Hidden In The Woods

by Rachel Burns

  “Hi. You’re awake.” Daddy picked up my towel and opened it.

  I was looking at myself in the mirror. I had a few bruises from the turkeys. “Why did they attack me, Daddy? I didn’t do anything to them.”

  “With turkeys, it’s all about pecking order. They got it in their tiny brains that you were at the bottom of their pecking order. I set them straight. I’ve got one in the oven right now.”

  “I don’t understand the animal world. The only animals I know are dogs, cats and fish. And hamsters,” I added.

  He gave me a huge smile. Daddy thought that I was adorable. “That isn’t much, but Daddy is here to teach you.” He dried me off gently.

  I was still feeling very tired. I figured that I had slept too long. Now I was feeling a little weak. “Can I help you with the cooking and baking today?”

  “I’d like that.” His face said he would be delighted to teach me this and that in the kitchen. Daddy was a natural born teacher.

  “You can show me which wine is good for cooking and which ones are for drinking.”

  “I wasn’t planning on using any wine today.”

  “Okay.” I had liked the wine. It had helped wash down the unusual taste of the deer meat. Daddy probably didn’t want me to have any because it was so expensive.

  I helped Daddy cook, and we spent the day stuffing ourselves. We played board and card games.

  Around two in the afternoon, it started to snow.

  I asked Daddy about Christmas decorations. He told me that he didn’t believe in blinking lights. He preferred candles and old ornaments.

  Daddy told me that the tree wouldn’t go up tomorrow. Instead, it would go up shortly before Christmas. He got some paper and set me to work making decorations for the windows while he prepared caramel rolls for a snack.

  While I worked, I peeked at him several times. Daddy made everything from scratch. He sprinkled chopped up walnuts over the rolls, but he didn’t get them out of a package. Instead, he cracked real nuts and chopped then into pieces with a very professional kitchen knife.

  My parents didn’t have things like that because we used packaged food for everything.

  My eyes grew when Daddy set the roll down in front of me. I also got a big cup of hot chocolate to wash it down.

  Daddy sat down beside me and told me more about how he wanted to celebrate Christmas. A few days before Christmas, we’d go out and pick out a tree together. He’d chop it down and bring it home.

  His parents and brother were going to come here to visit, and they’d probably stay for a long time, at least a month. We’d perform the handfasting ceremony when our guests were here. His Ma, as he called her, would tie our hands together, and we’d be man and wife.

  That night we carefully made love in his bed. He took me slowly, but he thrust hard. I was perfectly happy with this life.

  I wished that I could stay with him here forever.

  Chapter 11

  Britney

  It was a week before Christmas when Daddy told me that it was time to get a tree. He had delivered the last of his dollhouses to the post office yesterday. He told me that he now had Christmas vacation, and that it would last for at least a couple of weeks.

  We had mixed a batch of cookies together this morning. The dough needed to chill in the refrigerator for a few hours so now was the perfect time to go tree hunting.

  Daddy and I looked for over an hour until we found the right one.

  Daddy told me to back away because he didn’t want anything to happen to me when the wood chunks went flying. But he warned me to stay nearby.

  I promised that I would and said that I was still afraid of turkeys.

  I took off to play while Daddy chopped down the tree.

  Daddy’s cell rang. It was one of his customers. He wanted to know when the dollhouses would arrive. I moved off to give them more privacy to talk. The man wanted Daddy to make many more dollhouses for him. They were selling well.

  Because I was a little mad that Daddy would stop his vacation to make more dollhouses, I moved away further than I should have. I heard something in the bushes and I wanted to see what it was. I figured it was a hedgehog.

  When I finished playing, I looked for Daddy in the woods behind me, but Daddy wasn’t there. There was a river there. I found a couple of rocks in the middle so I could cross it. It actually felt pretty good to be out moving around. My muscles were sore from so much lying round in bed and sitting at school and sitting for my homework.

  There wasn’t a path so I tried not to go too far from where I had left Daddy. I just wanted to go a little further, but then when I turned around, I wasn’t sure which way I had come.

  Classic, ten to one Daddy would find me lost in the woods right behind our house and accuse me of trying to run away.

  I used the heel of my old-fashioned boot to make a marking on the ground. I stepped three big steps in the direction I thought would be right.

  It wasn’t.

  I went back to my marking. This could take awhile, and it was starting to get cold. There was a dryness in the air that made me think that it was about to start snowing.

  Why couldn’t I hear the noise from Daddy chopping trees?

  I went through my options I could call for help and take the spanking Daddy would dish out because I hadn’t listened to him, or I could try on good luck to find my way back. That solution could be divided up into two categories. Number one: get lucky find Daddy, or number two, which was more likely, I’d get hopelessly lost, scaring myself and Daddy to pieces. He’d have to search for me. He probably was already looking for me.

  Daddy wouldn’t believe me about wandering off and getting lost if I didn’t call for help, and then I would feel really bad about disappointing him.

  Okay, I’d call for help. Did one actually yell, Help, I wondered. I heard something behind me.

  “Hello?“ My voice didn’t sound any louder than usual. I received no answer. I wondered what kind of animals lived in the woods.

  “Help, I’m lost.” The noise behind me got louder. It was coming closer.

  “You’re scaring me.”

  The noise stopped.

  I waited a minute. “Who’s there?”

  It was afternoon now. It must be lunchtime. I had been gone about an hour.

  The noise started again. It was behind me coming closer. It stepped closer to me. I could see it now. It was a wolf. He wasn’t growling or doing anything scary. Instead, he laid down a few steps away from me. I took a step towards him and held out my hand. Like you do with a dog, so they can sniff it. He let me scratch his ears. He moved in closer and lay down at my feet.

  The wolf was light gray-colored and huge. He looked very healthy despite the speckles of white fur mixed in with his gray. He was an older wolf and probably tamer because of his age.

  “I’m lost.” I told the wolf. “You don’t happen to know where I live, do you? It must be really nearby.”

  To answer my question the wolf lay down and rested his head on his paws.

  I spun in a circle, trying to spot our cottage and maybe see smoke coming out of the chimney.

  I didn’t see anything that could help me find my way home. I was cold, so very cold. I wasn’t used to winter. I needed to walk to keep warm.

  After a moment, the wolf got up and started walking away. He looked back at me and made a motion with his head that I should follow him.

  “I’ll be damned.” I followed him surprised. I was positive that he was trying to help me. He brought me to the river.

  “You understand me, don’t you?” I asked him, certain that he did. Perhaps, I had a way with animals. I felt like Snow White, when she sat in the woods, and the forest animals all came out to listen to her sing.

  The wolf stayed by me, even crossing the river with me.

  I thought the water would scare him, but it didn’t. He jumped from rock to rock like I had.

  On the other side, I was positive that I needed to turn to the r
ight to find my way back to Daddy. If I hurried, he might not know that I was gone. It would be better for me if Daddy didn’t know that I had taken off.

  “Thank you.” I said to the wolf. I bend down to look in his eyes. “You saved me a lot of trouble.” Carefully, I reached out and touched the top of his head. His eyes closed. He liked that I was petting him.

  I scratched his ears for a moment, and then I got up and started to walk back to Daddy, thinking that had been a magical moment.

  I looked back at the wolf and waved goodbye to him.

  He yelped out and turned in a circle. He motioned with his head that I should follow him again.

  Great, I’d almost gotten lost again.

  I trusted the wolf, so I followed him again. He obviously knew better than I did where things were in the woods.

  We walked longer than what it would have taken me to return to Daddy. The wolf wasn’t taking me home. Perhaps he was taking me to his home. He wanted to keep me.

  The wolf ran to a strange-looking tree. The trunk was huge and twisted. It looked like three trees had joined together to make one enormous tree. The tree in the middle was the largest, and the two trees on either side of it appeared to be clinging to the mother tree like small child clung to their mothers.

  The branches were bare and low. I had to duck under them to get to my wolf. “Where is my house? I’m cold. I have to go to my warm house.”

  The wolf started to dig.

  I figured that he was about to show me his bone collection made up of rabbit and squirrel bones or anything that wasn’t as fast as he was.

  I didn’t want to see that so I looked away. Then I heard water. It made a loud bubbling sound.

  I looked between my wolf’s paws and saw that he wasn’t digging. He was moving rocks away. He drank from the spring that must come from some underground source, probably from the river.

  In spite of the fact that the water of coming up between the dirt and the roots of the tree, it was clear.

  When the wolf finished drinking, I couldn’t help myself. I had to try some too. We’d been walking for over an hour now, and chances were that Daddy would spank the daylights out of me and then put me straight to bed. This would be my last chance to quench my thirst.

  I cupped my hands to capture the bubbling water.

  My wolf watched me without blinking. I assumed that he was fascinated by how versatile my hands were. I lifted my hands to my lips and drank. The water tasted good. It was better than any imported melted glacial water from the French Alps or from floating icebergs.

  I cupped my hands several more times and drank the water until I felt refreshed.

  “Thank you. But I have to go back now. I’m already in more trouble than I can imagine.” I rose to my feet. “And I can imagine a lot of trouble,” I added.

  My wolf pushed the rocks back over the spring. I bend back down and helped him. “This is a special secret, right?”

  The wolf actually nodded at me.

  “I’ll have to explain to my Daddy where I was, and I can’t lie to him. I’ll have to tell him, and if he demands to see the spring, I’ll have to show him. You understand that I can’t keep secrets from him.”

  The wolf nodded again, but he had a sad look in his eyes.

  I smiled at him. “Thank you for being so kind to me, but I have to go back.”

  The task was completed so I stood again. “We came this way, right?”

  He shook his head. He trotted off, and I followed him.

  I saw a rock that I had seen before. That had to mean that he was taking me back to the river. From there, I should be able to find my daddy.

  Suddenly, I was on a road.

  “I have a feeling that you’re taking me on a walk,” I accused my wolf with my eyebrow lifted up.

  He trotted on, wanting me to follow him.

  “Daddy!” I called out loudly. “I’m lost,” I practically screamed.

  My wolf gave me a disappointed look.

  “I’m trying to protect my backside,” I told him, honestly. I was getting so cold that a spanking sounded like a nice way of warming up, especially if it were followed by a cup of hot chocolate.

  The wolf perked his ears and ran off, too fast for me to follow him.

  I called out for Daddy several more times, thinking that he must be near because my wolf had taken off.

  But Daddy didn’t appear. The only thing that happened was that it started to snow. Soft fluffy flakes floated like cotton to the ground. When I stepped on them, they melted.

  The snow made me feel colder. I started to cry, and my nose started to run. “Daddy, where are you?” I called out.

  I turned around and walked back the way I had come from, hoping it would lead me to Daddy’s cottage. I longed to hold my hands out to the warm fireplace.

  At the moment, they were hidden under my arms to keep them warm.

  I saw a truck on the road. It was driving towards me.

  A man and a woman were sitting in the front of the truck. I wiped away my tears. I hoped they wouldn’t stop, and if they did, I hoped they wouldn’t ask me for directions. I had no clue where I was.

  I moved to the side of the road so they could pass me.

  The car stopped and both the man and the woman got out.

  “Are you all right, child?” the woman asked me.

  I shook my head. “I got lost. I found this road, and I hope it will take me home.” I told them, trying very hard not to sniffle and sob.

  “I don’t know if I’m going the right way,” I confessed.

  “Where do you live?” the man asked.

  “In a cottage. It’s somewhere around here.”

  “Do you live there alone, child?”

  I shook my head, not wanting to tell complete strangers too much.

  “Is your name, Britney?” the woman asked me, kindly.

  I nodded at her. “How did you know that?” After the day I had, I’d believe that she was a fortuneteller.

  “Who else could you be?” she asked me with an enormous smile on her face. She reached into her pocket and got out a handkerchief and handed it to me.

  “Thank you.” I wiped my eyes and patted my nose dry. I was beginning to settle down, but I still feared that another wave of tears would hit me.

  “Tell me what happened.” She was shorter than I was, but she laid her arm around my shoulders.

  “We went out to chop down a Christmas tree and to get some firework. Daddy told me not to wander off, but I heard something behind me. I was a little bored so I went to see what it was. It was an old gray wolf. He wanted to play. Before I knew it, I couldn’t find my way back to my Daddy. The more I looked the more lost I got. He is going to be so mad at me.”

  “You’ll have to take one hell of a spanking for not listening, Britney,” the man told me. “But you’ll survive it and learn it. Mark my words.”

  My cheeks flushed with warm blood. How did he know that Daddy spanked me?

  “Elias, can’t let you get away with something like that,” the woman explained. “But I know that he loves you very much. He’ll be mad at himself too. He should have watched you better than he did.” The woman had a strange accent. I couldn’t place it. It sounded like she was from Boston and the south all in one.

  Being from Florida, I was good at accents. We got so many tourists, and I got a lot of practice.

  “Elias is our boy. That’s your daddy’s name,” she clarified.

  “So you know where he lives?” I asked her, hopefully.

  “Yes. Hop in the back. We’ll take you home, and you can get your spanking out of the way before the baking starts.”

  “What baking?” I asked her.

  “Christmas baking, of course. We’ll be baking all week to get ready. I’ll be making everyone’s favorites. What are your favorites?” she asked me.

  “Me?” I pointed to myself.

  “Yes, you. You’re family now. Elias will redden your backside to prove it. He’d never tou
ch you like that otherwise.” She had a smile on her face. The spanking thing seemed to be something she held in great affection. The last thing I would feel for Daddy would be affection in that moment.

  I lifted up my huge red skirts and climbed into the back of the pickup truck. I was proud that I had gotten up without any help.

  I was sitting between approximately twenty wrapped up boxes; a few had my name on them. These people weren’t strangers then. At least, I wouldn’t get in trouble for that.

  The truck peacefully moved along the dirt road. I could hear Daddy’s parents talking about me in the cab. The man said that I was foolish. The woman told him that I was young yet.

  The way she said young made me think that she missed her own youth and thought that it was a long time ago. She didn’t look that old. I would guess that she was under forty.

  This woman wasn’t like my mom. My mother looked older, but she talked as if she were younger. She never spoke of caring for others. That wasn’t her thing. She was more outgoing than I was.

  The truck wasn’t the fast kind, or the man wasn’t the fast kind. Either way it took quite a while for the truck to find and park in front of the cottage.

  Daddy was standing next to our cottage. He shook his head when he saw me. “What were you thinking?” Daddy asked me as he laid down his rifle and lifted me out of the back of the trunk.

  “I didn’t mean to take off, Daddy. I turned around, and I couldn’t find you anymore. I called for help.”

  “I heard you calling and spent the afternoon looking for you. You had me worried sick. I found your tracks as well as wolf tracks. Then I saw that you were on the road again. I came back here to get the horse and track you down.” He pulled me to his chest and hugged me tightly. “I should spank the tarnation out of you for scaring me like that.”

  “I don’t even know where my tarnation is. I probably wouldn’t miss it,” I told him. That made him smile. His parents chuckled a little too as they unloaded their things and the presents they had brought along for us.

  He hugged me again. “How did you fend off the wolf?”