For the first twenty minutes the hike was completely downhill, which set me to thinking I’d better not get too tired as the end of the hike would most likely be an uphill climb. But it was beautiful. So far from the hustle of civilization as we were, I think this was just what I’d needed. With a slight nip to the crisp morning air, an ethereal green light filtered down through the canopy of leaves the trees had formed above our heads. Moss covered a lot of the damp ground of the trail where I’d occasionally see a set of animal tracks in a particularly muddy patch of earth we passed.
Ben was behind me – on purpose I think. A few times he’d been careful to point out a slippery patch of earth and warn me to watch my footing. There was something of an old fashioned gentleman to him at times that made me wonder what his parents were like, his father especially.
A couple of times we’d stop to admire some straggler flowers that didn’t know enough to die off with the fall. By we, I mean Tabitha and I. The boys only stopped because we did. I’d brought along my camera and occasionally paused to take a photo of one of the patched of particularly photogenic brightly colored fall leaves that had started to spring up amongst the green. Ben, the only one behind me, would patiently wait for me to finish, often pointing out something else that I might like to photograph as well. His observant eye was exceptionally good at spotting things I would have missed.
About an hour into the hike we came across a creek that ran along a rocky bed, and we followed it up to a small waterfall where we took a rest break on the rocks in the clearing below. The sun was high now, drying the dew and giving a new crispness to the air.
Perched on the dry edge of a rock, I looked over at Ben. He was staring into the woods with his back to us like he was looking for something.
“What is it Ben?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Did you ever just get a strange feeling you couldn’t shake?”
“I don’t follow.”
“Sometimes I just get this feeling like something’s off … mostly about certain people, but I’m getting it right now. Almost feels like I’m being watched.”
“And I thought I could be paranoid,” I said teasingly as he turned and smiled at me over his shoulder.
“You? Paranoid? I just don’t see that,” he said with a sly smile.
Was he flirting with me?
“Maybe you should look closer,” I replied.
Did I just flirt back? Holy cow! I don’t think I’d ever flirted with a guy before in my entire life.
“Maybe I should,” he replied as he started my way with that swaggering outdoorsy walk of his.
Oh, my …
“What are you two talking about?” Ryan asked coming over to join us, on purpose I think.
“Has anyone seen any animals yet?” Ben asked, quickly changing the subject.
We all looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders no. Of course I was still thinking of the semi-suggestive way he’d said maybe I should.
Would he?
Did I want him to?
“Yeah, neither have I. That’s strange. Usually by now I’ve spotted at least a dozen deer, not to mention rabbits and a few foxes. I haven’t even seen as much as a squirrel so far this morning.” Ben paused, still obviously thinking about something. But I had the feeling it was his odd feeling and not me now.
“They must be farther along the trail,” Mike said. “Maybe we’re not the first ones down here today. It’s possible someone scared them off before we arrived.”
“Must be,” Ben answered to himself as he turned back to the woods. I was closest to him and heard him quietly mumble to himself “But I didn’t see any other tracks.”
After a few minutes break we started again, climbing the rocks and following the creek for a mile or so until the trail branched off into the woods. The terrain was easier to traverse here, all slow inclines and down hills. Eventually the trail began to follow the top of a ridge, and at one spot the trees cleared along one side allowing a breathtaking view of the valley below. It was too beautiful for me not to stop and snap a picture, so I pulled out my camera and peered through the lens to frame my shot.
Would look better with that branch in the foreground I thought to myself, and without taking the camera away from my eye, I took a few steps forward. Then I took a few steps to the right. That’s when I bumped into a pine tree and started to wobble unsteadily to the left. I should have grabbed the tree for support, but I held my camera in that hand. I was on the verge of falling over when Ben appeared out of nowhere and steadied me, his hands holding my hips securely.
“Where did you come from?” I asked surprised. “I thought you were back there.” I pointed down the trail we’d just followed. “You stopped to look at the map.”
I remembered this clearly as it was the reason I felt I could steal a few moments to take the picture. He was about fifty feet behind me and I didn’t want to get too far ahead of him. I was sure of that.
“You almost fell again,” he said softly, his hands still on my hips. “Why do you keep doing that? I didn’t think you were the clumsy type, you’re usually much more graceful.” His glasses now off, I could see deep into his soulful brown eyes.
“Graceful, huh? Must be the new shoes,” I mumbled, forcing myself to forget that he hadn’t answered my question.
He laughed softly.
“That must be it.” Then he took my hand to help me back onto the trail.
As I turned, I looked out on the stunning vista below. A group of large birds were circling down in the valley.
“Look, birds. They’re animals.”
“Looks like vultures. Something must have died,” Ben said. “We’re headed down that way; maybe we’ll see what it was.”
“Yeah, I’ll take a pass on that.” I must have made a face because he laughed again.
“What’s going on back there?” Ryan called, appearing from around the next bend in the trail. Following his stare, I glanced down to see Ben still holding my hand. When I looked up, Ryan was frowning.
“Nothing,” I said. “I was just taking a picture.”
Blushing, I let Ben’s hand go and hurried along after Ryan to catch up with the others.
“Did you see that?” Ben said from behind me.
“See what?” I asked as I stopped to turn back towards him. He was standing in the middle of the trail looking off into a thick stand of trees.
“Nothing,” he answered, shaking his head. “Must have been a squirrel or something. Come on; let’s catch up with the others.”
Forcing a smile on his face, he turned and waved me up the trail ahead of him.
Just before noon we reached our designated picnic spot at the base of a small gorge where a waterfall fell about thirty or forty feet into a river. The sun was high enough now that it filled the steep gray rock walls of the gorge, bathing it in warm light that illuminated the translucent white mist coming off the falls.
Tabitha and I pulled out the blanket and spread it on a large flat rock as we handed out the sandwiches, chips and salads we’d packed. Taking a seat on the rocks, we ate hardily, our morning’s exertions on the trail having given us a hearty appetite. After a dessert of Mike’s homemade chocolate chip cookies we all spread out on the rocks to relax. Like myself, everyone seemed introspective, preferring the quiet of their own thoughts than feeling the need to fill the silence with chatter. Stretching out, I leaned back and soaked in the beauty and peacefulness of this remote spot far from the bustling NPU campus. It was nice here, really nice, but all things considered, I’d still rather have been at the beach in Wading River. I laid back on the flat rock we’d eaten on and gazed up at the clouds as they lazily rolled by above my head.
“Look. There they are again,” I said, pointing to the sky. Everyone looked up. Circling nearby were four very large, dark birds.
Curious to see what the birds knew that they didn’t, Ben, Mike and Ryan decided to go in search of what they were circling, while Tabitha and I stayed behind to c
lean up after the picnic. After the boys left, I took my boots off, rolled up my jeans and stepped down into the crystal clear water of the little wading pool at the base of the fall.
“Cold?” Tabitha asked, her eye brow raised.
“Yes, very much so.”
I winced, but it felt good on the budding blisters on the bottoms of my feet.
With a laugh, she decided she’d rather not lose a toe to frostbite and opted to police the area instead, making sure we didn’t leave anything behind. It wasn’t that cold. What it was however, was perfectly pure water, liked I’d stepped into liquid glass. Somehow, even in the cold it felt deeply cleansing, washing away some unseen mark on my soul.
“Where on earth did the boys get off too?” Tabitha eventually asked about a half an hour later. We’d been lounging on the rocks talking about nothing in particular for a while now. Her question hung in the air for only a moment before we heard the sounds of their distant laughter. Tabitha quickly turned to me and whispered with a sly smile “You know, I think Ryan might have a crush on you.”
I was stunned by her directness, but wasn’t really sure why. It wasn’t like it was news. I’d suspected his attentions might be a bit more than platonic for a while now. Regardless, it took me a few moments to respond.
“I’m not sure what to think about that,” was all I had a chance to say before the boys came tromping out of the woods into the clearing. My answer must have sounded cryptic to her. I hadn’t meant it to be, but perhaps that was for the best. Ryan just didn’t know me well enough to know any better yet.
“So did you find anything?” I asked, changing the subject as they approached.
“Yeah,” Ryan answered with a broad smile as he came bounding up the rocks to take a seat beside me. “We found a dead deer, two of them actually.”
“Real bloody mess too. Good thing you girls didn’t come along. Must have been a mountain lion or something,” Mike added.
Ben didn’t say anything, but shifting his weight around uncomfortably, he looked a little antsy to move on.
It took about two hours to hike back to the car. My assumption had been correct; it was mostly an uphill climb towards the end, but not as strenuous as I’d anticipated. It was kind of a shame, I could have used a work out. I was woefully out of shape considering my normal workout routine back home.
Our single file line up the one man wide path was in good spirits despite the fact that they were all tired. Last in line, Ben still trailed behind me. After we left the waterfall, I began to notice that he’d periodically stop and pause, like he was listening for something. Then he’d hurry to catch up to me. For a really cute guy, he sure seemed to have some strange idiosyncrasies. I had to chuckle to myself as the thought occurred to me. Boy, if that wasn’t the pot calling the kettle black. From the look on his face as he hustled to catch up with me, paranoia might be one of our common bugaboos.
When we finally reached the end of the trail, we took a few minutes to shake the dirt off ourselves before piling back into the jeep for the drive back down to campus.
“I sure wish we’d seen more animals,” Ryan said as he started to pull out onto the road. “I hear there are mountain lions up in these hills, but I have yet to see one. I’m guessing those dead animals were proof they’re up here somewhere.”
“That’s a pretty fancy car for a ranger,” Mike said pointing down a secluded service road as we started for home. We all turned to see the tail end of a shiny, black sports car parked in the shadows about fifty feet off the road.
“Not very practical for off-roading it,” Ryan added with a laugh. “Now this old Jeep of mine can really take the bumps and mud.”
He immediately launched into stories of some of his off road adventures back home up in Rome, NY. As funny as they were, I was only half listening. The day’s exercise was starting to take its toll and I couldn’t stop my head from leaning back and allowing my eye lids to slowly close.
“Time to wake up,” I heard.
The voice was soft, a velvety, deep, caramel coated bedroom voice. I was snuggled up against something soft and warm. Instinctively, I didn’t want to open my eyes, but something seemed wrong. When I felt a slight nudge, my eyes instantly popped open only to see Ben’s smile peering down at me. The soft warm thing was the fleece lining of his jacket. I’d fallen asleep and my head had somehow found his shoulder. From the look on his face, he didn’t appear to have minded. With his arm around my shoulder, he almost seemed amused. Embarrassed, I quickly shoved over and got out of the car, almost tripping on the way out. Thankfully, he was gentleman enough not to say anything or laugh. But he did smile and turn his head away so I couldn’t see the chuckle I sensed was bursting to come out of him.
I didn’t see Ben again for a few days. Unfortunately, who I was seeing on a regular basis now was the mysterious Mr. Simmons. It hadn’t escaped my notice that someone who was nothing more than a phantom my first few weeks here at NPU, was now a regular fixture in my life. Not only was I seeing him three mornings a week in class, but he had also taken to regularly eating dinner in the dining hall. Whether by coincidence or not, he somehow always managed to arrive either just before or just after I did. Although my friends and I always sat in the same small grouping of tables, his position changed every night. Which in and of itself seemed odd to me. But no matter where he sat, one thing remained the same. He always had an unobstructed view of our table.
Oddly enough, he didn’t appear to be a big eater for such a buff guy, and Daniel was definitely what my mother would call a strapping young man. From what little I’d been able to observe without him noticing, he appeared to just nibble on whatever was on his plate and drank what I assumed was coffee from his mug. Honestly, judging by the look of him, I’d have assumed he spent most nights at the gym, not hanging out by himself in the student dining hall farthest from his office.
Out of some strange sense of self preservation, I really tried not to look in his direction and I managed to succeed most of the time. I usually failed when a female co-ed approached his table under the pretense of asking some question about class. The response was always the same. He’d look up with that bored, somewhat irritated expression and give some dismissive response. I often found myself chuckling at the dejected look in their eyes that inevitably followed, as the girl, or the occasional guy, walked away.
Yes, on the surface Daniel was slightly more physically attractive than Ben, but in my opinion, Daniel was much stranger as well. Which after my bizarre walk in the woods with Ben was really saying something. I’m not sure I’d ever understand men, especially the really good looking ones. Maybe there was some correlation between looks and strangeness that I was hitherto unaware of. If so, I must only apply to men. Otherwise there was just no accounting for me.
Part of me couldn’t blame the seemingly endless parade of female students that traipsed past his table night after night. Daniel was externally gorgeous. I’m talking male model, drop dead, moth to the flame gorgeous. His sandy hair, tall perfectly formed physique and piercing blue eyes were only the beginning. He was in peak physical condition. I couldn’t begin to imagine how much time you’d have to spend in the gym to get a body like that. Not that he had bulging muscles like a body builder, but when I’d seen him out of class he occasionally wore tight tee-shirts that allowed you to see the definition of is muscles with little left to the imagination. A little on the pale side, all he needed was some color to make him perfect.
Well, almost perfect. Something was always missing. And if you asked me what it was, I’d say it was because he never looked happy. In all the times I’d seen him over the last week or so I don’t think I’d ever seen him crack a smile. Not even at some of the ridiculously stupid answers some of my classmates offered in class. Most of the time he had a sort of grimace on his face. And yet something about that made me sad. It made me wonder why a good looking guy like him couldn’t find something to be happy about.
His continued presence in th
e dining hall wouldn’t have bothered me so much if it wasn’t for the fact that I was plagued by the feeling he was trying not to let me catch him watching me. Of course, he wasn’t. I mean why would he? What was I to him? When I’d look up, I was never able to catch him looking directly at me, but I always got the feeling he’d just looked away. A few times I tried to look at him using my hair as a screen. When I did, I was pretty sure I’d caught him watching me intently. But I could never be sure seeing as I was trying to see through the red haze of my hair. But again the nagging question was … why?
Sometimes after a dejected freshman retreated from his table, I’d wonder what he’d say if I walked over to him. His facial expressions never gave me cause to think he thought favorably of me, and yet I couldn’t shake the feeling that he seemed to seek me out, almost as if he was stalking me.
Perhaps I should be flattered. An insanely good looking, intelligent man was interested in me. Well, something about me interested him, but I had no idea what my allurements could possibly be to a man like Daniel Simmons. He didn’t even know me and I was nothing to look at physically compared to the girls he turned away on a daily basis. If I had been one of my more shallow, bubble headed freshman classmates, I probably could have deluded myself into thinking his strange attentions were a good thing. But eyes that look at you like you’re the weakest sheep in the herd and not the most beautiful girl in the room are never flattering to the ego.
The Purity of Blood: Volume I Page 6
