Heart of the Woods

by Grant C. Holland

  “I’m saying it in the most affectionate way possible. He was a good dog, but he was a mutt and a really ugly dog. Anyway, I always took him for a walk when we went to visit.”

  “That’s nice of you.”

  Gabe crossed his arms over his chest. “How many times do I have to tell you I’m a nice guy before you believe it?”

  “I’ve never said you weren’t a nice guy. You’re a paragon of decency.”

  Gabe threw his head back and laughed. “Damn, don’t let that get out! I’ll never have another date. I’ve worked hard to craft this edge-of-bad-boy reputation. They like to think they have to buckle their seatbelts for a rough night ahead.”

  “Um, okay. So what is this observation about me in the woods.”

  “Oh, right, right. You sidetracked me. Anyway, like Uncle Charlie’s dog. I think his name is Spike. When I visit and try to walk him, he constantly swings from side to side. He has no attention span for walking straight ahead. It’s like they say dogs are distracted by squirrels, but Spike can be distracted by a gum wrapper.”

  “And I’m like that?”

  Gabe grinned. “Yeah, kinda sorta. When we went hiking, you saw a wildflower here and a mushroom there. Then you had to show me deer tracks and picked up a little scrap of trash.”

  “I try and be a good citizen.”

  “You’re good, Brandon. You’re very good. I’ll leave it at that. Reach your own conclusions. Let’s order a pizza. I’m not eating anything that comes out of that refrigerator tonight.”

  Brandon said, “That sounds good. You know me. I’ll eat anything but black olives and anchovies on it.”

  “I have to choose?”

  “You’re the guest.”

  Gabe raised an eyebrow. “I don’t understand that reasoning, but okay, I’ll order the pizza.”

  “You’re a great guy, Gabe. Maybe I don’t say it often enough. Thanks for being you.”

  Gabe nodded in agreement while he placed the pizza order. After the call ended, he scooted on the couch toward Brandon and laid his head in his lap. He exhaled deeply and looked up. “If I feel anything hard on the back of my head…”

  “Then what?”

  Gabe smiled. “I’ll feel flattered.”

  In the course of the evening, Brandon remembered all of the reasons he dated Gabe in the first place, and he remembered most of the reasons they broke up. Gabe’s feelings were easily hurt when he didn’t get his way, and he lusted after nearly every other male between the ages of 19 and 68, or at least it felt that way. He flirted with the pizza delivery guy before accepting the pizza. Still, he was the most devoted friend Brandon ever had.

  Levi was the hard one to get out of the romantic corners of Brandon’s mind. Before the evening was over, Brandon decided to make another visit to Lone Cedar Lake. He didn’t tell Gabe, and he wasn’t going to let Elle know until Tuesday, the day before his trip. He didn’t want to push hard and decided that he would start at the crack of dawn to make it a day trip. He wished there was some way to contact Levi in advance.

  After hugging Gabe goodnight, Brandon turned back toward the living room of his cabin and imagined what it would be like to have Levi there. A warm smile spread across his face.

  10

  Levi

  As he helped Grandma Daley clean up the morning dishes, Levi said, “I’m going out on the lake for the rest of the morning. I might do some fishing, and maybe I’ll swim, too.”

  “I’ll lay down for a nap, and don’t worry about me. I had dreams about Walter in the night. It wasn’t restful, but maybe if I nap, he’ll come back for another visit. I love seeing him again.”

  Levi smiled. He always enjoyed how Grandma described dreams about Grandpa as visits. He saw Grandpa once in one of his dreams, but that was less than a year after the drowning. He never came back after that.

  As Levi paddled out toward the center of Lost Cedar Lake, he listened to the gentle ripple of the water. It was a sound that never grew old. Sometimes he liked to reach his hand in and splash around gently before returning to the paddle. He compared the sounds. They were different from each other, but they had the water in common. At other times, he tried to move his paddles in the water as silently as possible.

  When he neared the center of the lake, a gut sensation told Levi to return to the shore at the portage site toward Arrowhead Falls. He hoped that Brandon would return soon, but he knew that it could be a matter of weeks instead of days.

  No water exited Lone Cedar Lake at the portage. It drained the opposite direction toward Iron Crossing. Instead, long ago someone blazed a trail through the woods cutting down trees in addition to flattening the undergrowth. Levi wondered if his grandfather did at least part of that work.

  In the past ten years, grass grew up to fill in the space in the sunlight. Each year it grew thicker than the year before. Some small conifer trees emerged, too, but they weren’t thick enough to disrupt someone carrying a canoe. Levi tugged his canoe up onto the rock at the shore and looked around. At least he could spend some time clearing away underbrush in advance of Brandon’s next visit.

  Less than an hour passed before Levi heard rustling in the distance. It sounded like the passing of a large animal. A tingling sensation raced up Levi’s spine. Is it a bear? Or a lost moose?

  Levi ducked into the tall grove of pine trees to his right. He tried to walk as quietly as possible and slipped behind a particular ancient tree twenty yards away from the clearing.

  The sound drew closer, and it was soon apparent the beast was a person. The person was humming, too. Levi didn’t recognize the song. It sounded like a simple tune he might have learned in elementary school. Levi worried that someone else discovered the lake, or perhaps Brandon sent one of his friends to explore.

  A few moments later, the canoe appeared. It was familiar. In fact, it was unmistakable. The vessel had an “Arrowhead Adventurers” sticker plastered on the bow. Levi called from his hiding spot, “Brandon!”

  The noise chased a flock of birds into the sky. Brandon pushed the canoe up and lowered it onto the ground. He was even more handsome than Levi remembered. He had his shirt off, and the wiry muscles in his arms flexed as he lifted the canoe. “Levi! Did you know I was coming? What are you doing here? I didn’t know you ever venture in this direction.”

  Levi emerged from the woods and shrugged. “I guess I had a gut instinct. I didn’t know for sure what it meant, but I came over here and started clearing away some of the brush.” Levi reached out to offer a hug. “I’m happy to see you. It will be another great night for watching the stars. It looks like the sky will be clear.”

  “Since when are you such a weather forecaster? I hope you’re more accurate than the guys on TV. Sometimes I think they are pretending to know anything. The weather changes so often.”

  Levi tugged the cell phone from his pocket. “I already knew quite a bit from what Grandma taught me, but I got this. I looked up the weather forecast this morning.”

  Brandon held out his hand, and Levi handed him the phone. “Wow. So you can send me messages now.”

  “I would have sent you one this morning, but I don’t have your phone number.”

  “I guess that is important. Oh, and I won’t be spending the night. I’m sorry about that.”

  “Are you going back this evening? It’s a long trip, isn’t it?”

  Brandon nodded. “About five hours or so. It’s the middle of the work week. We can make plans for an overnight trip soon. I’ll be here until about 4:00 p.m. Then I can get back just as the sun is going down. I don’t have any trouble picking my way through the woods with my flashlight in the dark, but I’d rather be off the trail then. I’ve seen too many of my clients lose their way even with the flashlight. Someday it could happen to me. I don’t want to tempt fate.”

  “Okay. I think I understand. For now, you can leave your boat here if you want. We can ride over to the dock in mine.”

  Brandon glanced back at his canoe and looked at
Levi again. “If it’s all the same to you, I’ll take it with me. I know that nobody ever comes up here, but I’d be one sad puppy if I had to buy a new canoe.”

  Levi shrugged, “Suit yourself. Do you want to go now? I need to get back soon. I’ve got some chores to do around the cabin. Grandma will be expecting me when she gets up from her nap. She’ll be happy to see you again.”

  “I’ll be happy to see her, too.”

  Levi pointed at Brandon’s canoe. “Do you need any help with that? Mine isn’t loaded today, and it’s up there at the edge of the water already.”

  “I think I can manage it, but I do need something else.”

  Levi asked, “Something else?”

  Brandon crooked his finger to encourage Levi to approach. “Can you guess?”

  Levi blushed and stepped up into Brandon’s arms. He eagerly joined in on a kiss. He placed a hand on Brandon’s bare chest. It was slightly slick with sweat, and the muscle was firm beneath his touch. “Does this mean you’re my boyfriend?”

  “Do you want to be?”

  Levi kissed Brandon again. “I try not to think about it too much. I thought about it after you left on Sunday, and it feels like there are so many things in the way, but I’m not sure I’ve ever had a sensation inside like what I get when I’m around you.”

  “What do you feel?”

  Levi blushed again. He didn’t want to get into that discussion. When he got asked questions about personal matters, he hated being on the spot to explain. It was like a whole classroom or maybe even an entire auditorium was staring at him. “No, I don’t want to go there. Yeah, I want to be your boyfriend.”

  Brandon’s warm smile made the desire even more intense. “Then you are. I want that, too.”

  Levi said, “I think this is going to be a busy day. I promised Grandma I’d do a bunch of little chores. I’m still behind because of Saturday. I need to start catching up.”

  “You do keep busy for not following a clock.”

  “I didn’t say I don’t follow time. I have a good idea how much time passes. I’m not sure how that happens. Maybe my body senses where the sun is in the sky.”

  Levi climbed into his canoe and followed behind Brandon. He was proud to have a boyfriend, but he wasn’t sure what it meant. Arrowhead Falls was a little town, but Levi still saw himself as a country mouse compared with Brandon as the city mouse. He hoped they didn’t run into a lot of conflicts. Levi knew that he didn’t handle conflict well.

  As they walked the path together back to Grandma Daley’s cabin, Levi said, “Don’t mention the cell phone. I bought it for myself, but Grandma doesn’t know. She doesn’t believe in cell phones or the Internet.”

  “That’s right. She calls it data pollution. I remember you telling me that. I promise. I’ll keep it quiet. She does have a point, though. We might all be more relaxed in life if we got rid of the electronic devices.”

  “I think the phone might save Grandma’s life someday. That’s the main reason for it. Getting to send messages to you is icing on the cake.”

  When they returned to the cabin’s clearing in the woods, Grandma Daley was outside cutting flowers. After she turned to see Brandon at Levi’s side, her eyes began to sparkle. “Oh, you brought your friend Brandon back with you.”

  “He surprised me, Grandma, and I’m happy to see you up from your nap.”

  “An old lady can’t sleep her entire life away. I’ve only got so many days left. I need to make them count.”

  Levi whispered to Brandon, “I hate when she says things like that.”

  Brandon said, “I need to use the bathroom if that’s okay with the two of you. I guess I could have gone in the woods. It feels different doing that when I’m alone.”

  “Go right ahead. I’ll help Grandma with the flowers.”

  Levi carried the basket of cut blossoms into the kitchen. He retrieved a large pitcher and filled it with water while his grandmother began arranging them in a multi-colored display. As he left her to her work, Levi noticed Brandon staring up close at one of the paintings on the living room wall.

  Leaning over Brandon’s shoulder, Levi asked, “What are you looking at?”

  Brandon whispered, “I’m still amazed that she painted these. Why didn’t you tell me that? In the stories about your grandfather around town, people mention that she did painting, but these are fantastic. You didn’t answer when I asked if she’s sold anything.”

  “Let’s go outside.” Levi called to the kitchen area of the cabin and said, “Grandma, we’re going outside to chop wood.”

  She didn’t reply in words but instead waved them off with her free hand. Brandon said, “I think I’m falling for your grandma. She is phenomenal. My grandparents would never be able to keep up with her.”

  Levi led the way to the woodpile. Instead of starting to chop, he sat on the edge of a large tree stump. “I’ve got something to tell you.”

  “Is it bad? I hope it’s not bad.”

  “You’re a worrier like me. Aren’t you?”

  Brandon held a finger up to his lips. “Shh, don’t tell anyone. They think I’m the unflappable wilderness guide. If you tell them, you’ll ruin my reputation, but yeah, I worry sometimes.”

  Levi smiled as Brandon sat by his side. “Don’t worry about this. It’s nothing bad. At least I don’t think it is. It’s about Grandma Daley. She is an artist.”

  “Well, you said that before, and I saw the paintings on the wall.”

  “No, I mean real artist. Selling her paintings keeps us afloat out here in the woods.”

  Brandon’s jaw dropped. “Are you serious? How do you sell her paintings when no one comes out here?” After pausing for a moment, Brandon said, “The packs in the canoe that day. Were you taking paintings to Iron Crossing?”

  Levi nodded and smiled, and then his expression turned serious. “Promise me you’ll not tell anyone. I’m worried about people finding out. If they know, they’ll send people to try and find her. Newspaper people will come. Grandma said she left the cabin for a few months after Grandpa died. She lived with the Walkers. She came back when the reporters stopped poking around the lake.”

  Brandon crossed his heart. “I won’t say anything, but this is amazing. Where does she sell them?”

  “They eventually end up in New York. Her official biography says she lives with family in seclusion. The art dealers all keep any details private. They know that she won’t deal with them anymore if they share her secrets.”

  “Levi, what will you do? I mean, what’s your plan after she’s gone?”

  “I don’t plan that far in advance. That could be twenty years from now.”

  Brandon rubbed his chin. “Or it could be tomorrow.”

  Levi didn’t respond. Instead, he grabbed the ax and went to work at splitting wood. After watching for a few minutes, Brandon stood, walked up behind Levi, and gripped the arm swinging the ax. “What’s wrong? Do you want to take over? You just need to ask.”

  “I have something different to ask.”

  Levi swung the ax down and anchored it in the tree stump. “Go ahead. I answer questions from you.”

  “I want you to come with me to Arrowhead Falls for a visit. I’ve seen your place and how you live with your grandmother. I want you to see my cabin. You can do it in a long day trip.”

  “I…” Levi stopped himself from giving a knee-jerk response. He sat on the tree stump next to the ax and looked up at Brandon. He tried to think of a logical reason to reject the invitation, and he couldn’t come up with anything. He could tell Grandma Daley he was going exploring for the day. It happened about once a month during the summer and saying it wouldn’t be a lie. Levi looked up into Brandon’s eyes, “Okay, but no talking about Grandma, Grandpa, the lake, or the cabin while we’re there. Is that a deal?”

  Brandon smiled warmly. “Deal.”

  11

  Brandon

  Brandon met Levi at the falls that were the namesake of the town of Arrowhead Fal
ls. It was best-known as a location for wilderness travelers to load their canoes up on a trailer to take them to a variety of lakes in the region. It wasn’t really a waterfall. It was more like a ripple in a creek. During the spring snowmelt, it sometimes grew into rapids, but most of the year the creek trickled over stones on its way to forming Stillwater Lake.

  Arrowhead Adventurers maintained a small boathouse off the road to the falls. It was an outstanding location for the short one hundred yard portage to Stillwater Lake. From there, it was possible to paddle into a network of surrounding bodies of water or take the nearly unknown route toward Lone Cedar Lake.

  Brandon waited by the side of the falls for Levi. At approximately 12:30, Levi arrived. It was perfect timing to stop by the Lost Loon for lunch.

  “So this is the friend you’ve talked about.” Gabe welcomed Brandon and Levi to his table with a brisk handshake for Levi and a warm hug for Brandon. “He looks like he has strong enough arms to keep up with you on a lake.”

  Levi turned toward Brandon raising an eyebrow after he shook hands with Gabe. Brandon whispered in his ear, “Don’t worry. He thinks you’re from Ely.”

  Gabe pulled a chair out from the table for Levi. “Brandon says you are a whiz with a paddle. That’s the way to my buddy’s heart. I think he was born with a canoe paddle in the crib.”

  Brandon rolled his eyes. “Levi, can I get you some coffee?”

  Levi didn’t hear the question at first. He was too busy looking all around the Lost Loon. Canoes hung from the ceiling and camping gear decorated the walls. Brandon wondered what it was like to be in a coffee shop after three years seeing only the rugged camp-style stores in Iron Crossing.

  Gabe nudged Levi’s elbow. “I think the blonde God asked you a question.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. What?”

  “Coffee?” asked Brandon.

  “Yeah, with a little cream and sugar. I don’t like it too sweet.”

  “One half-sweet latte coming up.”