The beat-up Ford didn’t even leave a skid mark on the asphalt; the driver never hit the brakes at all. Instead, it accelerated and shot over the side of the road into the valley. It struck a large pine tree dead on, which made it twirl around, and kept falling down into the valley, hitting the slope and rolling several time until it landed right-side up on a ledge, next to a bunch of car parts from previous accidents.
With the exception of a large strip of bark that had been torn from the pine tree, and a few twigs and branches that had been snapped off from the impact, everything looked pretty much the same after the accident as it had before.
From the cliff edge above, two dead eyes surveyed the scene, searching for its prey. The woman was dead, though. So was the truck driver, what was left of one arm lolling out of the shattered windshield. The beast snarled and turned, facing the forest. Winter was around the corner, and it could sense it. There would only be so much time left for it to still its hunger before going into hibernation.
It needed more.
Christina stepped out of the truck and was rudely pushed to the side as Nugget made his way out and away, not having the time to wait for some dang slowpoke human. Both Hunter and Nugget ran all over the yard, afterward sniffing the ground. Once in while they attacked and chased each other, like two very large puppies, as happy as any child—until Frank’s hoarse voice ordered, “Search and protect!”
Instantly the two dogs snarled and darted towards what looked like a small path leading into the forest, still arguing, as only dogs can, over who should go first.
Noticing the puzzled expression on Christina’s face, Frank smiled and said, “I’ve trained them to move over the property nearby and check for any intruders or predators, like wolves, bears, what have ya. Don’t worry, they’ll be back soon. They’ll only follow the electric fence.”
“Electric fence?”
“Over here, let me show you.”
Frank took Christina to the gate entrance. She had missed the gate when they drove through; now she saw that between the wooden planks of the fence, there were four metal wires. The fence was about six feet high.
“The wires keep the animals away from the house, but the fence only encloses about an acre near the house. If you notice, there’s no barbed wire here, though there use to be. I had it removed—I think it’s inhumane.”
“Can I touch them?”
“Sure,” Frank said, smiling.
She did, only to jerk her hand back instantly. “Ouch! That hurt.”
“Yep, told you they were electrical. Won’t kill anything, but it sure will give them a reminder, right? ‘Specially if one of them male wolves tries to mark his territory!” He guffawed, bringing a smile to her face.
“What powers them?” Christina wondered, sucking on the index finger that had been jolted by the fence.
Frank gestured for her to follow, then pointed at one of the poles that had some type of dark but shiny plate on top of it. “Solar power. If you look over there, you’ll see most of the trees are cut down near the house, and there are a lot of these little solar cells spread out all over, enough to power the fence. There’s also a backup battery that gets its power from the sun. I’ll tell you all about it later, along with the backup generators and everything else you need to know while you live here, and if there’s any problem, just give me a call. We’re about 40 or 45 minutes from the store. You have your own water well with very fresh, clean water, and of course the purifiers.”
Frank walked towards the main building, fishing in his pocket for the keys to the house. Christina started to follow, but then she noticed an opening between the buildings and headed in that direction. There was a large stone only a few feet high, and she stepped gently onto it. She realized she was standing on a plateau over a drop-off, and when she looked over the view, she instantly fell in love with what she saw. It was a majestic vista over an enormous valley dressed in green, and far below in the distance was the river, the one she owned a part of now. From somewhere in the distance, the sound of an eagle’s scream echoed through the valley. Smaller birds sang, and the wind caught Christina’s long, dark hair. She was completely taken aback by the mesmerizing surroundings. She didn’t even notice the tear rolling down her cheek.
It was beautiful.
Frank cleared his throat from behind her. “Pretty, isn’t it?”
Christina was too overwhelmed to speak, and could only nod her head in agreement. They just stood there for a while, enjoying the moment. “You should see it at dusk,” Frank said after a moment. “Nothing like sitting on a porch with a cold one and taking in the setting of the sun,” he said dreamily, gazing towards the western horizon.
Later, he took Christina on a tour around the immediate vicinity of the property near the main house. “Everything you see here was built by the best people in the trade; a company out of British Columbia in Canada. This home is one of its best, a one-of-a-kind original.”
“Who had it built?”
“I don’t know their names, and I never met them. It was a wealthy young couple from the Big Apple who came out a few years back. But as far as I know, they only came here once to inspect the progress on the build. Then something must have gone wrong, because eventually the bank put it up for executive sale, and it was purchased by someone else—but it turned out that idiot didn’t have sufficient funds for it. Because Claire and I had the second highest bid—and I don’t mind telling you it was far less than the bidder who failed to make the payment—we got it pretty cheap.” He looked at her sharply. “Well, crap, maybe I shouldn’t have said that.”Christina laughed. “Let me guess: Claire takes care of the family budget?”
“Why of course, dear, and that’s why we have a happy marriage,” Frank joked, but at the same time he looked a bit somber. “We had to put quite a bit into the house and land to finish it up, I don’t mind telling you. Everything is pretty much finished but for the basement.”
Christina surveyed the land, thinking that most of the surroundings almost looked like a park; and then she realized that the garden, with all its trees, reminded her of a fairy tale, with neatly trimmed grass, trees, and bushes intermingling with the thick green, brown, and gray mosses on the ground. Birdsong filled the air, and she could hear a strident cheeping coming from a nest visible in a nearby tree. The air smelled incredibly fresh, as if it had just been created by the world, with just a tang of resin from the conifers surrounding her; it almost smelled odd to her city-attuned nose. Looking around the garden, she saw a few manmade paths, lined with sawdust, meandering among the plants. There was the sound of falling water coming from somewhere nearby.
“Anyway,” Frank said, oblivious to her immersion in the natural world, “the entire home is self-sufficient energy-wise. It has its own power sources, from the sun and the air.” He pointed at a windmill on top of a low cliff that Christina had missed earlier. It also had solar panels below it, tilted toward the sun, and there were more panels on the roofs on all the buildings. Frank continued, “I’d planned to try out a paddlewheel generator on one of the rivers, but couldn’t get a permit. Still, what we’ve got’s good enough.”
The closer they got to the lodge, the more she realized just how big it was. She had to wonder: Was it too big for her? The house included a wraparound covered patio and a carport, and it looked like there was some type of tower in the back.
Frank unlocked the door to the airlock entry and mud room. The door was a heavy security model made of solid metal, clad in wood paneling to match the rest of the home. That Christina liked, having had her fair share of stalkers in her life. None of her exes had been stalkers, but some of her fans had been, and it was still sometimes a problem. The price of fame, she thought, even if she was something of a falling star.
“This here is a security door,” Frank said, “and all the windows on the first floor and the basement have bulletproof glass. Third floor has storm windows, and they can take a heavy punch too. If you noticed, there are shut
ters by the windows; even they were made by a security company, and can be tightly closed and locked. I’ll show you how in a bit.”
“Seems like whoever built this place took their privacy very seriously,” Christina noted. “Almost seems a bit paranoid.”
“Well, having bulletproof windows, that’s not so unusual nowadays. People want to secure their privacy. Lots of strange folks rooming around everywhere, even in quaint little towns like ours.”
“You’re right. Same thing back in L.A., I have to admit.”
“Let me give you the grand tour,” Frank offered. He removed his cowboy boots, and took a pair of new slippers from a bench in the mud-room; and Christina followed his example. Suddenly Hunter and Nugget popped up at the door, demanding to come inside.
“Stay,” Frank ordered. “Stop right there, you two. Paw patrol!”
Both dogs stopped in their tracks, simultaneously lifting their right paws. Frank removed a towel from a hook and dried off all four of each dog’s paws, one at a time. When they sat down, paws clean, he then unlocked the next door, a normal door with a glass insert. The dogs remained seated until he called out, “Secure!” With that command, the dogs raced inside the home, searching it for any intruders.
Now Christina was really impressed. “Wow! You do know how to control those dogs, don’t you? Is it really necessary to check the house?”
“Well, it’s not so much about control as it is training and discipline. The most important thing when it comes to training any dog is to be kind and relaxed. If you’re tense, they will be too. There’s a lot of psychology involved, and most time, it’s up to the owner and not the dog. Hunter is an American Staffordshire Terrier, what most people call a pit bull. The majority of people have misunderstood that breed of dog. Most of the time he’s completely harmless, but he won’t say no to a fight when challenged. And to answer your second question, it’s more for the dogs than it is necessary to check for any intruders. But even though this home has a very good security system, it never hurts.” He gave Christina a reassuring and friendly smile.
“Nugget, he’s an African dog, right? Ridgeback?”
“Yes, his breed originated in Rhodesia, and they were trained to hunt lions. It’s the perfect dog for a family, and he seldom barks…unlike Hunter, or as you know, Winston.”
Frank smiled and Christina laughed when thinking about the grumpy bulldog. “Winston is one of the few dogs I haven’t been able to train very well,” Frank confided.
“I thought he obeyed you fine.”
“Nah, only when he wants something, that lazy ogre. Old Winston has a mind of his own. You should see when Claire takes him for a roll, if you can call it that. More like him taking her for a walk.”
Frank gestured for Christina to take the lead, so she could get the first look at her hopefully future home. He knew the house was breathtaking. She entered, and was instantly taken aback by the beautiful interior, which had been created by some of the best craftsmen in the business. There was a large family tree in the center, and two more large tree trunks throughout the open plan interior, acting as support beams. The fresh aromas of cedar and a clean house filled her nostrils.
Nugget and Hunter returned and sat immediately by Frank’s feet, breathing heavily with their tongues hanging out, while their tails swept the shining hardwood floor. He gave them each a treat that he had in a pocket of his vest. He nodded his head, and the two beautiful dogs moved away.
Christina walked over to the main center window in the great room, and again she was astonished by the view towards south and west. There was a large patio outside, and she couldn’t help letting out a cheerful cry when she saw the hot tub. There was a huge open fireplace both inside and outside in the large room. The place was beautiful, and she loved it! She walked alone through the house while Frank went to the kitchen and put on some coffee. He didn’t want to behave as a real estate agent, not at this point. Eventually he would go through the entire house again with Christina, showing her everything she needed to know.
The scent of freshly brewed coffee soon filled the house.
Christina returned after about ten minutes. “Where did you learn so much about training dogs?” asked curiously, not revealing her thoughts about the house.
There was a brief pause as Frank took a deep breath. Then he said, “In another life, ages ago it seems today, I was a police officer in Chicago. One day, I decided I wanted to become a K-9 officer, and eventually I did.” Frank look a bit sad as he told Christina about his background. She realized she had touched a sore subject, and was just about to change it when Frank continued.
“I got my first dog, a female German Shepherd. Gosh, I loved that dog. We trained forever, it seemed at the time, and eventually we graduated. Of course, she lived at home with me that whole time. That’s how it works. You bond that way.”Again he quieted down, and moved slowly through the open plan of the first floor, which combined the great room with the kitchen, dining, and breakfast nook. When he reached the breakfast nook, he looked out the center window -– there were three of them, and just as Christina had thought, it was part of a wooden tower—and watched the horizon in the distance. Christina followed Frank, impressed again by the beautiful woodwork combined with the custom-made furniture; everything fit perfectly.
She began, “If you don’t want to talk about it, then…”
Frank motioned with his hand for her to be silent. “No. She deserves to be remembered.”
“It was our first day on duty. I worked nights back then because of my young age—most rookies did. Even if you’d been on the force a couple of years, you were still considered fresh meat. We got a call about some trouble and took off. Someone had attacked an old woman in her early eighties. She had been mugged and raped. It was in a park, and Betsy—that was her name—got on the perp’s trail instantly. We caught up to him, and that’s when I…messed up. It was a young man, and he was about to climb over a fence, so I let Betsy have a go at him. I regret that to this day. Betsy got his leg and dragged him to the ground. I hurried after her, but I tripped and dropped my gun. By the time I found it, the perp and Betsy was fighting pretty hard. There was a lot of growling from Betsy and screams from the perp. I got the gun and aimed while shouting to Betsy, who instantly stopped her aggression and backed off, still barking. I lay there and had a clear shot, and that’s when everything went bad. I was just about to order the perp to lay down on the ground, so I could cuff him, but my sergeant called me on the darn radio. I took my eyes away for a second while I looked for my radio, and that’s when I heard the most horrible sound I had ever heard—a kind of yelping moan. It was Betsy; she had been stabbed by that ba- by that awful man.”
There was a moment of silence before Frank continued his story.
“I was paralyzed. In shock, I guess you could call it. She died before I got to her. Bled out.”
“What happened to the guy you chased?” Christina asked gently.
“He got away,” was Frank’s flat reply.
“I’m so sorry. I—”
“I looked for the perp for days. I wanted vengeance, but eventually I came to the realization that what I was doing was wrong, and I was no longer fit to be a police officer…so I resigned.”
Christina looked at him, concerned.
Frank noticed Christina’s reaction from the corner of his eye and said in a kind voice, “No, dear, I didn’t hurt or kill the perp. There was a time when I wanted to, but that was my emotions talking back then. The perp really did get away.”
Frank dried his eyes, and then swung his long, powerful arms in a sweeping and friendly gesture while his warm smile returned. “It’s all in the past, but boy, I do miss that dog. Only bad thing about owning a dog is they only live for so long. Winston’s close to 15—probably has a year or two left, while these two monsters have a bit more.”
After giving Christina his tour of the house—that took about half an hour—they moved back the kitchen. On the kitchen island w
ere three folders with information about the house, and how to run things; there was a list of phone numbers, and general recommendations on several contractors. There was also a very good map of the entire parcel of land that came with the house, and another larger map depicting the local roads and nearby towns. Everything was marked well, and every minute, Christina realized she liked the place more and more. Frank gestured towards the coffee brewer, and Christina nodded. He turned it on again, and while the wonderful aroma of fresh-brewed coffee filled the room, he continued informing her about the house’s do and don’ts, and what she should or shouldn’t do if she ventured into the forest.
“Like I said before, everything is finished in this home but for the basement. Be careful when you go down there—you saw the mess.”
“I doubt I’ll be spending any time down there soon,” she admitted.
“Good. Then all we need to do is sign a few documents…”
Suddenly, both Nugget and Hunter rushed to the main door, growling almost silently but still very threateningly.
“Aha, I guess we got company,” Frank said, while looking for the documents, his glasses perched on the tip of his nose. He seemed content to wait until whoever it was actually came to the door.
Less than two minutes later, the front doorbell rang. Hunter and Nugget lay by the second door, silently staring, focused 100% on the door. Frank removed a remote from one of the drawers in the kitchen island and pushed a button. A painting with an ornate frame on the wall in the kitchen transformed into a CCTV screen, displaying four camera views. He scrolled through several images, displaying various views on the plot outside and a few rooms inside, including the garage and the utility room. The doorbell rang again, and the view from the outside entrance came in view on the screen, displaying the door outside and a tall man waiting patiently to be let in.
“The place has its own surveillance system?” Christina gasped. “I didn’t see any cameras on the way here or outside!”
“Guess we have a few things more to go over,” Frank joked.
The Lumberjack Page 4