Lost at Running Brook Trail (16 page)

“Here, put that on.” Miriam threw the grey and pink sweater that had been a bone of contention between Kimberly and Susan. “I don’t know why you even bothered to wash that blouse. You should just get rid of it.”

“I’m not leaving it here.” Kimberly put on her sweater. It wasn’t nearly as big as she thought it would be.

“Suit yourself, but wash your hands again and then pick it up and carry it on a stick. We’re not coming back up here because you use your blouse to poison yourself again, and don’t let it touch me.”

Kimberly felt the warmth of the sweater. The long sleeves and the material were trapping the heat from the sun.

“Try not to scratch your skin.”

“That’s easier said than done. It’s going to take every bit of willpower not to.”

“Whatever it takes.”

They started their walk back to the cave. The sun was high and their shadows were little dancing figures on the ground.

While the other two were gone, Elaine sat beside Susan. Susan was quiet and Elaine passed the time by holding a shard to the sun, signalling invisible rescuers.

“I’m tired.” Susan’s head lolled down to her chest. She looked drowsy.

“You should lie down then.” Elaine wondered about going into the cave in the middle of the day. She only wanted to go in there if she had to. Since there was nowhere for Susan to lie down comfortably outside, Elaine supposed the cave was a last resort.

“Let’s go into the cave.” Elaine searched for her lighter and found it. She spun the wheel but there was no flame. Crushed blackberries filled the space where the fire was supposed to come out.

“Here we go again, entering the cave,” Susan said.

Elaine wasn’t sure whether Susan was her old self again or if she was still out there. She searched for a small stick to use to dig out the unwanted berries from the lighter’s mouth. She was probably wasting fuel every time she spun the wheel and no flame came. She supposed it was her fault for storing blackberries in her bag, but she’d been thinking ahead. They would all be starving later this evening, and they wouldn’t be going back to scavenge for berries. She tried the lighter again; it didn’t work, even though she had taken out all the muck. She spun and spun until the flame suddenly shot up.

“Okay, we can go in now.” Elaine helped Susan to her feet.

Susan’s legs seemed a bit shaky. “I might collapse.”

“You can fall on the bed inside there.”

They entered the cave. Its half-open yawn seemed to beckon them to come in. It was day outside but nothing had changed inside. They were enveloped by the inky darkness that seemed to enter their insides and made them part of the surroundings.

“Elaine, do you know what omission and commission is?”

Elaine lay on the bed with Susan. She thought about how much more aware of herself she was in the dark; her breath; the sounds around her; what she felt.

“One is action and the other is a lack of action. Why?”

“I should strive for commission.”

Elaine opened her eyes. She could make out the edges of objects and had a better sense of the space that surrounded her. “Today you were all of that.”

Susan didn’t answer because she was asleep. Elaine could tell from her heavy breathing. Life was about options; that’s what Elaine’s mother always told her. For each option chosen there was an outcome. So whether there was an action or a lack of action, there would be a consequence. Maybe that’s what she should have told Susan.

“Is storing books an omission or commission?” Susan seemed to fall in and out of sleep.

“I don’t know. I’ve never thought of it that way.”

“Your omission isn’t taking them back on time.”

“I suppose so, but everyone tells me I’m a hoarder, so it’s really a deliberate act. Mrs. Hamilton, my mother and Miriam for that matter agree that I’m out here for being a hoarder; they call it greed.”

Elaine sat up. She struck the lighter and looked at her watch. It said two o’clock. This time yesterday they had been walking lost, unprepared and way in over their heads.

“Everyone tells us stuff, but at some point we have to know,” Susan said.

With that she fell asleep again, and because Elaine had nothing better to do, she nodded off herself. They woke to Miriam and Kimberly calling them out of the cave.

Carcass
 

Susan woke thirsty and hungry. It wasn’t so much that she wanted to eat or drink, but there was a gnawing emptiness within her. She felt as if she had lost everything, but that was expected, given everything that had happened.

“Is she herself now?” Kimberly asked Elaine.

“Everything she says makes sense. Whatever it was came and went quickly, and she slept, so that helped.”

Kimberly placed the blouse on a shrub, still holding the stick. Elaine had told her to wash the top, but now Kimberly wondered if it was pointless. Elaine had told her some kind of oil from the poison ivy might have gotten on it. Water couldn’t wash oil out of a piece of clothing.

“My stomach feels hollow,” Susan announced.

“That’s because there’s nothing in it. You need to drink something warm,” Elaine said.

“No Tim Hortons out here!” Miriam joked.

“We improvise.”

Susan felt empty to the point of weightlessness, and in her mind she found it amusing that she could be weightless. She imagined herself floating effortlessly through the air. She was sure something important had happened to her, but she wasn’t sure what. Maybe that’s what happened when you expelled everything from both ends. All she remembered was waking up in the cave, but she couldn’t recall anything between purging and the cave. It seemed that loss of sustenance had resulted in a loss of memory.

“What do you have in mind, Elaine?” Miriam asked.

“I was thinking we could just warm some water, if we could find some kind of tin can to do it in. Maybe we could all do with something warm.”

“Where are we going to find that?” Kimberly asked. “We didn’t see any of that when we were walking this morning.”

“We can’t be the only people to ever come out here. People leave things behind.” They were all standing around in the Alberta sun, and Elaine wasn’t sure if today would be any different from yesterday. They were still lost, and bad things were happening to them.

“Too bad you didn’t think ahead and pack a can.” Miriam lined up a couple small stones and kicked them as far as she could. Some ricocheted off rocks and others disappeared into the bushes.

“You’re pretty funny,” Elaine said.

“My stomach really feels funny.”

“Okay, we’ll have to go hunting for a container to put the water in.” Miriam stopped kicking the stones and stood still, considering their options. “We should go in the opposite direction of where we went this morning, since there was nothing out there.”

“But that’s where the poison ivy is.” Kimberly tried hard not to give in to the itch. When she felt overcome, she patted the areas instead.

“It’s not going to affect you if you don’t touch it. Poison ivy doesn’t attack people. We’ll just have to be careful where we put our feet.” Elaine scoured their surroundings for something they could use. There was nothing but the intricate network of rocks, trees, bushes and vines.

Elaine left her sweater on a nearby shrub again and they set off on the path that led to the right of the cave. They passed the poison ivy plants that Kimberly had broken and thrown on the ground. They looked withered and wilted in the afternoon heat. It was hard to imagine that it was these droopy plants that had done so much damage to Kimberly’s skin.

“When we searched for food this morning, who would have thought we’d be looking for tin cans this evening?” Miriam asked. “If we’d known, we would have searched for both at the same time. Two birds with one stone and all that.”

The path was grassy and any elevation was gentle. They really didn’t need to do much but put one foot in front of the other.

“We can only kill two birds with one stone if we can see the birds. We’re out here because Susan’s stomach is sick. We couldn’t see that this morning,” Elaine said.

“You would have to have known I would eat those berries to start looking for cans,” Susan said, “and how would you know?”

The track turned into a denser area, matted with numerous trees, so it was hard to see much ahead of them. They stood close to one tree whose roots seemed to take up the entire area. Like huge antennas, they ran out under and above ground, stretching as far as the eye could see. The other trees almost seemed like props to this main piece. The tree’s tendons were not just huge but overwhelming.

“This thing is like a huge monster.” As far as Miriam could look, all she saw was the roots of this tree.

“All I can say is this tree must suck a lot of water and food from the soil. It’s amazing that there is any room for anything else.” Elaine looked up at the tree’s branches. They extended far into the sky and stretched a good way vertically and horizontally. It was possible that the roots had extended more than the tree’s branches. Maybe the roots had grown even taller than the height of the tree, if that was possible.

“The roots look like gnarly, creepy hands.” Kimberly could think of many horror movies where this would fit right in. “It’s a bit scary.”

“Some of them are so big, I think several became intertwined. It would take forever to cut one root.” Elaine could only imagine the distance the roots covered.

“Can you imagine this at the side of your house?” Miriam asked.

“I imagine the city would come and remove it,” Elaine said, “or it would just tear the house apart; several houses for that matter.”

They felt small looking up at this huge tree.

“I feel really short now,” Miriam said, “as if I don’t have enough to contend with. We passed tall trees all day yesterday and today, but this is Shaq tall in trees.”

The ground on which they were standing was damp. There wasn’t enough space between the leaves, branches and trees for the sun to fully penetrate. The density of the space made the place seem all the more untouched.

“We can never grow that tall, but we can branch out,” Susan said.

“Ever since you ate those poison berries, you’re different,” Miriam said. “More thoughtful or something.”

Susan shrugged.

They continued to walk through the density. Some of the limbs reached threateningly toward them. The surrounding concentration of trees seemed to protect yet threaten them all at once. Finally the density gave way to a more open area. They emerged into the sunshine, still looking for that elusive container.

“I feel like we’re in a story looking for some lost artifact.” Kimberly continued to pat her arms and lightly slap her face.

“A tin can or cup may as well be an artifact. We’re looking for the remains of somebody who came through here, except hopefully that wouldn’t be too long ago.” Elaine thought it might be easier to find artifacts in the cave. They’d already seen the drawings and carvings; maybe there was some kind of container inside. Caves were known for buried tools, weapons and all sorts of treasures. But they had seen nothing of value.

They all suddenly stopped in their tracks. They listened intently to a steady, continuous humming.

“What’s that noise?” Kimberly was now distracted from scratching.

“That’s a really mighty buzz,” Elaine said.

They moved slowly and haltingly forward. They could turn around without knowing what lay ahead, but the sound, though petrifying, pulled them in.

“Holy mother of God.” Susan made a huge cross over her chest.

Before them lay the body of a dead deer. It was frightening and grotesque. The carcass held within and above it what seemed like ten thousand swarming flies.

“I don’t think we’re going to find any can out here.” Miriam realized why they had stopped breathing. The air had a putrid smell.

“We should go back right now.” Elaine held her nose.

They felt the same way, yet they were pulled in by the weird beauty of the distorted, deformed picture. They had never seen this many flies on dead flesh before, and it intrigued them.

“What do you think they’re doing in there?” Susan asked.

They had only a partial view of the inside of the deer because there were so many flies, but it seemed as though most of the entrails had been removed.

“They could only be eating.” Elaine noted the aberrations that were now the deer’s eyes. They were hardly distinguishable, overrun with funneling flies.

“Have you ever seen so many flies eating dead meat before?” Susan had never witnessed anything like this. She wondered if it was the flies alone that had eaten the deer down to a partial shell.

“No,” Miriam said. “I’ve seen a lot of worms and maggots but I’ve never seen anything like this. This is an army of flies.”

The buzzing sound seemed to make the air vibrate and come alive.

“All I know is this dead deer is providing these flies with food.”

The deer lay like a rigid sacrifice to the swarming flies. Its four legs were stretched out and its eyeless head, which was probably empty, looked sightlessly and stiffly ahead.