1
Vaccaro
Jorel Vaccaro
The Guardian
The fire slowly crackles as the marshmallows turn a crisp brown in its dying heat. We are up in the Blue Ridge Mountains in western North Carolina. It is a chilly autumn night and my girlfriend is snuggling close to me.
“Hey kids, it’s getting cold and late, you ready to go to sleep?” I ask.
“No way, we want to hear some scary stories,” my little sister Kate replies.
My brother and sister have been begging me to take them camping for some time now.I haven’t ever really wanted to bring them along because I’ve always been worried that they wouldn’t want to do as many things as I like to do when I’m out camping.But in the past year that I’ve had a girlfriend, I’ve learned that she will be limiting my entertaining activities the most.
“Alright, what kind of story do you want to hear? Do you want me or Amanda to tell it?” I ask.
“You tell it, tell us a nice scary one!” exclaims Kate.
“Alright, well, once upon a time…” I began most stories like this. “Once upon a time there was a girl and a guy; they were out camping in the woods. They had been listening to the radio all day, listening to the news about a lunatic serial killer who was going around chopping people’s heads off.”
My brother Lee isn’t impressed. “Oh, I've heard this one before; the crazy guy cuts the guy’s head off and puts it on the car antenna. That story isn’t even scary,” Lee moans.
“Well how can I tell a story if you’re gonna spoil it,” I yell at him. “Alright, well it’s getting late anyway. Finish your s’mores and then go take showers.” I do not like at all the idea of going to the bathroom to take showers when we’re out camping, but I had no choice on that one. There’s only one way to get Amanda out into the woods, and that’s by finding a location that provides heated running water, electricity, and nice soft toilet paper in the stalls; at least we get to stay in a tent. Amanda and Kate decide what blow dryer and which shampoos and conditioners and skin cleansing moisturizers Kate wants to try and then they make their way to the bathroom. While they have intricate knowledge of the performances of several blow driers, curling irons and other primping devices, their knowledge of certain tools and processes is severely limited. Setting up the tents this afternoon was interesting. I thought I’d let the three of them set up Lee and Kate’s tent while I set up the bigger one for Amanda and myself. That was a big mistake, but I fixed everything and now we actually have places to sleep.
Lee and I take our nice warm showers and return to our tents. Then we clean up, putting the hotdogs back in the cooler, twisting up the potato chip and the hotdog bun bags, getting all the food nice and high and throwing the paper plates into the fire. We sit there for another half-hour or so poking at the fire with our marshmallow sticks waiting for the girls to return. Lee has his stick sharpened to a perfect point. He’sfourteen, and going through a stage where he has lots of knives, most of which he’d decided would be a necessity to take out into the woods with him. The particular knife he is playing withis a rather large folding knife. He is whittling sticks and sporadically opening and closing the knife, making a loud clicking sound. I can’t really say anything to him about how unsafe it can be to have knives around since I had gone through this same stage.Most of the knives had even been mine at one time. They were just some of the things, along with my room, that he inherited when I moved out.
The girls make their way back to the campsite in their pajamas. Amanda would ordinarily be embarrassed to walk around outside without full makeup on, but it is late in the fall and the campground is practically vacant. We retire to our respective tents with our flashlights. I’ve decided that I have to give Lee and Kate flashlights, even though I fully expect the lights to be dead by the next morning.
Amanda and I take our shoes off and I strip down to my boxers. We get into our sleeping bags that I have zipped together, an often overlooked but important detail in camping. It is getting colder, into the forties now, and we squeeze closer together. “Goodnight, sweetie,” I tell her.
“Goodnight,” she replies.
We fall asleep listening to the wind and the occasional giggle of Kate, no doubt entertained by the flashlight.
The next morning we awake to a cool peaceful sunrise. We plan on going hiking all day; well, Lee and I plan on hiking all day, Amanda and Kate are less than thrilled. “Make sure you wear long pants, sweetie, no skirts,” I said in a sarcastic tone.
“Shut up, I know,” Amanda snaps. In addition to an assortment of makeup and creams, the girls also have brought a full wardrobe. Stored nicely in the back of Amanda’s Explorer are about four suitcases of clothes. My clothes had been folded neatly in the corner of the tent. Amanda must venture to the car to choose her outfit and proper footwear. I step outside the tent to put my boots on, but they are not there. “Amanda, did you take my boots?” I ask.
“No, you left them right outside the tent,” she suggests.
“Yea I know, but they’re not here,” I reply.
She makes an alternate suggestion, “Maybe an animal took them.”
I explain, “No, an animal would want nothing to do with shoes. An animal wouldn’t even be around the tent. Lee and I tied all the food up last night over in that tree. Hey Lee, Kate, you guys haven’t seen my shoes, have you?” A collective “nope” is all I get.
“Are you sure you didn’t take them last night and throw them in with all your shoes by mistake or something, sweetie?” I ask.
“No, I haven’t seen them,” She replies, clearly annoyed with the interrogation.
“All right well let me borrow something that I can wear then please,” I ask. Amanda lends me a large pair of boots, large for her of course, but still considerably restricting on me. Since I'm not trying to impress any squirrels, I don’t really mind wearing a pair of woman’s boots, although Kate finds it particularly amusing. I cook breakfast for everyone, rekindling the fire from last night and scrambling eggs in a frying pan. We all eat and prepare for the long day of hiking that is ahead of us. I pack everyone’s lunch and a gallon of water into my backpack, still wondering what could’ve happened to my boots.
We begin our hike, to the north. There is a good sized cliff and a little waterfall with a lake at the bottom very close to our camp, and I think it’s a good idea to start the day off on an exciting note by exploring it. I explain, “Ok kids, now see this mark on the tree? These are the marked paths. Look for marks like this and stay on the trail that they mark.” We walk for less than five minutes and come upon a marvelous cliff with a steep drop. “Oh, wow!” the kids scream. After they finish frolicking down the less steep part of the cliff and teetering on the rocks below the waterfall, we continue on our way. I want to reach the top of the mountain by lunchtime so that we can eat up there. My feet are beginning to get sore and I can feel the blisters that the rubbing has formed. Lee plays with one of his knives as we hike.
Amanda seems concerned by Lee’s actions, “Hey, Lee, may I hold on to that knife for a little while? It looks neat.”
“Sure, Amanda, here you go,” Lee replies.
“Where are you from, Amanda?” asks Kate. “I mean, where did you live before you left for school”
“I lived in Boston, and it’s a lot colder up there than it is here, even up here in the mountains”.
“Ooh, that sounds cold. Do your parents know you have a boyfriend in college?”
“Yes, Kate, I’ve had other boyfriends in high school, my mom doesn’t mind.”
“But how about your daddy,” Kate persists.
“Kate, Amanda’s daddy isn’t alive anymore,” I explain to her.
“Why not, What happened?”
“Its not really a happy story.” I tell her. “Do you really want to know?”
Lee becomes interested now, probably hoping for a gory story, “I want to know!”
Amanda begins, “Okay, He, well, he was killed when I was little. My brother Billy killed him. Billy was very angry at him for something he did, but Billy is in jail now. I don’t really want to talk about it a lot, let’s talk about something a little happier.” Despite her wish, we all hike on for a ways in silence.
We reach the summit around noon as expected. There is no particular clearing, so we try to find a place from which there is a view and lean up against some trees to relax. I take the backpack off and unpack our lunch. “Here’s a sandwich for everyone,” I say, as I pass them out and toss the backpack with the full water jug in it to one side.
“How did everyone sleep last night?” I ask. “Did you kids ever get to sleep or are the batteries in the flashlights dead now?”
“No, they still work. We didn’t stay up too late anyway,” says Kate.
We all eat our sandwiches and take in the beautiful view from the mountain top.
“Do we have anything to drink?” asks Lee.
“Yea, we do. I’ve got a whole gallon of water. It’s in my backpack. Hold on.” As I turn to my backpack, opening it and picking it up, I realize that we no longer have any water. The gallon is still there, but it is nearly empty now. “What the hell, where’s all of our water? There’s a hole in the side and the backpack is soaked.” I give the mess to Lee and he examines it carefully.
“It looks like it was stabbed. It was, right through the backpack. You can’t blame this one on me, Amanda has my knife.”
“I didn’t stab our water” Amanda snaps back.
“Ok, well there’s definitely something weird going on around here. And my shoes didn’t just walk away, either.” I am now reminded of my feet, which ache with sore, tender blisters. The boots squeeze my feet, but at the same time numb them and take away some of the pain. I want to take them off while we eat, but I know that it would be too painful to put them back on when we finish. I think I am going to watch Amanda a little more closely. Maybe she just mistakenly grabbed the boots. How could they just disappear?
“Alright, is everyone done?”
“I’m done, but I’m really thirsty” Kate complains.
“I know, so am I. We’ll try to find a nice stream or something on our way back down” I tell her. We begin to walk back down now. My backpack is considerably lighter without the extra eight pounds of water that I had carried up. What a waste, we didn’t even get to drink any of it. Lee and Kate are far ahead of us and seem to be leaving the trail. “Hey kids, stay on the trail” “but we’re looking for streams”. “I know, but it’s pretty easy to get lost and I don’t want to have to go hunting you down. If you’re quiet and listen carefully you’ll be able to hear them.” My feeble attempt at peacefulness probably won’t work. I run ahead to catch up with them and pull Lee off to the side. “Hey Lee, maybe you should ask for your knife back.” “Ok”, is all he says. I get Kate’s attention and the three of us wait for Amanda to catch up. It is getting late now and the sun sitting low in the sky. We are nearing the end now and we follow the path back past the waterfall, the cliff, and the lake and back to camp. “We’re going to have to build a fire to light all over again,” I tell Lee. “There’s no way that it stayed warm the whole day. He is excited to hear this until I add, “and were going to have to collect some more wood, too”. My feet are ready to fall off now and I’m contemplating walking around the camp barefoot, taking a gamble on any sharp rocks that would surely puncture the tender skin. “Hamburgers tonight guys, is everyone hungry?” I ask as I feel my own stomach eating away at itself.
We reach the camp and I get the food down as Lee reluctantly goes out for some wood. We bring everything back to the tents and begin to work on the fire, crumpling up newspaper and stacking twigs on top of it.
“Hey, your boots!” Amanda shouts. I run over and find her holding them in front of the tent. “They were sitting right here in front of the tent.”
“That’s really weird, they definitely weren’t there when we left. You’re not playing with me and you didn’t just get them out of the car?”
“No, I have no idea where they came from.” She actually sounds a little frightened. I say nothing, feeling completely relieved to have my boots back. We head over to the fire which Lee has stoked to a full blaze. I cook the hamburgers as Amanda and Kate get out the buns, the ketchup and the chips. We prepare our own hamburgers and finish off the meal with some more smores, browning the marshmallows perfectly as always. Actually, Amanda likes hers more black and burnt, but everyone their own taste. We all get ready to go to sleep, Amanda and Kate taking showers a bit lengthier then the ones Lee and I take. We retire to our tents as the wind begins to blow again. The temperature is dropping back down and has a chilly bite once again. The trees are swaying and the wind howls through them as Amanda and I close our eyes.
Lee tears open our tent. The wind is blowing hard and rain is falling. It is between late at night and early in the morning. “Are you guys scared? You can come in here if you want”
“No!” he screams. “Kate is gone. Somebody took her. Somebody’s here with us.” I jump out of bed. “We’ve got to find her, we’ve got to look for now.” I pull out the flashlights and give Amanda and Lee one each, keeping two for myself.
“Should one of us wait here in case she comes back?” Amanda asks. “Are you crazy, somebody TOOK her, she didn’t run way so she can’t come back.” Lee is just as frantic as I am. Ok, Lee, you and Amanda are gonna go back along the path we went on yesterday. I’m going to go south and see if I can find anyone back at the main cabin. I’m not sure if I should let Amanda leave with Lee. It was weird that she asked for the knife and the water just happened to get slashed. Maybe I’m being a little paranoid, but Kate is gone. I guess Lee can defend himself anyway. We begin our searches; running through the lightly wooded, pitch black forest. Everything is a lot less friendly in the middle of the night, especially when my little sister is gone. I come upon the cabin, but it is dark and closed, not at all unexpected. I continue through the paths, wondering if Amanda and Lee have found anything. I decide to head back to camp, I don’t know how long I’ve been walking along this path, but its beginning to get light out and they’ve probably already returned anyway. I am nearing camp and hear a horrible, gut-wrenching sound. That is Lee screaming. I know his voice and I know what it sounds like when he screams. He is horrified. I know it is him and it scares me more than anything I’ve ever felt. I can see camp now and as I near the tent, I see Amanda. She’s holding Kate in her arms! “What are you doing, where did you find Kate, what did you do to Lee, where is he.” I grab her as Kate begins to speak.
“Bobby grabbed him, Amanda’s brother grabbed him and Amanda took me and ran.” I am in complete shock.
“Amanda’s brother is here? Why is he here Amanda?”
“I don’t know, I really don’t know.” “He’s down by the lake, they’re both down by the lake.” I run toward the lake. It is dawn now and the sun streaks across the lake. I see him. I see him holding Lee under the water. I run toward them. I see Lee’s arm come out of the water. He has his knife! He stabs his knife deep into bobby’s shoulder. Bobby does not let Lee up. I see Lee’s arm fall. “No!” I scream as I lunge at him. I tackle him and strangle him under the water. I see him pull the knife out of his shoulder. He stabs me in the thigh and pain shoots through my body instantly.
“You can’t protect your brother and sister,” he screams at me after I fall into the water. “I protect Amanda. I protected her from dad and I’m protecting her from you.” I see Amanda thirty feet up at the top of the cliff.
“Why are you doing this?” she screams.
“I’m protecting you. Don’t you appreciate that?” he scrambles up the hill considerably faster than I can, my thigh badly bLeeding. He is at the top of the hill now, screaming at Amanda.