Bear

When Sam returns from work, Elena is washing the dishes. She tells her about the bear she saw swimming in the channel. Elena asks for other news of the day, and Sam says that a coworker invited her to go camping, though she likely won’t go.

Sam and Elena have always been close, and they were born only 13 months apart. Their mother would never reveal the identity of their father (or fathers). When the sisters were young teens, she had a boyfriend who abused both girls until Sam informed a teacher.

As Elena finishes the dishes, Sam helps her mother use the bathroom. Sam feels guilty that most of their mother’s care falls on Elena.

The next morning, Sam finds a pile of animal scat in the driveway. Assuming that it came from the neighbor’s dog, she sarcastically yells at him. The neighbor, Danny Larsen, was in Sam’s graduating class in high school. Danny says that the scat is too large to be from a dog. He asks about Sam’s mother’s health and offers to help. Certain that he’s being insincere, Sam heads to work, angry.

This chapter consists of a single sentence noting that the bear appears at the sisters’ door the next morning.

Sam recalls memories from her idyllic childhood, including whale watching in the summer and enjoying the routine of school when she was an elementary student. She awakens to hear Elena screaming and thinks that their mother has died. Instead, Elena says that she opened the door to find herself face-to-face with a bear. Sam sees the bear through a window: It sits calmly in front of their house. Their mother instructs them to call animal control, and during the 30 minutes it takes for someone to arrive, the sisters watch the bear.

The sheriff arrives. The bear has already left, but the sheriff suggests that it’s likely migrating to Canada and will continue to move out of the vicinity. However, he instructs them to call if it appears again. The women leave for work, stunned by what they’ve seen.

At work, Sam tells the deckhands about the bear. Her shift passes quickly, and she’s more upbeat than usual. When Ben, the deckhand who invited her to go camping, asks about the Bear, she relents and tells him about it. Ben is genuinely interested and, again, asks Sam to go camping and orca watching with him, but she refuses.

At home that evening, she and Elena relive the experience, recalling details about the bear and what the sheriff said. At night, Elena crawls into Sam’s bed, complaining about being unable to sleep. She tells Sam that as a child, she had nightmares that she had to save Sam and their mother from a bear attack or, sometimes, a wolf attack. Sam falls asleep as Elena talks.

The bear sighting is noted in the newspaper. It’s seen two more times on the island, which makes Sam feel less special. She continues with work as usual and begins meeting Ben in secret for sex when she doesn’t have customers.

Then, she receives an urgent text message from Elena: She saw the bear again while walking home from work. As Sam drives home, she phones Elena, who excitedly recalls her encounter. Sam wants Elena to drive the car to work the next day, and Elena reluctantly agrees.

When Sam arrives home, her mother is awake, but Elena isn’t there. Sam calls her, and Elena replies that she’s taking a walk. Sam panics, but Elena assures her that other people are around her. When she returns, Sam says that they should consider getting a dog—or a gun—for protection against the bear. Elena laughs at these suggestions, assuring Sam that they’re safe.

Sam wakes up the next morning at four o’clock for the early shift. She tries to wake Elena to drive her to work and then insists that Elena take the car, but Elena promises to get a ride from a coworker named Kristine.

On her day off, Sam drives their mother to the doctor and thinks about how beautiful her mother once was and how, as a child and teen, she longed to be like her. She drops her mother off and then wanders downtown. Summer is approaching, and soon she’ll be able to secure more shifts at work. She thinks about the bear and Elena—who assured Sam and their mother that Kristine was giving her rides to and from work—and what the sighting means.

Her phone rings: An agent from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife wants details about the bear sighting, concerned that it may have been attracted to the home by food or garbage and warning Sam against disturbing the bear in any way. When Sam tells the woman about Elena’s second sighting, she instantly regrets it. The agent is eager to visit their home to assess the property and obtain details from Elena; Sam quickly ends the call.

When Sam retrieves her mother from the appointment, she meets with the doctor: Her mother’s condition is worsening, and though Sam, Elena, and their mother are aware that her death is inevitable, the doctor explains that it has become more imminent.

On the drive home, her mother recalls being present when her own mother died and describing it as beautiful.

Elena is there when they return and eager to know the details of the appointment. She chastises Sam, when they’re alone, for not sharing the test results sooner, though Sam wonders what difference the span of the car ride would have made. The employees at the medical facility are concerned about their past-due bills, but Elena assures Sam that she’ll take care of this. Sam worries that one or both of them may have to quit work at some point to care for their mother full-time. Then, Elena tells her that she saw the bear again.

Elena explains that she was finishing a shower when she heard a thump against the house: The bear was rubbing its back, as if scratching an itch, on the side of the house. Sam is alarmed, but Elena shrugs off her concern. Sam tells her about the phone call from Madeline Petitt, the Department of Fish and Wildlife agent, and then encourages Elena to call her.

In bed that night, Sam finds an email address for Agent Petitt and sends an email, inviting Petitt to meet her in person at their home.