The Seventh Taking: A Mountain Mystery

by BJ Bourg

  Charlie had walked up to the stream’s edge. “It’s paradise.”

  The water was crystal clear and wasn’t very deep. Maybe two or three feet. The streambed was solid rock, with some of them protruding above the rushing water and some buried beneath. There was a rock jutting above the surface of the water about six feet from where I stood. “You think I can make it?” I asked.

  “Don’t even try,” Charlie warned. “If you get hurt, we’re not carrying you all the way out of here.”

  “Do it,” Brett challenged. “If you get hurt, Charlie and I will only have to outrun you—not the bear.”

  “I’m seventeen, not seventy.” I squatted, took a deep breath, and lunged forward, propelling my body through the air. I covered the short distance with no problem and both feet landed on the protruding rock. I was about to give a triumphant shout when my left foot slipped out from under me and shot into the air, sending me flailing backward. I crashed into the stream and sucked air when the freezing water wrapped its icy hands around my body. It was not deep enough to cushion my fall and my back slammed into the uneven rocks. Although I wanted to bolt from the clutches of the biting water, I was temporarily paralyzed from the pain in my back. I groaned.

  “I told you,” Charlie yelled from the bank of the stream. “Don’t listen to me.”

  The water flowed over my body and splashed in my face. Shivering, I pushed off the slick rocks with my elbows and sat up. My shirt clung to my body. I glanced around. “What happened?”

  “Algae grows on these rocks,” Charlie said, mocking me, “and it makes the rocks very slippery.”

  I made my way to my feet and staggered toward the stream bank, where Charlie and Brett stood laughing. My body was so cold that the cool wind blowing against me felt warm. “I wish I’d brought the matches. I’m going to freeze to death.”

  “It’s summer,” Charlie said. “You won’t freeze to death.”

  “You could,” Brett warned. “It’s much cooler up here in the mountains.”

  I dropped to the ground in the middle of the patch of sunlight that beamed down into the clearing and stretched out on my back. I didn’t move, allowing the sun to caress my body with its warm fingers.

  “Let’s eat so we can get out of here.” Brett glanced around. He seemed uneasy.

  “I’m with him,” Charlie said.

  I looked back toward the intersection of the two trails, but couldn’t see them because of the dense underbrush and shadows. “Y’all want to go back or keep going?”

  “How far have we come?” Charlie asked.

  I stuck my hand in my back pocket and grunted when I felt the wet mush that used to be my map. “Dudes, my map’s ruined.”

  “Good job, Abe.” Charlie dug his map out and handed it to me. “Why don’t you try not to ruin this one, okay? It’s all we’ve got.”

  I spread it out and studied it. “We’ve already traveled ten miles, so that means we have seven to go.”

  “Let’s keep going then,” Charlie said. “Besides, I’d rather not go back to Oliver’s Bald. That place gave me the creeps.”

  “Me, too!” Brett said. “Do we even have to come back this way, or can we get back to the truck from another direction?”

  “There is another way, but from what I read, Rocky Creek Trail is narrow and the going might be slower.” I handed the map back to Charlie and dug for some food.

  We broke open a can of beef stew and shared it, along with a bottle of water. Although cold, the beef stew was tasty and hit the spot. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was until I smelled the food. With each bite, my energy level increased until I felt like I could hike another ten miles with little effort.

  Charlie finished eating before Brett and me, and he stood with the camera. He took a picture of me wolfing down my last bite and then shot pictures of the surrounding area. “I sure wish we knew what happened to Joy—and these other people,” Charlie said out loud, but not particularly to me.

  Brett nodded, as he wiped brown gravy off his chin with a sleeve. “It’s got to be scary out here for days or months alone.”

  Guilt stabbed at my chest, just as it had done when Dad first told me Joy was missing. Without saying a word, I gathered up our trash and put it in a nearby metal trash receptacle. I absently wondered how they’d gotten the receptacle all the way out there in the backcountry.

  “You think she’s dead?” Brett asked.

  I took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly. “I sure hope not. I pray not. I feel bad enough as it is.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry, Abe. I didn’t mean—”

  I waved it off. “It’s okay. We’re all wondering the same things and thinking the worst. Regardless of what happens, I do sincerely appreciate y’all coming with me. I couldn’t do this alone. It is scary, but y’all make it manageable.”

  “Can we hug it out?” Charlie asked, trying to stifle a grin.

  I couldn’t help but laugh. He could always lighten up the mood.

  “I wouldn’t hug you if I was dying of hypothermia,” Brett said.

  Charlie stuffed the camera in his rucksack and slung it over his shoulder. “What do y’all think happened to them? You think this place could be haunted by ghosts?”

  “Ghosts don’t exist,” I said.

  “According to the news article, they all had issues at home that could’ve been grounds for them wanting to run away”—Charlie nodded in my direction—“even Joy.”

  I shook my head. “Lose the suicide angle. I don’t think Joy could ever hurt herself.”

  “I’m not talking about suicide. What if they wanted to disappear? Joy was always smart—straight As, all honor classes, top of the band. A smart girl like that doesn’t go wandering off to be lost forever.” Charlie moved closer, and I saw he was getting excited, like he did when he thought he had a prized alligator on the other end of his line. “If a girl like that wants to disappear, she plans it carefully. How much you want to bet she did a little research before leaving for Gatlinburg and saw that people were going missing? How much you—”

  “You’re right!” I was nearly jumping with excitement. “She planned this. The article said it’s been a year since anyone disappeared, so there’s no way her disappearance is connected. I bet her aunt is in on it. I bet her aunt met her here and picked her up.”

  “She’s probably hiding out in a hotel or something in Birmingham,” Charlie said.

  I nodded. “She knew her aunt’s house would be the first place her dad would look, so there’s no way she was going there. Did you notice the way her aunt was acting? Like she was hiding something.”

  “She looked pissed off to me,” Brett said.

  “Whatever, dude. It doesn’t even matter anymore. Charlie’s right. She ran away, and her aunt helped her.” I walked over and slapped Charlie hard on the shoulder. “You’re brilliant!”

  “I know; I know.”

  “If you’re so brilliant,” Brett said, “why don’t you solve the case of these other missing people while we’re here?”

  Charlie stood a little taller. “I might just do that.”

  “If Joy ran away, what did happen to the others?” Brett asked.

  I shrugged my shoulders. “Maybe they ran away, too. Maybe they snuck out of the mountains and moved to some small town where they’re living in peace—away from their controlling parents. And maybe they committed suicide by nature, like the park rangers think.”

  “I’m not buying it,” Brett said. “We all have problems, but we don’t disappear to die, and we don’t run away from home over some small fight. I think their suicide theory is an excuse for their incompetence. Think about it—if you sucked at your job, would you admit it? Or would you blame the kids who went missing? If you think about it, we can all come up with some bogus reason why we’d want to run away from home and disappear.”

  I glanced over at Charlie. “He does have a point. If we go missing, people would probably say you disappeared because your mom’s kicking you o
ut the house when you turn eighteen, and they’d probably say I wasn’t happy about going to college.”

  “You see,” Brett said. “They’d say that I was mad about my mom forcing me to move to Louisiana after she divorced my dad. They’d say I’m hitchhiking my way back to Arkansas.”

  I laughed, as I looked over at Charlie. My smile faded when I wondered what might be going on inside his head. He stood like a statue and was staring down at the ground, his T-shirt and cargo shorts swaying gently in the cool breeze. When he looked up, his eyes were different. It was as though he were looking through me instead of at me. “Did y’all ever think of disappearing? Starting over in a place where no one knows you? Like witness protection?”

  I gulped. He was serious. “Um, not really. I mean, I remember wanting to run away as a kid when I’d get mad at my mom and dad, but I never acted on it. Within a day or two, I’d always get over whatever it was that made me mad.”

  “For the last four years, all I wanted to do was finish high school, but now all I want to do is go back.” Charlie grunted. “If I could go back to that first day of freshman year and relive the last four years, I’d do it in a heartbeat.”

  “Come on, Charlie…we’ve been dreaming about this forever. We’ve talked about what we’d do when we got out of school and—”

  “And it’s working out for you. You’re going off to college. You’ll make new friends and make a new life for yourself.” Charlie turned his head away and brushed a fist across his eyes. “What do I have? Life as I knew it is over. I’m losing my best friend to college. My mom doesn’t want me living with her anymore, so I’m losing the only place I’ve ever called home. I’m homeless and have no friends. What am I supposed to do with the rest of my miserable life?” Charlie was sniffling, and I wondered if he was crying.

  “Charlie, it’s not like that. We’ll still hang out,” I said. “I’ll come home every weekend or you can come up to Hammond. It’ll be fun.”

  “And I’ll still be around,” Brett offered.

  “Y’all have no idea what my life was like before high school, before I met Abe.” Charlie struggled to get the words out. “I had nowhere to go to be happy. I hated being home, and I hated school. My mom didn’t care about me, and everybody at school picked on me. No matter what I did, nobody liked me. You were my only friend.”

  “That’s not true, Charlie. You have lots of friends. You’ve had lots of girlfriends, too.”

  Charlie shook his head. “They were your friends. They only tolerated me because of you. Heck, the only reason no one picked on me in high school is because they were afraid of you.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “High school was the best time of my life. I don’t want it to end…ever.”

  “I loved high school, too,” I said slowly. “It was some of the best years of my life, but…but those times are over. We have to move on.”

  Charlie turned to face me, tears flowing free. “You know why my mom wants me to move out? Huh? Do you?”

  I shook my head slowly, shocked Charlie was so emotional. I didn’t know what to say or how to act. Brett looked uncomfortable, too, like he wasn’t supposed to be hearing the conversation.

  “Her new boyfriend wants to move into our house, but he doesn’t want to be bothered by a teenage son.” Charlie wiped a stream of tears from his face. “So, she’s kicking me out of the house, just so she can live with her free-loading boyfriend. She’s choosing some loser over her own flesh and blood.” Charlie pumped his fist in the air. “My dad would kill that leech if he was still alive!”

  “I’m so sorry, Charlie. I had no idea that—”

  “You’re not too sorry. You’re going off to college and leaving me all alone.”

  I lowered my head. That stung. The only reason Charlie wasn’t coming to college with me was because he didn’t make a high enough score on his ACT.

  “I’m your friend, Charlie.” Brett’s voice was low and cracked a bit. “And it’s not because of Abe. I know how it feels to move to a new place—a place where no one knows you. It’s not fun. But you know what? You made it easy for me. You were the first person to become friends with me, and I’ll never forget it. I’m not going to college, so I’ll be around. You won’t be alone.”

  CHAPTER 8

  Charlie set off down the trail, and Brett and I followed. We walked in silence for an hour. The only sound I heard outside of the crunching of our feet and birds chirping was an occasional sniffle from Charlie. That was easily one of the top three worst days of my life. Charlie was my best friend, and I hated seeing him like that. I felt powerless and extremely guilty. Since going back to high school was not an option, I didn’t know what to do to make things better for him.

  The trail ahead of us veered sharply to the right. According to Charlie’s map, it was supposed to run parallel to Betham Creek for another two miles until it intersected with Rocky Creek Trail and the very spot where North Carolina native Jennifer Banks had disappeared.

  “Can you hear Betham Creek?” Charlie asked.

  Charlie’s voice was so sudden and unexpected that I jumped. “Jesus,” I said, “you scared me. It didn’t even sound like you.”

  “I’m glad I’m not the only one he scared.” Brett shook his head. “It sounded like you saw something bad up ahead.”

  “Sorry. It’s been so long since I said anything that my voice just got away from me a bit. It went off a bit louder than I expected.”

  Charlie stopped walking at the point where the trail met up with the creek and waited for us to catch up. When we were beside him, he stared down at his feet. “No one needs to know about back there, right?”

  “Are you for real?” I asked. “First off, who would we tell? Second, you’re the only person to ever see me cry.”

  “A lot of people have seen me cry.” Brett shrugged. “I’m not ashamed.”

  “I actually believe you.” Charlie laughed, and I was happy to see the Charlie I knew so well. “Thanks. Y’all are good friends.”

  “Abe, you really cried before?”

  Charlie held up a finger. “Once, but it didn’t count.”

  “What do you mean, it didn’t count?” Brett wanted to know.

  “Because it was a happy cry—the night the Saints won the Super Bowl.”

  I smiled at the memory, wondering if I’d ever see another Saints’ championship. Glad to have my friend back, I whistled as we walked. The creek to our left was wider than the one we’d left behind at the picnic area and appeared deeper. The sun sparkled off the water, and an occasional trout flipped into the air and then landed with a splash. Although we had eaten only an hour ago, my stomach was starting to grumble. “Where do y’all want to eat tonight?”

  “What about McDonald’s?” Charlie asked.

  Brett shook his head. “Dude, we’re staying in that cabin near Gatlinburg and—thanks to you—we’ve got lots of money. Let’s live it up a little.”

  “What’s there to eat in Gatlinburg?” Charlie asked.

  “I saw a Hard Rock Café when we drove through the main strip,” I offered. “Want to try it?”

  Charlie nodded. “Sounds good. I’ve never eaten a hard rock, but I’d try anything twice—or three times.”

  “You don’t know what the Hard Rock Café is?” Brett asked.

  “He knows what the Hard Rock Café is,” I said.

  Charlie nodded “Yeah, we ate at one in Memphis when I was a kid. Abe and I ate at the one in New Orleans a couple of times.”

  We made small talk as we continued on our way. The trail was wider than the others we’d traveled on, but was littered with fallen trees and broken branches, making the hike more difficult and time consuming. What should have taken an hour took at least two, and we breathed a sigh of relief when we saw the sign for the Rocky Creek Trail. We stopped at the fork in the trail and dropped our rucksacks.

  “This is it.” Charlie pulled out the camera and took more pictures. “This is where Jennifer Banks�
� boyfriend was supposed to meet her.”

  I walked to the edge of the creek and dug through my bag until I found the poster for Jennifer. She had gone missing on June 25, 2010, so it was unlikely we would find any evidence of her existence—if she was ever here in the first place. According to her boyfriend—some guy named Ray—they were hiking the backcountry and Jennifer had become tired and refused to take another step. Ray had wanted to hike to the end of Betham Creek Trail, so he told Jennifer to wait for him by the fork in the trail. When he returned a couple of hours later, he claimed she was gone.

  “You think Jennifer’s boyfriend was telling the truth?” I asked Charlie.

  “The cops sure didn’t. According to that article, they believed Jennifer had been murdered back at her home and they publicly named Ray as a suspect in her disappearance.”

  “But you said the cops thought they all committed suicide by tree or something,” Brett said.

  “That’s what the park rangers said, but the detectives in Jennifer’s home town said her dad called the cops two different times before she disappeared to report that Ray hit Jennifer.” Charlie pulled out his phone to verify the information. “Yeah, that’s it. They said he was accused of domestic violence or something, but Jennifer denied it all when the cops talked to her. When she disappeared, her dad said she’d wanted to end the relationship, but was afraid of Ray.”

  “So…” Brett was thoughtful. “She was never here? He just pretended she was here to cover up her murder?”

  Charlie shrugged. “All I know is the cops have no clue what they’re talking about and the rangers have no clue what they’re doing.”

  “But you do?” Brett rolled his eyes.

  I wanted to mess around in the creek, but I didn’t want to get wet again, now that my clothes were dry, so I tucked the poster away and stepped back. “Y’all ready to keep going? If we hurry, we should be able to make these seven miles in three hours, or so, and be at the Hard Rock Café before dark.”