Stan Morris - Surviving the Fog

“Star, you need to be ready to take Comet and run to the house,” Ralph said as calmly as he could. “I’ll try to distract it.”

Ralph wished he had brought his spear. The big cat stopped a few paces from the trio; its tail was twitching.

“I’m scared, Daddy,” Comet whimpered, sensing that something was amiss.

“Are you ready, Star?” Ralph asked without turning.

“Yes, Dad,” she replied.

She took Comet’s hand firmly. As young as she was, she could tell what was about to happen. The huge cat would spring, and Ralph would try to wrestle with it, while she and Comet ran as fast as they could to the house. Will Ralph die? She had a moment’s regret that she had never told him the truth, that she loved him.

Then Star heard a yell, and the big cat’s attention was diverted. Ralph heard the sound of his own spear whizzing by his head. The mountain lion leaped back as Ralph’s spear landed at the very place where the large cat had been crouching. The cat turned and fled as Nathan and Kevin, panting and out of breath, reached the trio. They were carrying their spears.

Ralph took a stunned breath. His legs were shaking, and Comet was clinging to his leg and crying. Regaining his composure, Ralph reached down and picked up Comet. He turned around to see Star sandwiched protectively between Nathan and Kevin. In the distance, Mary, who had been running to them with her shotgun, slowed to a walk. Everything is alright , he thought. My family is safe . Comet felt the change and stopped crying.

Ralph looked at the twins. “Thank you,” was all he could say.

They blushed, but they were pleased. “We were coming to get you,” said Kevin. “I had your spear, because we wanted to practice throwing.”

Ralph looked back at the place where the mountain lion had crouched, and saw that his spear was dead center in that place.

“Who made the throw?” he asked. Kevin raised a hand.

“You pass,” Ralph said. The twins laughed.

“That was mostly luck,” Kevin admitted.

Mary was almost to them. “Are you alright?” she asked anxiously.

“Everything is alright, Mary,” Ralph said. “These guys saved the day.”

Later, the story excited the girls as they listened. They were disappointed that they had been feeding the chickens and had missed the actions of the two heroes, but they oohed and ahhed over Star’s account of the incident. Suddenly the two boys, once thought of as dorks, gained a new status in their eyes.

In private Star told her mother, “Ralph is the real hero. He was going to fight that mountain lion, so Comet and I could run back to the house.”

Mary hugged her daughter. “I know, honey, I know.”

A few days later, Mary called everyone together and announced, “I’m leaving for the Lodge tomorrow. I’m going to take a load of food to them.”

Ralph was worried by her plan. “Do you think that you can get the wagon up the road? The snow will be deep in some places. And why am I not coming with you?”

Mary shook her head. “I’m not going to take the wagon. I’m going to ride one of the horses and lead the other. I’ll be back the day after tomorrow.”

That night as they leaned against each other on the sofa, Ralph grumbled about her trip, not liking it one bit.

Mary laughed. “You’re just worried about your woman who you think is doing something that should be a man’s job.”

“You got that right,” he grumped. “You can’t haul much food on one pack horse.”

“True. The reason I’m going is to see how they’re doing. If their situation is bad, I need to know.”

At the crack of dawn, as Ralph looked on anxiously, Mary waved goodbye, and leading a horse loaded with food, she spurred the horse that she was riding away from the farm.

The going was not as bad as she had feared, though she gradually gained altitude. There was only one deep snow drift to get through, and the horses made it easily. Taking her time, she made her way along the muddy road until she came to the road running down from the logging camp. She turned right onto this road and began the downward part of her journey. Before noon, she came to the gravel road and turned right towards the kids’ camp. As the sun was sinking in the west, she was about to pass a tree when she noticed a noose hanging from a tree branch. Startled, Mary reined in her horse. Looking closely, she saw the top half of a skull poking through the snow on the ground beneath the noose.

The sun had just dropped below the horizon, when she crossed over the low hill and came to the camp. As the horses made their way down the hill, she saw the logging machinery and the large yellow bus in the parking lot. On the other side of a narrow wooden bridge spanning a swiftly running stream, she spied the deserted dining hall, the A-frame cabin, and above them the roughly built Lodge.

Mary rode her horse down the road until she came to the bridge. Then she dismounted, and she carefully led the horses over the narrow span. Continuing on foot, she began hailing the Lodge. After a few calls, the door opened and people poured out. She was quickly surrounded and greeted by eager curious voices.

“Wait a second,” she said raising a hand.

There was quiet. She looked over the group. At the rear, Hector and a woman stood and waited, closer was a mixture of older and younger girls and boys.

“On my way here, I passed a tree with a noose hanging from it. There were bones underneath. If my children had been with me, they would have seen that gruesome sight. Now, which one of you is responsible for leaving that person unburied?” Mary asked.

The two adults glanced at one another, and then they looked away. The older kids shuffled their feet or looked at the sky. Then, hesitantly, one of the smaller kids meekly raised his hand.

Mary stared at him in disbelief. “You’re Mike? You are the one that Ralph calls, ‘the Chief’?”

“Uh, yes, that’s me,” the boy replied.

Mary sighed. Ralph had tried to tell her about Mike, but this boy was still not what she had expected.

“Well then, young man, would you please bury that man?” she asked.

When he spoke, on his face was the same stubborn look that she had often received from Comet. “I left him there as a warning to anyone else who might be thinking of harming my people.”

Mary nodded. “I understand. That’s what Ralph said. But a few bones on the ground are hardly a warning to anyone. It’s time to bury the remains. Please.”

She watched as the boy turned his head toward the direction of the Hanging Tree, and she realized that he was considering her request.

“All right,” the boy replied slowly, and then he turned to Hector. “Hector, take a crew and bury him tomorrow. That is, if the weather is clear, and you can do it safely,” the boy added firmly, and in that last sentence Mary caught a glimpse of the iron in the individual.

“Got it, Chief,” the man said.

“Thank you,” said Mary politely. “I brought food, but if you have room, I’ll need to sleep here for the night.” Mike nodded, and Mary swung down off her horse.

The kids were eager to help Mary unload the horses and to put the food in the almost empty freezer. Then they took Mary inside their Lodge and showed her their home. Mary was amazed at what they had created. Hector was given most of the credit.

“It wasn’t my idea though,” he said. “I just took their idea and improved on it.”

“Man, for what you had to work with, you did good,” Mary said, as she circled and examined one of the columns.

“You can sleep in here,” Mike said showing her his room. “I’ll sleep in my old bunk bed.”

“Thank you,” Mary replied.

Erin held an impromptu revue that night in order to show Mary how they had entertained themselves during the long winter. There was singing, and skits, and jokes, and Hector played his harmonica. Then, tired from her long day, Mary excused herself and went to bed.