Nykara

by Katie Holland

  Ben: I’ll drive. I’ll check on my end and you ask your parents if it’s ok with them.

  Alix found her mom in the living room.

  “Hey mom, Ben and I are still working on the project for English and I was wondering if it would be okay if we went to Yellowstone tomorrow to do some research?”

  “What is the project?” her mom asked.

  “We were asked to research some currents events. Ben and I got the missing hikers in Yellowstone. We’re kind of at a dead end and thought going there might help.”

  “How are you getting there?”

  “Ben is going to drive us.”

  Her mom was quiet for a minute. “Are you comfortable going all that way with him?”

  “Yes. He’s been nothing but nice since we met.”

  “Alright then, it’s okay with me. I was going to tell you this tomorrow but since you’ll need to be home on time I’d better let you know now. Your dad and I have invited Natalie and Rick, and Ben of course, over for dinner tomorrow night. You’ll need to be home by five.”

  “Um … okay.” Alix didn’t really know what to say. “Why?”

  “Just thought we need to get to know them better since it seems as if they are staying.”

  “Yeah, sure, alright. I’d better let Ben know that tomorrow is a go.” Alix went back to her room to text Ben.

  Alix: Did u know u are coming here for dinner tomorrow???

  Ben: Just found out. I think it’s cool though. Is Yellowstone ok?

  Alix: Yep, mom said it was fine, but I have to be home by 5.

  Ben: That should be fine. It’s about a two-hour drive, there right?

  Alix: Depends. The closest disappearance site from here is Old Faithful. Should take us less than two hours to get there.

  Ben: Ok. Sounds good. Leave at 8am?

  Alix: That would give us 5 hours. How about we leave at 7 instead?

  Ben: Ok, I’ll bring lunch. See you in the morning.

  It had been a while since Alix had been hiking so she had to search for her boots and backpack. She knew that she didn’t want to get up in the morning any earlier than she had to, so she decided to get everything ready before dinner. She grabbed a couple bottles of water, some granola bars, her camera, notebook, pens and a couple of extra plastic bags. She put everything by the front door and did some reading until her dad got home with dinner.

  “Pizza’s here,” she heard her dad say a little while later.

  “Coming,” Alix yelled from the living room and ran for the kitchen. “Smells heavenly. What kinds did you get?”

  “Pepperoni mushroom and spicy chicken,” her dad answered.

  “Why don’t we eat in the living room,” her mom said.

  They all got some pizza and sat down to watch the news. She didn’t pay much attention to what the announcer was saying until he brought up the missing hikers. There was still no progress in finding them she heard him say. The entire area had been searched and was now back open to the public. Well at least she and Ben would be able to go and investigate since it was back to being open, she hadn’t even thought of the area being blocked off.

  After hearing the news her mom turned to her and said, “Are you sure you guys will be ok there?”

  “Yes mom, thousands of people go there every year, and nothing happens to them. We just want to look around and maybe talk to a ranger. I don’t expect to find something that the search parties and rangers missed. But at least we can tell Miss Fay that we were through with our research.”

  “Okay, but be sure to take your phone, and don’t forget to charge it tonight.”

  “I won’t forget.”

  Before they started movie night Alix texted Shay to tell her about Yellowstone.

  Alix: Going to Yellowstone with Ben tomorrow for an English project. Oh, and mom and dad invited Ben and his parents to dinner tomorrow night.

  Shay: Ok, wow, that’s a lot of news for only not seeing you for a couple of hours. U ok going?

  Alix: Ya.

  Shay: Not freaked out that you’re going to the same place where someone went missing?

  Alix: No, not really.

  Shay: And dinner???

  Alix: I know. I only found out because I have to be home by five to help with dinner.

  Shay: Should be interesting.

  Alix: Yep. Gotta get ready for movie night. I’ll text you after dinner tomorrow, leaving at 7 am.

  It was Alix’s turn to pick out movies. She was in a Harry Potter kind of mood, so she grabbed the first two movies off the shelf and popped the first one in the DVD player. They settled into their usual spots and watched baby-faced Harry Potter learn that magic was real. Alix had loved the books since she first learned about them, after all, how cool would it be to learn you were a wizard? They finished the first movie and made their popcorn for the second one. She enjoyed the movies every time she watched them, and that had been a lot. When the movie was over she said goodnight to her parents. She was going to need her sleep tonight, tomorrow was going to be a long day.

  Chapter 10

  Alix had been walking for hours, searching and searching, but she didn’t know what she was searching for. All she could see was the forest. There were trees everywhere she looked. Since she didn’t know which way to go, she was wandering aimlessly. Finally, she saw a change in the trees around her, they seemed to be thinning out and she could see small slivers of blue sky overhead. She kept going in that direction and soon came to a beautiful meadow. She was sure she had been there before. Still unsure of where to go she walked around the meadow until she saw what looked like a tunnel of trees. She could see the end, so she walked through it. On the other side, she saw a house in the distance and started toward it. The closer she got she could see that it was a cabin, not a house and it was surrounded by the most beautiful flowers she had ever seen. They were so bright and colorful she loved them instantly. Each flower was bright yellow, blue, pink, purple and green. She had never seen anything like it. The flowers called to her in a way that she had never felt before. She tried to pick one but when she reached for it every last one of them disappeared. She knocked on the door and as she did, it slowly opened. She walked inside and looked around the single room. Table, fireplace, bed; but no people. She saw the same flower from outside engraved on the fireplace mantle. She walked over to it and ran her fingers over the beautiful shape. As she did her fingers tingled and her arm got warm. She heard something behind her and turned around. There were three people standing there watching her. “Help us,” They said to her. She screamed and jumped back but hit another person. She spun around and saw an elderly woman standing there. “It’s almost time,” she said.

  Alix woke up breathing hard and her heart was beating a hundred miles an hour. Another dream. No, this was the same dream she had before. This is getting crazy she thought as she looked at the clock, 2:42 am, way too early. She got up, went to the bathroom and splashed water on her face and went back to bed. She tossed and turned for a while but couldn’t get the dream out of her head. She got back out of bed and found her journal. She sat down at her desk and wrote about her dream.

  Sept 10 – very early

  I had another dream, almost the same as the first one. In this one, I was searching for something again, but I still don’t know what I’m searching for, it’s very frustrating. Why am I having these dreams? What do they mean? I wish I had someone to talk to about them other than Shay. She’s great but doesn’t understand anything more than me. I need to figure out what is happening and I’m wondering if the three people are part of what is going on, but how would three random people be connected to me? Things are just getting weirder.

  Alix went back to bed and was able to fall asleep this time after not too long. Her alarm went off and it seemed way too early. She hit snooze and tried to remember why she had set it, wasn’t it Saturday? It took her a minute, but she remembered Yellowstone. Crap, that meant Ben was going to be there in about 30 minutes. She jumped out of
bed, had a quick shower, and threw her hair up into a ponytail. She went to the kitchen, started the coffee and ran back to her room to get dressed. She was so glad that she’d gotten everything ready last night. She was back in the kitchen and put a bagel in the toaster. She made her coffee, grabbed the toasted bagel, and went to the front door to see if Ben was there yet. She didn’t see him, so she took a minute to see if she had everything she needed for the day. Water, snacks, notebook, pen, wallet, phone … where was her phone? Her mom would kill her if she forgot it. She ran back to her room and found it on her dresser. At least she’d remembered to charge it. She went back to the front door just in time to see Ben pulling up. She put on her jacket, slung her backpack over her shoulder, grabbed her coffee and bagel, and walked out to Ben’s car. Well, it was an SUV actually, a nice one.

  “Good morning,” he said, as she opened the back door to put her backpack in.

  “Morning.” Alix hopped in the front and they headed out of town. “Do you know how to get there?”

  “Kind of, but there’s GPS on this vehicle so we should be okay.”

  “Well, I can get us there if the GPS can’t. Is this your car?” she asked him.

  “No, it’s dads. My parents sometimes have to take lots of stuff with them on research trips, so they need at least one big vehicle.”

  “It’ll come in handy in the winter around here.”

  They drove on the highway toward West Yellowstone. They reached the park gate and paid the entrance fee. Ben had never been there before, so he was in awe of some of the things he saw. There hadn’t been much traffic as it was early on a Saturday, so they had a little extra time. They stopped to take in a few of the sites on the way to Old Faithful. It had been a few years since Alix had been to Yellowstone, so she was having a good time too.

  They finally arrived at the Old Faithful area about 10 am. There were already a few people there, but not too many as the end of the busy tourist season was a couple of weeks ago when Jack Carp went missing. Ben parked, and they went to the Visitor Center to find a ranger or anything else that might be useful.

  Inside they found a sign that provided information on the next time that Old Faithful would erupt and a map of the area and an information desk. Old Faithful wasn’t set to erupt for a few hours, so she hoped they would be able to stay for that. They grabbed a map and waited at the information desk for the lady to help them.

  A few minutes later she was free. “Can I help you?” she said to them.

  Ben took the lead. “We’re doing a project for our English class and we were wondering if there was a ranger we could talk to?”

  “Ranger Dixon is on duty today. Let me check and see if he’s free.”

  She picked up the phone and had a short conversation with someone. Then came back over to them.

  “He’s available,” she told them, “Just go on in through that door, he’s waiting for you.” She pointed to a door on their left.

  “Thank you,” Ben said to her.

  They went over to the door and knocked. “Come in,” a voice said.

  Ben and Alix walked into the office. A park ranger was sitting at a desk looking at some paperwork. They took a seat in the two chairs opposite the ranger.

  “I’m Park Ranger Dixon, how can I help you two today?”

  Ben explained about their English project on current events and the research their teacher asked them to do.

  Ranger Dixon was quiet for a minute before answering. “I can certainly answer any questions you have, and I can show you on the map the general area of the disappearance, but I need you to agree that you will follow all the park rules while you’re here. It can be dangerous off the trails. I don’t want to be searching for you next.”

  They agreed. Ben started asking questions and Alix took notes. About fifteen minutes later he had answered all of their questions. They didn’t learn a whole lot more than they already knew except for the fact that it was really busy at the park that weekend being that it was the last one before a lot of kids went back to school. The ranger then took their map and put an X on it where Sara Greenville had last been seen. Before they left the office, he asked them one more thing.

  “Please check in with me before you leave. I want to make sure you’re okay.”

  “We will,” Ben told him.

  Alix and Ben left the Visitor Center and looked at the map. There were quite a few trails to hike in the area. Alix estimated that it would take them the better part of an hour to get to the area where Sara went missing. They started walking. They weren’t in a huge rush and they took a little time getting there so Ben could really see the area and what it had to offer. No matter how many times Alix had been there, she was still impressed by its wonders every time. Nowhere else on earth held the marvels that Yellowstone did.

  They finally made it to the spot that Ranger Dixon had indicated on the map. It looked like any other part of the trail. They were lucky the park wasn’t busy, so they had the entire area to themselves. Alix got out her camera and started taking pictures and Ben was sketching a few things. They walked up and down the trail and saw nothing out of the ordinary. After about an hour of this Alix was frustrated.

  “Okay, this is getting us nowhere,” Alix sighed. “What can we do now? I mean I know this area was searched by lots of people and I don’t know what I expected to find, but I was sure we would find something.”

  “Well I have an idea, but you might think it’s a little weird. It’s something my mom always did when I got frustrated with my art.” Ben said.

  “Okay. What is it?” Alix said reluctantly.

  “So, it’s kind of a form of meditation. We sit down, facing each other, then we hold hands, close our eyes and breathe. You try and block out your own mind and focus on what’s around you. Do you want to try?”

  “Um … yeah, I guess,” Alix said and took a few deep breaths. “Okay, I’m ready.”

  Alix sat down on the boardwalk and crossed her legs. Ben did the same. He held out his hands for Alix, she took them slowly. Yep, just as she thought, she felt the tingling sensation again at touching his hands.

  “Now you need to relax,” he told her.

  Yeah right, she thought. How was she supposed to relax when all she could think about was what her hands felt like that when he was touching them? Um, yeah, relaxing didn’t appear to be in the cards at the moment.

  “Earth to Alix,” he said with a smile. “Hello …”

  Alix realized she had zoned out thinking about how she was going to try and relax. “Uh, sorry, just thinking. Okay, I’m really ready this time.”

  “Okay. Just close your eyes and listen to my voice. Breathe in, breathe out. Again. Now a bigger breath in, and slowly blow it out. In. Out. In. Out. Good. You’re doing good. Now, focus on what you hear around you. Just listen. What do you hear?”

  “Birds, insects, the wind in the leaves and something small in the bushes.”

  “That’s good. Now focus even more, how many kinds of birds? One insect or twenty? What’s in the bushes?”

  Alix sat relaxed and breathed and listened. She focused on listening to the birds.

  “Three different kinds of birds,” she said.

  Next, she tried to hear the insects better. “I think there are at least five different insects around us.”

  “You’re doing great. Now feel. Listen with your body, not just your ears. What do you feel?”

  “The wind, the sun, the boardwalk we’re sitting on, the tingling of your hands …” Alix’s cheeks got hot and she closed her lips tight, she couldn’t believe she’d just said that. That’s what relaxing got her, loose lips. She was so embarrassed. She didn’t want to open her eyes to see Ben’s face. Why did she say these things around him? She tried to pretend she hadn’t said anything.

  “Okay, good Alix. Keep focusing,” he said to her.

  She could hear the smile in his voice, but she kept her eyes shut.

  “Breathe in … breathe out. Good. Keep focu
sing. Listen and feel the world around you.” he told her.

  Alix took some deep breaths and tried to do as Ben said. She heard what was around her and felt the wind and the sun on her face. She tried to block all of that out and feel what else was out there. What else would she be able to sense? She sat there for a while and realized that instead of being distracted by the feel of Ben’s hands, they seemed to be grounding her now, helping her focus. She kept breathing and relaxing and focusing on what was around her. After a while she had an unusual need to stand up and walk, she felt there was something she had to see. When she stood up Ben stood as well.

  “I don’t know what it is, but I have this feeling that I need to find something,” Alix told him.

  “Alright, that’s good. Where do you want to look?” he asked her.

  “Hang on.” Alix thought for a minute. “Okay, that way,” she said, pointing further down the trail to where they hadn’t been yet.

  They started walking. Ben was waiting for Alix to let him know what she wanted to do. The boardwalk ended but the trail kept going, only it was dirt now. They rounded a corner and Alix stopped. She knew she was in the right spot.

  “This is it, this is the spot, I just know it,” Alix said with determination. “So, let’s look around and see what we can find, if there is anything to find.”

  They took out the map and marked the spot Alix had stopped at. It wasn’t that close to the spot the ranger had marked, maybe a quarter mile Ben guessed. They took a quick look around and decided to split up and started searching the area. They kept in constant contact by yelling out to each other in case one of them got into trouble. They weren’t supposed to go off the path but they both figured a few feet off of it wouldn’t hurt. They didn’t plan on going too far.

  Alix figured it had been about thirty minutes since they started searching that part of the trail and was about ready to give up when something caught her eye. She went over to it. It looked like a coin but not one she had ever seen. She didn’t touch it and called for Ben to come over to her.