Laughing Fate

by Roxy Emilia Means

  Puck grinned as she yelled at Perri that she’d be paying some bills and that she would see her at Potter’s at 6 pm. She then ran out the door and made her getaway. She noticed a slight ‘Ker-plunking’ coming from underneath her Jeep’s hood, but ignored it blithely. Today was going to be fabulous, she would not let car problems mess with it!

  The drive to Kneeland was full of breath taking scenery. The trees grew in wild abandon, untouched by the logging companies. To the right side of the road was a steep drop off that met the river down below. The road started out paved but quickly turned into an old dirt road with bumps and sharp turns. It was just challenging enough to send a thrill through Puck as she made the turns a tad too fast, bringing back memories of past trips up here.

  One time she had been driving an elderly lady up here to the small airport at the top of the mountain. It was a rarely used airport sitting on a grassy hill that rose above the forest. The whole drive up here the old bat had been saying, “Please slow down, please slow down.” Puck had put up with the lady as a favor to her mom and had even slowed down to 30 mph, which was much slower than she usually went up this road. She knew every twist and turn like the back of her hand. This had been a favorite spot of Drea’s and Kyle’s.

  She pushed that last thought away. As it was getting closer to December, she found her thoughts being drawn to those two more and more. At such times she truly thought she hated herself and found herself not caring much what happened to her. But she was an expert at burying those feelings so she just did what she always did: she concentrated on the adventure at hand. There were so many people in the world that had gone through worse stuff than she had, so who was she to be in the depths of despair? She should be grateful to be alive and have the freedom of going on this adventure.

  Puck turned the volume up on her stereo to drown out her thoughts. This was a fun day darn it! She had been driving on auto pilot the last couple of miles, her foot steadily pressing on the gas, and had failed to notice the rather nasty turn ahead of her. She quickly slammed on her breaks and watched as her car skidded sideways towards the edge.

  Time seemed to slow down as Puck stared out the windshield. She was no longer in control of her jeep, just a mere spectator in life. Her hands gripped the wheel strongly, turning it sharply to counteract the skid. She felt her heart racing, fear and excitement racing through her body. The edge was getting entirely too close. With a kick, time sped back up, her jeep still sliding along the road.

  When her jeep had come to a stop just a foot away from the edge, Puck let out a little laugh. She felt adrenaline rushing through her veins and let out another laugh. She started her car and resumed her drive up the road. She would not be telling that little story to Potter or Perri. She cocked her head to the side and decided to tell Sandy though. Sandy was familiar with all of her near death experiences- had actually been a participant for some of them- and wouldn’t yell too loud at Puck.

  Puck made it the rest of the way with out incident and soon found herself lost in a little secluded world where one could easily imagine they were an intrepid adventurer exploring a new land. She hadn’t passed a single car on the way and would probably not run into a single soul either.

  She parked her car on a little trucking road that ran further up the mountain and got out to hike to the river. There wasn’t exactly a trail and Puck didn’t know exactly where she was going, but she had always been good at fumbling around lost until she found what she wanted. With a huge grin on her face, Puck marched into the woods with her handy dandy backpack full of all the essentials.

  She finally found the river about half an hour later and sat on a log that lay across it, forming a bridge about four feet above the raging waters. She lay back against the wood, staring up at the sky. There were clouds softly moving along with the wind, a peaceful sight that mesmerized Puck for several minutes. The chirping of birds and the raging waters soothed Puck and helped the stress just float away as if carried away by the water.

  She sat up and rummaged through her backpack until she found her romance novel and laid back down ready to be immersed in the world where werewolves existed and women kicked butt. She was so engrossed in her book that it took her a while to notice her cell phone going off. It was a jaunty tune by Flogging Molly about drinking and fighting and whoring. Ah, a great song indeed! She carefully set the book on the log so it wouldn’t fall off and grabbed her phone.

  She had a text message from Potter that said: “Hi, whatchya doin? U still coming at 6?”

  Puck glanced at the digital clock on her phone and winced. It was already 4 pm. She’d have to hurry up and hike back to her car to make it home in time. Dang it! Her novel had just gotten to the interesting part! She sat up and swung her legs around so she wasn’t straddling the log and quickly texted a reply.

  “Sure will! Just doing some errands real quick. Miss u!J”

  “Miss u 2! I’m surprised yur not out on an adventure, isn’t this yur day off?”

  “Ya well gots to be a mature adult sometimes…”

  “KK, see ya at 6. O bring your bikini- we can sneak out for a quick surf session after the movieJ”

  “Yeah right. In your dreams. Gots to go, l8r!”

  Puck smiled at her phone, rubbing the screen with her thumb. She slid her phone open again and on impulse texted: “loves ya”.

  She waited with bated breath for Potter’s reply. She had only said she loved him once and that had been on accident. There was a long pause and then the opening chorus to her ring tone sang out. She quickly opened the message, nervous as to what Potter would say.

  “I know u do lol”

  Puck stared at the screen with her mouth open. How dare he? She wasn’t truly angry, actually she was quite amused. However, she could hear the battle call sounding off in her brain, so she quickly texted back:

  “Uh! U do realize that now u will never see me in a bikini????”

  “Baby I’m sorry! Loves ya too!J”

  “Don’t call me baby!”

  “Will do. Don’t forget yur bikini”

  Puck smiled at her phone and sat it carefully on the log. She then grabbed her book and stuffed it in her backpack. She carefully stood up on the log and bent down to pick up her pack and cell phone. She watched in horror as her phone slowly slid off the log and into the raging waters below. Holy Crap! Puck stared after the little white shape floating merrily away, two hundred dollars just slipping away. Crap!

  Puck was still cursing and mumbling under her breath when she reached her car. She threw her backpack in the back seat and sped down the mountain. She still couldn’t believe that she’d lost her cell phone! She heard the odd klunking noise again from her jeep and began cursing that too. Couldn’t anything go right?

  At that moment her jeep began giving off a high pitched whine and smoke started billowing out of the hood. She let it drift on to the side of the dirt road and told herself not to worry. Maybe it was just over heated? As long as it was a radiator problem then she could fix it. Her very first car had had a busted radiator, an oil leak, as well as a fan that wouldn’t turn off- so she’d had to fill it with water, oil and plug and unplug the fan manually every time she drove it. Come to think of it, she could also handle a battery problem…as long another car was here to jump it.

  Puck glanced to her right and left and sighed. Who was she kidding? She was all alone on this one. She checked the radiator which seemed ok and the oil which was also fine. She had no idea why it was smoking, her small reservoir of knowledge having been spent. She shut the hood in disgust and got back inside her jeep. She’d wait another couple minutes and then she’d try to start it again.

  She told herself that no matter what happened she’d be ok, that this would be one heck of a story to tell her friends about. After a half an hour she tried her car again, but it was well and truly dead. She glanced at the clock in her jeep and felt frustration wash over her. She was going to be late. She hated being late.

  “Time of
death 5 pm,” she solemnly said to no one in particular. She had always wanted to be a doctor. If she’d been rich and had actually gone to college she would have become one and then she’d randomly pop into rooms and declare, “Time of death…” just to freak out patients and family members. Maybe it was a good thing she wasn’t a doctor…

  Puck took a deep breath and told herself to stop distracting herself from the situation at hand. Today was not going well. Puck forced herself to take several more deep breaths and think rationally. It would be so easy to freak out and start making rash decisions.

  She was still about 30 miles from Trinidad. The dirt road would continue to wind down the mountain for another 15 miles and then would turn into a paved road that would lead her into the small surfing town of Trinidad. Until she hit the paved road there was practically no chance of running into anyone else. Once the road became paved, however there was more traffic along the road.

  She was all alone and no one knew about her impromptu road trip. Why hadn’t she told Potter the truth when she’d been texting him? She couldn’t call for help because her phone was having its own adventure in the river. Puck cursed again underneath her breath and berated herself for being stupid. This whole disaster was one of her own making.

  However, if she just looked at this all as an adventure, then it wouldn’t have to ruin her whole day! She mentally calculated how long it would take to hike 30 miles. It would take a whole heck of a lot of time. But in only 15 miles, down hill, she’d run into the paved road and would probably run into another car.

  The last time she walked 15 miles it had been raining, it had also been about 30 degrees outside, and it had taken her about five hours. At the end she’d had the beginnings of hypothermia and had resembled a soaked rat. She’d enjoyed the whole experience however, because it had been a grand adventure.

  Five hours from now it would be 10 pm. So she could either walk it now and hope for the best…or she could sit in her car and wait until morning. Puck sat a second and tried to use her slumbering sense of danger. It wasn’t something she put to use very often so it was very rusty and probably not entirely trustworthy. She liked to push those kind of feelings back and had found that it went away if you just ignored it. Tonight, it would be wise to use it however…

  How safe was it to start the hike tonight? She wouldn’t get lost; there was only one main road. There were wild animals to worry about, but what were the chances of running into a bear? Or cougar? Plus, if she started walking now there was the strong chance of running into someone farther down the road. Also, she would be actively doing something to fix her situation, which sure beat sitting and doing nothing.

  How safe was it to stay in her car? Pretty safe, but the whole time she was sitting here bored out of her mind Perri and Potter would be worried sick about her. That settled it. She had to make it back before too much time went by. Perri had enough stress in her young life; she didn’t need worry about her stupid sister added to it like a rotten cherry on top.

  Puck resolutely ignored the very quiet and very insistent voice that kept repeating, “This isn’t a good idea. This isn’t a good idea.” She had carefully weighed the pros and cons of when to start her hike. She just wasn’t the sort of girl to sit around and wait to be rescued.

  Puck grabbed her backpack. In it she still had a bottle of water that was half full, a peach, her romance novel (which she took out and set it on the seat), a pocket knife, a Hurley sweater, and a lighter. She slipped her debit card in it and then got out of her jeep. She shoved her purse out of sight and locked the doors.

  Puck took a deep breath and said, “I’m going to do this. It will be a grand adventure. Don’t think just do.” Puck forced herself to smile at her words. She could do this. She gave her jeep one last kick before heading out on her long hike back to civilization.

  “This really isn’t so bad,” Puck told a tree as she passed. “I love long hikes. I’m going to enjoy this very much, and look the sun is still shining through the trees.”

  The first hour went by fast. It was now 6:00 pm and she was officially late. As she predicted, she was the lone person on this deserted mountain. She sang songs, found walking sticks (she’d replace each walking stick as she found a better one), and kept up a good pace as she made her way down the dirt road. She was careful to notice the width of the road and how close the edge was to the end of the gravel, once it got dark she didn’t want to chance falling off the side.

  After what seemed like several hours later, she was still marching jauntily, if just a little slower. It was now completely dark except for the light from the shining moon. But by keeping close to the bushes on the side of the road farthest from the edge, she found that she was able to make her way pretty safely. Still, several times she had to correct her direction when she’d find herself accidently walking into the bushes.

  She paused to grab her sweater out of the pack and pulled it on. Everyone would be so worried about her. They would have no clue where she was, just that something must have gone wrong. And because she had given them so many reasons to think up worse case scenarios, before too long they would be frantic with worry. She sure did get into some stupid scrapes.

  Her walk had started out almost enjoyable, but now as the cold and dark drained her, she began to notice the sounds of nature. Puck felt cold tendrils of fear grip her soul at the sound of a bush shaking. What if she did get lost? What if this wasn’t the dirt road anymore? She could have stumbled onto a game trail and been traveling along that in the dark! What if a bear came along and gobbled her up? Had she made the wrong decision? Puck wrapped her arms around herself and continued walking.

  She was letting her imagination go wild, which was only freaking her out. She’d get through this and laugh about it later. Of course Potter and Perri probably wouldn’t laugh with her. They would be so mad when they found out she had decided to walk through the night to Trinidad. They wouldn’t understand that she was doing this for them.

  Puck heard the snap of a twig behind her and off to the right in the bushes. She held her breath as she kept walking, it was probably just a woodland creature. A little fuzzy bunny rabbit or a cute little field mouse. She strained her ears trying to hear what was going on in her surroundings. She let her hands slowly fall to her sides as she quickened her pace. She tried to make her walk seem determined and powerful, not afraid and weak. If there was a predator out there, which she really did doubt, she wanted it to know that she was one too.

  Now was probably not a good time to remember all the bigfoot stories her dad had told her while growing up. There was one tale from when he was just a kid, hiking in the woods with his brothers. His dad had been a monster and had decided that his boys needed to man up and stop being afraid of the dark. So good old gramps had sent his sons walking in the woods in the middle of the night. He had spaced them out so that each brother could barely see one another. Then the old man had driven back home to wait for his children.

  Now his sons were so afraid of him that they kept the spacing far apart just incase he was watching. While they hiked back to their house her dad had started hearing something in the bushes. Just a light foot step, but it would stop when he stopped and start when he started. At that point the boys had been so freaked out that they started walking closer together. Nothing happened except for the quiet stalking and once the boys had reached the edge of the forest they had ran home. Her dad believes that that had been bigfoot. What ever the heck that thing had been, it was stalking them and it wasn’t dear old gramps because he had been sitting in his chair watching TV when they came running indoors.

  It probably was not a good story to remember right now. What if something was stalking her right now? She slowly turned her head and tried to make out any shapes in the dark. She could kind of make out the bushes right by her, but there just wasn’t enough light to tell if something was following her or not. Puck resumed her forceful walk and told herself not to worry. She kept her senses on full alert and
hoped that she had not made another stupid decision…

  ****

  Perri knocked on the door, well aware that she was late. It was now 9:00 pm and Puck was probably already organizing a search party for her. Puck worried about her too much, especially since finding out about her pregnancy.

  She’d been shopping with Baby for maternity clothes and had lost track of time. In her defense though, she’d called Puck’s cell phone and left a message explaining why she was late, so Puck couldn’t be too mad. Puck was such a bad cell phone person though that she never kept it on her.

  The door opened suddenly and there was Potter looking relieved. So they had worried about her. Potter had been acting protective of her, just like an older brother. Perri smiled at him but was a little puzzled when he craned his neck to look past her. Perri raised her eyebrows at him and looked behind her. What was he looking at?

  “Bout time you guys got here! What took so long? And why didn’t you call? Dinner’s way over, but the guys are still here.”

  “Guys? What do you mean? I came by myself. Was Puck worried about me? I didn’t mean to be so late, I just lost track of time while shopping. Baby gap was having a 40% off sell! I bought an awesome little-

  “Puck’s not with you?” Potter interrupted impatiently.

  “No, isn’t she here with you?”

  Potter abruptly turned around and grabbed his cell phone. He was grumbling under his breath about a certain irresponsible little brat that had the tendency to fall head first into mischief. Perri guessed that he was talking about Puck. She frowned as she followed Potter into the house, a strange feeling in her gut. Puck wasn’t here yet?

  “Hi this is Puck’s phone and I’m off on a high sea adventure, fighting pirates and plundering cities so leave a message and I’ll call you back! ARRR, Matey!” Puck voice came across on the speaker phone of Potter’s cell. Her phone must be turned off, because it didn’t ring before switching to her voicemail. Potter growled into the phone that she better be safe at home and then flung his cell phone on the couch.