“It’s poison ivy.”
The vines were twined around not only shrubs but trees and any object they could latch on to.
“You seem so sure of that. It could be anything else. It’s not like you’re a plant expert.”
Elaine knew that poison ivy didn’t damage the plants to which it clung. For such a harmful thing, it was pretty tame. “No, I guess I’m not, but I know this plant very well. Do you know the phrase ‘leaves of three, let it be’?”
“No.”
“Well, I know it. My parents used to warn my brother and me with this phrase after we came into contact with poison ivy in our yard. I think my brother is a little more allergic than I am. He didn’t just get rashes but huge blisters filled with some kind of weird fluid. He had the works.”
“So you think that’s going to happen to me? Bloody hell, my skin with blisters.” Kimberly’s hands looked as if she’d been flogged with a thin strap in very straight lines. The itching only got worse now that Elaine had said the words poison ivy. Her skin seemed to be burning.
“You have to bathe right now.”
“And where am I going to do that stuck out here in these woods?”
At her feet, Elaine saw how the poison ivy had carpeted the ground. Because it had wrapped itself around trees, it was also way above them.
“You’ve got to go back to the waterfall. It’s the only place.”
“With bears running out there!”
“We only saw one bear, and it wasn’t at the waterfall. If we keep an eye out for it, we’ll be all right. If you don’t bathe quickly, you’ll get those big, ugly, watery blisters.” Elaine remembered her brother’s blistered face. Her parents had called someone to get rid of the poison ivy. The man had explained that they could use a herbicide, or he could dig them out by the roots.
“You may still get the blisters, but at least the thing won’t spread all over your body.”
Kimberly looked as if she was going to cry. “You said we. Who’s coming with me?”
“It’s either me or Miriam. Someone has to stay with Susan. I’m not sure if we should be walking to the waterfall with her.”
In the end Elaine’s mother had gone with digging out the roots. It was always better to get to the heart of the matter, she said. The herbicide would be more effective, but it could kill other plants that they wanted to keep. The man had warned them not to touch the tools that he used to cut and grub the poison ivy. When he was finished, he took away all the dead plants. They saw new growth after that, but they were always dug out by the roots and carted off until they were never seen again.
“She touched poison ivy,” Elaine informed Miriam when they got back.
“Poison berries and now poison ivy. It’s like we’re going to die from toxic stuff out here. I thought the greatest threat was a bear or some other kind of animal, but it’s like the biggest threat is ourselves. We just keep eating, touching and doing the wrong things. Why did you go up there and touch anything?”
“You ask why? You made me. I was so pissed off because you went into my iPod and violated my right to privacy. I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to hit you, but instead I took it out on the plants, and they got back at me.”
Susan sat on the ground. Her face was to the sky again, and she was muttering.
“She’s calmed down,” Elaine said.
“She had to,” Miriam said, “she couldn’t keep going like the Energizer bunny. I couldn’t keep up with her. Her constant movement tired me out just watching her.”
“One of us has to go with Kimberly to the falls. She has to bathe the stuff off, or she’s going to look like a walking pink polka dot.”
“Water is going to combat poison?” Miriam asked.
“I have some rubbing alcohol. I’ll use that to clean the red areas first and then the water.”
Susan’s muttering sounded like a slow rhyme.
“You’re right,” Miriam said. “Hoarding can be a good thing. How else would we have rubbing alcohol out here?”
“I told you it’s thinking ahead. When I knew I was coming out here, I thought about cuts and scrapes. That’s likely to happen in a wooded area with sticks and branches hanging out.”
Elaine took a small plastic bottle of alcohol from her bag and used some tissue to blot affected areas on Kimberly’s face.
“Ouch that stings!”
“That’s probably a good thing.” Elaine started applying it to Kimberly’s hands. “It seems as if you just have it on your face and hands for now. That’s why you have to go wash it off before it spreads. What I can’t understand is how you got affected so fast. It’s been about two to three hours at most since you touched the stuff.”
“What, I’m not supposed to start itching until later today?”
“Or tomorrow or even the next day.”
“Well, it’s just my luck then to be affected so fast. Lucky me!”
Elaine finished one hand and went on to the other. She was sure the plant she had seen broken on the ground was poison ivy, but she had never seen anyone react so fast. Kimberly’s face and hand were streaked with red. Maybe she had touched the roots. She’d heard the roots were more potent. Kimberly had said she’d yanked and plucked the plants without much thought. But then, everything was happening quickly out here.
“Aren’t you afraid you’ll get it too?” Miriam asked. “You’re touching her.”
“No, none of us can get it like this. I think you should go with her to the falls.”
“Why me?” Miriam asked.
“I just think you should.” Elaine replaced the cork on the rubbing alcohol bottle and dropped it into her bag.
“You think it’s because of me why she’s all rashed up, don’t you?”
Elaine placed the tissue that she had used on Kimberly’s skin under a stone with the blackberry-soaked tissue. She didn’t want tissue flying all over the place.
“No, you didn’t make her pluck poison ivy from the ground.”
“So why should I go?”
Kimberly walked over to where the broken mirror lay. She picked up a piece and slowly brought it up to her face. She flinched and jerked the mirror away from her face. “Bloody hell!” She threw the shard down.
“At last, she doesn’t like what she sees. Imagine that!” Miriam looked at Kimberly’s face. It wasn’t as bad as it could be, but nobody wanted to see rashes on her face, especially someone who loved to look at her face. “I’ve never seen her throw away a mirror before. Okay, I’ll go to the waterfall with her.”
“Good thing she threw the glass away then.” Elaine turned her attention to Susan. All the steam seemed to have gone out of her. Elaine wasn’t sure if this current state was better or worse than before. At least she wouldn’t have to chase her down.
On the way to the waterfall, Miriam and Kimberly watched out for bears. Elaine had told them to look out for tracks, fresh diggings and bear droppings. If they saw any sign of bears, it would be better to turn back and risk blisters than to have a confrontation.
When they got to the falls, they dropped their bags. Elaine had given them empty water bottles to fill.
“Now what?” Kimberly looked into the bottomless pool and thought it a good thing she couldn’t see her reflection.
“I fill these water bottles and you bathe.”
“How am I going to bathe without taking off my clothes? I don’t want to be naked out here!”
Miriam removed the cork from Elaine’s bottles and filled them. She put the corks back on the bottles and dropped them in her bag. She was going to do the same with the bottle they had taken from Susan’s bag.
“Nobody wants to be exposed, but we all are out here.”
Kimberly moved closer to the water. She had one of Elaine’s face rags. She had not shower
ed since the day before, and now she had this poisonous stuff on her body.
“What if I have to run from something or someone and I’m naked?”
“There’s nobody out here but us. And if you have to run from a bear naked, that’s what you’ll do, unless you’re going to ask it to pause and allow you to put your clothes back on before it runs you down. The sooner you wash off and stop asking me silly questions, the sooner we can go.”
Miriam had all the bottles filled, including her own. She would love for Kimberly to do what was necessary, but instead she was asking questions. She had thought Kimberly would be anxious to save her skin and would have started bathing the moment they reached the falls.
“Do you know if these rashes leave scars?”
“I don’t know, maybe not, Elaine said she had it, and I don’t see anything. Her skin looks good.”
“But Elaine’s black, maybe her skin heals better and show scars less. If I get scars, I’ll have nothing.”
The waterfall seemed more thunderous now. It was early afternoon and Miriam wondered if there was a particular time of day when the water came down faster or harder. It sounded like a thousand drums beating down.
“What do you mean, you’ll have nothing? You’re so dramatic.”
“You wouldn’t understand. My skin, my face, my beauty—that’s all I have.”
“Why wouldn’t I understand, because I don’t have beautiful skin and beauty?”
Kimberly removed her socks and boots and then her shirt and pants. She stood naked looking into the water. All she had on was her panties. “No, because you have more.”
Miriam moved away from Kimberly. Maybe the poison ivy had made her delirious. Maybe these woods would make them all delirious before long.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. You really should wash that stuff off your skin.”
“I’m talking about being more than looks, and you have that.”
“We all have this empty space, some dark space or whatever. We all have something we want more of or have some hole to fill. Or maybe we want to have less of something so we can be more of another thing. You like to see yourself, and I’m generally filled with anger. So what do we want more of?”
Kimberly stood there in her panties and considered the question. What did she want more of? She wasn’t sure. She knew she just wanted to be a little different. She wanted to be more concerned with things other than her beauty.
“Did you ever look?” she asked.
“For what?”
“More.”
“Are you going to bathe or talk all day?” Miriam walked to Kimberly and pushed her toward the water. Miriam’s hands and some of her clothes got wet in the process, but the sun would take care of that.
“You know that poem that Susan is always reciting?” Miriam asked.
Kimberly stood to the side of the waterfall, careful not to get too close to the misty pool, and let the water beat down on her. It was very cool, even though the sun was hot. It soothed her skin, and she couldn’t feel the itch anymore.
“What about it?” Kimberly responded over the water’s noise.
“It talks about looking at the water’s expanse to see if you can catch your offense and all that stuff. The thing about looking is, if you really do look, you’ll find something. And once you find something, things can’t stay the same; you’ll have to take action.”
Kimberly didn’t want to leave the water’s edge. She didn’t know if all the poison ivy was washed away, but she felt clean and her skin didn’t feel so bad. “I want to look and see.”
“Hurry up; we’ve been here a while and you still need to wash that blouse.”
“I have this one thing, and I wanted to protect it, but it makes me mean in the process.”
Miriam looked at the screen of water. It was all constant movement. “So you become ugly to stay pretty. Where have I seen that before?”
Kimberly stepped from the water. Her hair was pasted to her scalp and neck, and water ran off her body. She hoped all the poison Elaine talked about was washed away. She washed the blouse. She only had shampoo in her bag, and she didn’t want to use it for fear of attracting bears. When she was done, she put her shorts back on and hoped they weren’t contaminated. She didn’t remember her shorts coming into contact with the plants, but she wasn’t sure. In any case, she didn’t have another pair to put on.
“Here, put that on.” Miriam threw the grey and pink sweater that had been a bone of contention between Kimberly and Susan. “I don’t know why you even bothered to wash that blouse. You should just get rid of it.”
“I’m not leaving it here.” Kimberly put on her sweater. It wasn’t nearly as big as she thought it would be.
“Suit yourself, but wash your hands again and then pick it up and carry it on a stick. We’re not coming back up here because you use your blouse to poison yourself again, and don’t let it touch me.”
Kimberly felt the warmth of the sweater. The long sleeves and the material were trapping the heat from the sun.
“Try not to scratch your skin.”
“That’s easier said than done. It’s going to take every bit of willpower not to.”
“Whatever it takes.”
They started their walk back to the cave. The sun was high and their shadows were little dancing figures on the ground.
While the other two were gone, Elaine sat beside Susan. Susan was quiet and Elaine passed the time by holding a shard to the sun, signalling invisible rescuers.
“I’m tired.” Susan’s head lolled down to her chest. She looked drowsy.
“You should lie down then.” Elaine wondered about going into the cave in the middle of the day. She only wanted to go in there if she had to. Since there was nowhere for Susan to lie down comfortably outside, Elaine supposed the cave was a last resort.
“Let’s go into the cave.” Elaine searched for her lighter and found it. She spun the wheel but there was no flame. Crushed blackberries filled the space where the fire was supposed to come out.
“Here we go again, entering the cave,” Susan said.
Elaine wasn’t sure whether Susan was her old self again or if she was still out there. She searched for a small stick to use to dig out the unwanted berries from the lighter’s mouth. She was probably wasting fuel every time she spun the wheel and no flame came. She supposed it was her fault for storing blackberries in her bag, but she’d been thinking ahead. They would all be starving later this evening, and they wouldn’t be going back to scavenge for berries. She tried the lighter again; it didn’t work, even though she had taken out all the muck. She spun and spun until the flame suddenly shot up.
“Okay, we can go in now.” Elaine helped Susan to her feet.
Susan’s legs seemed a bit shaky. “I might collapse.”
“You can fall on the bed inside there.”
They entered the cave. Its half-open yawn seemed to beckon them to come in. It was day outside but nothing had changed inside. They were enveloped by the inky darkness that seemed to enter their insides and made them part of the surroundings.
“Elaine, do you know what omission and commission is?”
Elaine lay on the bed with Susan. She thought about how much more aware of herself she was in the dark; her breath; the sounds around her; what she felt.
“One is action and the other is a lack of action. Why?”
“I should strive for commission.”
Elaine opened her eyes. She could make out the edges of objects and had a better sense of the space that surrounded her. “Today you were all of that.”
Susan didn’t answer because she was asleep. Elaine could tell from her heavy breathing. Life was about options; that’s what Elaine’s mother always told her. For each option chosen there was an outcome. So whether t
here was an action or a lack of action, there would be a consequence. Maybe that’s what she should have told Susan.
“Is storing books an omission or commission?” Susan seemed to fall in and out of sleep.
“I don’t know. I’ve never thought of it that way.”
“Your omission isn’t taking them back on time.”
“I suppose so, but everyone tells me I’m a hoarder, so it’s really a deliberate act. Mrs. Hamilton, my mother and Miriam for that matter agree that I’m out here for being a hoarder; they call it greed.”
Elaine sat up. She struck the lighter and looked at her watch. It said two o’clock. This time yesterday they had been walking lost, unprepared and way in over their heads.
“Everyone tells us stuff, but at some point we have to know,” Susan said.
With that she fell asleep again, and because Elaine had nothing better to do, she nodded off herself. They woke to Miriam and Kimberly calling them out of the cave.
Carcass
Susan woke thirsty and hungry. It wasn’t so much that she wanted to eat or drink, but there was a gnawing emptiness within her. She felt as if she had lost everything, but that was expected, given everything that had happened.
“Is she herself now?” Kimberly asked Elaine.
“Everything she says makes sense. Whatever it was came and went quickly, and she slept, so that helped.”
Kimberly placed the blouse on a shrub, still holding the stick. Elaine had told her to wash the top, but now Kimberly wondered if it was pointless. Elaine had told her some kind of oil from the poison ivy might have gotten on it. Water couldn’t wash oil out of a piece of clothing.
“My stomach feels hollow,” Susan announced.
“That’s because there’s nothing in it. You need to drink something warm,” Elaine said.
“No Tim Hortons out here!” Miriam joked.
“We improvise.”
Susan felt empty to the point of weightlessness, and in her mind she found it amusing that she could be weightless. She imagined herself floating effortlessly through the air. She was sure something important had happened to her, but she wasn’t sure what. Maybe that’s what happened when you expelled everything from both ends. All she remembered was waking up in the cave, but she couldn’t recall anything between purging and the cave. It seemed that loss of sustenance had resulted in a loss of memory.
Lost at Running Brook Trail Page 12