Alone in the Woods: Cheryl Strayed, my daughter, and me
By Micah Perks
3/5
()
About this ebook
Micah Perks
Micah Perks is the author of a novel, We Are Gathered Here, and a memoir, Pagan Time, about growing up on a commune in the Adirondack Wilderness. Pagan Time is an audiobook from Audible and an ebook and has been translated into Korean. Her short stories and essays have appeared in Epoch, Zyzzyva, Tin House, and The Rumpus, among many other journals and anthologies. She's won an NEA Award, a Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts grant, two Pushcart Prize nominations, and several residencies at the Blue Mountain Center. She lives with her family in Santa Cruz and codirects the creative writing program at UCSC. You can find more information on her and her writing at micahperks.com.
Related to Alone in the Woods
Related ebooks
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail - Top 50 Facts Countdown Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFrom Bear Rock Mountain: The Life and Times of a Dene Residential School Survivor Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Picture Wall: One Woman's Story of Being (His) (Her) Their Mother Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fire and Stone: Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mountain Blood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life Is About Losing Everything Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As Far as the Road Would Take Me: From the Hippie Trail to the Canadian Wilderness Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI Want More Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsobittersweet: Life Lessons from Obituaries Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWild by Cheryl Strayed (Trivia-On-Books) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEarth to Poetry: A 30-Days, 30-Poems Earth, Self & Other Care Challenge Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhen Changing Nothing Changes Everything: The Power of Reframing Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Heart Is the Size of a Fist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Story of H: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Last Bookstore in America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Poetry & Place Anthology 2015 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWalking Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBut Enough About Me: Why We Read Other People's Lives Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLife After Marriage Ends Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Book of Malcolm: My Son's Life with Schizophrenia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Apple's Bruise: Stories Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Jacob's Room Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Yellow Wallpaper Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5She's Not Herself Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Acquainted with the Night: Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWatermark Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Remember the Sweet Things: One List, Two Lives, and Twenty Years of Marriage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Walden Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dissenter on the Bench: Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Life & Work Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Separation Anxiety: A Coming-of-Middle-Age Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Relationships For You
The Big Book of 30-Day Challenges: 60 Habit-Forming Programs to Live an Infinitely Better Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dumbing Us Down - 25th Anniversary Edition: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5She Comes First: The Thinking Man's Guide to Pleasuring a Woman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All About Love: New Visions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm Glad My Mom Died Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Running on Empty: Overcome Your Childhood Emotional Neglect Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Child Called It: One Child's Courage to Survive Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen: A Survival Guide to Life with Children Ages 2-7 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Boundaries Workbook: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Boundaries with Kids: How Healthy Choices Grow Healthy Children Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Good Girl's Guide to Great Sex: Creating a Marriage That's Both Holy and Hot Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Covert Passive Aggressive Narcissist: The Narcissism Series, #1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5ADHD: A Hunter in a Farmer's World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Codependence and the Power of Detachment: How to Set Boundaries and Make Your Life Your Own Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Your Brain's Not Broken: Strategies for Navigating Your Emotions and Life with ADHD Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Like Switch: An Ex-FBI Agent's Guide to Influencing, Attracting, and Winning People Over Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: the heartfelt, funny memoir by a New York Times bestselling therapist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The ADHD Effect on Marriage: Understand and Rebuild Your Relationship in Six Steps Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Loving Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Uniquely Human: A Different Way of Seeing Autism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Polysecure: Attachment, Trauma and Consensual Nonmonogamy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Becoming Sister Wives: The Story of an Unconventional Marriage Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Reviews for Alone in the Woods
2 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Alone in the Woods - Micah Perks
Author
Chapter One: Some Deer Mystery
One early morning I looked out the window into the overgrown backyard and saw a deer. This was when I was pregnant with my second child, living in the country in western New York. The doe was reddish, legs long and slim, dancerlike. She was so pretty that at first I didn't notice that her stomach was swollen and her hide ragged. The doe mouthed the barren grapevine, nosed the bare ground. I realized she was pregnant.
After that she seemed to spend every morning in my backyard grazing while I grazed indoors. Together we grew larger and larger. This seemed like a good omen. Deer have always charmed me. I like the way they live close to us, but skittish, just out of reach, so that seeing them feels like good luck. Indeed, our double pregnancies seemed like double good luck.
One morning while I watched in my swollen state, the white-tailed doe grazed her way out of the woods and into the yard, followed by two spotted fawns. The fawns pulled up grass, raised their heads, and pranced sideways. One began to nurse. The other pricked her enormous ears and raised her narrow head—she seemed to be staring straight at me with her big brown Bambi eyes.
After that, the three of them spent the mornings in the yard while I grew bigger, read, wrote, corrected papers, and waited for my own deliverance.
I gave birth to my daughter a month later. I had meant to give birth in a hot tub at the birthing center a half hour away, but she came so quickly that there wasn’t even time to fill the tub.. After she arrived, though, we floated peacefully in the warm soup together.
On the fifth day after her birth, I ventured out into the world to return some library books and pick out new ones. I was walking back up the driveway at dusk, clutching the books to my chest, when I heard my new daughter crying in the house, a high wail as thin as a thread. Her cry pulled at me, and the front of my shirt soaked through with milk. Then, I heard something in the bushes. The doe high-stepped out of the woods. Where were her twins? Hidden somewhere? Had a predator eaten them? The doe didn’t even notice me; she was that intent on the crying. Her neck strained forward, her ears pulled up and back, her eyes focused on the sound. She walked right up the cement front steps, her muzzle nearly touching the screen door.
At first I found this charming, but minutes went by, and I was still standing in the driveway while the doe blocked the path back to my crying daughter. I grew disconcerted. I cleared my throat. She paid no attention.
Shoo,
I said tentatively. Her ears twitched,