he’d grabbed his flashlight from a kitchen drawer and had followed the trail and after about twenty minutes found her still warm body against a tree. It almost looked as though she’d been intentionally placed there, propped up in a sitting position. Her eyes were wide open and her mouth froze in a scream.
He still had nightmares about it. Her neck and the front of her sweatshirt were soaked in blood. He’d tried to revive her, knowing it was fruitless. He had to try, anyway. When he couldn’t revive her, he picked her up and carried her back to their cabin and phoned Grady. At that time, he didn’t have a mobile phone.
Grady had had an ambulance come pick up her body and take her into Seattle. The rest was history. To this day, they had no clue as to who or what had really killed her – Something that ate at him pretty much continuously, and sometimes chopping wood seemed to relieve some of his anxiety and anger, albeit, only temporarily.
A loud cawing overhead stole his attention. There was that big black bird again. It was more the size of a raven. Still, it sometimes sounded like a crow.
He’d seen ravens before, and once in a while they came around, but they usually had more of a croak than a caw. This one he recognized. Had eyes like he’d never seen before on a crow or raven. Only he had never quite figured out what it was that was different about them. He just knew they were. It perched itself on a lower branch of a young nearby pine, one that was close to where he worked and it cawed again.
He looked straight over at it, for it wasn’t more than twenty feet away, as the tree was just the other side of his long driveway that extended to his backyard. “What you want, you black devil?”
The bird cocked its head sideways as though listening, flapped its huge wings and squawked as though mocking him.
Normally, he was kind to critters of all sorts, but this one bothered him. It cawed again, and he picked up a nearby stick and slung it at the bird.
The bird lifted off before being hit, and then took a dive straight for him. Clifford ducked just barely in time, and had started to run back into his cabin, but the bird cawed loudly again, flapped its wings and flew off out of sight.
“Damn you! You son-of-a-bitch!” Clifford swore and shook his fist in the direction the bird had flown. “Damn! Never had a bird do that before! Never!”
Too pissed to focus on his work now, he stomped back into his cabin and took a beer out of his refrigerator, zipped the tab off and dropped down in one of his kitchen chairs. He sat there swearing and drinking down his beer.
Amber had managed to shake off her frayed nerves and being so exhausted from no sleep the night before, had managed to sleep well. She was surprised when she woke up and saw that it was 10:30. “Shit!” She flipped her covers aside. “I never sleep this late!” Rushing into the kitchen, she put on a pot of coffee and then ran to the bathroom to pee. Finished there, she quickly changed into her jeans, a gray sweatshirt, white socks and sneakers. Her coffee was ready by then and she poured a cup. She’d just taken a sip when she heard a horn honking.
She glanced out her front window. There was a white Jeep with US Mail written in black letters on the door. “My things are here already!” she said to herself. She swung open her door and ran out just in time to greet the friendly face of the mail lady, who was taking a medium sized box out of the back of the Jeep.
“I think this is yours,” she said. “You’re Amber Dalziel, right?”
“Yes! That would be me…”
“Got another, smaller one in the back there if you’d like to grab it?”
“Certainly.” Amber went around to the back and took out the other box.
“I’m Jerri Reeves, by the way…Your post lady.”
“Glad to meet you, Jerri.” Amber sensed a kindness about the woman, even though she really didn’t know her yet. She had a pleasant, not really pretty, but not unattractive, face.
The front door was hanging open. “Want I should take it on inside for you?”
“Sure…Right behind you.”
Jerri, referring to the love seat, asked, “Okay to sit it here?”
“Yeah…Go ahead.” And Amber placed the second one by the first.
Jerri offered up her hand and Amber took it. “Thanks for helping.”
“Thank you for bringing the big one in the house…Frankly, I’m surprised they got here so fast. I thought it would take a few more days.”
“Funny thing about the postal service…You never really know. Some things seem like they’re never gonna come…and others come so fast you wonder if they sprouted wings somewhere along the line.” She grinned hugely then, revealing a chipped front tooth. Not really bad, but noticeable.
“Yeah…same way in Texas.”
“That’s where you’re from? I see that’s where these boxes were mailed.”
“Yes…Had my mother send them to me. Didn’t want to load my car down too much. But I am sure glad it’s all here, now.”
“I have a sister that lives in Texas. She loves the heat. Don’t think I could take it, though. She lives up in the…I think they call it ‘panhandle’.”
“Yes…Amarillo area. I lived there for a few years when I was really young.”
“Well, gotta go. Again…nice to meet you. Maybe some evening we can get together for coffee? Or, if you prefer, a cold beer?”
“Not really a drinker…but I’d love to have coffee with you.”
Jerri nodded and stepped out onto the porch. “It’s a deal then…Coffee.”
“Looking forward to it.”
Just as Jerri was sliding into her Jeep, a large crow swooped down in front of the porch and came to rest on a rock by the first step.
Jerri seemed to notice that Amber was staring at it warily, for she said, “Don’t pay that big bird no heed. They’re all over the place out here. Just ignore it…It’ll go away.”
“Okay…Thanks!” Jerri backed on out of the drive then and Amber did as Jerri told her to do. She ignored the bird and went back inside and closed her door.
The bird sat there for several minutes and then squawked loudly and flew away.
Twenty-two-year- old Jeff Reuben had decided to go hiking by himself, much against his girlfriend’s wishes, hoping to make the point that he could find his way out of a paper bag. Something she had claimed he wasn’t capable. Much to his chagrin, he realized that he had, somehow, in spite of all his careful planning, managed to get off the trail. He stopped and took out his map, scratched the top of his head with his pen and scrutinized the trees and slopes. “Damn! It all looks the same! Maybe if I turn around and go back the way I came, I can get back on the path. Only I’m not even sure which way is back.”
He sighed heavily and turned the way he thought he’d come and commenced walking again.
He noticed a big black bird alighting on a nearby tree limb. He thought he’d seen that same bird at various spots along his hike. It was almost as though it was following him.
“Wouldn’t know the way outta here, would ya?” He yelled at the bird. It tilted its head, as though it understood and merely squawked. “Guess not,” Jeff said.
The bird continued to follow Jeff for a while longer, staying just ahead of him and resting on different branches, until Jeff finally got ahead of him, but after a while, with a ruffling of feathers, the bird seemed to tire of the whole thing and flew off out of sight. Jeff realized that he was a little disappointed, for as long as the bird had been with him, he hadn’t felt so totally alone.
Pride completely gone now, he knew he was going to have to do what he’d vowed he wouldn’t do unless absolutely necessary, as he realized by now, looking at his watch, that it was growing late, after three in the afternoon. The days were already growing shorter, and it was cloudy. A few more hours and it would be dark, and then he’d be – as his father often said – up shit creek without a paddle.
He took his mobile phone out of his pocket and saw he had no signal. “Holy mother of God!” he exclaimed. He noticed a large, rather flat rock a
nd, after attempting to climb it three times and slipping back, managed to climb up on. He hoped to get a signal. He was relieved to see that he had a couple of bars. He quickly punched in his girlfriend’s number. After a couple of rings, she answered, greatly to his relief.
“Jenn…It’s me, Jeff.”
She picked up on the strain in his voice immediately. “What’s wrong, Jeff?”
“I hate to say it…I’m lost.”
“You’re what?” She asked now with a slight chuckle.
“Don’t sound so pleased – You heard me …lost!”
“Well, where in hell did you start?”
“A trail at the base of Mount Rainier. Forget now what it was called.”
“Really brilliant of you. You could be a little more specific.”
“That’s as specific as I can get…Look…The last thing I need right now…is your attitude. I understand you are upset with me for coming alone…but I am lost. I need your help, Jenn. You can gloat all you want once I get out of here.”
She sighed deeply. “Okay…Okay…Sorry. Let me think. Tell you what, I can call the police…Tell them you’re lost and then maybe they can track the signal of your phone.”
“Good thinking. Don’t know why I didn’t think of that.”
“Cause you’re a duffuss…” she seemed to rethink the name-calling. “Again…Sorry…I really didn’t mean that. Don’t move. Stay right where you’re at. If you move, you might lose your signal.”
“What I’m afraid of.”
“Actually…You should call the police, too
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