If only she knew where we were headed! Hayden thought.
They ate warm stew for lunch, which was the most perfect thing his mother could have prepared for two hungry men back from a long work session in the cold. They said their goodbyes with Amy giving her son an enormous hug before they drove over to Jonah’s place around the mountain.
Grabbing all the camping equipment and supplies they’d need for a cold night on the mountain, they checked and rechecked their gear. When satisfied all was in good order, Jonah left his truck parked beside his house then they strapped on their backpacks and set off around the back of town toward the mountain.
*
Jagged Peak’s craggy, snow covered stone was veiled in a thick fog. It looked unforgiving and very, very cold. Monty and Maddy entered his thoughts as he just knew they would love to come with them. ‘Uncle Jonah, could I use your phone to call Mont and Madds to see if they want to...’
‘No!’ Jonah interjected surprisingly abruptly, as he looked up at the steep climb ahead then turned and said with a wink and a grin, ‘We’ll make this our adventure, okay? Besides, if there is blasting going on, I wouldn’t want them hurt. It’d be bad enough having to explain to my sister if something happened to you, let alone others.’
‘So you think we could get hurt then?’ Hayden asked again.
‘No, but what I do know for sure is that you’d try and get up there yourself to investigate without me so I’m happy to come along for the ride.’
Hayden agreed. ‘I s’pose it’s a bit late for them to come. Their parents made them study hard last night and probably today too.’
Jonah reminded him to put on his gloves and beanie.
‘At the very least. Don’t make me explain to your mother why you have a cold when you were supposed to have been snug by a roaring fire in my living room.’
Jagged peak looked huge and ominous and Hayden was again wondering if it was such a good idea to be there.
It was one thing to trek its forest trails during the day but to scale it close to dark, well, that was something he’d never done and wasn’t too sure about. He imagined Maddy and Monty soon to be asleep in their warm beds. He looked up at the mountain and at its bleak stony peak. All he could hope for was that they didn’t freeze to death or the tremors didn’t cause an avalanche.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Jonah had chosen the fire trail as their path as it was only ever used in the warmer months by the local authorities for the occasional training run or in the even rarer event of an actual fire.
The odd dirt bike rider or hiker used the trail when they weren’t using the tourist trail that zigzagged half way up the other side of the mountain.
‘If they’re blasting on the other trail, won’t hikers come up this way?’ Hayden asked.
‘No one will be up here this time of year.’
‘We are.’ Hayden rightly pointed out but Jonah paid no heed.
‘We’ll cut from the trail when we reach the Miner’s rest,’ Jonah stated, pointing to a distant corner of the mountain. ‘If we make good time we should be there just on dusk. We’ll make our way to the cabin from there.’
Uncle Jonah’s “cabin” was more a small windowless wooden hut that he’d built when Hayden was very young. He’d said he’d argued with the local council that it could mean safety for hikers stranded in inclement weather but no hikers, thankfully, had ever needed to use it as none ventured onto the small trail that would get them there. Jonah did though. He’d go up there a few times a year and sometimes with friends. It was like a clubhouse in a way.
‘Think we’ll make good time?’ Hayden hoped as it was getting colder every moment and he didn’t fancy having to sleep in the small nylon two-man igloo tent his uncle had packed. He’d done a survival camp on the mountain before.
It was his tenth birthday present from his uncle and that wasn’t much fun as other kids received bikes and had a party or things like that. But he learned a lot on that trip, not least of which was that survival was not necessarily comfortable. Jonah looked at his young nephew proudly as he trudged up the steepening terrain, the snow crunching under his boots.
‘If you keep up that cracking pace we most certainly will.’
Hayden’s face transformed into a look of complete concentration as he forged ahead as fast as his legs would carry him under the strain of the heavy backpack.
They had been walking for over an hour and a half and Hayden hadn’t heard any more mountain rumblings.
The cold was bordering on extreme, the snow was a little deeper under their feet and Miner’s rest was still a fair distance above them.
‘What time do you have?’ Jonah called out.
Hayden pulled his blue jacket sleeve then the heavy brown woollen jumper sleeve back to reveal the old watch his uncle had given him when he was very small. Hayden remembered once, when he was about eight years of age going to the town jeweller with his mother and uncle so that he could get it serviced. He was fascinated when he was allowed out back into the workshop and saw the insides of the watch flawlessly ticking away.
He was told (though he need not to have been) always to keep it with him and he always did. There was hardly ever a time he took it off and if he did, he kept it within reach.
It was 3 o’clock precisely and it would be fully dark in just over two hours. Pushing his sleeves back, he turned and relayed the time, his voice echoing out across the countryside.
Jonah nodded at the garbled answer travelling over the rising wind. He wasn’t too far behind but he had a pained expression on his face.
‘Are you alright?’ Hayden called concernedly.
‘Fine,’ Jonah answered and as if to prove it, sped up but not by much to try and maintain the pace.
Jagged Peak was a dangerous place to climb during the day let alone at night as one false step the higher they climbed could mean serious injury or worse.
*
They’d now left the fire trail and diverted onto a much narrower track covered not with light mud-stained snow over gravel as before, but with deeper snow over solid rock. It was very slippery and as such they had to side-step up the now steeper incline which slowed them considerably. One look skyward and they could both clearly see that daylight was fading fast.
They had gone almost half way up the mountain and were now above the tree line. Leveling his gaze across the valley, Hayden could see the street lights had been turned on in town and that there were only a few cars parked on the street, fewer than was normal even on such a winter’s night. The general store’s neon shop lights flashed distantly and the warmly lit windows of the homes around the township glowed welcomingly. Across on the eastern edge of the valley he could see the hill the bus chugged over to reach his stop and to the right of that he could just make out through the trees the culvert where his house stood, hidden completely by the cypresses but for a glimpse of the apex of the steep tiled roof. Hayden thought briefly but hungrily of the warm stew they had had for lunch and the remainder that more than likely remained on the stove top. But this comforting thought unfortunately was in stark contrast to his icy reality.
*
Ever moving higher now, the fire trail was well below them and had given way to small alpine shrubbery. Slippery moss-covered rocks occasionally poked through the covering of snow which made the ascent even more hazardous under the weight of the packs. As if on cue, Jonah, still behind his nephew, called out for him to watch his step. Hayden turned and amidst the swirling wind that cut through him despite his heavy clothing, gave the thumbs up. A warm fire in the cabin was looking very good and he was glad that would happen soon as the little hut was just in view no more than a hundred metres above them. Raising the thickly knitted neck of his sweater over his mouth and pulling his woollen cap down more firmly, Hayden gripped the padded pack straps around his shoulders and trudged on with his uncle in tow.
They wound their way up the precipitous path toward the cabin, the setting sun’s soft reflected gl
ow on the whiteness of the mountain being extinguished by its descent to the horizon and still more gathering clouds. A small spot of light appeared against a rock beside Hayden then darted away just as suddenly and he turned to see that his uncle had switched on a small torch that hung clipped to his belt. Jonah gave a ‘We’ll need this’ look and tapped the light with his gloved palm. Hayden adjusted his cap with one hand, which was quite a perilous thing to do on that mountain, in the dark with a heavy backpack to throw off his centre of gravity. Once he’d successfully and safely completed this brief maneuver a thought suddenly came to him. It was with an eerie realisation that he hadn’t seen or heard any birds all day which was very strange as the mountain was usually humming with some sort of life. Even in winter.
The tremors. Birds and animals were known to leave an area before earthquakes and other natural disasters. No sooner had he had this thought when he was sure he saw something below them in a thicket of alpine shrubbery. He called out for his uncle to direct the torchlight toward it. After a few seconds, Jonah panned the bright beam slowly and steadily across the terrain and finally onto the bushes.
The shrubbery moved rigidly in the wind. Hayden squinted as he adjusted his vision in the darkness and when he had, realised that if there had been anything, it wasn’t there now.
The sky was starless and almost completely black with cloud as they neared the little shack nestled amongst several tall snowcapped bluestone boulders. It, like the rest of the mountain top, was gloomy and cold but after their exhaustive climb and with night having fallen, both were relieved to see it.
Hayden had been there once many years prior and it had seemed small then but now it was really tiny. A little square of black against a dark grey background. Hayden was first to reach it, quickly followed by his uncle who hastily removed his gloves and fumbled with the heavy old metal latch. The wooden door creaked open and as expected, they were confronted with a small, dark, simple dingy room.
The opening disturbed the shack’s neglect. The light of the torch revealed flecks of dust that danced through the cold air across the narrow torch beam. It smelled musty and was very dirty.
They were tired and Hayden just wanted to sleep but he knew that they first needed to light a fire and thaw out and that once that was done they could relax a little, take off their heavy boots and eat something. Eating something warm would be wonderful.
Moving to a square wooden table in the centre of the room, Jonah placed the torch base down so that it acted like a small lamp shining up onto the underside of the uninsulated roof that consisted simply of corrugated iron sheets screwed across dusty pine trusses. With one swift movement, Jonah unclipped his backpack’s straps, had it swiveled off his shoulders and unzipped all before hitting the table. Rummaging inside briefly, he withdrew a small first-aid kit and then pulled out a large box of long barbeque style matches. ‘Grab some of that kindling and a few of those logs in the box over there,’ he commanded his nephew, pointing to an old thin wooden tea chest full of wood by the rear corner of the cabin. ‘If there’s nothing good in there then we’ll burn the box.’
It wouldn’t need to come to burning the box as Hayden collected the good and, thankfully very dry start-fire-right-now quality wood, being careful despite the cold, of spiders in the dim light as he didn’t care much for the big ones. When he’d selected what he thought was the most flammable, he dumped it by the hearth, removing his gloves so as to have nimbler fingers with which to work.
Stripping some bark from a log for extra kindling, Hayden looked at the stones surrounding the surprisingly large fireplace for such a small room. The chimney had a thick hardwood mantle covered mostly in dust but for two dusty and mostly melted white candles in tarnished brass holders. ‘Can I have a match to light those?’ Hayden asked.
Looking up from what he was doing, Jonah hurriedly moved toward him. ‘I’ll light them,’ he said gruffly, sliding the matchbox open and removing one with another fluid movement.
The match hissed and sparked as it was struck then was maneuvered carefully to light the candle on the right, then slowly to the candle on the left. The little flames grew, flickering brightly.
As the cabin illuminated in the warm oscillating light, the room instantly felt as cozy as a dirty, musty cabin could possibly feel.
Jonah stepped over the small pile of bark his nephew had stripped and placed into a neat pile then he continued pulling things from his pack. There was a heap of old newspapers by the hearth that were yellowed and probably as old as the hut so Hayden grabbed several sheets and resisting his inquisitive urge to read the stories printed on them, crumpled the paper into tight scrolls and stacked them in a small pyramid in the blackened fireplace. Next he placed the stripped bark then added some twigs and two larger logs then as Jonah had taught him on that survival camp, left plenty of space for air so that the fire could breathe.
After being passed some matches, Hayden lit the bottom of the neat paper pile and reveled in the warmth as the fire crackled to life. The orange glow from it enveloped the hut adding to the softly swaying candle light and casting odd shadows upon the greyed cedar walls. Jonah flicked the torch off but left it on the table. They were now at last warming up.
Change of clothes, more matches - ahh, food! ‘Hayden, I’m sure I needn’t ask but are you -’
‘Hungry!’
‘Let me find the can-opener and we’ll heat these beans.’ Holding two of the biggest cans of beans Hayden had ever seen, his uncle began to open them with the opener on his pocket knife.
They sat on the hearth and listened to the wind howl outside as they simmered the large opened cans by the fire’s edge.
After a few minutes, steam began to rise from the tins and the contents began to bubble gently. Jonah quickly checked the temperature of his with his little finger and when satisfied they were ready, emptied them both onto some plastic picnic plates he had brought.
Hayden was so hungry his plate was cleaned in only a few minutes and his uncle’s took not much longer.
‘Simple baked beans never tasted so good.’
Jonah didn’t acknowledge. He appeared to be listening for something. He looked at his watch then toward the door and the fireplace, and then at Hayden, all with a kind of twitchiness.
‘Nothing,’ his uncle strangely answered to a question that had not been asked.
‘You okay, Unc?’
‘Fine,’ he answered curtly.
If Hayden knew anything, he knew his family and something just didn’t seem right. Jonah looked at his nephew again and then at his own watch.
‘What time do you have?’
Hayden pulled back his sleeve again. ‘Almost six.’
Jonah stretched his arms up over his head and yawned.
‘I think we had better get those sleeping bags out and catch some zees.’
Hayden yawned deeply, nodding at the welcome plan.
They both rose from the floor, unclipped the thin rolled green foam mattresses tied to the base of their packs and unfurled them on the table. With his sleeping bag in hand, Hayden claimed a cozy spot by the hearth. After extending a telescopic ember guard screwed onto the inner wall of the fireplace and moving one of the small wooden chairs by the table out of the way, he lay out his mattress then draped his puffy sleeping bag atop it. Jonah did the same but he took a position, very surprisingly, away from the fire and closer to the door.
‘Bit cold over there don’t you think?’
‘Don’t worry about me,’ Jonah replied. ‘I’ll be fine.’
He worried that something was troubling his uncle.
Before he could go to sleep, Hayden needed to go outside for one thing and Jonah said that he needed to, too, and so grabbed the torch. Pushing the door open, the elements rushed in as if they’d entered another world.
Across the narrow torch beam the snow was falling very heavily now with the wind pushing it onto a steep angle. Jonah led the way as they rushed to a boulder, Hayden did what he had
to then hurried back into the cabin and was about to slam the door shut when he realised his uncle wasn’t immediately behind him.
‘Get inside!’ He shouted as loud as he could over the bluster. Jonah called back that he would be there shortly and to close the door to keep warm. Hayden did as he was asked.
It was calm and much warmer inside despite the thin, uninsulated walls. Good job building this, uncle Jonah.
After a few minutes the door half opened and Jonah shuffled inside shivering, the wind howling through the opening and threatening to blow out the little candles, he slammed the door shut behind him. Moving to the fireplace and sitting beside his nephew, Jonah rubbed his near frozen hands together in front of the flickering, thawing fire. He remained there for several minutes not uttering a sound but just staring into the dancing flames. Hayden unzipped his sleeping bag and prepared for bed. He took off his heavy coat and slid deeply into the comfortable cocoon, but soon realised he was too warm with his woolen top on and quickly removed it before snuggling back down onto the soft bedding, still wearing his long thermal underwear. ‘Goodnight, unc.’
Jonah half nodded.
The hard stone floor was barely felt underneath him despite the thinness of the mattress and the howling wind was silenced. In less than a minute Hayden’s eyes were shut fast.
Jonah waited and when he was sure that his nephew was asleep, he stood up and quietly made his way back to the door, opened it and disappeared into the stormy night.
*
Hayden found himself drifting again, slowly and in complete silence and though he felt very calm, his heart raced excitedly.
The almost familiar planet loomed up through the darkness of space and again he saw the storms as they began to slowly envelope the sparkling world. As before, he couldn’t move as he was held back by the same unseen force.
Staring at the spectacle before him, it looked different now but how it was, he couldn’t tell. When he did realise, he felt stupid for not seeing it sooner. This wasn’t the same place. There was far less land and considerably more ocean.
The Blake Equation- Discovery Page 5