Stranger in the Woods

by Geof Johnson

  “Why was he living in the woods if he was a professor? Shouldn’t he have been at a college or a university somewhere?”

  “He was, but he left his post on something he called a sabbatical, though it extended far beyond what is normal for such a thing, I believe. He was here for twenty-five years.”

  “But why?” Justin said.

  “He was writing a book. He considered himself to be an expert on Henry David Thoreau and wanted to produce the definitive work on the subject, as he put it. He felt that in order to do so, he needed to live in the forest as Thoreau once did, for the solitude and to get closer to nature.” Bo looked over his shoulder at them and shrugged. “Which I never understood. You are always close to nature. It is always with you.”

  “But what if you go out in space in a rocket ship?” Zach said. “You wouldn’t be near nature, then.”

  “Explain, please.”

  “You know.” Zach pointed skyward. “Like, to the moon or something.”

  Bo stopped and turned to face them. “I have read about that, but I will never comprehend why anyone would want to go to such a place.” He swept one arm widely about. “Why would you want to leave this?”

  “Just to see what it’s like, I guess. Aren’t your people explorers?”

  “We explore where there is life.”

  By this time they had reached the gorge, and he led them across the tumbling water, stepping on the exposed rocks, agile as a dancer, and up the far bank into the dense forest. The last time they’d come this far, it was raining and they’d been in a hurry, so Zach wasn’t sure exactly where they were, but something was different. “Bo, isn’t your cabin that way?” He pointed to his right.

  “The crops I am going to show you are in another location.” They hiked on through the thick undergrowth, and once again it seemed to make a path for them as they went, only to close up behind them as if no one had ever been there, not even a leaf bent out of place, as far as Zach could tell.

  They climbed a long, low hill, to a part of the forest Zach had never been to, and he didn’t think his friends had, either. It was like an untouched wilderness. He remembered the word for it. Pristine. There was no sign of humanity — no buildings, no telephone poles, not even a trail. No sound of cars or lawn mowers, either. Just forest. Beautiful, beautiful forest.

  They crested the hill and Zach was taken aback by what he saw on the other side: A meadow, full of wildflowers and lush vegetation.

  Shelby squeezed her hands together at her chest and sighed, “Oh, it’s wonderful!”

  Zach and the other kids stared silently at the picturesque landscape, until Bo gestured at it with both hands. “This is where I grow most of my food.”

  “But where?” Zach said. “I don’t see any.”

  “It is growing amongst the other vegetation. It helps to hide it.” He walked a few steps and pointed out a broad-leafed plant that stood about as high as his knees, tucked between some tall flowering weeds. “This is squash.”

  “I never woulda noticed that if you hadn’t showed us,” Jason said. “What else you got?”

  Bo indicated a tree nearby, a pine sapling that was barely taller than Zach. Next to it were a few stalks with long leaves. “Is that corn?” Zach asked.

  “Yes. I have some bean plants staked beside other trees. I have my crops spread this way throughout this meadow.”

  Justin nodded. “Smart. Then you can’t see them from the air if you were to fly over in a plane or a helicopter.”

  “But….” Zach scratched his cheek and gazed about the field. “What happens when the trees grow taller? Won’t this turn back into a forest someday? How are you going to grow stuff, then?”

  “This meadow has been like this for many years, ever since the fire that created it, which I believe was caused by lightning. You can still see some of the old scorched timber in the underbrush, if you look carefully.”

  “Why don’t the trees grow?”

  “I asked them not to.”

  “I don’t suppose you’re going to tell us how you did that.”

  His face became unreadable again, and Zach knew that meant no.

  Jason stepped closer to a nearby plant, which had tiny flowers on the end of shoulder-high, spindly stalks. “What’s this?” He swatted it with the flat of his hand, and the pods at the top exploded into powdery specks that filled the air in a dense, yellow cloud. The breeze blew the particles directly at them, and Zach squinted to keep them from his eyes.

  Shelby sneezed.

  “Uh-oh,” Justin said.

  She sneezed again and drew a wheezing breath.

  “Uh-oh is right,” Jason said. “Better use your inhaler, Shelby.”

  Shelby took another strained breath and patted her pants pockets, and her eyes widened, panicked. She sank to her knees and wheezed again. It sounded awful.

  Jason’s voice became strident. “Where’s your inhaler?”

  Shelby shook her head.

  “Oh, no!” Zach put one hand to his forehead. “I think she left it at my house, on the mantle.”

  Both of her brothers’ eyes widened, too, and Jason said, “That’s too far away!”

  “What is wrong with her?” Bo asked.

  “She’s having an asthma attack. She must be allergic to that weed I just smacked. She’s allergic to practically everything, and her lungs have been bothering her today, which makes it worse.”

  “What’ll we do?” Zach looked at the twins, and their faces showed the fear that Zach felt, an agonizing sense of dread that filled him like heavy water.

  “Even if we sprint the whole way to our bikes and then ride really fast,” Jason said, “it’s way more than a half hour to your house, and then we gotta come back with the inhaler. I don’t know if she’ll make it that long.”

  “What do mean?” Zach’s voice rose. “She could die?”

  Shelby drew another painful-sounding breath and Zach knew what the answer was.

  “I must help her.” Bo knelt beside her and put one huge hand flat against her chest and her face grew slack.

  “What did you do?” Justin asked.

  “I put her in a slowed state, and I am supplementing her energy. I cannot help her indefinitely, though. We must get her to this inhaler, though I do not know what that is.” He slipped his arms beneath her and lifted her as if she weighed half of nothing.

  “Are you going to carry her all the way to my house?” Zach asked.

  “Only to the edge of the forest. I cannot sustain her outside of its boundaries, and I must not be seen by others. You will go to your house and retrieve the inhaler and bring it to us.”

  “Let’s go to our bikes, first,” Jason said. “Then we’ll ride the rest of the way.”

  Bo turned his back to them and said over his shoulder, “Follow me. Try to stay close.”

  He dashed away with Shelby in his arms, and Zach and the twins watched him for a startled moment before sprinting after him with Beepee. Bo didn’t check to see if they were with him, racing headlong through the forest as if it weren’t there, the undergrowth and trees bowing aside at his approach like dutiful servants to a high lord.

  Even carrying Shelby, Bo’s pace was incredible. Several times the boys had to call out to him to wait or the path would close and they would become separated from the speeding giant.

  Zach’s leg muscles soon began to ache, but he kept up as best he could without complaining, streaking wildly and frantically through the woods, always one misstep away from a headlong tumble. They reached the gorge and Bo barely slowed as he led them down into it and across the rushing creek. Zach’s eyes were hyper-focused as he picked his way over the stepping stones in the water, fearful that he would slip at any instant, Beepee somehow managing to stay with him, Jason and Justin just ahead, straining to stay with Bo and their stricken sister.

  Zach’s legs felt like they were on fire when he and his friends reached the spot where they’d hidden their bikes, and they paused for moment, ever
yone gasping for breath except for Bo, who still carried Shelby like she was a stuffed toy, and he showed no expression on his face. Shelby appeared to be unconscious.

  “How are we going to do this?” Zach said between gulps of air.

  “You go on and get the inhaler ’cause it’s at your house,” Jason said, his chest heaving, too. “We’ll stay here with Shelby. We can’t leave her.”

  “I gotta come all the way back here?”

  “I will take her to the edge of the forest,” Bo said. “Meet us there. I cannot carry her beyond that point. Go quickly.”

  Zach snapped his helmet on, jumped on his bike, and rode off as fast as he could despite the pain in his legs, bouncing along the rutted trail at breakneck speed. Every root and rock jarred his skull so badly that he thought his teeth might rattle out. He never slowed, not even when he nearly lost his balance at one particularly bad spot in the path. He briefly thought, If I fall it’ll slow me down. Shelby could die.

  He made it around the barricade and sped down the street, his leg muscles screaming in agony, and he pedaled like a madman to his house. When he reached his yard, he leaped from his bike and let it crash to the ground, then stumbled up the steps to the porch.

  He yanked on the doorknob but it was locked. He cursed under his breath and groped in his pocket for the key. He managed to dig it out and get it into the lock, and he flung the door open and raced inside to the living room.

  “Zach?” his mother called from somewhere upstairs, “is that you?”

  “Just getting something we forgot.” He ran to the mantel. “We’ll be back soon.” He didn’t wait for her response, but grabbed the inhaler and shoved it into his pocket, then bolted back to the door and down the steps to his bike.

  By the time Zach made it back to the barricade at the edge of the forest, his legs had gone beyond painful to just plain dead, like a pair of thick wooden sticks attached to his lower body, and his lungs burned with every breath. He still pushed on, steering his bike from the street to the trail beyond and calling frantically for his friends.

  He found them a short distance away, waiting off to the side behind some trees with Beepee. Bo had Shelby lying on the ground, sitting next to her and holding one hand flat on her chest again. Her eyes were closed and she was still as glass. Please don’t be dead, Zach thought as he jumped off his bike and staggered to them.

  Jason rushed to meet him with one hand out. “Hurry up!” he said, and Zach pulled the inhaler from his pocket and gave it to him. Jason knelt next to Shelby, and Justin helped raise her to a sitting positon while Bo moved aside but remained on the ground.

  “Wake up, Shelby,” Jason said and gently rubbed her shoulder. Her eyes flitted open and she wheezed pitifully. Jason offered her the inhaler. “Take it, quick.”

  She put the device to her mouth and popped it with a phssh, and she breathed deeply.

  “Do it one more time.” Justin nodded. “Just to be on the safe side.” She did, and her delicate face calmed. Zach felt a wave of relief pass over him, and the twins seemed to relax, the alarm gone from their eyes. Jason rubbed her shoulder again. “You okay now?”

  “I think so.” Shelby took another deep breath and blinked at their surroundings. “Where…how did I get here?”

  “Bo brought you. He saved your life. And Zach, too. He raced like crazy to get your inhaler.”

  Zach lowered his chin and mumbled, “I didn’t do much.”

  Bo stood, unfolding like an old rusted lawn chair, and that was when Zach noticed how dreadful he looked. His normally pale face was tinged with blue and his eyes were rimmed with red. He never became fully upright, his shoulders and back slumping as if he had carried more weight than he could bear, and he wavered on his feet briefly and Zach said, “Are you all right?”

  Bo took his time answering. “I am weary. Sustaining her took more out of me than I expected.”

  He seemed so utterly exhausted that Zach worried that’s Bo’s life was now in danger, that he had traded Shelby’s for his. “Bo?” Zach said. “Can we…is there anything we can do for you?”

  He took a long breath with his head drooped to one side, his eyes glassy and unfocused, then he swallowed hard and said, “I must rest. Do not come looking for me for a few days, for I will be indisposed.” He lurched off into the woods, and Zach and his friends stared after him until he was out of sight.

  * * *

  No one spoke as they slowly rode away from the woods, with the brothers flanking Shelby like bodyguards and Zach pedaling behind them, still worried. He cringed when she coughed, but each time she held out one hand to ward off any help. She slumped against her handlebars most of the way, but somehow managed to make it.

  When they reached the last corner before Zach’s house, the Ross kids slowed to a stop and waved Zach on. “We need to take Shelby home,” Jason said after a glance at his weak-looking sister. “I think she needs to go to bed.”

  “Shouldn’t she go to the hospital?” Zach said.

  Shelby answered for them, shaking her head feebly. “I’m…okay.”

  Zach regarded her for a moment before turning back to her brothers. “What are you going to do the rest of the day?”

  “We’re gonna look after her until Mama gets home,” Justin said. “Maybe we’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Chapter 21

  Zach woke from a sound sleep the next morning when he heard his mother’s voice. “Honey?”

  He opened his bleary eyes to see her standing in the doorway of his bedroom. “Hmph?” He cleared his throat and swallowed the thick pastiness in his mouth. “What time is it?”

  “Not quite seven thirty. I’m going to get Shelby. Her mother just called from work and said that Shelby’s sick, and asked if I’d keep her today.”

  “All day?” he struggled to get his brain in gear, with little success.

  “Her mother will be gone ’till tonight. Shelby has a bad cough and needs to stay in bed, so I thought she’d be better off here so I can keep an eye on her. Tina’s worried that it might turn into pneumonia. It happened to Shelby before, back in January.”

  “Are her brothers coming too?”

  “Maybe later. They’re still asleep.”

  “Do I have to get up now?”

  “You can stay in bed. I just wanted to let you know where I was in case you woke up and couldn’t find me. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  * * *

  Zach was pulling his shorts on when he heard his mother talking downstairs in the foyer, and then the sound of two pairs of feet trudging up the stairs.

  “Watch your step, sweetheart,” she said to someone. Moments later she and Shelby passed his open door on their way to the guest bedroom at the end of the hall, the one with the turret. Shelby looked pale, with a small blanket draped over her sagging shoulders. She hacked into her hand, a heavy, wet cough that made Zach wince. That sounds terrible.

  He waited by his bed until he heard his mother return, and he met her outside his door. “Is she going to be okay?” he whispered.

  “I hope so. She’s in bad shape, poor thing. She had a pretty rough night. I gave her some cough syrup and she’s going to try to get some sleep, so be quiet while you’re up here.”

  Zach glanced toward the room where Shelby had gone. “Is there something I can do to help?”

  “Maybe when she wakes up you can entertain her, if she feels up to it. Her brothers will probably be here in a little while.”

  “I thought they weren’t allowed to come until after twelve.”

  “Their mother is making an exception today. They’ll eat lunch here.”

  “Don’t make peanut butter sandwiches, then.”

  “I’m going to the store in a few minutes to get some chicken soup and some more cough syrup for Shelby. I’ll get some lunch food for you and the twins. You stay here and look after her, and call my cell if there are any problems while I’m gone.”

  * * *

  After Liz returned with the grocer
ies, she went back upstairs in search of Zach. She found him in the shrine, cleaning his father’s trophies, barely. He seemed to be randomly flicking the feather duster over the awards while keeping one ear cocked to the open door.

  “She sounds awful, Mom,” he said. “She’s been coughing nonstop the whole time I’ve been up here.”

  “How long is that?”

  “Since you left.”

  “You haven’t been downstairs yet? Aren’t you hungry for breakfast?”

  “I wanted to wait until you got back.”

  “I know you’re worried about her. I am, too, honey, but she’ll be all right. Her mother said that Shelby gets chest colds a few times a year and some of them are pretty bad, so we just have to take care of her and let her rest.”

  “Shouldn’t we take her to the doctor?”

  “Tina said to wait and see. If it were my call, we’d already be there, but Tina is her mother and I’m doing what she asked.”

  More rough coughing sounds came from down the hall and Zach held the feather duster by his side and listened. “Wish there was more we could do.”

  “Me, too. Let’s go get some breakfast and let her sleep.”

  Shelby’s brothers came over shortly afterward, and Liz let them in the front door. Both of them seemed quieter than usual.

  “Can we go up and see her, Mrs. Webster?” Jason said as they stepped into the foyer.

  She put a finger to her lips. “I think she’s asleep, bless her heart. Is she always like this when she gets sick?”

  “She’s worse, sometimes,” Justin said. “Then Mama has to stay home from work, and that makes her all worried ’cause then she don’t get paid.”

  “I’m glad I can look after her, then.”

  “We appreciate you takin’ care of her, we really do. Mama said you’re an angel.”

  “She would do the same for us, if she could.” She gestured behind her with one finger. “Zach’s in the family room watching television if you want to join him. Are you guys going to the woods today?”

  “We’d like to stick around here,” Justin said, “if you don’t mind.”