Exploits in the Adirondacks

By 518 Publishing Company

"Exploits in the Adirondacks" is an anthology containing fourteen tales from writers in New York’s capital region and beyond. These stories feature hiking, murder, wood cabins, aliens, and much more that will show you that forests aren't always relaxing. Join us on this journey through the amazing works that writers in this area have to offer and learn why we all love having the Adirondacks in our backyard.

• Language: English
• Publisher: 518 Publishing Co. LLC
• Release date: Feb 16, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463151822

Book preview

Exploits

In The

Adirondacks

Short Stories

And Poetry

By

518 Publishing Company

Exploits in the Adirondacks

518 Publishing LLC

Smashwords Edition

This book is fiction. Names, characters, places, incidents, and events are entirely fictitious. Any resemblance to any actual events, works, persons, dead or living, is coincidental, and is beyond the intent of the author.

No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reversed engineered, stored in, or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system in any form, whether it be electronic or mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without consent of 518 Publishing Company, LLC.

Text copyright © 2018 by 518 Publishing Company LLC

Cover copyright © 2018 by Moira Anne Design

Table of Contents

The Wood are Older Than Us

The Visit

New World Dragon: MISHIBIJIW

New World Dragon: MISHIGINEBIG

Conditions of the Curse

Storm at Song Glass Cabin

Castles in the Air

Sweet Revenge

Sleeping Beauty Falls

Thirsty

On the Upside

Sparkle

FOGG

The Ballad of the Kayaker of the Raquette

The New World

If You Can Feel Then You Are Alive

I Can't Come Back From Here

Adirondack Porch

The Supermoon in Speculator

Clunky, Tough Looking Things

The Prospects

Cold Fingers in Seneca Falls

Pasqual in the Mountains

Grandpa's Bears

About Us

The Woods Are Older Than Us

By

Timothy Lawton

Every year, it’s always the same, John said. The fire started to come to life as he poked at it with his stick.

Are you complaining? Anne asked, dropping another stack of wood beside her to help refuel the campfire when night came. Her pixie-cut strawberry blonde hair glowed as she approached the firelight.

The old man scratched his salt-and-pepper beard and shook his head. Not at all, he replied, turning to her and smiling. That’s exactly what I love about coming here. It’s always the same. It’s quiet, serene, indifferent to the noise of the world. Back at home, five minutes don’t pass without people losing their minds over some terrifying shit, but here in the woods, it feels just like it did ten years ago.

It’s a nice escape, Anne agreed, blowing a curl away from her eyes. But we’ve changed, even if the woods haven’t. Used to be we could set up camp in half the time with half the effort. Now, well...we’re old.

Not compared to the woods, we aren’t. John said, turning around to look into the forest surrounding them.

It was the latter half of twilight, just dark enough that the trees were nothing but silhouettes blotting out the dimly lit sky, black pillars that reached toward the heavens.

Well, maybe not, but I say we’re bringing a camper next year or going to one of those group campsites with the grills and running water. Anne took one of the folding chairs off the dirty forest floor and set it up next to her husband.

That takes all the fun out of it, John grumbled. Might as well not come to the Adirondacks at all if all you want to do is sit and get drunk around a bonfire. Hell, we could do that back at the lake house.

Now you’re talking! Anne said. We could invite the neighbors. It’d be like a nice party and best of all, we can pass out in our own bed afterwards.

John rolled his eyes and chuckled. His protruding gut bounced up and down as he laughed. Now you’re just trying to upset me.

Guilty as charged, Anne crossed her arms, but that’s what happens when I have nothing else to entertain me except a campfire and a wrinkly old man.

John got up with a long sigh and walked to the cooler, popping it open and grabbing two beers.

We’ve got two days of hiking to go! If you hate it so much, then why’d you come at all, Annie? he teased, as he handed one of the drinks to his wife.

Because who knows what would happen to you without me around, she replied before taking a sip and winking at her husband. You sure can’t expect me to let you go walking in this forest all by your lonesome. Too dangerous.

Eh, it isn’t that bad, John said as he sat down again. I mean...sure, I ain’t young anymore, but I know my way around the woods. We’ve only been coming here for a decade. I know what I’m doing.

You can only know your way around these woods so much, John, Anne replied, shaking her head with a smirk on her face. It’s like you said. These mountains, these woods? They’re much older than us. You can think you know them, but you don’t really. Ten years may be long enough to feel confident out here, but it ain’t long enough to really know shit.

John shrugged and then nodded as he took a swig from his beer. I suppose you’re right. Always a chance of getting lost. Can’t control the forest so there’s always risk.

Besides, I don’t actually hate it. I just like poking fun. Anne winked again and John smiled.

Yeah, well, save some material for tomorrow. It’s going to be a long walk if I have anything to say about it.

John sat back in his chair, doing his best to relax.

John and Anne woke up just as the sun peeked over the horizon, and they were out hiking before noon. The wind rustled the trees while birds sang and cried. Sticks, leaves and other discarded pieces of the forest crunched beneath the couple’s feet as they walked. There was something comforting about squawking birds and breaking twigs in a way that car horns and screeching tires just weren’t.

After a couple hours, Anne stopped her hiking short.

I got to go, she said.

Go? Go where? John turned around, confused.

Anne rolled her eyes. I gotta piss, Honey.

Oh, right. John looked around and found a nearby tree before leaning against it. I’ll try not to be too long, his wife said, as she scrambled off the path deeper into the woods.

John crossed his arms and closed his eyes, taking the opportunity to rest. His feet were aching a bit more than he’d been expecting at this point and he was grateful to take a moment.

He listened to the woods, trying to isolate sounds. Bees and flies were buzzing. Moths fluttered their wings. He couldn’t actually hear moth’s wings, but he liked to imagine he could. He smiled to himself.

After some time, the smile disappeared. Anne was taking a very long time. John opened one eye and looked around, half expecting his wife to have sneaked up behind him, but she wasn’t there. He pushed himself off the tree and began to walk around the trail, peering into the trees off the trail. She wasn’t within eyeshot.

She’s probably just messing with me, he tried to convince himself, as he took a few more steps into the woods.

Anne! he shouted into the trees. Are you there? Are you okay?

That was odd.

He couldn’t hear anything. There no response from his wife, and the sounds of the woods had ceased. He closed his eyes again, trying to listen, but there was no crackling of leaves, no buzzing of insects.

He looked around, the silence enveloping him. He yelled out again, but heard nothing. John grunted in frustration and reached inside his pocket to pull out his cell phone. It was a flip phone, and he hated fiddling with it, but at least he could make the thing work, unlike the smartphone his nephew had bought him on his last birthday. The younger man had told him it was better for hiking, safer with the built-in GPS, but John had shrugged it off. He’d been doing this for years before smartphones and GPS were ever a thing after all. He assumed he and Anne would be just fine in the mountains.

Once the phone was open, he quickly dialed 911, but before he pressed the green call button, his eyes shot to the corner of the screen to reveal there were no bars indicating cell signal.

Lost signal wasn’t odd in the woods on the Appalachian Trail. There were many dead spots, especially if you weren’t on the right network. John knew he’d have signal back at the camp, or even just a short distance back down the trail, but what if Annie showed back up and he wasn’t there? He could get search parties out here and police all riled up for nothing.

On the other hand, being a bit embarrassed because he overreacted was a much better outcome than what would happen if Anne did need help. The woods were just as unfriendly to seasoned hikers as they were to novices. John remembered hearing a story about a woman found decomposing in a sleeping bag barely twenty feet from the Adirondack Trail. She’d gone to relieve herself, but couldn’t find her way back to the main trail once she’d finished. Based on the notebook she’d left behind and the texts left unsent on her signalless phone, the poor woman had wandered for days. She was so close to making it, but it took the park service a year to find her body. Anne had left the trail for the same reason. A chill went down John’s spine.

He kept the phone in his hand as he turned around and stepped back onto the trail. His eyes remained firmly on his phone’s signal indicator as he walked back towards camp.

Come on, he whispered to his cell phone, come on...work. Just work.

The bars didn’t return quickly. He picked up speed once he realized this might not be a quick fix. His legs were old, but he could keep a brisk pace when motivated. The bars he needed still weren’t appearing and he was no closer to getting help. He could have sworn they had signal earlier on their hike. They had checked their phones for the time more than once and he’d remembered seeing that they had service. Where was it now?

Finally, a bar popped up and he stopped... but then it disappeared again. He must have walked past the live spot. He turned back around and slowly stepped forward, one foot at a time, watching the phone without blinking. Two steps didn’t get the job done. Neither did three, but four turned out to be the magic number. Two bars suddenly appeared in the top right corner of the phone’s screen.

Thank the Lord, he said, as he dialed 911 as fast as his cold fingers could. He put the phone to his ear and heard it ring once before there was a pick up.

911. What’s your emergency?

Hello, my name is John Rutherford, he replied. I’m on the trail, near the camping sites in the mountains. My wife has disappeared.

He was ready for instructions from the kind-sounding woman on the other end of the line, then a voice from behind startled him.

John? Why are you hiking the wrong way?

The old man jumped as a shock of adrenaline flooded his system. He turned around and saw Anne standing behind him.

Her brow was furrowed in concern as she inspected her panicked husband. Who are you talking to? she asked calmly.

She looked the same as he remembered, still wearing her blue puffy coat and a navy blue Yankees cap. His wife eyed him carefully; her eyebrows crunched down as John tried to process what was going on. Then, he heard a voice in his ear.

Sir? We need a more exact location for the park services.

I--I’m sorry. I think I wasted your time. I just found her. He stared ahead at his wife as he spoke to the dispatcher, his mouth agape after he finished speaking.

That’s okay, sir. I’m glad you found her. Be careful. Goodbye.

His wife cocked one eyebrow in the air, amusement filling her hazel eyes. Did you call the police because you couldn’t find me?

Yeah, he admitted, I was worried. You were taking a long time. How’d you get here? I couldn’t see you and I know I’ve walked back quite a bit by now.

She laughed.

It was definitely her laugh, that hint of a wicked cackle flavoring it. He wasn’t sure why he was surprised that the laughter sounded right. It’s my wife, after all.

Don’t flatter yourself, she said. You can’t walk that fast. I came back from my bathroom break and saw you walking back the other way. I was wondering if something spooked you.

That didn’t seem possible, John thought. They couldn’t be that close to where she’d left the trail.

You’re the one who spooked me, he finally said, forcing a smile. First, you take too long then you sneak up behind me. My heart’s pretty strong, but there isn’t any reason to test it like that.

She laughed again, more softly, and put a reassuring hand on his arm. It’s fine. Nothing to worry about. I just had some trouble finding a spot. Let’s keep going, okay?

Sounds good to me.

He smiled at her, more naturally this time. Anne turned and held out her arm. He linked his arm with hers and they were back to hiking again.

John woke up in the middle of the night with a backache. Before sitting up, he grunted and reached down to hold where it hurt, taking deep breaths as he did so. He remembered the painkillers were outside the tent.

He thought he might wake Anne up with all the fuss, but when he turned to look, she wasn’t there. He frowned, wondering if his wife was experiencing the same