Marty got the kids up in the morning. He cooked breakfast in an old frying pan. He
portioned everything out. The family and guests sat down and enjoyed their eggs and
bacon.
“So the first thing on the agenda is a walk to look at things from Old Baldy,” said
Marty. “Then I’m going fishing. You kids will be doing exercises with Finch while
I get to enjoy the peace and quiet. How does that sound?”
“Sounds like you’re lazy, Dad,” said Mark. “Shouldn’t we get to fish too?”
“I don’t see why,” said Marty. “After all, you don’t have a fishing pole. And I do.”
“So you don’t want us to fish?,” said Melinda. “We are good fishers.”
“Noise scares fish,” said Marty. “You would have to be very quiet.”
“We can do that, Dad,” said Mark. He shared a look with his sister. “We’re ninja.”
“What about you two?,” asked Marty. “Want to fish, or hang out with the missus
while she practices her yoga?”
Stella caught a glimpse from the siblings. What she considered yoga, and what they
considered their mom practicing yoga was two very different things. And she realized
she didn’t want to be chased around by a woman with a stick with the intention of
using the stick on her.
“We would both love to spend a peaceful afternoon fishing,” said Stella.
“We would?,” said Bond. He looked down at her.
She elbowed him to take the hint.
“We would love it a lot,” said Bond. He rubbed the spot where the pointed elbow had
sunk in. “Nothing but fish and quiet.”
“I’m surprised,” said Marty. He smiled. “Let’s go up and pay our respects, then we’ll
go down to the fishing hole.”
“Fishing hole?,” said Melinda. Her face twisted at the concept.
“Yep,” said Marty. He pulled on his jacket. “That’s what we country folk call a small
lake full of fish. That’s because it looks like a hole full of water.”
“Country folk?,” said Mark. “What kind of country folk? Strangeville, U.S.A.?”
“Don’t hurt your father’s feelings like that, son,” said Marty. “It’s rude and
inconsiderate.”
“I can’t picture you with a piece of hay in your mouth, chasing some cow around,”
said Mark.
“I could be a cowboy,” said Marty. He inspected the kids. “I could even get my own
cows.”
“But you couldn’t eat them,” said Mark. He paused to think. “You can’t eat them,
right?”
“I’ve never tried,” said Marty. “Seems inconsiderate.”
Ruff looked at the fussing humans and remained in place next to the tents. He had his
head on his front paws, tail curled around him like a blanket. His ears were down.
“You want to stay with Finch, Ruff?,” Marty asked.
The dog huffed, and beat his tail twice.
“You know she doesn’t need you to protect her,” said Marty.
The dog just looked at him.
“Are you being lazy?,” Marty asked.
Ruff grinned at him.
“You are being lazy,” said Marty. “I can’t believe this. You’re supposed to be looking
out for me and the kids. Instead you’re going to lay here and do nothing. We’re
fishing later. You can lay by the water all you want.”
Ruff sneezed in the face of the accusation.
“All right,” said Marty. “Keep an eye on things. We’re going to walk up the hill and
look around, then I’m coming back to get my fishing pole so we can fish later.”
Ruff barked, but didn’t move. He closed his eyes and settled in place.
Marty shook his head. He looked around. Finch had packed the blanket and cleaned
the dishes and pan in the time he had sorted things out. She stood with her hands
intertwined in front of her. The dying fire was at her feet.
“We’ll be back as soon as we can,” said Marty. He walked over and they hugged.
“Fishing?”
“Yes,” said Finch.
“You’ll have to get your own pole,” said Marty.
“Covered,” said Finch. She kissed him on the cheek. “Catch more than you.”
“It’s not a competition,” said Marty. “Fried fish?”
“Depending on how many caught,” said Finch.
“I’ll do the best I can,” said Marty. He kissed her. “We should be able to catch
something between the two of us.”
He started for the trail. The kids fell in behind him. He pointed out landmarks as they
walked from the campsite toward the top of the small mountain that set west of their
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.camp.
Marty enjoyed the sunshine and clean air as he walked. It had been a long time since
he had walked somewhere just to be idle. It felt good to just be wasting time, instead
of spending it to chase someone down before some invisible deadline passed.
“You used to come up here with the Scouts?,” asked Bond, pulling him back to the
present.
“Jim loved it up here,” said Marty. He shrugged. “I think it made him feel better to
just look around and not have a lot of human minds around.”
Stella knew that feeling. She reached out a little. Their group and the local animals
were all she could feel. It seemed restful compared to the city.
Maybe when she was older she could move up here and just live here without
worrying about other people.
“Was that thunder?,” asked Mark. He looked around. “I don’t see any clouds.”
“Probably some freak of sound,” said Marty. “If it starts raining, we’ll head back to
camp and have some cold vittles tonight.”
He looked around himself. Stella got the impression he knew what had caused the
faint blast of thunder. She didn’t say anything since she wasn’t sure.
“All right, guys,” said Marty. “We’re reaching the start of the trail to head to Lookout
Point. You’ll be able see for more miles from there.”
“What about snow?,” asked Melinda.
“We’re not high enough to have to worry about that,” said Marty. “We would have
to climb up a blank stone wall to get to where we could play in the snow. The rangers
wouldn’t be happy with me taking you kids up there.”
Stella caught an impression of something else also going on, but she didn’t know
what. She wondered if climbing the stone wall was such an obstacle as Mister
Morgan pretended, or there was something where he couldn’t climb it like he
normally would and he didn’t want them to find out.
Stella fell into line as Marty ushered them up the trail. It was a climb up the large
cone with the path circling the mountain to reach an outcrop where a telescope was
mounted to look out over the valley. A small coinbox collected tourist coins for the
pleasure of a close look at the scenery.
“You can see for miles from up here,” said Mark.
“It’s a straight line back down from here,” said Melinda. She was at the rail, looking
down. “We don’t have to walk back if we climb down this way.”
“I don’t think so,” said Bond. He kept his distance from the edge. He had not learned
how to fly yet, and didn’t want falling off the side of a mountain to be the way he
learned.
Stella went to the telescope. She fed in coins to unlock the telescope. She smiled as
she looked out at the greenery. It was a nice view.
Her time ran out all too soon. She stepped back to give the others a chance to look
through it.
Mark and Melinda took their turns after flipping a coin to see who would go first.
They stepped back when they were done looking around.
Bond went last. He scanned everything slowly. He paused at one point. He looked on
either side, then back through the telescope. He stepped back.
“Mister Morgan,” Bond said. “I think lightning is shooting up from the ground over
there.”
Marty smiled to cover the grimace. He should have expected one of the kids seeing
Spike on the job. That had been careless of him.
“That’s probably Spike,” Marty said. “I turned him loose on some aggressive deer last
night. Don’t worry about it.”
“Aggressive deer?,” said Bond. Disbelief colored his words.
“Yeah,” said Marty. “They like to wander into camp and stomp on things. I told Spike
to herd them away from us. I didn’t want to explain to your mother why you had a
hoof print on your face.”
“Your mom does get angry really fast,” said Mark.
“That’s true,” said Bond. “Aggressive deer?”
“They’re worse than easy going bears,” said Marty. He took a turn at the telescope
and nodded. “Way worse than wolves.”
Stella didn’t think lightning was being used on deer. Her babysitter was hiding
something. Whatever was out there was something he didn’t want them finding out
about, or going to look for on their own. He had the look of an adult not trying to
worry the kids when things were bad.
She had seen it sometimes when her dad talked about things with her mom. They both
knew how to hide their thoughts from her, but she picked out when they didn’t want
her to know something because of the circular talk. It was like listening to gangsters
on television giving orders over a bugged phone.
She decided that she was supposed to be staying out of trouble. She wasn’t going out
there to chase something that lightning was being used on.
She could see the siblings wanted to go and find out what Spike was chasing. She
spotted the trail of thoughts that were running on parallel tracks.
“Can we swim in the fishing hole?,” she asked. “I didn’t bring a swimming suit.”
“I didn’t think of that,” said Marty. “I’m not much of a swimmer.”
“He’s graceless,” said Melinda.
“I would have said clumsy,” said Mark.
“You keep that up and it’s no pie for you,” said Marty. “I happen to have the normal
grace of a man my age and ability.”
“Can’t be much then,” said Mark.
“Definitely no pie for you,” said Marty. He shook his head. “All right, guys. I have
to get my fishing pole from camp so we can go to the fishing hole. We’ll have a few
hours to fish before the sun goes down.”
He started down the mountain, following the path. He waved at others climbing up
to use the telescope.
Stella wondered how she was going to get Mister Morgan to tell them what was really
going on. She doubted she could force the issue. The Scouts did dangerous things all
the time. Lying to a kid couldn’t be that hard for someone facing villains as part of
their day.
She fell in line and looked at the others. They were all thinking the same thing as she
was. They just couldn’t decide on what Mister Morgan had set Spike loose on.
Aggressive deer was not on any of the mental lists she peeked on.
She doubted a Sasquatch was on the move, but refrained from saying anything. She
had heard stories before going camping with the Morgans. Some of them were weird
and outlandish, but her dad had assured her they were the truth.
If Melinda thought a Sasquatch was in the area, then there was an outside chance that
a Sasquatch was in the area.
Her thoughts carried her back to the campsite. She paused as she realized her legs
hurt. She hadn’t walked that far ever.
She decided she should sit down before she fell down. She hobbled to the log and sat
so she could lean back on it.
“Something wrong?,” asked Bond.
“My legs hurt,” said Stella. “I guess I haven’t walked that far before.”
“We were walking pretty fast,” said Bond. He rubbed his own legs with his hands.
She noted that he winced for a moment, but the reaction was from the pain in his legs
going away.
“Mom!,” called Melinda. “Stella’s broken.”
“Not so loud,” said Mrs. Morgan. She appeared out of the trees. “Where’s your
father?”
“He went to get his fishing pole,” said Melinda.
“All right,” said Mrs. Morgan.
Mrs. Morgan walked over to where Stella sat. She hunkered down and looked at the
girl. She poked the girl’s legs with her finger. It was like being poked with a piece of
metal. She did it again twice more. The pain from the muscle ache faded. Stella
smiled.
“Nerve block,” said Mrs. Morgan. “It should fade. Might have pain then.”
“Nerve block?,” said Stella.
“Body has nerves to carry signals to the brain,” said Mrs. Morgan. “You can numb
them to prevent signals. A temporary block will carry you through minor problems.
A permanent block will hurt you in the long run.”
“Why will it hurt?,” asked Stella.
“If you can’t feel anything, then you don’t know much you are hurt,” said Mrs.
Morgan. “If you don’t know how much you are hurt, you can’t judge how close you
are to failing.”
“Thank you,” said Stella.
“Take it easy when you get back from the fishing,” said Mrs. Morgan. “The pain will
come back as the block wears off. You’ll have to let it fade on its own.”
“I understand,” said Stella.
“All right,” said Marty. “Who’s up for fishing?”
“We are!,” shouted the siblings. Stella felt it was a cover to let them break off and
chase down the Sasquatch.
Mrs. Morgan helped Stella to her feet.