me. Let’s go over to the Flying Star. I’ll buy, and in less than an hour you’ll be a believer.” Ashley got up and pulled Sheri toward the door.

“I’ll take the free meal, but…whatever.” Sheri grabbed her book bag, and keys.