by J. C. Phelps
Mr. Black had been following me around. I had secretly checked my GPS occasionally throughout the morning and his blip was never too far away. I never did see him or hear him though. I looked down at the wristband again to check his location and he was further away. It looked as if he wasn’t close enough to see me this time. Maybe he went to check his traps.
I had planned my day by the time I reached camp again. I was going to go fishing and while I waited for a bite, I would practice my spear throwing. I reached the creek and checked for Mr. Black but his blip still wasn’t in the immediate area. I strung out the plastic line and the hook was still tied to one end of it. I started lifting rocks around the waters edge and digging in with another rock to look for worms. I finally found one and put it on the hook. Then I gauged the depth of the water and tied a small twig to the line at the depth I wanted the worm. Finally I was able to throw the line in the water. It would have been easier to hand fish, but I didn’t want to take the chance of getting another snake. Besides that, I didn’t want to wash off the medicine I had applied earlier. I sat and watched for a bit but decided I better start on my practicing.
It was hard to throw with a sock on my hand, but I got used to it. Sporadically I checked the line and made sure my worm was still there. Then I would go back to my spear throwing routine. I had improved considerably before I went to check my line again. I was at least making it to the target. I didn’t always stick the knife into it though.
I had tied the line to a stump at the edge of the creek so I wouldn’t lose it if a fish did try to eat the worm. I went to check the status and the stick was gone. I pulled on the line excitedly. Maybe I had a fish. Sure enough, I had a fish on there. It yanked back on the string and hurt my hands. Now I understood why people used the reel with the fishing rod. If they got a big fish it wouldn’t cut their hands to reel him in. I pulled on the line some more and the fish pulled back on it. I struggled with him for a while getting a huge rush out of the ordeal. If I had known catching a fish was so exciting I would have taken it up years ago.
I pictured myself on a fishing show and the head fisherman guy was giving me instruction, “Tire him out. You don’t want the line to break,” my imaginary friend said. Finally, I got tired of listening to him and started pulling the fish in for real. When I got him to shore I jumped into the water to grab him up. I didn’t want the line to break now, mostly because this was my first fish, but also because I didn’t dare lose my fishing hook. It was the only one I had and it came in handy for other things.
I reached down and grabbed him by the openings in his gills. I knew some fish you picked up by their bottom lips but some of them had teeth and I didn’t know what kind this was. When I got it out of the water I guessed it must be a trout. I brought it up on the shore and retrieved my spear. I used the knife end to open the fish up and remove his insides. Then I trooped back to camp to eat my catch.
I got the fire going again and cooked the fish just like I had the snake. It took a little longer than the snake but then again it was much larger than the snake. My first fish was nice-sized. The size you would take a picture of if it were regular life.
While it cooked on the fire I continued to practice throwing. I didn’t think I would be good enough by dusk tonight, but I had to try. My plan was to go back to the meadow and wait for the deer to show. Then I would attack. I wanted to get down off this hill and back to the cabin. For some reason, I knew we wouldn’t go back until I bagged us enough meat to last a while.
I glanced at my wristband while retrieving my spear and noticed Mr. Black was close again. I considered going out to find him but I didn’t want to try to find him if I was empty-handed. I went back to the fish and turned it one more time. Then while it finished cooking I ground up some more of the plants to make more salve to put on my hand. It was feeling better since this morning but I was pretty sure going in the water after the fish had probably washed off most of the previous application. I wanted to put on a dry sock too. I got all that done and then pulled the fish off the coals and picked at the meat through the bones. I picked them clean and threw the remains in the fire. Then I went back to throwing my spear.
My arm started to feel tired after a while so I stopped and started reading the book Mr. Black had left for me. I learned a lot in the short break I took from my throwing practice. I got up off the ground, the fire had burned itself out and it was getting close to when I needed to get to the meadow. As I was walking away from camp I checked for Mr. Black and he was out there close by still.
I reached the meadow and the deer were already grazing. I didn’t want to spook them so I made sure I was downwind before I even reached them and then slowly crept up on them. I checked again and Mr. Black was some distance away now. He must not have followed me.
I circled around the deer quietly and slowly. I got as close as I could without scaring them off and threw my spear and missed. The deer scattered and I cussed. I went in search of my homemade spear to wait to see if they would come back before dark. I didn’t have long to wait, for dark, not the deer. They never did show back up. I was thinking of heading back to camp but thought I might try to track down Mr. Black instead.
I did some backtracking to get closer to his signal. It had strayed from its stationary position near my camp. I passed through my camp noticing that nothing had changed. The fire was dead and my belongings didn’t look to have been moved.
I got a bit closer to his signal but decided against going all the way to his camp this early in the evening because he might be paying attention to my signal on his wristband. I didn’t want to give myself away. I went back to my camp but didn’t light the fire. I checked periodically on Mr. Black’s signal and it stayed put. I sat for a good two hours before I couldn’t stand it anymore. The wait was driving me bonkers. I went to see if the buck had returned to the scene of the crime. It was completely dark with the moon behind clouds. I was able to remain quiet as long as I took my time. Normally it took me about fifteen minutes to get to the spot where I had placed my first trap, but I was going on about forty-five minutes. My eyes were adjusted to the light or lack of and I could see reasonably well. I was coming up on the spot where I had seen the large buck before. I stopped to check the wind and realized that I had better circle around to come upon the spot downwind.
I did just that and next thing I knew, I saw the monster right in front of me! He couldn’t have been more than seven or eight feet away. I immediately launched my spear and it hit its mark. Well, not quite. I had been aiming for the heart and I got the deer in the neck. It bounded off and I raced after him. Soon he was out of sight. Shit. I thought. Now if I didn’t find him, I lost my knife. I had to find him because I couldn’t be out here without that knife. I didn’t realize until it disappeared with the buck that I used the knife for so much.
I got to the spot where I had last seen the deer and searched around for clues. I was lucky and found some blood in the low light. Then I got a bit luckier as the night went on. It had been over an hour since I had stuck the buck and the moon finally started to shine. The clouds had blown away to hinder someone else, thank goodness. I was able to follow the blood trail much better with the moonlight. I made much better time but it had been so long that the deer could have made it to either coast by now. I still had hope though. I kept finding the blood trail so I continued to follow it. Soon I saw the buck lying on the ground breathing hard. He wasn’t all the way down yet. I walked around him and saw the spear had been broken off but the part with my shoelace and knife were still embedded in his neck. Man, I had gotten so lucky.
I tried to approach the deer and he tried to get up. I backed up because Mr. Black had told me they could kill a person if they kicked them in the right spot. I waited a bit longer and he finally put his head down. Poor thing, I thought. I killed Bambi’s dad. I felt a lump in my throat and had to remind myself I was still kind of hungry and I wanted to get back to the cabin. Besides I hadn’t even cried for the man I had kil
led! I will admit though, the deer hadn’t posed a threat to me and was much more attractive. Callous thoughts, but that’s what was bouncing around in my skull at the time.
The deer kept his head down at my second approach and when I got to him he was still breathing so I finished the job. There was no recovery for him even if I did want to change my mind. I had found out the hard way just how sharp my knife was and the repeated throwing it at trees and into the ground must not have dulled its edge at all. I proceeded to gut the deer. Man, it stunk! I stuck it out though. I gagged when I had to stick my hands inside and found the deer felt hot. It had never occurred to me I would experience all these different sensations while cleaning out my buck.
When I finished emptying the unnecessary parts out on the ground I tried to pick him up on my shoulders to haul him back to camp. I got him up there, but figured it would be easier to drag him. I made good time back to camp. When I got there I sat and rested for a while and admired my kill. I was proud, I wanted to show it off. I decided I would try to haul it into Mr. Black’s camp and surprise the hell out of him.
I started to drag the deer again, but soon I was too close to his signal. I didn’t want to alert him to my presence before I was on top of him. I let go of the buck’s antlers and closed in on Mr. Black’s signal in a circling motion. Finally, I saw the embers of a fire and a shape inside a bedroll. I carefully and quietly went back for my buck. This time I hoisted it on my shoulders and trudged as quietly as I could toward Mr. Black.
I walked right into his camp and he didn’t hear me. I got right next to him and his hand shot out of his bedroll and knocked me to my feet. The buck fell down on top of me and I was pinned.
“What the hell!” Mr. Black hollered in the moonlight. I don’t think he could see me under the buck.
I laughed and he said, “Shit. What the hell is this?” His voice had changed from surprised and pissed to disbelief and awe.
“This is my ticket back to the cabin,” I replied.
“Damn right,” he said. “I thought you were just hiking around. I had no idea you were going to try for a deer or I would have kept watching you tonight.”
“Sorry you missed it,” I said.
“Well, we might as well get started back down. It’ll be light in about an hour and a half anyway,” he said as he started to pack his stuff up. “You can leave him here and pack yourself up. I’ll meet you at your camp and then you will have to carry him back down to the cabin.”
I hurried back to my camp and packed up my stuff and was about to nod off when Mr. Black came toward me and dropped the buck at my side. I had the pack on and it was hard to get the deer up over it. Finally, Mr. Black lifted the deer onto my shoulders and we commenced the trek back down the hill. It took most of the rest of the day to get back to the cabin but we started early enough that we had enough light to butcher the deer outside before Mr. Black took it inside and down the trap door. Turns out there was a large room down there that held a little bit of everything, including, a walk-in freezer. It also turns out the freezer was fully stocked!
*****
Chapter Thirteen
That night Mr. Black cooked dinner for me. We had a roast we had cut from my deer. I thoroughly enjoyed it too. He even did the dishes while I showered. Even though I had missed the niceties of the hot shower and a bed with a mattress, I was glad Mr. Black had forced me to be on my own out there. I know I really wasn’t alone and I knew that then too, but I think if I had to be alone in a situation like that, I could do it now. It would still be daunting, but I could do it.
I had no trouble falling asleep that night. It could have had something to do with the fact I had a full stomach and hadn’t slept since yesterday, but I think it had more to do with the feeling of satisfaction I had.
Mr. Black let me sleep in the next morning. I didn’t sleep in too late though. I was still up not long after the sun was. The morning still had that new feeling to it. He was sitting at the table sipping a cup of hot coffee. Can you believe it, I hadn’t thought of coffee once while away. I poured myself a cup and said, “Why did you let me sleep so late?”
“You deserve it,” was his response.
I agreed with him but it wasn’t like him. I did say though, “I am pretty proud of that buck.”
“I think you got lucky, but you did carry it all the way back here without a complaint,” he said.
“Of course I didn’t complain. I didn’t even notice it was all that heavy until we started hauling it down to the freezer,” I said. “I understand I needed to learn what I did up there but it still is frustrating to know all this time there was meat in the freezer,” I said with a smile. If I had been told I probably wouldn’t have been as motivated to get meat of my own.
“Getting you back to show you the freezer was the highlight of my week,” he said, smiling that wonderful smile of his. There was something about this man I liked. I think it was his no-nonsense attitude and the surprise of getting a smile out of him. Just getting him to smile was an accomplishment in itself and I had accomplished that too, more than a dozen times now that we had been up here again.
“What are we going to do today?” I asked.
“I think we both deserve a jump today, if you’re up to it,” he said.
“I was hoping you’d suggest that,” I said. I sat for little bit longer and then started to get my chute ready. Mr. Black sat a while longer after I was ready, then we headed up to the cliff. We had brought our climbing gear too and climbed the cliff instead of hiking to the top. Our jump went great and we both were exhilarated when we reached the foot of the cliff. We went to the lake after that and practiced our hand-to-hand skills. I was quicker than he was, but I had always been quick. If he managed to get his hands on me though I was hurting before I could get away. He could still take me once in a while but I could take him now too and did more often. We spent the rest of the day beating on each other. That evening it had reverted back to me being the cook so I made fresh bread and we had roast sandwiches. It was a great change to have one more ingredient to cook with.
The next morning Mr. Black let me sleep in again. It was strange not having him in my face before the break of dawn. I walked out of my room to find him sitting at the table again with his morning coffee.
“Why did you let me sleep longer again?” I asked with a little apprehension.
“You get up early enough on your own. If I had any other new recruit up here, they wouldn’t get up until I yelled at them. You’re receiving the respect you’ve earned,” he said. “Just don’t take advantage of it or I’ll have to start working again,” he smiled at me.
I had seen him in this good mood before but never for more than half a day and now he’d been like this for two days straight. I wasn’t sure about this. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it, but it was different.
“What’s on the agenda for today then?” I asked.
“Now, we can have some fun. I figure if they want us back they can come get us. We’re on vacation now.” He put his hands behind his head and said, “I thought we might take in some scuba diving today. There’s this great place I want to show you.”
“Sounds good to me,” I said as I was pouring myself a cup of coffee. I cooked some powdered eggs for breakfast and made some toast to go with them. They still weren’t like fresh eggs, but if you ate them fast enough it was hard to tell the difference.
After we ate I cleaned up the plates and the rest of the kitchen. Mr. Black had retreated to the place under the trap door that he called the cellar. It was not quite what I would call a cellar though. I had never heard of a cellar containing climbing equipment, scuba gear or a walk in freezer.
He came back up with the diving equipment. I wondered about the air tanks. Had they been refilled since we used them last? I asked Mr. Black about this and he said as soon as we were told we were to come back up here, everything was replenished.
“We usually have someone come check things out at least once a month,” h
e explained. “This place doesn’t sit dormant long.”
We suited up before we went to the lake. Out of the blue during the small hike Mr. Black said, “Since we are on vacation now, you can call me Adam if I can call you Alex or Lexi.” He raised his eyebrows into a question.
“Sure,” I said. “This is going to take some getting used to. Adam Quinn,” I tested it out. Not bad but he was still Mr. Black to me.
When we reached the lake Mr. Black asked me if I was claustrophobic. I said, “No.”
He replied, “Good. We’re going cave diving.”
Whoa, this guy did it all. What a life I was leading and I think I was getting paid for this too.
I followed him to the bottom of the lake and he led me straight to the opening of a cave. The current was strong and the water temperature coming from the cave was ice cold. I assumed this was a huge natural spring of some kind. We swam inside and it was amazing. I had done a little research on caves and had been spelunking, or cave crawling, twice. It had been hard work but the rewards were spectacular views and formations.
This cave was different than the other cave I had been in. It was larger for one thing. There were tight spots we had to navigate through but they were large enough that we could pull ourselves along and not touch the ceiling with our backs. Some of the spots had been small enough that we had to take off our tanks and pass them ahead of us, but none of them required us squishing ourselves flat to get through.
We swam along and Mr. Black pointed things out to me with his light here and there. It seemed to go on forever. We stayed close to the ceiling of the cave because there was a rope to follow. Every once in a while we would come to a split in the rope with one leading into the darkness ahead, still strung out on the ceiling, but there would be another rope snaking off a different direction or down to the darkness below. At one of these spots I shined my light down the rope and the light ran out before the rope did. I wondered what was down there.