Surviving the Fog (23 page)

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.

The sky was clear the following morning.
 At dawn, Hector started his truck, and he and a group of boys
smothered in their heaviest clothes and blankets went to bury the
bones lying under the noose.  A few hours later, Mary saddled
her horse, and she led the two animals over the bridge.  She
rode up the hill, and then she turned to acknowledge the waving
kids.  She disappeared over the crest of the hill as the
burial detail was returning.

"She's a nice lady," Yuie said, as Mary
disappeared over the rise.

"Yes, she is," Mike agreed.

"And now we know that our people at the farm
are all right," Rasul added.

The snow had slowly melted.  It lingered
in the deep woods and on the mountains above them, but the road to
the Brown farm became passable.  Hector warned Mike that they
needed to save their fuel for major projects and emergencies, so
one day Mike, Jacob, and Hector hiked to the farm.  They
stopped and camped for the night at the turnoff to the logging
camp, and then they continued on the next day.  That afternoon
as they neared the farm, the household came out to greet them.
  The older kids were excited to see their friends.
 Comet and Star trailed along behind Mary and Ralph.

"Who's them, Daddy?" Comet demanded, giving
Mike a look of suspicion.

Mike raised his eyebrows as he looked at
Ralph.  "They’re friends, Comet," Ralph answered as he lifted
the young lad with one arm.

The girls had to have hugs.  The boys
were more reserved, but they were very happy to see everyone.
 Mary greeted Jacob cheerfully and invited everyone inside,
and despite their protests, fed them dinner.  Afterwards, she
showed them the farm.

"We need to decide what kinds of food I can
provide that will stretch the farthest.  Personally, I think
that the best thing I could do would be to plow a large portion of
your meadow, and sow it with wheat, alfalfa, and oats.  You
have more land in your meadow than I have in my fields.  In
the fall, I can cut everything with the combine, and then leave the
combine there.  We've got to avoid moving the machinery as
much as possible to save on fuel.  When we run out, we can use
the horse and manpower to plow.  We can use the wagon to move
the food from your camp to our farm, or to move it from our farm to
your camp.

"Here at the farm, I plan on planting
potatoes, winter squash, peas, beans, and lettuce.  Those
crops, we can harvest by hand, although I will need you to send
some of your people to help us.  I don't think that we will
get great results from beans, but they are important to supplement
whatever meat your hunters can provide.  I'll keep on growing
cucumbers, summer squash, and tomatoes in containers in the solar
room, so that I can get some vegetables to you as soon as possible.
 I believe that I can provide enough grains and vegetables for
everyone.  And we will have milk, although we may have to do
without for a year.  Our new calf is a bull, but it will be at
least November before he can cover our cows, so I don't expect to
be able to provide you with milk next winter, unless we have a low
snowfall." She stopped.

The campers were overwhelmed.

"Wow," exclaimed Mike.  "Mrs. Brown,
you're like a super mom or something.  I can't believe how
you’ve planned this.  I just don't know...” he trailed away,
unable to express himself.

Mary smiled at him.  "I'm a mother and a
decent farmer, and I have the skills that you need.  That's
why I'm doing this.  But I will need your help to succeed."
 The campers gratefully voiced their thanks and their
eagerness to help.  Together with Mary and Ralph, they talked
well into the night as they made plans for the coming year.

The campers spent the night in the loft of
the barn.  The next day, they helped Mary load the wagon with
food.  By noon they were ready to leave.  Ralph drove the
wagon, while the campers walked beside it.  The twins were
going with them, but the girls were staying at the farm.  They
talked to Mike about their decision.

"Mrs. Brown said we could stay if we wanted
to," Kylie began.  "I mean, we miss our friends back at camp,
but..."

"But, we like it here, Chief," Paige added.
 "And Mrs. Brown needs us.  And Comet and Star need
us."

"It's okay," Mike assured them.  "You're
free to come and go as you like.  And we'll be up here pretty
often, so we'll see you.  And you can come visit us whenever
you want."

"Why can't I go, Daddy?" Comet
complained.

"You will be the only boy left, so you have
to stay, Comet," Ralph replied.

Comet did not think much of Ralph's
reasoning, but his grumbling subsided for the moment.
 Standing beside his mother, his sister, and the girls, he
waved goodbye.  Slowly, the wagon rolled away from the
farm.

The heavy load required them to travel much
slower than they normally would have.  At one point, the wagon
got stuck in the soft mud of the dirt road, and the campers had to
unload the wagon and push it out of the mud.  They stopped for
the night at the junction of the logging road and the gravel road.
 Early the next morning, they continued their journey, and by
twilight they arrived at the camp.  Ralph carefully drove the
wagon over the bridge Hector had built and then brought it to a
halt, close to the dining hall.  It was a cold night, so they
left the food in the wagon and unloaded it early the next day.

The next morning, Ralph was anxious to get
back to the farm.  When the supplies were unloaded and stowed,
he said goodbye to his friends, and then he spoke to Kevin and
Nathan.

"Guys," he said.  "I truly appreciate
everything.  I'm sorry I was such an asshole at first."

"We should have helped you more, Ralph. We're
sorry, too," Nathan responded.  Ralph shook hands with Kevin
and Nathan, and then he turned to Mike.

"I have an idea," Ralph said.  "I'm
going to miss the help that those two gave me.  I was thinking
that you might be willing to send another pair.  Actually, I
was thinking that it would be a good idea for a lot of the guys to
get some experience on a farm.  Maybe, you could send a new
pair each month.  It might come in handy in the future."

"Yeah, that is a good idea," said Mike.
 "Alright, I'll send Tyler and another guy to you in a
couple of days.  I should warn you, the girls will probably
want to have a chance to work on the farm, too, Ralph."

"That’s fine.  I'll be seeing you,
Mike."

"You're staying with Mrs. Brown?  For
good?" Mike asked.  Ralph nodded.

"Then I'll see you around," Mike said with a
smile.

They shook hands, and Ralph climbed on the
wagon.  He left the parking lot, and drove up the hill.
 Mike watched until he disappeared.  Mike had mixed
feelings about Ralph’s intentions, but he realized that developing
the farm could be an important step in assuring the survival of
this tribe of campers.  And he remembered that the farm was
not the only potential source of food.

Mike asked Jacob to come in for a talk.

Jacob had stalked and killed a deer that
week, but he was not happy about it.

"This is the worst time of the year to be
killing deer.  This is when they're mating," he explained.
 "The bucks I kill will not mate and sire fawns."

"Bad karma," Rasul agreed.  He was
helping Mike moved furniture back into Chief’s Headquarters.

"I’ve been thinking about those people at the
Retreat that Jean came across," Mike said.  "I've been
thinking about the sheep."