Shifter Mountain

by Annora Soule

Kay was looking down at the ground, clearly intimidated by this guy. She shot a quick glance at Jordan, but said nothing. So, Jordan decided to assume that meant she also wasn't actually telling him to go away and butt out.

  Jordan relaxed his stance and tried a different approach.

  "Maybe I misinterpreted things," Jordan said. "Didn't mean to get between a husband and wife."

  "She ain't my wife," Daryl spat, shaking his head. To Kay he said, "You know this guy?"

  "No," Kay said.

  "We just met," Jordan added.

  "Oh, you just met," Daryl said sarcastically.

  An uncomfortable silence fell for a moment. Daryl clearly was trying to size up the situation. The man standing up for Kay clearly was an outsider, otherwise he would mind his own business.

  "Kay, you need to do the right thing," Daryl said. "Cephas will be coming back home in a few days, and you best let him."

  Daryl glared at Jordan, then turned on his heel and left. He jumped in his truck and drove of.

  "Sorry to be nosy, but what the hell was that about?" Jordan asked of Kay.

  Kay sighed.

  "That was my brother-in-law," she said. "Fact is, I kicked my husband out of the house a couple of days ago."

  "Oh," Jordan said.

  Internally, Kay was both horrified and grateful that Jordan had stepped in. She was grateful, because without an outsider present, Daryl could have shifted on-the-spot and come after her right there in front of the general store. Old Man Cowell wouldn't have stopped him.

  Skinwalkers stand back and let each other take care of their own business. Plus, Old Man Cowell was too frail at his age to defend her himself if he wanted, even if he shifted.

  But Kay also knew that this stranger — whoever he was — had merely delayed the inevitable, and in the long run maybe he had made things worse. Daryl would tell Cephas that another man had interfered, and Cephas would jump to all kinds of incorrect conclusions. That would fuel his rage, and Kay didn't think she ultimately could survive her marriage to him.

  "I'm not sure what to do or say here," Jordan said. "I know this is none of my business, technically, but I get the feeling you might be in a bad situation. Do you need help?"

  Suddenly, Kay felt her shoulders tense and her whole body go rigid at this man's apparent kindness. She didn't trust it — and even if it were genuine, it filled her more with fear than relief.

  "Thank you, but no," Kay said. "What I need for you to do is to walk away."

  This came out sounding harsher than she meant it to.

  "Uh, okay," Jordan said, wincing at the ice in her voice. Kay's demeanor was changing now, from her original indifference, to something that felt openly hostile.

  "Really, thank you, but you've done enough and you should go," Kay said.

  "Okay then, I guess I'll go," Jordan said.

  Why do I feel like an asshole? He asked himself. What had he done wrong exactly?

  He walked back to his truck, giving Jimmy a thumbs up that they were ready to finally head off.

  "What the hell was all that about?" Bob asked.

  "I have no idea," Jordan said. "Remind me never again to step into the middle of a domestic dispute."

  Jimmy’s Jeep pulled out and headed off, with Jordan following behind.

  Kay continued to stare after Jordan as the tires of his truck kicked up enough dirt to obscure what seemed to be a mirage. Something had come over Kay that she wasn’t used to. She had had an involuntary flash of a thought of what it might be like to kiss such a man as that. Someone kind and polite, who looked at her like she was actually a person worth talking to. A man who stood up for her rather than beat her down.

  But then the thought turned into something else – a wave of nausea. Cephas had been the only man she had ever kissed, and it had never been pleasant. As the years went by, he stopped kissing her altogether. He just continued to force himself on her.

  She shook off the feeling of dread that lingered over her, then went into the store, grabbing coffee and a few other items. Old Man Cowell rang her up at the counter, being wise enough not to ask any questions about what he had observed going on outside the window.

  Kay rummaged through her pocketbook and realized she barely had $5 and change, when she needed $25 to pay for everything.

  "Want me to put it on your store credit?"

  "Yeah, I guess you will have to," she said.

  As he bagged up her groceries, Kay suddenly had a thought.

  "How many jars do you have behind the counter?"

  "Excuse me?"

  "How many jars of Sugar Fire do you have behind the counter?"

  Old Man Cowell paused.

  "Uh, let me take a count."

  "And you have some more out back, I reckon?"

  "Probably. Let me check."

  Old Man Cowell bent over uncomfortably to look under the counter, then he shuffled off out back.

  Sugar Fire was the most popular brand of moonshine sold in this part of Tennessee, and it was Kay's family recipe. Kay's maiden name was Slacum. The Slacums once had been Appalachian aristocracy, in addition to being skinwalkers. Much of Scopes Mountain was, in fact, Slacum property, and Kay was the last living descendent of that family. Not that it made her rich. Much of the land was forest and meadow, and as far as anyone knew, there was no coal in this mountain to sell.

  The Slacum brand of moonshine — Sugar Fire — was still unlicensed in this state, while many other moonshiners had gone legal, which meant it was stronger and untaxed. Cephas had taken over the business, inheriting the recipe from Kay's family when he married her. Her father had passed everything onto him. Nothing was actually registered as such, it was just understood on "Shifter Mountain" that men took charge of everything. What belonged to a woman passed immediately to her man. So Sugar Fire basically was Kay's dowry. That and her land were the only reasons Cephas took her as his wife.

  Now that Kay had kicked him out and had recently been seen talking to a strange man, he was probably going to kill her for real. She had nowhere to run and no means to run, so she may as well do something else to piss him off.

  Old Man Cowell reappeared.

  "We've got crate one under the counter and two crates out back, so that's about 60 jars at $15 a pint, give or take. And we've also got 20 one-gallon jugs, at $25 each.

  "That's more than I would have expected," Kay admitted. "That's a lot of 'shine."

  "It's good stuff, and people come here from all over to buy it."

  "So you have a 25/75 split with Cephas?"

  "That's the split after we take off the top for what we pay the local authorities not to bust us."

  "So what do you owe Cephas, assuming all this sells?"

  "Maybe $800."

  "I'd like to take that now," Kay said.

  The boldness of her proposition surprised her as well as Old Man Cowell.

  "I'm not sure I can do that, Kay. Cephas might not approve."

  "It's MY family's moonshine," Kay said. "And you let me worry about Cephas."

  "You in a real jam, Kay? I'm sympathetic, but you know I can't interfere."

  "Yes, I'm in a jam, and I'm here to buy groceries to fill Cephas' refrigerator. Plus we got other bills to pay. So any money you give me goes right to him."

  It was a lie. Kay thought maybe she might actually take the money and run. Not that $800 would get her very far, but it was better than the holes in her wallet.

  Old Man Cowell sighed.

  "What if I gave you $200? That I could explain better to Cephas than I could giving you the whole thing."

  Kay's momentary fleeting feeling of freedom deflated. But she understood where Old Man Cowell was coming from.

  "Okay, I'll take the $200."

  Old Man Cowell opened the cash register and paid her out in twenties. Kay took the cash and left.

  Chapter 4

  Jordan followed Jimmy’s Jeep away from the general store and down another windy road. The day had really cleared up n
ow, with the sky turning a vivid cobalt blue, greening up the mountain in the sunlight. Jimmy was taking them up to a distant holler that generally was hard to reach, but well worth the effort.

  When they finally reached the point where even a four-wheel drive vehicle could not make it, everyone got out of their respective vehicles.

  Jordan tossed Bob a water canteen.

  "Hope all those days spent at the gym turn out to be good for more than just appearances," Bob teased him.

  Jordan laughed.

  "We've got about an hour hike," Jimmy told them. "So it shouldn't be too bad."

  "Shouldn't be too bad?" Bob replied, cynically. "An hour?" He was an artist, not an athlete. He also had borderline high-blood pressure.

  Jordan slapped Bob on the back.

  "We'll carry you back down if you pass out."

  The Appalachian wilderness possibly was the most biologically diverse place in the world, even giving the Amazon a run for its money. Trees native to only these parts, with distant cousins unexpectedly showing up not until as far away as Southeast Asia, guarded the terrain with a shady canopy, under which medicinal plant species grew by the hundreds.

  Scopes Mountain and the surrounding peaks also teamed with wildlife, still not yet overhunted.

  When they came to a creek, Bob nearly lost his lunch when he saw a large, slimy creature dart between his feet and head for the water first. The thing was a monster, and it did not look friendly.

  "What the fuck was that?!" he cried out.

  "That's a Hellbender," Jimmy told him, clearly amused.

  "That goddamn thing is almost three-feet long!"

  "It's just a salamander," Jordan said. He had had a childhood fascination with salamanders, and his mother even let him keep a couple as pets. "Albeit, it's the largest salamander in North America."

  The Hellbender slipped into the water and disappeared toward the muddy bottom.

  Jimmy and Jordan crossed the creek, stepping on rocks over the water, which was only about a foot deep at this point. Bob followed them, but then saw something else that freaked him out. In his panic, he slipped on a mossy rock and fell into the water.

  "Fuck-fuck-fuck ! Snake-snake-snake!"

  Jimmy took this more seriously, and came right over. A water snake slithered away from Bob, creating residual ripples in its wake. But Jimmy wasn't really all that worried.

  "Was that a water moccassin?" Bob demanded.

  "Geez — no — not every snake around here is poisonous," Jimmy said. "Just because it's in the water doesn't mean it's poisonous. I mean, it's good that you've got your eye out, but if you panic every time you see a snake, if the one you find is deadly then it's going strike because your fear will trigger ITS fear."

  "There ARE rattlesnakes around here, though," Jordan added. "But we deal with those everyday in the music business, so Bob should feel right at home."

  Bob shook his head as he stood up and finally managed to cross the creak.

  "Very funny," he said. "Laugh at the fact that I'm acting like a girly-man."

  "Not girly," Jimmy said. "Just someone from the city."

  The men continued on, not realizing that the Hellbender had actually followed them down-creek a bit. Then it crawled back up on land to sun itself on a rock and keep an eye on them, while the three men took a pause to have some water. They had hiked about halfway in at this point.

  "How much longer?" Jordan asked.

  "Maybe 20-30 minutes," Jimmy told him.

  Jordan felt fine, but Bob was winded, although he was not willing to admit it. After about five minutes, they continued on, with the Hellbender discretely following them from behind.

  Suddenly, it seemed, the woods broke into a clearing.

  "Holy crap," Jordan said, when he saw the view.

  The clearing expanded into a meadow that rolled toward an overhang. The grass naturally stayed short enough that a human could walk through with little problem. The men headed toward the distant side of the meadow, their shins grazing wildflowers and flowering weeds, kicking up pollen that made Jordan sneeze once or twice. Emerald greens mixed with purples and soft pinks and blues. Sunny yellow wildflowers peppered the edge of the meadow, adding to the mix, and small birds flew overhead.

  The three men stopped at the overhang.

  "Here you go, gentlemen," Jimmy said. "The best view on Scopes Mountain."

  Jordan was speechless. He couldn't believe what he was seeing.

  "What are we — 4,000 feet above sea level?" Jordan asked.

  "Good guess. We are at 4,273 feet," Jimmy said.

  Before them spanned a view of three surrounding mountains, and a lake below. Lake Surepa, to be exact.

  Even Bob had to admit that he was impressed and that maybe the hike was worth it.

  Meanwhile, the Hellbender had ventured far beyond its water source, crawling up the trunk of a tree, blending in with the bark, until it found an optimal spot from where it could overhear their conversation.

  "This is pretty amazing," Bob said. "We've got at least three different angles here — visually it would look like we had filmed the music video in three different locals."

  "Yeah," Jordan agreed. "We've got the forest. We've got this overhang view, and then we've got that meadow."

  "We can rig a camera to film from maybe twenty-feet off the cliff," Bob added. "And probably we can get stock footage for some aerials. Or, if you feel like splurging, we could hire a plane to do a fly over."

  "Sound would be tricky, though," Jordan said. "Good thing we'd be dubbing anyway. Hear that wind?"

  The men fell silent to listen.

  A lonely moan seemed to echo from somewhere else. Waves of a cool breeze traveled over the grass and wildflowers like the tides of the sea. The air went still for a moment, and then a sudden gust rustled the meadow, traveling upward, whipping the tops of the trees into a momentary frenzy, before the branches relaxed.

  "It's gonna be a bitch to get camera equipment and a production crew up here," Bob said. "But it'll be worth it."

  Jordan's gaze roamed over the whole scene, feeling for the first time that he was connecting to the mountain. Jordan had lived here for the first three years of his life, but he could barely remember any of it. His heart clenched, as he wondered if his mother had ever been to this very spot.

  Suddenly, he got the eerie feeling that they were being watched. Jordan turned around and directed his gaze toward the tree where the Hellbender was lurking. Jordan's eyes locked on to the tree, and he thought he saw some movement. Slowly, as to not alert Bob and Jimmy to the fact that he was feeling a little spooked for no reason, he ambled leisurely back toward the tree a bit.

  Bob was distracted, having pulled out a notepad to jot down ideas for the music video, and Jimmy was distracted answering Bob's questions.

  When Jordan got closer, he saw the Hellbender, who tried to hide.

  The hair on the back of Jordan's neck stood up. It was the same feeling he had gotten before back at the general store.

  "It's just a salamander, for chrissake," he muttered to himself.

  Suddenly, a strange urge overtook him. He bent down, picking up two large rocks.

  Jordan took a step closer and in a sweep of anger, threw the first rock at the Hellbender, which suddenly leapt off the tree at him, almost giving Jordan a heart attack. The Hellbender landed on his shoulder, then scurried down his back, giving Jordan a freaky set of the willies.

  "Goddamn it! Get the fuck off!" Jordan screamed.

  The Hellbender landed on the ground and scurried off back into the woods toward the creek.

  Bob and Jordan heard him yelling.

  "What the hell's going on?!" Jimmy called out.

  "It's fine — it's fine — it was just that damn salamander!"

  Jordan didn't know why he felt so weird about the salamander. Then he haphazardly looked down at other rock he still held in his hand and saw something weirder still. And he felt a chill go through him.

  At fir
st it seemed like his eyes were playing tricks on him. His hand had turned grey — just like the rock. In fact, his hand was frozen, just like the rock. When he tried to move his thumb, pebbles crumbled from his palm.

  His hand had turned to rock!

  A panic seized him. Was he hallucinating? Jordan had never dropped acid, so LSD flashbacks were out. Instinctively, with his right hand immobilized, he snatched the rock from his right with his left, and threw it far away. After this, within seconds, his right hand softened, turned back to the color of normal flesh, and he could wiggle his fingers again.

  "What the fuck was that?" he asked aloud, to no one in particular.

  He realized that Bob and Jordan were still staring over at him from a distance, and he would need to rejoin reality.

  He shook off the feeling that he had just been lucid dreaming and headed back to join Bob and Jimmy.

  Meanwhile, once the Hellbender had reached a safe distance, it stopped. After a moment of stillness, the salamander quivered, then started to swell up like a balloon. Its slimy skin stretched and almost seemed to bubble. The creature grew and grew, then stood upright, morphing fully into human form. It morphed into Daryl Mandrell, to be exact.

  Daryl cracked his knuckles and stretched his neck. He strode off for about a half mile until he found where he left his clothes. After getting dressed, he disappeared even further into the woods, with the intent of reporting to Cephas what he had just seen. Namely, that the stranger who seemed a little too interested in Cephas' wife was now poking around family property.

  Back in the meadow, Jimmy and Bob were hashing out business technicalities pertaining to the possibility of setting up a shot on this part of the mountain. Jordan was mostly silent, lost in a fog of confusion about what had just happened.

  "Does anybody actually own this land?" Bob asked. "Would we technically be trespassing?"

  "So, I checked into that, and the Slacum family owns the land," Jimmy said. "But I haven't spoken yet to anybody from that family. I'm told that there's only one Slacom left, but she got married a few years back, so she doesn't go by that name anymore. Now her name is Mandrell. She doesn't live too far from here. We can go back and drive on over there now if you want."