by S A Jacobs
I had never seen another coin like this, however I’d never researched it either. I’d always assumed that this coin was a calling card of sorts for KGC Sentinels. Sentinels within the KGC were simply protectors. They were sworn to protect land and areas important to the KGC. They were not members of the KGC; their existence was completely secretive. They would typically identify themselves by using specific hand gestures only recognizable by members of the KGC. In my mind, this coin was a token of that position.
The coin was the only thing I could keep my attention on. The visions from the ceremony were too overwhelming. Even Linda said I needed to let them simmer. I was now considering the idea that my family, even my dad, were KGC Sentinels.
I picked up my phone and called Melanie. I didn’t really have a plan for the conversation aside from letting her know that I was still alive.
“And here I thought I might’ve scared you off,” she said as she answered the phone.
“Not in the slightest. It’s a long story, but Linda locked me up in this meditation center to find out something about your house.”
“I wanna be jealous that this woman gets to take you away for a couple days, but I’m more curious about what happened and what you were able to find out.”
“It’s kinda hard to say. I’m still trying to process everything. Do you remember that shack we used to hike to?”
“You mean Spearfinger’s Shack? Of course I remember that. Why?”
“Holy shit!” I yelled. “Spearfinger!”
“Uh yeah, that is why we went there. Remember, you were all into chasing down the haunts and lore.”
“Sorry, I forgot about that. I just remember all the time we spent there. “
“Well, yeah. Once we realized there was nothing but stories out there, it became our secret place to be stupid kids and not get busted.” She paused. “You know, I tried going there recently.”
“What do you mean?”
“That shack. It… well it felt like maybe that was the direction of the light in my dream.”
“But you never made it there?”
“No! That trail felt worse than my cabin. Every step I took, I felt like I was being followed. I guess I scared myself off.”
“Oh my God! Melanie, I just figured something out! Any chance you can come to my office after work today? I really need to see you.”
“Hmmm...you need to work on my house, or you need to see me?”
“Well, both really, but I mainly need to see you. I miss you.”
“Okay, I’ll text you when I leave. But just so you know, if Linda is there, I might take her out.”
As I ended the phone call, memories flooded back to me. That day on the trail when my dad gave me the KGC coin, we were at the old shack-turned-shelter on the closed and re-routed stretch of the Appalachian Trail. That shack is where Melanie and I always hung out. Melanie was right. We went there under the guise of it being Spearfinger’s Shack… but that wasn’t exactly right. As I remembered, I may have embellished the Spearfinger story in a feeble attempt to get Melanie someplace alone with me, but the lore was there. I may have embellished it, but I didn’t make it up.
I’d been awake for well over twenty-four hours, but my mind was racing. I needed to explore this. I got in my truck and headed to the office. As I pulled in, I saw Linda’s car. I found her meditating in the conference room. Startled, she stood up.
“I didn’t think I would hear from you for a while. Usually that experience takes some time to process.” There was a look of concern on her face.
“I’m fine. Yeah, I’m connected. I’m a KGC Sentinel and have the coin to prove it. But that isn’t important right now. I need you to tell me everything you know about Spearfinger!”
“Are you sure you’re okay. Maybe you need some sleep.”
“Like I said I’m fine. Just tell me!”
“I’m sure you know everything that I do. She was a shape-shifting demon according to Cherokee legend.”
“Right, but that legend was way south of here. Plus, according to the Cherokee legend, she was killed...vanquished by the Cherokee people.”
For the first time that I could remember, Linda looked confused.
“If that’s all true, then how do the stories of her come back to Roan, back when I was a kid?” I asked.
She cautiously put her hands on my shoulders. “You know the answer to that, David. Spearfinger may have been a hundred miles away, but the forest is dark and scary. It’s the perfect tale to tell around a campfire. I’m afraid Spearfinger in Roan could be just that, a campfire story.”
I took a deep breath. “I know that Linda, but what I don’t know is whether there really were stories of Spearfinger in Roan, or did I make that up myself as a kid?”
“I do not have an answer to that. Yes, Spearfinger comes up in stories all across these mountains. So, I can only believe that yes, at some point in time, people were recounting her story in Roan.”
I sat down in the middle of the room and buried my head in my hands. There was something about that story… but I couldn’t place it. Linda apparently couldn’t either. Was it all some after effect of the ceremony?
I looked up at Linda, shaking my head. “I don’t think that’s it. I think she is real, again. I think she is a part of all of this somehow.”
Linda was concerned about me. She urged me to rest. As a way of appeasing her, I convinced her that I would take a nap there at the office. When I was sure she was gone, I pulled out the maps of Cloudland and went to work. I realized that my old topographic map would provide exactly what I was looking for. With the map, I would be able to identify if that shack was really the spot Melanie was seeing in her dream. I affixed the map to the white board in the conference room and then covered it with a clear piece of plastic. That allowed me to draw on the map without ruining it.
I first outlined the footprint of the Cloudland hotel in red marker. Next, I scrutinized the western edge of the map. After a few minutes, I found it—a square used to symbolize a structure. That was the building that became known as Spearfinger’s Shack. I outlined it in red as well. Next, I used a straightedge to draw a blue line from the shack back to the Cloudland. Given the orientation of the map, that line would be precisely east to west. When I was done, I stepped back to look at it. It wasn’t what I’d expected. In my mind, I’d assumed the line would connect straight to Robert’s suite in the Cloudland, but it didn’t. It didn’t even touch the building.
So either, Melanie's dream insisting that the light was straight west of Cloudland was less than precise, or the shack was not the source of it as I’d been hoping.
“Of course it couldn’t be that easy!” I yelled to the empty room.
I was tired and felt defeated. I curled up in a bean bag chair and stared at the map while I drifted off.
I had a dream of my own. It was short and precise. Clear as day, the only thing I saw was my dad on the phone saying, “Five people hospitalized and one missing.”
There might have been more of that dream, but the next thing I remembered was waking up to the sound of sleigh bells on the door. I jolted up in a cold sweat and out of breath. I looked around the dark and silent conference room.
“David, are you here?” It was Melanie.
“I'm here. Hang on a second,” I fumbled around for the light switch.
When I turned on the lights, she was just making her way into the conference room. She looked at me with concern before she ran in and wrapped her arms around me. It felt so nice to be in her arms.
After she let go of me, she looked at me with wide eyes as she raised her eyebrows.
“What happened? You look like you have been through the wringer. Are you alright?”
“Yeah, uh well, it’s been a crazy couple days. I haven’t slept much, but I am so glad to see you again.”
“You scared me! The way you were talking on the phone about that shack. You sounded… I don’t even know, but you didn’t sound right.”
> “Sorry, I was just experiencing some revelations in my head and it got kinda intense.”
She stood back, looking even more concerned. “Can you finally tell me what the hell has been going on?”
“Yeah, absolutely. But before I do…” I fished the KGC coin out of my pocket. “Do you remember this?”
She grabbed it from my hand and looked at it. For the first time since she arrived, I saw her smile. “Of course I do. You always had this with you. You told me this was your key to finding the treasure of the KGC.”
“Yeah, that was my story back then anyway. Although, I learned over the last couple days it is a lot more than that.” I pulled her over to the beanbag I’d slept in and told her everything I’d learned. When I first called her that morning, it was clear she was agitated by my disappearance. Now, she was in shock. She held my hands in hers as I spoke. When I finished, she put her arms around my shoulders and just held me.
Despite how on edge I’d felt since the ceremony, when she did that, I felt at peace. We kissed. I wanted nothing but to stay in that feeling for eternity. After a long time spent in that silent embrace, she was the first to speak.
“What is all this?” she asked, pointing to the map on the wall. “It looks like something out of a spy movie or something.”
“Well, that was just a theory, I guess.”
She looked at me quizzically. “It looks pretty involved for a theory.”
“I s’pose. After talking to you, I had a hunch that you might have been right. That the point of light you saw in your dream was that old shack. But as you can see from the line, it isn’t quite due west from the Cloudland.”
I stood up and took a green marker and drew an X on the western edge of Cloudland.
“From what I can tell, this would be pretty much exactly where Robert’s room would have been and thus his vantage point.”
She joined me by the board and picked up the straight edge and drew a line from the ‘X’ to the shack. Then she stepped back and looked at it.
“No, that definitely isn’t it,” she said. “I mean it is kinda the right direction but not really. Listen, I know you are… well, focused on this right now, but you look like hell. Maybe you need to just step back from this for a moment. I dunno, maybe hit reset for a bit.”
She was right. Not only was she right, but she was also the perfect distraction from it all, despite the fact that it was her case. She decided to drive me back to my house where she would make me dinner.
Back at my house, I was finally able to relax a bit. It was different having Melanie there with me, but I was completely at ease with it. After we ate, we sat on the couch. I thoroughly enjoyed having her that close to me.
“So, you really think that coin from your dad is more than some token he came across?” she asked.
“Jeez, yeah, I really do. Thinking back to when he gave it to me, or I guess reliving that moment, I kinda see it differently.”
“You know, in all the years I’ve known you, I don’t think I’ve ever heard you talk about your dad at all.”
“Yeah, I mean, I guess that's just how I dealt with it. I wasn’t even in high school yet, and I was suddenly an orphan. At the time, I think just ignoring that he ever existed was easier than coping with it all.”
She slid even closer to me and gave me a hug.
“And now?” she asked.
“I don’t know. When I pulled that coin from the box… that was the first time I’d given him any thought in years. I moved on and never allowed myself to think about him. But there is something there. This coin made me realize I need to learn who he was.”
“You scared of that?”
“Not really scared, more not sure what I’ll find. “
There was a gentle transition in her eyes. I could tell instantly there was more she wanted to say.
“What? Just say it,” I pleaded.
“It’s just… listen, don’t take offense … I was wondering, do you think this whole becoming a paranormal researcher was in some way your attempt to connect with him?”
“I doubt it. If it were, I think I would’ve tried to contact him. It isn’t like his ghost was haunting me or anything.”
As the evening continued on, that conversation stuck with me. My dad had truly been erased from my adult life, as if he’d never existed. It was almost as if my entire childhood had been blocked out. I was fourteen when he died. I was fourteen when I had to move in with my aunt. It was as if that was the moment my life began. I’d completely moved on from the fourteen prior years.
At some point that night, I decided I needed to learn what I could about my dad. For certain, I needed to try and find out everything I could about the coin and why he had it. But, for the first time in my life, I wanted to know him as a person.
The next morning, Melanie drove me out to the office on her way to work since my truck was still there. Any concern she’d had about my well-being was gone. The truth was, I felt good. I felt more at ease than I had in a long time. I also felt driven. I wanted to learn more about my dad and that was my sole mission on that day.
After Melanie left, I put my plan together. I needed to talk to Gordon, my dad’s friend and former partner. A quick search on my phone let me know exactly where I could find him. Gordon was a supervisor with the Cherokee National Forest Rangers. He worked out of the office in Unicoi, only a few miles away, the same office where my dad had worked. My dad had worked out of that office but still lived in the Forest Ranger Substation where I grew up. Rangers didn’t live in substations after the Headquarters was built, but my dad and I still stayed there until he died.
Gordon had been as close to my father as anyone could be. They’d worked together and were best friends. Gordon was the one who had found my father’s body. Gordon was the one who came into the substation to tell me the news. Ultimately, Gordon was the one who’d tried valiantly to be my stand-in father figure, a role I never let him have. When my father died, I tried to separate myself from any memory of him, as much as I could. Gordon, despite having my best interests at heart, was a part of that. I couldn’t speak to him without thinking about my dad. As the years went by, we drifted apart. I made it clear that I wanted to forge my own path, and despite wanting to be there for me, he got the message.
As I pulled into the small Unicoi office, there was only one thing on my mind. In my head, I kept replaying the vision I had of my father talking on the phone about shutting down the trail. That specific memory had to be meaningful if I were to believe anything about that ceremony and its intentions. Still, I couldn’t understand why. Of all the interactions with my dad, why did that one come to the surface?
I tried to push those questions back a little as I stepped into the office. It was a clean and neat office, and I was greeted by a uniformed woman at the front desk.
“How can I help you?”
“I’d like to speak with Gordon Owens for a moment if he’s in.”
“Sure, I’ll go dig him up. Why don’t you follow me. You can have a seat in the conference room.”
She led me to a conference room where I took a seat. The room was decorated with maps of the forest as well as photographs. A photo hung proudly on the wall. I had seen it countless times before. It showed my Dad and Gordon posing in front of the National Forest sign at Carvers Gap.
11
“Well I’ll be damned! The prodigal son has returned!” Gordon’s deep voice bellowed as he entered the conference room.
Gordon was a bear of a man. He stood well over six feet with broad shoulders and a barrel chest. He hurried over to me and extended his hand for a handshake. As I returned the gesture, it felt as if he would crush my hand with his.
“To what do I owe this visit? Once you made it onto TV, I figured I would never see you again, especially not here.”
“Well, I wanted to ask you about my dad.”
Gordon sat down across the table from me and leaned back in the chair, rubbing his mustache.
; “He’d be damn proud of you, David,” he finally said. “Damn proud.”
“I appreciate that, although I had always assumed his goal for me was to be wearing one of those uniforms.”
“Sure, you have a family legacy here. You come from a long line of rangers, but your father wasn’t that kind of guy.”
“What do you mean by that kind of guy?”
“The father that will only accept the path he chooses for his son. You know Roger, I mean your dad, he was different. He was cut out for being a ranger for sure, and he loved it. But he knew there was more out there. I remember when you were born. We were sitting on the porch of the old substation smoking cigars. I made a joke about getting you a miniature uniform to start your training. That rubbed him the wrong way. He said that he wanted his children to choose their paths. If you ask me, he was always a little pissed off that he had no choice in a career. So yeah, he’d be damn proud of you!”
I sat in stunned silence.
“But something tells me that wasn’t what you came out here for, was it?” he asked.
“Yes and no, I guess. I mean, I just know next to nothing about him. After he died, I kinda shut down. So, I’m just looking to learn more about him.”
“Yeah, you were a handful back then. Not that I could blame you. No one should ever have to go through something like that. I always wished I could have done more for you back then, but the truth was, I was dealing with his loss too.”
“You know, I don’t even remember how he died. I just remember the fact that he did.”
“Christ, I will never forget that day. He was up at Roan High Bluff that morning. He always had an interest up there. Anytime he could be in that area of the forest, he was. Anyway, towards the end of the day he hadn’t checked in. We tried radioing him but got no response. After trying a few times, I headed out that way. I’d been up there with him a thousand times. So, I figured I could’ve found him better than anyone. Sure enough, I found him on one of the old trails that branched off. When they did the autopsy, they said something about liver failure. Something he’d probably been living with for a while.”