Chapter Seventeen
Erin had run as far as she could that night, surrendering to the darkness that enveloped her as she ventured deeper and deeper into the forest. She didn’t want to use her flashlight, as she was uncertain how long she would be hiding in the woods and had no extra batteries.
She found some low-handing branches from a huge Douglas fir. She threw her backpack next to the trunk, dug out the survival blanket, and drew it around her body. Erin shivered against the cold, or maybe it was from fright. She had never spent time alone in the woods. She had never spent time alone anytime in her life. A tear found its way to the edge of her eyes and rolled slowly down her cheeks. How could this be happening? She stifled a sob. What am I going to do? She pulled the blanket up over her head as she heard the rain plop softly on the mat of forest debris.
The morning sun was sending beams of misty light through the towering fir trees. The huge ferns raised their long arms to the warmth of the sun. Erin woke to the sounds of the morning. A bird twilled somewhere, a thrush was knocking his love-tap against a fir tree. Several Mountain Jays cawed as they circled overhead, curious as to the new visitor and what she might be doing in their house.
Erin had slept through the entire night, oblivious to the nocturnal wildlife that abounds in the forest. She folded her survival blanket and placed it in her pack. She found a packet of trail mix and moved her belongings to an old tree stump that was sitting in full sun.
Being cautious of sparse supplies, she sipped a small amount of water and ate only a few pieces of her bounty. She would have loved to build a warming fire, but knew that would be too dangerous. Smoke signs travel for miles. She knew there would be an all-points bulletin out on her. Tim would have returned home and found the car and his backpack gone. It wouldn’t have taken him very long to add up the clues. A little pull with his old police buddies and the 24-hour missing persons rule would be laid to ruins.
Erin felt the urgent need to get moving. She was not sure how long before they would find the car buried in the trees, but assumed there would be a litany of people searching at any time. She threw on the backpack, checked her compass attached to the zipper pouch, and headed out in a general northerly direction.
Erin arrived mid-morning at a clear-cut logging area. This was the first time she had been able to see the lay of the land to determine what her strategy would be. She stayed very still, resting against a tree trunk. She could see for several miles from her vantage point and felt she was indeed going in the proper direction. She was trying to stay at a high altitude as she thought there would be less chance of running into humans.
She enjoyed watching two doe and three fawns munching on leaves from bush in the clear-cut area. The fawns were romping around their mothers without a care in the world. A pang of guilt spread over Erin. Tim and Erin were never to have children of their own. At first it was not the right time, then careers were in the way, then Erin had a hysterectomy after an ovarian cancer scare. Adoption was their only recourse and now that seemed to be out of the realm of possibility. She wondered if these animals knew how lucky they were. How innocent they can be in nature.
Erin looked at her compass. She decided to walk on a course that would take her atop the entire mountain range if she so desired. She marked the compass and would try to stay the course the best she could. She continued on her trek to nowhere.
Erin had been walking for several days, and she felt a little more secure. She was putting miles between Tim and herself, and she was becoming one with nature. She found herself talking to the birds and even feeding the Mountain Quail some of her nut mixture. She ground up the nuts and sprinkled them on the cold ground. The Quail seemed very glad to get something fresh to eat. A steady diet of trail mix was becoming pretty old. Erin longed for a warm meal. She thought if she found the right place to camp for the night, she might light a fire. She did have some freeze-dried food, but they needed hot water to reconstitute to real food.
Erin found an outcropping of rocks that evening and with what this small fortress provided for her, she felt confident enough to build a warming fire and heat some water. She brought out two packages. One was beef stroganoff and the other lasagna. Wow, a choice, she thought. She also found a couple of other items she was not aware were in the pack. Two bags marked Flameless Food Pouch Heating Kit.
Simple Directions:
Add recommended amount of water to reconstitute your favorite food item and mix contents. Reseal the foil pouch. Prepare the oven by opening the insulated oven bag, place one heat activation pad inside. Add water to fill line on the plastic bottle. Add 1 fast-dissolving salt tablet. Shake bottle. Pour salt solution over the heater pad. Heater pad will immediately begin heating. Place prepared meal pouch upright into oven insulated zipper bag and zip bag closed.
Awesome, she thought. She didn’t have to heat water up at all. And the best part, she could have all this in just 20 minutes. She didn’t have to get the fire hot enough to boil water, just enough to warm her up. She started salivating thinking about a real meal that night. The hardest part was picking which meal to have. She decided on stroganoff.
With her belly full of warm food, and her small fire throwing lazy shadows against the rock wall, Erin fell asleep.
Chapter Eighteen
Instead of waking up to the Mountain Jays the next morning, Erin jumped to attention with a start. She could hear something coming toward her. What was that noise? It sounded familiar—a helicopter. Erin scrambled to gather her garbage and other items. She stuffed things into her bag. She could hear the rotors of the roaring helicopter getting closer and closer. It was almost deafening. She grabbed her pack and dove under some of the rock outcropping. There was a ledge of rocks about 10 inches from the ground that provided a good place to hide from spying air traffic. Erin rolled under the ledge and hugged her pack to her stomach. She looked around the rocks, saying a silent prayer that the snakes were in hibernation.
Erin could see from her vantage point a helicopter hover above the rocks. The wind from the blades picked up leaves, dirt, and ashes from her fireplace in tornado-like fashion spewing them along the outcropping. These pilots were obviously looking for her. There would be no other reason for a helicopter to hover this low to the ground. They flew off, barely clearing the treetops above her camp.
She waited for several minutes and after hearing the helicopter sound go farther and farther away she rolled out of the rocks. Erin lay flat down on the ground for several more moments, all the while listening for the helicopter to fly further away. Well, she told herself out loud, I guess fires are out of the question now. That was a little too close for her comfort. When she thought the way was clear, Erin picked up her bag and traveled on her course.
Several days turned into a week. A week turned into several weeks. Erin hadn’t had a bath or washed her hair for two weeks. She was feeling extremely grimy and grumpy. No hot food and no hot bath. She had resorted to wearing a stocking cap over her hair. She hadn’t taken it off for a week. She didn’t dare. Maybe it was time to descend and become among the living again. She would make her decision in the morning. For tonight, the sky was clear and the moon a sliver. She didn’t lie under the trees that night, but laid out in a meadow overlooking a small town below.
Erin didn’t know exactly where she was, or what town she was looking at, but she hadn’t crossed over the mighty Columbia River, so she knew it was still somewhere in Oregon. Erin laid her head on her backpack and stared at the small houses and small buildings she could see with their miniature lights. She imagined that she was in one of the small houses, sitting next to a warm fireplace, sipping hot chocolate. With the imaginary taste of hot chocolate on her lips, and the warmth from the imaginary fireplace, Erin fell asleep. Tomorrow she would drop down and explore. Tonight she couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer.
Chapter Nineteen
Erin felt blowing hot air on her face. Wow, she thought, the sun is really strong today. She slowly opened one eye then the other. Just as her eyeballs were adjusting to the morning light, she saw two very black eyeballs staring back at her. Then a very large pink object rolled out of the blowing hot air and landed right on her lips. Erin jumped up, “Oh, my God. What on earth?” Realizing it was a dog; she relaxed and put her hand out to her small black visitor. “Well, howdy there buddy. What are you doing up here so early in the morning?”
The black dog wagged his tail, rolled his tongue out, and panted his pleasure at this early morning meeting. Looking around the dog’s neck and finding a dog license, she assumed this new friend was out for his morning stroll. “Let’s see what your name is.” Pepper the tag said. “Well, Pepper, you must live close around here. I’ll walk down the hill with you. I guess this is my sign to get out of the mountains and find a new life for myself. Pepper, I have no idea where I am and I have no idea what I am going to do next.”
The dog jumped up on Erin, its tongue lolling to one side. “Woof,” Pepper answered. “Woof.”
“I couldn’t agree more, Pepper. We can think of it as an adventure. I am so ready for a hot shower and clean clothes and, oh yes, a hot meal.”
Erin dug into her backpack and drew out the last of the spring water she had used to refill her water bottle. She took a large pull on the bottle and held it in the air for Pepper. As Erin dribbled the water out of the bottle, Pepper lapped his tongue through the stream.
“Good boy. Now let’s get going. I am suddenly very hungry.”
Erin and her new friend, Pepper, strolled down the hill toward the miniature town she dreamt about last night. A farmhouse appeared as they walked over a small knoll. The house was previously hidden from Erin’s view. “So this is where you probably live, Pepper,” she said to the dog as she ruffled his hair on his neck.
“Thanks so much for the greeting. I am going to leave you now and go in to town. You go on to your house.” Erin knew that rural people get a little spooked about people suddenly popping up on their property. She didn’t want to be on the wrong end of a rifle that morning.
Erin walked away from the farmhouse but maintained a beam toward the town below. She waved at Pepper as he sat on the knoll above his house. Maybe this would be a good place to start a new life. She smiled, as she got closer to the edge of town. She could see a sign in front of an old motel—Peppertree Inn. “Pepper” tree inn. That seemed appropriate.
She stopped walking and took off her backpack. She opened the pack and grabbed the plastic bag of money. Time to start spending the money she stole from Tim–which he stole from her. She took out several denominations of bills and stuffed them in her pant pockets.
Even though she probably looked like something that the dog dragged in, she was suddenly filled with hope. She even managed a little whistle as she walked toward the motel.
Chapter Twenty
Erin pushed open the motel office door into a typical glass front office. She walked up to the counter. The door had a small bell above it that tinkled when she came in. She couldn’t hear or see anybody, so she hit the clapper on the bell sitting next to the register.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you come in,” the man said as he came out of the back room drying his hands on a dish towel. “I was doing up some dishes. Do you want a room?”
“Sorry I am so dirty,” Erin apologized. “But I have been on a hiking vacation and thought I would come in for a shower and hot meal. Yes, I would very much like a room.”
The motel owner spun the register around for Erin to sign it and rang up $23.58 on the cash register. “Just for one night?” he asked.
Erin poised the pen above the line where she needed to provide a name. “I think so. Just for tonight.” Her mind reeled as she tried desperately to think of a name to register. She slowly printed A. Jones then signed the same. She had no idea what that name would be, but didn’t want to give any information to the motel that Tim would be able to trace.
She placed two twenty-dollar bills on the counter. The motel owner took the money and placed the change on the counter. He spun the register around as Erin stuffed the change in her pocket.
“Here is your key. Number two is a nice room. Pretty quiet so you can rest and be on your way.”
“Thank you,” Erin said as she turned to find her room.
“Oh, sir,” the owner said. Erin kept walking. “Sir,” he said a little louder.
Erin realized that he was talking to her. Sir, she thought. He thinks I’m a man. I probably look like a man right now. I am about the right height—5 feet 9 inches, my head was covered with a stocking cap, and I did loose a lot of weight in the last two weeks. Erin looked down at her body. She had lost all her feminine curves and her arms and legs were quite muscular from climbing over the mountainous terrain. She spun around. “Yes, sir.”
“I’m sorry to bother you, but we need a first name for the register—Homeland Security thing, you know. I don’t think you are a terrorist, but we must follow Federal guidelines.”
Erin suddenly felt a sense of power. She realized that if she were posing as a man, it would make her even harder to track. “No problem. My first name is Aaron. A-a-r-o-n.” Well, that was brilliant and original, she thought.
“Great, Aaron,” he said. “By the way, if you are looking for some company, I have a card here for you, if you want.” He slid the small business card toward Erin and winked.
Erin picked up the card that showed only two things, the name Patti and a telephone number. Erin winked back at the owner and told him thanks.
I think I can do this, Erin mused. I can’t call Patti, but I can become Aaron or anyone else I want to be. Cool.
“Oh, by the way,” Erin said. “What’s the name of your town here?”
“Forest Glen,” was the reply.
“Forest Glen,” Erin repeated. “Is there a good place to get a hair cut?”
“Sure. Go down this way.” The motel owner pointed out the motel front window. “Turn left at the end of the block. Around the corner there is a barber shop and a pretty good café.”
“Cool, thanks.”
