The Girl from the Woods

by Chris Keane

  When he saw the image of a younger Dr. Sewall, his back stiffened. The article, “Doctor Pleads ‘Not Guilty’ in Satanic Malpractice,” written in the early eighties, told of the death of a young girl in an exorcism gone wrong. The girl, who had become increasingly erratic and unresponsive to psychotherapy, had been under the care of Dr. Sewall when she died one night in October of 1982. The doctor claimed that he was simply using herbal medicine along with general counseling to attempt to cure a girl who had rejected traditional treatment. A few months later, a jury cleared him of all charges.

  In the same year, there was something about a trespassing charge in the town graveyard. The doctor had been wandering around there in the middle of the night lighting candles. A local resident claimed that he had seen the doctor performing some ancient ritual at the grave site of one his relatives. Again, the charge did not seem to stick or affect his practice in anyway. Many patients had testified on his behalf, and he had been cleared once again.

  An article from the 1970s, entitled “Giving the Devil His Due,” showed the doctor on Main Street protesting at a re-enactment of the witch trials. Dante began to sweat and clicked frantically as the machine began to go dark. He banged on its side, then checked the plug, which snaked clear across the room; the cord was plugged in all right. He figured the machine had just breathed its last. Perfect timing!

  Before he managed to find its outlet, he tripped on a small box of books and fell onto the cool concrete floor. As he started to stand up, he heard a rustling in the back corner of the room where some of the Halloween junk was being stored. He saw something move, or at least he thought he did. What the hell could be alive down here? After the embarrassing incident with the squirrel, Dante figured it was a cat or some other harmless creature. He couldn’t let it just starve to death.

  He tentatively crept toward the corner of the room, with one eye on the stairs. But on the way, the light bulb burned out, leaving him in the pitch dark. “Shit!” he yelled, as he hurtled toward the door. At the top of the stairs, a dark figure stood blocking the door. Dante released a blood-curdling scream and cowered into a ball at the foot of the staircase.

  “Finding what you need down here?” the woman said flatly.

  Without hesitation, Dante barreled up the stairs through the door, knocking the librarian backward. He didn’t stop to see if she was okay or explain himself to the librarian; he just headed straight out the library exit into the daylight.

  14

  rare air

  Dante had scoured his grandmother’s basement all morning looking for camping gear, but so far, all he had to show for it was a moldy tent. It had belonged to his late grandfather who had done three tours in Europe. Dante sighed and tossed it back underneath the staircase. It really wasn’t salvageable. A camping date had all the makings for romance, but not if he and Angie spent the night in something that stunk like an old shoe. He needed to figure something out.

  When Dante finally emerged from the basement, Gram was in the living room thumbing through the town paper.

  “Gram?”

  “Yes, honey.”

  “Could I borrow the car for a bit? I need to head to the store to buy some camping gear.”

  “Well, that’s a ways out. You’ll have to head clear to Albany to find a sporting goods store. But I have a nice canopy that could work for you.”

  “Great! I’m going camping up at Mount Marjorie this weekend.”

  “I had planned on making you a little special dinner here. Maybe inviting that girl Angie from Doctor Sewell’s office that you’re so fond of…but that’s no big deal.”

  “Um. We can cut a cake when I get back Sunday, okay?”

  “Sure. Why not?”

  “Cool.”

  “Okie dokie. And Dante…will you be needing some sundries then?”

  “Yes, please!”

  “For one or two?” she asked, suspiciously.

  Dante smiled, and then bolted out the front door to tell Angie the plan.

  Dante found Angie sitting at the computer at her desk, banging on the keyboard. “Why won’t this form save?”

  “Here, let me try,” Dante answered, hopping behind the keyboard. With ease, he manipulated all the forms, set up a folder on the desktop, and clicked the Save button. “There!”

  “Hey, that was pretty good,” she replied.

  “Yeah, I have a thing with computers.”

  Angie pulled him in for a kiss. “Thanks!”

  “So, when are you done on Friday?”

  “You mean when you hit the big two-OH?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Usual time.”

  “I was wondering…if you’re able to take off Saturday that is. And you’re dad’s cool with it, and you want to—“

  “Just spit it out!”

  “Do you want to go camping with me up on Mount Marjorie?”

  “I would love to. I’ll give my dad a heads-up that he’s on his own. I don’t think he’ll mind. He’s been in a great mood lately.”

  “Awesome…are you sure?”

  “Yup, it’s supposed to be crisp and cool this weekend, good weather for getting busy!”

  “I wouldn’t know.”

  “Ew! Someone’s a big old virgin.”

  “Okay. You got me.”

  “Well, now I know what I’m giving you for your birthday,” she replied coyly.

  Dante gestured to let Angie know there was someone in the waiting room. It was a beautiful woman, probably in her late thirties, wearing a red polka dot sundress. She was grinning from ear to ear, and her voice was soft and sweet.

  “I’m here to see Dr. Sewall.”

  Angie recoiled in her chair. Her bright smile cooled into an icy stare. “He’s busy today.”

  “I have an appointment.”

  Angie, looking perplexed, scanned the patient log. There was an appointment for Crystal, but she hadn’t written it down; it must have been Dad.

  “Oh, you do. Go on in. Come on, Dante. Help me start packing.”

  Crystal found Dr. Sewall in the same position as on her last visit: standing in the middle of the room reading a clipboard ten feet from his face. Yet somehow, he looked different. His hair was nicely combed and his beard was trimmed. He flashed a smile when he saw her, then snapped back into professional mode. “So, what can I do for you today?”

  “I was surprised to see you at the Spotted Kitty the other night.”

  “Yeah, I just swung by to blow off some steam. It was a long day.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “No?”

  “I think you wanted some more of this…” Crystal reached behind her back and undid some snaps. In an instant, her dress fell to the floor, and she was completely naked.

  “Oh Lordy,” the doctor muttered. He lunged toward her body, only pausing long enough to say, “If I have a heart attack, I hope you know what to do.”

  She quickly hopped up on the edge of the examination table while Dr. Sewall unzipped his pants. With her arm wrapped around his neck and her legs high in the air, she straddled him. At first, he just stood there, stunned. But then he started rocking back and forth, slowly at first. Drool leaked from the sides of his mouth as he picked up the pace, panting heavily.

  “Oh God, Doc, you feel so big!”

  Unlike the other young studs she had been with from the club, the doctor had a lot of stamina. She moaned loudly, as he pumped and pumped for what seemed like forever, sending multiple orgasms vibrating through her body. He eventually grunted to a halt and then erupted like a smoky old volcano, spouting a hot pool of lava everywhere in its wake.

  ***

  Dante watched Angie easily make her way up the mountain, peering over her shoulder every so often to check on him. All he needed to do was get to the top, and he would be content. For Dante, having sex on the top of a mountain underneath the stars with his dream girl was going to be the highlight of his existence on the planet. If he crashed and burned on the way down, so be
it.

  Unlike the first time, Angie wasn’t pushing him to go faster at all. When Dante looked into her eyes, he didn’t see some mysterious and elusive girl; he saw stars. Still, the sooner he got to the top the sooner he could be with Angie, so he was doing everything in his power to keep moving along without taking breaks or slowing down.

  When they came to a bridge, Dante whipped out some water and snacks, and they sat chatting as random hikers walked by wearing goofy spandex and gigantic backpacks.

  “Look at these people…they don’t get it,” Angie said.

  “Get what?”

  “The whole point of hiking is to disconnect. You can’t do that if you bring all of your creature comforts with you.”

  “Yeah, look at them. They look like they belong in an Eastern Mountain Sports ad. In fact I think they’re shooting one right now,” Dante replied, with a wink.

  “Ha! That explains all the cameras. What do you say we take the path less chosen?”

  The path was less chosen for a good reason; it wasn’t much of a trail, just the remains of one. It was like going from The Ritz Carlton to the Red Roof Inn. Dante didn’t want to complain and ruin the mood, but his anxiety level spiked when he saw all the obstacles in front of him.

  Before meeting Angie, the most adventurous thing Dante had attempted was Adventure Land in Walt Disney World. Somehow, visiting Tom Sawyer Island and climbing its stroller-friendly tree house hadn’t prepared him for mountainous terrain. As they moved forward, his gaze was fixed on Angie’s feet, shadowing her steps with as much precision as he could muster. But with every step he made, the memories of scraping down a slate-covered slope became more vivid and frequent. Not good.

  When they found a spot with a nice view of the valley, Angie dropped her backpack on the ground, guzzled some water, and screamed, “Hell yeah!” Dante unrolled the blue tarp his grandmother had given him and flung it over a large oak branch. Angie quickly stepped in, billowing it out and securing it to the moist mountain dirt with some stray branches.

  As the sun set, they lit a bon fire and broke out packs of Hershey’s chocolate bars, graham crackers and marshmallows to make s’mores.

  “This is my dinner by the way,” Dante stated, with a mouth full of marshmallow.

  “I hear you. I could live off this shit.”

  “Hey, Angie. Remember that day I fell on the hike?”

  “Ugh. I try not to think about it. I felt awful.”

  “Well, when I was laying there, and you put your hands on me, I felt something…”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I felt a calmness come over me. It was strange. I should have been wide awake from the pain, but once you touched me I felt numb and drowsy, like there was a wave of anesthetic pumping through my veins.”

  “You were probably suffering from heat exhaustion.”

  “What did you give me that day?”

  “Um. I don’t really remember. Probably some healing balms.”

  “Do you still have them? Maybe we could try to re-create the experience?”

  “I’m not sure what you mean.”

  “Did you have any of that balm stuff or whatever with you?

  “No. I’m going to chill in the tent. You can join me in a bit if you’d like…”

  As soon as Angie disappeared into the tent, Dante’s heart started racing. He paced back and forth a few minutes and then stood looking down toward the town that had been his home for the past month, reduced to a few scattered dots of light from the top of Mount Marjorie. From the summit, Dante imagined his entire home state of New Jersey obscured by his tiny thumbnail. A strong breeze ruffled his clothes; it felt crisp and cool. For all practical purposes, he and Angie were the only ones on Earth. He headed back to camp, knowing that his life would never quite be the same.

  Dante pushed back the tarp to find Angie lying quietly on top of a red sleeping bag in a purple bra and panties. A ring of scented candles illuminated their make-shift bed. Jewels of light danced on the plastic awning as it swayed with the summer breeze. Her hair glimmered so brightly it appeared to be on fire. This was no dream. Heaven was real.

  He quickly lost his boots, stripped off his mud-caked blue jeans, and took a spot next to her on the comforter. As he turned his head to kiss her, she lay on top of him pressing the full weight of her breasts onto his chest. Heat from her panties radiated through his thin boxers as she grinded back and forth across his crotch. When the pace and friction increased, Dante moaned.

  “Your heart’s racing, just relax,” she whispered, gently combing her fingers through his hair.

  “Can’t,” Dante mumbled, “too excited.”

  “I gotcha," she said, slipping a condom into his palm as she rolled back onto her sleeping bag.

  She spread out on a blanket and peeled off her bra and panties. Dante awkwardly climbed on top of her. His leg slipped, kneeing her in the stomach. Then he accidentally jabbed her in the face with his elbow before settling down. She grabbed his hand and quickly guided it between her legs, where she was already wet with excitement.

  “Right there,” she sighed.

  As he slid inside her warmth, millions of dormant nerve endings came to life, burning with pleasure. He cupped her butt and lifted it off the blanket, guiding himself in and out. Picking up speed, he shifted his body forward. Angie screamed, "Like that! Don't stop!" Then suddenly, he exploded with euphoria, collapsing onto her chest.

  They lay there together recovering for a while, until Angie sighed, “This has been a pretty good day.”

  “Pretty good?” he snorted, squeezing her tightly in his arms.

  As the sun splintered through the gaps in the tarp, Dante held Angie in his arms while she slept. He had never felt or even imagined being this happy. He watched her sleeping peacefully, half-expecting she would just vanish like the girl from his dream. She seemed other-worldly, more of a product of his imagination than the surrounding environment. In the real world, a beautiful girl like Angie would barely give him the time of day. She wouldn’t be into reading horror or Japanese anime either. She would probably be rejecting his friend request on Facebook.

  He still hadn’t told Angie that she had appeared to him in his dream back in New Jersey. He figured she would probably just laugh at him. The past few weeks, he had assumed he would forget about it. Yet somehow, the thought wouldn’t vacate his brain. If she had actually appeared to him in his dream, this was no ordinary girl, and that frightened him. She seemed normal, but her father did not. He was an eccentric man with a sketchy past. Dante had come across a stack of books on witchcraft in his study. But she brushed it off, saying that he had grown up in Massachusetts, and everyone up that way was into the history of Salem.

  On the way down the trail later in the morning, his head was totally in the clouds. He felt a closeness to Angie that he hadn’t experienced with anyone before. Instead of sending him into some wild, sex-fueled addiction, sleeping with Angie had actually put him in a state of peace. He was floating down the mountain, with an effortless grace. Every time he and Angie looked at each other, they both giggled like little kids.

  When they got back to Gram’s car, Dante suddenly remembered that there was a life beyond Angie. “Oh, Gram wants you to come for dinner and cake tonight.”

  “Tonight? At your grandmother’s?”

  “Yeah, you know, for my birthday and all.”

  “Ugh, slightly awkward since what we just did, but I’ll be there.”

  “You know what. I’ll just tell her you had to do work.”

  “Really?”

  “Sure.”

  “You’re the best!” she shouted, wrapping her arms around his neck.

  15

  you wish

  Through the prism of Angie, even an abandoned Texaco station somehow looked good to Dante now. It had gone from dilapidated to vintage, from a reminder of things lost to the potential for miraculous transformation. Dante was in love, thus felt no need for the company of anyone else
in the world but Angie, especially, his big bastard of a brother. Now it was time to give him a taste of his own medicine.

  “Wake up, alky!” Dante hollered.

  “The fuck do you want?” Kurt answered, his voice raspy and muted.

  “I’ve got some big news.”

  “Why are you calling me this early?”

  “I told you, I’ve got big news. I had sex with Angie!”

  “You what?” Kurt grumbled.

  “Why are you so surprised?”

  “I’m more concerned. You getting laid has to be one of the seven signs of the Apocalypse.”

  “Ah, you’re just jealous.”

  “Of you? Yeah right.”

  “How are things with you? Got a girlfriend? A job? Any leads in either of those departments?”

  “Mind your own fuckin’ business. I’m doing just fine.”

  “Well, not as well as me. You know, all this time I looked up to you. Thought you knew the secret to women. But, guess what? I’m really Don Juan! I landed the hottest girl ever…and she’s totally into me.”

  “First of all, I highly doubt she’s the hottest girl ever. There’s got to be something seriously wrong with her if she slept with you.”

  “You know, I actually thought you’d be happy for me. But this confirms what I thought all along. You’re just a jealous, whiny, insecure bitch.”

  “Hey! I’ll drive up there and kick your ass! And don’t think I won’t.”

  “It’s not your fault. You’re a bully. And deep down bullies are all insecure…so they lash out.”

  “Look, don’t go getting a big head ‘cause you finally got some. You’re still a pussy.”

  “What happened to Lesley? You haven’t mentioned her lately. Did she get smart and dump you? You’ve got no education, no job. I bet in the middle of the night, when you’re in your bed alone, you stare at the ceiling worrying you won’t amount to anything.”