Wild Woods
8
Troubled Waters
Punishment
“SICK. IT’S JUST SICK,” Mead muttered as Nina left the room. At a few minutes before nine o’clock, she stood and asked if she could go to bed. The poor girl looked like she was still in shock but had answered all Mead’s questions. “Not only the people who bought her but that she was… erased… made… created… here. The cabins. The children. The doctor. It’s all too much. That our town has been a hub of child trafficking.” Mead shook his head and stood to leave. Karen and Gee walked to the door with him.
“We’ve known something was wrong,” Karen said. “We just didn’t know how bad it was.”
“If we find any evidence that leads to her sir and madam, we’ll end up going public with all of this, Karen. There won’t be any way to avoid it. It will be national news and the FBI will be involved. You might as well warn the Families.”
“The Families want this ended,” Karen said. “Yes, there are some who simply want us to say the doctor was the end of the trail and the problem is solved. We know that’s not true. Pàl is ready to disassemble his company brick by brick to find anyone who was involved. A researcher in a lab may have created the drug but he didn’t come up with the concept and network for capturing children and distributing sex slaves. He didn’t go out in the woods and build the cabins—even with the help of a shift supervisor. Someone coordinated this and set up the network.”
“And that someone is still in Rosebud Falls,” Gee said.
“I’m going to find him,” Mead vowed. “My son is Nina’s age. My daughter is younger. None of our children are safe if we let this go. None of them.”
“Let us know what help you need,” Karen said. “Loren and Heinz are frightened old men who want everything silenced, but their heirs, Jessie and Cameron, aren’t going to sit around doing nothing. David and Jonathan are offering everything they can to help. Jan has started sending staff at the hospital through specialized training for dealing with any other children we might encounter. We have people and money, Mead. We’ll get whatever is needed.”
“Thank you, Karen. I… need to go now.” He looked toward the stairs where Nina had disappeared. “Take care of her. I need to go hug my daughter.” Mead left and Karen fell into Gee’s arms to be held.
“Let’s go check on our baby,” Karen said. “She’s had a rough day.”
They went up the stairs and paused at Nina’s door. Karen knocked softly and peeked through the opening to make sure Nina was dressed before letting Gee look at the figure sleeping in bed.
But no figure was in the bed.
“Nina? Are you okay, Sweetie?” she asked, pushing into the room. There was a rustle at her feet and she snapped the light on full.
Nina knelt in a pile of blankets by the door, naked, with her head bowed. Gee snatched her robe from behind the door and pulled it over her shoulders as Karen knelt beside the distraught girl.
“Nina, honey. Why are you here like this instead of asleep in your bed?”
“I don’t deserve a bed. I was bad,” she sniffed.
“You weren’t bad,” Gee said, kneeling with Karen.
“I tore my new coat and shirt. I had to go to the hospital. I made you miss work. You had to call the police. I’m bad.”
“No, no, no,” Karen cried. “You were frightened. That isn’t bad. I was frightened, too. So was Gee. Frightened isn’t bad.”
“You won’t punish me?” she whispered.
“No one is ever going to punish you like this again, Nina,” Gee said. “You will never have your bed taken away from you. You will never have to do things to other people.” Nina collapsed forward into Karen’s arms, sobbing. Gee held them both.
“It just takes time, Precious. Time to get over your fears. Time to heal. Time to believe,” Karen said. “Let me help you get to bed now. We love you, Nina.”
They stood and as Karen and Nina headed to the bathroom, Gee slipped out the door and closed it softly behind him.
Karen found him sitting at the top of the stairs with his head in his hands, shoulders shaking. She joined him and put her arms around him.
“She’ll sleep now,” she said. “She relived a bad part of her life, not only in the woods but in telling it all to Mead. She forgot she was with us and not with Sir and Madam. It was like she rediscovered her room after I got her face washed.”
“She couldn’t tell us any of that before the shock today,” Gee said. “We knew she’d been mistreated and sexually abused but seeing the cabin triggered all the memories she was suppressing.”
“I should have thought of it. I was shaken by that glimpse through the trees. I haven’t been near a cabin during the few times I’ve been out helping. My first thought was ‘that is where he tried to kill me.’ I felt my heart speed up and nearly fled myself.”
“I was afraid she’d stumble and fall into the quarry. I don’t know how I caught her in time. I need to talk to Pàl tomorrow. The fence around that pit needs to be repaired and we need to determine what to do with it. With the border fence between the Wild Woods and the Forest down and paths cut, people can just walk through to get to it. It’s dangerous. Having a sign that declares it a hard hat area isn’t adequate.”
“It should be filled in.”
“More than that. It needs to be emptied first.”
“Emptied? How do you empty a lake without filling it in?”
“There must be a way. I need to talk to Jan tomorrow, too. Something his father said.”
“His father? How did you meet August? He’s got Alzheimer’s and is in terminal care.”
“He’s in the same long-term care wing as the children,” Gee said. “I was passing the other day and he called to me by name. Not Gee, but George.”
“He must have thought you were someone else. Alzheimer’s is like that.”
“Yes. Someone from his youth. A memory of playing hide and seek in the quarry and they shouldn’t go back because of what was hidden there,” Gee said. “More mysteries.”
“I can’t deal with more mysteries tonight, Love. I’m drained. I need to be held by my lover.”
Raging Hormones
“Gee, need to speak with you,” David said when Gee got to the office Friday morning. The weather was looking threatening and Gee wasn’t sure if his crew would actually get anything done today. The wind was whipping snow horizontally out of the open fields east of the fence line.
“Sure. What’s up?” Gee poured a cup of coffee and settled into a chair near David. The two men were the only ones in the office this early.
“You’re going to have to talk to your kids about going into the woods for… personal reasons,” David said.
“What do you mean?”
“I had one of the guys do a routine check on the cabins yesterday afternoon to make sure there was propane for the heaters. In addition to your fencerow crew, I’ve had people out assessing the thinner area of the woods up close to SSG,” David explained. “They need a place to get warm. But Lee found a backpack in one of the cabins with a sleeping bag.”
“Do you think we’ve got a squatter?”
“No. I think we have some hormonal teens who have found a place to be alone.”
“Oh, no,” Gee sighed. “You’re sure?”
“There was an ID tag on the backpack. Lee left it out there until we decide what to do. It’s your call, but something like that could reduce your volunteer crew to zero and start a hullaballoo about access to the woods,” David said. “I’d go read them the riot act and probably ban a few from working, but that’s me. You’ve got a different relationship with them and this is your baby.”
“Thanks a lot.”
A dozen kids finally made it to the foresters’ office to volunteer for work but in addition to wind, fresh snow had started falling. Before he canceled work and told the kids to go back home, Gee called them together.
“How’s Nina, Gee?” Jeanie asked.
“She’s doing okay. We found out, though, that fifteen years ago she was held in one of those cabins to be programmed for a life of servitude. Seeing the cabin yesterday was a real shock and sent her into a panic. You’re all an important part of her healing and I want to thank you for that,” Gee said. There were nods and Gee took a deep breath before plunging on.
“You’re all an important part of the Wild Woods, too, and that brings me to an issue that only you can deal with. Guys, the cabins have been cleaned and heaters installed so we can work during the winter. They aren’t set aside as a personal recreation area. I need you all to promise you won’t go out there except as part of a work crew. I thought that was understood but it seems I need to make it explicit.”
“Has someone gone out to party?” Leslie asked. “None of you guys drink or do dope, do you?” There was shaking of heads. Leslie was the youngest and perhaps most naïve. Gee was sure some of the older kids had experimented a little.
“It was me,” Ryan said. “I went out to camp in one of the cabins.”
“Us,” Shannon said. “Ryan, you can’t confess without me. Gee, we went out there to… because there isn’t any place we can be alone. We just wanted to be together, you know?”
“I do know,” Gee said. “And I know it’s hard to make the right decision when there’s an opportunity in front of you. Please understand, though, that if word of this reached your parents, you wouldn’t be allowed to come back. I’m sure of that. We’re going to have to lock the cabins. So, your actions affect more than just the two of you. Anybody else had the idea of using the cabins as a private meeting place?” There were a few nods.
“We didn’t even do anything,” Ryan said. “I mean, we kissed and stuff but we got to talking and ended up leaving before anything else happened.”
“And left your pack,” Gee said.
“That was different,” Shannon interjected. “That wasn’t for us.”
“What?”
“One of the things Shan and I talked about when we were out there and trying to get warm in front of the heater was the footprint she found. It wasn’t far from that cabin. I mean, we were bundled up in our winter coats and had the heater going and we were still cold. If there’s kids out there, they must be freezing. We left our snack food, drinks, and sleeping bag in case some kid stumbled on it and needed to get warm,” Ryan said. Gee snapped his head toward David, who had been quietly observing. His brow was creased. Gabe, in his usual corner, brought all four feet of his chair to the floor.
“Please don’t lock the cabins, Mr. Lazorack,” Shannon said. “It might be the only shelter they have.”
“We need to consider this, David,” Gabe said. “What’s our purpose been out there? If there are kids hiding, they might be too scared of the cabins to go in, but we shouldn’t lock them out.”
“Aside from you kids using the place as a private love nest, I have to agree,” David said. “I was focused on the possibility of finding them, not of them surviving if we don’t. Gee?”
“Yes. Okay. You kids have done it again. I’m proud of you. How can we put together a couple of bundles for each cabin? If you believe in this, I’m going to depend on you to figure it out. Go up to the school and sit down with a pad of paper and decide what needs to be in each survival kit and how much it will cost to put them together. I’ll try to shake loose some money to buy the supplies.”
“I’ll fund it,” David said. “Provided you all promise not to make unauthorized visits. I appreciate you wanting a place to go. I’m not that old. But you have to respect the vulnerability of our volunteer program and protect it.”
“We will, sir,” Ryan said. “I’m sorry we acted without thinking.”
Trading Spaces
By the time Saturday morning dawned, a near white-out blizzard had descended on Rosebud Falls. “Worst storm in a generation,” Troy announced on the radio. “Where’s global warming when you need it, eh? I might end up spending the weekend here in the studio. Please shovel me out before New Year’s Eve. I’ve got a hot date. So, for today, stay in, cuddle up, and stay safe. Here’s a little jingle to get you started.” His voice faded into the recognizable intro for ‘Winter Wonderland’ and Karen clicked off the bedside radio.
“I’m really tired of being woken up by Troy’s voice in the morning,” Karen said. “We need to find a different radio station.”
“He’s changed over the past few weeks. Have you noticed?” Gee asked.
“Yes. I’m betting the hot date he has on New Year’s Eve is to his farewell party.”
“You think he’s being pushed out?”
“Yes. You should be prepared to find Wayne is unemployed, too.”
“Judge Warren?”
“He has two more years to serve. If he’s careful, he won’t be asked to step down. District Attorney Mazzenga has an exploratory committee raising funds for a run at the position. Judge Warren won’t be able to work miracles like giving people ID or arranging custody, though,” she chuckled.
“Speaking of which…”
“Nina’s ID is already in the works, as are birth certificates for the children.”
“How is our teen treasure this morning? She seemed back to her normal self yesterday afternoon.”
“I checked on her when I got up to use the bathroom. She was awake and bounced out of bed to hug me. She asked if she could make breakfast this morning and I agreed. I expect she’ll be up in a few minutes to announce it’s ready, so don’t get too frisky there, mister.” They both laughed and held each other in a deep kiss.
“Well, there won’t be work in the woods again today. What shall we do?” Gee asked.
“Pack,” Karen said. “If the snow lets up a little, we can walk over to the mansion and survey what we want to occupy and where we want things moved. We won’t be moving a lot of furniture but I want to keep our bed. It’s too comfortable to give up. Besides, the memory foam has memories of making love to you.”
“We’ve made a big deal about telling Nina this is her home,” Gee said. “We need to make sure she understands we aren’t talking about the building but our family.”
Nina and Karen had a long conversation about things she owned now. They went through the bedroom and Karen pointed out her clothes, the few stuffed animals and books, and her bathroom supplies were all hers. The furniture could be moved to her new room or left behind if she found a room in the new house already furnished that she liked.
“Can Jeanie have this furniture?” Nina asked. “She really liked this bed and doesn’t have one as nice. I would like her to have nice things because she is my friend.”
“That’s very thoughtful of you, sweetheart,” Karen said. “Jeanie might not have space for this bed in her room at school. You know she shares her room with a dorm sister? But… I have a secret. You know that Jude and Laura and the children are going to move into this house?” Nina nodded. “They will need some help with the children. I think they are going to ask Jeanie if she would like to live with them and help take care of Esther, David, and Naomi.”
“Jeanie likes them,” Nina said. “I do, too. I could help.”
“I think that’s a wonderful idea. I know Laura would be happy to have your help. But if Jeanie moves here, guess where she’d be sleeping.” Nina’s eyes got big with wonder.
“Here? Here in my room?”
“Wouldn’t that be wonderful? And your friend would be right across the street from you so you could see her when you both want to,” Karen said. Nina grinned.
“Can we go see my new room now?”
The mansion was as overwhelming to Gee as it was to Nina. It had been built and added onto to accommodate generations of extended family living together and had functioned that way until the great schism between Ben and his sister, Karen’s great-grandmother, and their father’s refusal to recognize Celia Eberhardt as part of the Family. Ben had further split the family when Leah married a gentile. Ben threw a fit and as long as Karen had been alive, had lived alone in the massive building.
Karen and Gee would occupy the master suite on the second floor. It had two bedrooms, a large bath, sitting room, study, and a breakfast room that overlooked the river and led to a covered deck set with a table and chairs. Money had never been an issue for the Roths. Both Aaron and Ben had spent freely to modernize the 150-year-old mansion.
“Are we supposed to have separate bedrooms?” Gee asked as he looked into the rooms.
“We’d better not!” Karen announced. “But we might need a nursery room handy one day.” She waggled her eyebrows at him and he grinned.
“Any time soon?”
“Not until after we’re married.” They decided to make their intentions known immediately and have the beds moved out of both rooms. Karen’s king-size bed from across the street would be moved into their bedroom. They would begin decorating the second bedroom as a nursery.
Nina chose a remarkably small bedroom—smaller than the one at the ‘cottage.’ Karen and Gee could see at once why she chose that room. It was decorated in a soft palette with curtains in front of a balcony overlooking the river. From her balcony, she could see the deck stretched across Gee and Karen’s suite.
The closet was roomy but not so big that Nina’s few accumulated clothes would look sparse. The bed was not as large as the bed in her former room but was very high. Two steps led up to the mattress of the old four-poster. From the bed, she could see out the doors to the balcony. It was cozy and comfortable and just a door down from the master suite.
Karen decided to move her great-great-grandfather’s desk back into the library downstairs along with the papers and books they had been packing so carefully. Other family members needed access to those materials. The study in the master suite would be used for more personal pursuits like writing her book and Gee’s coordination of volunteers.
“I’m going to invite Raven back to live here,” Karen sighed. “I think she’d be interested in cutting some of her hours at the bar in exchange for more time and money to take care of the house here. Um… That means Timmy would move here, too.”
“Nathan says he is doing well at work and is adjusting to the routine with no problem.”
“That’s part of what I was thinking. Right now, they live in a two-bedroom apartment. That’s not a comfortable place for a single adult woman and her twenty-eight-year-old son. There’s a rather nice maid’s apartment behind the kitchen. It’s smaller than what she’s in now, but Timmy could have the carriage house apartment. It’s where he lived the first few years of his life, so it should feel familiar. And it would give him some semblance of freedom without being too far away for Raven to help.”
Gee looked at his fiancée and smiled. “You’re going to fill the mansion with people in need, aren’t you?” She bit her lip.
“Maybe not all of it,” she said hopefully. “But Ben did say to fill the space with children. They don’t all have to be ours.”
The remainder of the weekend was filled with the bustle of packing. Karen decided to move her entire bedroom furniture suite to the mansion and Laura agreed to accept the replaced furniture. Once she could get through the snow, Jeanie came to help Nina pack. Then the two girls enthusiastically helped Karen and Laura repaint the children’s two rooms and decorate them. Everyone knew the children would use only one of the bedrooms—at least for now—but Monday, the furniture store delivered a double bed for one room and bunkbeds for the other.
“Are you even ready for your wedding?” Karen asked Laura Monday morning, New Year’s Eve.
“It’s on autopilot. Jude and I have lived together for six years, telling people we were getting married. The wedding itself is kind of a shrug to our parents. Rabbi Schlesinger will conduct the service, but it will be at Mom and Dad’s. Just the families—which includes you, don’t forget.”
“We wouldn’t miss it. What else would we be doing tomorrow?”
A small truck arrived to remove what Gee, Karen, and Nina had packed and take it to the mansion. An hour and a half later, it returned with the bedroom furniture for Laura and Jude’s guest room. Then the truck went to their modest home and loaded out everything to move to the Weisman house. In all, the move took the full day and Karen tipped the workers double for having moved everyone on New Year’s Eve.
Rather than spend the night in their new home, Laura and Jude went to the hospital and spent the night with their children.
Fire Sale
“They want to buy our land,” John Daniels said. Five men stood with cups of punch in a corner of the church basement after the ‘Watch Night’ service. It wasn’t as big a turn-out as in previous years and the men on the board of trustees were doubtful about the future of the church. But the news that the foresters wanted to buy land adjoining the Wild Woods was disturbing. “I’ve seen them moving along the inside of the fence, clearing it and checking for breaks.”
“We replaced that section in September, right after the monk died.”
“The trail is still there.”
“Maybe you should go ahead and sell,” Deacon said. “Retire down south where it’s warm. Florida is sounding better all the time.”
“Like Simon retired?” Darren Cole barked. “Do you plan to kill us all off?”
Deacon looked around at the five board members of the church.
“Did any of you see bodies?” he asked in a low voice. “The timing seemed too convenient to me. I think they disappeared and if they had the help of a witness protection program, we’re all in danger. I’m out of here with the spring thaw.”
“They’d find too much if they investigated my barn,” Daniels said. “We did too much staging from there.”
“Burn it.”
“What?”
“If you lose your barn, your equipment, and your livestock in a big fire, then you’d have a reason to be discouraged, sell out, and leave town. Probably even get a sympathy offer. We’ve been good here since our fathers started this. There isn’t going to be another generation to pass it on to. Savage is investigating the books and has already called the church lease into question. It’s been scrubbed clean, so we can just walk away from it.”
“What about Beck?”
“He’ll do whatever we say. We have enough on him to put him away for life. If the videos of his conversion therapy ever surfaced, he’d be locked up forever. And prisons being what they are, forever wouldn’t be a very long time.”
“Too bad about it all,” Daniels said. “Such a loss.”
“Might as well enjoy the profits,” Cole said.
“No forwarding addresses,” Deacon said. “And have your women scrub everything down.”
Mazel Tov!
The wedding, at noon on New Year’s Day, was held at the Lazorack home. It was a simple ceremony. Jude’s brother Levi stood with him and Laura’s sister-in-law, Jessie attended her. There was no canopy or breaking of a glass, however the rabbi gave seven blessings and pronounced them husband and wife. Rebecca Lazorack served a buffet reception for the twenty or so guests of the Roth and Lazorack Families.
“So where are you honeymooning?” Jessie asked Laura.
“In our new home. Don’t expect us to come out until Friday when we go pick up the children,” Laura laughed. “Except you know we’ll be up there every day until we can bring them home.”
“You’re stacking up a lot of the major stressors all at one time. New marriage, new home, new children…” David said.
“At least I don’t have to take over as a Family head,” Jude laughed at his father-in-law. “David, we have a piece of paper now but you know Laura and I have been married in our hearts a long time.”
“I’m not trying to be negative, son,” David said. “I just want you to know if you need anything, you have family here to help.”
“I’ll always appreciate that,” Jude said.
“And so will I, Daddy,” Laura added. “But you have to come over and meet your grandchildren soon. You know we named our son after you.”
“If you say that too loudly, your mothers will want to know why the girls aren’t named Rebecca and Leah,” David laughed.
“Grandchildren!” Rebecca said. “I’m too young to be a grandma!”
“All the better to enjoy the children,” Karen said. David tugged at Gee’s sleeve and led him aside.
“How are the children, really, Gee?” he asked.
“They’re improving daily. Jude and Laura have already made a big difference in their lives. I’ve never seen the children expressing so much social interaction as on Christmas when the whole family stayed with us. It was good for Nina, too,” Gee said.
“So, she’s recovering okay?” David took another sip from his glass of champagne. “It sounded pretty traumatic.”
“It was… terrible, David. I was afraid we’d lost her. And then when she told us about her life, I thought we’d lost her again. You can’t imagine, David. You just can’t imagine. We have to keep searching for children. We sat with Mead Oliver and ran numbers. Our estimate is that as many as three hundred children could have been trafficked through our woods in the past fifteen years.”
“I’m not letting the Families sweep this under the carpet,” David growled. “They’ve been known to do that. They want everything resolved and don’t want to look any further. It happened with my father’s death. The minute Gaston said ‘Accidental death,’ they wanted nothing more than to get him buried and out of sight. It was the same with Meagher’s great-niece. The van was found down near Palmyra, wiped clean and then burned. The case was handed over to the state and the Families washed their hands of it. None of us are immune. Karen revealing the truth about Celia Eberhardt made them want to hide their heads in the sand again.”
“You’re a Family head,” Gee reminded him.
“I wish I wasn’t but I won’t abdicate to Jonathan yet. It wouldn’t be fair to him and Jessie. Especially now that you’ve opened the Wild Woods to us. It’s not fair to you or Karen or Wayne, either,” David said. “Dealing with Family politics should be left to toothless old men. I just hope you’ll improve things.”
“We’ll do our best.”
“By the way, the kids have started assembling survival kits to put in the cabins. Maybe your crew could take the first batch out tomorrow if the weather cooperates.”
“We’ll do it.”
“The children were part of the Wild Woods,” Laura explained to Jessie. “Judge Warren accepted the filing of birth certificates giving them the names of Naomi, David, and Esther Woods. Then he approved our name change as part of our marriage.”
“So, you’re not really fostering them,” Jessie said. “You’re really adopting them.”
“Sort of. Their birth certificates will list us as the parents,” Laura answered. “They’re like Gee with no identity and no memory. DNA tests have come back with no missing person reports and otherwise show the obvious. Northern European heritage but so well mixed that they could have come from anywhere in America or Europe. And they aren’t related within five generations. They might have come from anywhere in America or Europe. From overseas, from Canada, or stolen from anywhere in the United States. They’re our children now.”
“How long are we going to get away with things like that?” Jessie sighed. “I understand the necessity, but sometime it’s going to backfire and blow up in our faces. There’s an EPA inspector coming out to examine the woods and the Forest. He’ll make rules about what has to be preserved and what has to be removed in order for us to keep control of it. We can expect the DEA to show up and demand to see the LaRue research on Lustre. If we can’t show that we now account for every nut, they could order the Wild Woods clear-cut.”
“That’s too heavy a discussion for a wedding day,” Jonathan broke in. “We’re not going to let anyone cut our trees. So, let’s have another glass of champagne and toast my sister and her husband.”
Fair Play
Gee’s crew loaded a sled full of survival kits. They had rejected the idea of sleeping bags because of the cost and opted instead for large microfiber blankets that could be made into compact rolls. They included ponchos and socks in the kits with school sweatshirts. Finally, they included energy bars in plastic containers as the only food they dared leave in the cabins and not risk invasion by small animals.
It was the first time the crew had made the circuitous trip to all six cabins and they discovered there was no single path that led to all. Heavy snow sometimes fell from the high branches, resulting in a screech from one of the kids who got a batch down her neck.
“You should see it,” Jeanie said as they trudged from one cabin to the next. “She has the cutest room ever. She doesn’t want to come back out here, though. Finding that cabin really freaked her out.” Jeanie had spent New Year’s Eve with Nina and stayed with her on New Year’s Day while Gee and Karen went to the wedding.
“Why doesn’t she come live with us at Flor?” Annie, a tenth grader asked. “Are you adopting her, Gee?”
“Well, in a way. We’re her guardians. But Nina has special education needs at the moment,” Gee said. “Flor isn’t equipped for that. We’ll be going down to Rosebud High next week to see if we can work out a program. We might have to do a lot of tutoring. And she gets a little nervous around groups. She’s making progress, though.”
“So, what are you going to talk about when you come for senior forum next week?” Trevor asked.
“What’s that?” Alyson broke in.
“We have a weekly forum for high school and invite speakers in. Then we have a chance to ask questions and discuss what was presented,” Jeanie said. “Gee is going to speak next week.”
“You all invited me. What do you want me to talk about?”
“The battle of good versus evil,” JD volunteered. “I feel somehow like the Wild Woods is a battleground. We know the trees are good and the foresters are good but evil people made drugs and brainwashed children out here, too.”
“That would be interesting,” Shannon said. “I wish we had a program like that at RHS. But how do you even know what’s good?”
“Yeah. It’s hard to tell. Everyone thinks they’ve got a corner on ‘good’ and if you disagree then you’re bad,” Trevor admitted. “That preacher from Calvary Tabernacle spoke to us before Christmas. He had all the words about love and goodness but he sounded evil.”
“That’s because you challenged his quote of a Bible verse. The preacher got all wound up and told us we were all going to hell and needed to come to his church so he could ‘teach us the ways of righteousness’,” Jeanie said.
“He was creepy,” JD said. Especially, the way he looked at the younger kids. Which I’m sometimes mistaken for. Like he’d already written off the high schoolers but wanted to get his hands on the twelve-year-olds.”
“Talk about what makes a good person, Gee,” Ryan suggested. “You’ve helped us. Not that we’re all good persons, but we’re trying.”
“I’m not sure I know what makes a good person,” Gee answered. “I’m just like you. Trying to live a good life and do what’s right.”
Thursday, the crew was back on the fencerow. It was a more reserved group who focused on the task of clearing and finding more paths. They’d had a difficult discussion when they met in the morning.
“We should go check to see if anyone took supplies from the cabins,” JD suggested. “Then we’d know for sure if someone was out there.”
“What if that scared them away?” Leslie asked.
“Why would they be scared? We’re kids just like they are.”
“Really, JD? How dumb can you be? We might be kids but if they are hiding in the woods in this weather, we are nothing at all like they are,” Jeanie said. “We go home to hot meals and warm beds. They hide.”
“They’re probably more like wild animals than people,” Viktor surmised.
“Viktor, what a terrible thing to say,” Alyson said, snatching her hand from his.
“I’m being practical, not critical. If they’re out there, why haven’t they just come out to see us? We’re out there almost every day. But no one comes.”
“Are you saying they aren’t out there?”
“No. I’m saying they are afraid of people, just like the natural condition of a deer is to avoid places where humans are,” Viktor defended himself. “If we keep trampling on areas where we leave things it will look more like we’re trying to trap them than help them.”
“I think there’s an element of truth to that,” Gee finally said. “We should do nothing more than what we usually do. We can use a cabin that is nearby to warm up and eat our lunch. If we’re being watched, that’s an expected behavior. It wouldn’t frighten anyone and you can check supplies when we do that. Otherwise, we should stay away from the cabins and pray that those who need help find it there.”
The crew had been convinced but weren’t happy about it as they returned to clearing the fencerow. Eventually, things smoothed out and normal chit-chat returned to the group.
“I don’t know,” Barrett said as he clipped out a particularly tough batch of thorns and ducked his head back to keep from being scratched. “Those guys are mean on the court. And the refs give up and stop calling them on the fouls. I hate having to play them in the first game after we get back to school.”
“What are we going to do?” Jim asked. He was another of the basketball players who had joined the crew.
“I say we give it right back to them,” Lonnie said. “I’m tired of getting kicked around the court by them.”
“I agree,” Barrett said. “I’m not going to put up with it. They play nasty, we play nastier.”
“I’ve never seen you play ‘nasty’ in our pickup games,” Gee said. “I haven’t been to a game at the school yet. It doesn’t seem to attract as much attention as football. Do you usually play a nasty game?”
“It’s a football town but we’ve got a good roundball team,” Lonnie said.
“And we play clean ball,” Barrett defended himself. “But when you’ve got an opponent who plays dirty, what are you going to do?”
“Why would that affect how you play? I mean, you play clean ball. Why would you start playing dirty?” Gee asked.
“Well, because they do it,” Jim answered quickly. Barrett seemed to be thinking.
“I understand the other team doesn’t play the way you do. Call it playing dirty. Call it cheating. Whatever. Why would you start playing the way they do?”
“How else are we going to win?” Barrett asked.
“Is winning what’s important?” Gee asked. “I don’t know if I can explain it. How are you going to feel after the game? I’ve taken a few psychological profile tests since I got to Rosebud Falls to see if I’m a danger to anyone since I don’t have a memory of everything. It’s like one of the impossible questions they ask on them. Would you rather lose to a team that cheats or win by cheating?”
“Oh.” All three boys were lost in thought as they bent to clear more brush.
Icy Waters
Friday, the temperature dropped steadily all morning as they worked on the trail. Instead of snow falling from trees, a fine mist of icy particles hit and clung to the branches. A crust of ice formed on the deeper snow drifts and footing became treacherous. A rifle-like crack rang out and they looked up to see a thick limb break away from one of the trees and crash to the ground, partly on the fence ahead of them. Gee called a halt and headed the kids out of the woods. They were met halfway by Jonathan coming to get them.
“We’re calling the foresters in from everywhere. When we get this much ice on the trees, nowhere is safe,” he said as he helped pull the loaded sled.
“Is it like this every winter?” Gee asked.
“Hasn’t been this bad in a long time. And this won’t help.” Stinging bits of ice fell from the sky in increasing sheets of sleet. “This keeps up and you kids won’t start back to school Monday,” he laughed. “Let’s get tools in the shed and get inside where it’s warm.”
The office was too crowded for everyone and the foresters offered to use the tractors to pull sleds loaded with kids back to Flor del Día and down into town. David held Gee back and the two men grabbed a cup of coffee to sit and talk.
“We’ll be having a guest next week. Roy Waters from the EPA will be up from Washington for an environmental assessment. He’s keen to know if there is an environmental impact from our work in the Wild Woods.”
“Isn’t it private property?” Gee said. “Does the Environmental Protection Agency have any say over that?”
“Well, yes and no. They can’t tell us specifically how to manage the Forest or the Wild Woods but they can list rules we have to abide by. For example, he could find some hibernating red squirrel and decide we are endangering its natural habitat. Then he could tell us we have to preserve all the dogwood we can for them to live in. We’d have to show we were abiding by the ruling until we could get a court to hear the case and get the injunction lifted. Other things, he might just suggest.”
“Like we should rake the woods to prevent wild fires,” Gabe snorted from his usual corner of the room. David chuckled.
“Roy is one of the few left in that department that has a lick of common sense,” David said. “We’ve worked with him before. He’ll probably say things we already know, like the trees need to be thinned by thirty percent. But he won’t tell us we have to cut or how to manage the process. He’ll be more concerned about how reducing the understory will affect water runoff and if nuts washed into the water supply are a potential contaminant”
Gee rubbed the worry stone in his pocket, finding the engraved ridges comforting. He wanted to get home where it was warm and dry soon. He imagined an evening of watching movies with Karen and Nina while they munched popcorn. It would be their first opportunity to try out the TV room in the mansion.
“I appreciate the update, but why are you telling me about this?” he asked.
“Because you’re in charge of the Wild Woods. You’ll have to guide him and answer questions,” David said.
“I will? I am?”
“Gee, haven’t you noticed that other than an occasional helper, there hasn’t been a forester leading a team in the Wild Woods in three weeks. Your student volunteer teams have tripled in size and you’re sending them out in independent student-led teams that you supervise. Haven’t you been the one directing where we were cutting? What paths were important and when to change emphasis to the fencerow? What paths need to be cut toward the Patriarch? I think all that qualifies you as managing the Wild Woods.”
“But I don’t know…”
“We’re short-handed, Gee. It was okay to assign foresters to the Wild Woods in the beginning. If I assigned Jonathan to manage the Wild Woods instead of you, he’d still get student volunteers, but only about half as many. He gets out there to answer questions, to teach, and to give advice when he can, but you are the lead. You overruled him about harvesting the saplings near the Patriarch and finding a way to transplant instead. It’s your baby. Run with it.”
Gee let David’s words wash over him, trying desperately to find an answer to the nagging question of why he was so invested in the Wild Woods. Karen had been rescued. The children had been found. Nina had told about the cabin usage that went back fifteen years. He’d found the Patriarch. Why was he still driven to care for the Wild Woods?
“I’ll do my best,” he said softly.
“I know you will. Now, let’s talk a little about your strategy for dealing with Waters.
Between the early sunset and dense cloud cover, nightfall was a rapid process. Gee carefully navigated the icy paths toward town, once sliding on his butt for nearly ten feet before he regained his footing. The ice storm had let up but the temperature had dropped further and wind whipped particles of ice through the trees and across the fields.
He stepped onto the Tenth Avenue bridge, grabbing for the railing as his feet started to slide. After he caught his balance, he spent a moment looking downstream at the water that had been his introduction to Rosebud Falls. Even today, he could not believe the foolishness of diving from the bridge to save Devon. But now the boy was more precious to him than ever and he knew he would do the same again if necessary. The water rushed down a center channel with ice growing out from the banks. Only the rapid current kept the center channel open. Half a mile upstream on the West Branch where the canal connected above the dam, the water was frozen solid. Kids had been out ice skating on the canal.
He saw headlights approaching along Riverside Drive from the south and thought the driver was going too fast for the icy conditions. He decided not to move from the slight protection of the bridge walkway until the car had passed.
His theory proved true. Turning from Riverside onto Tenth, the car fishtailed, spun, and then drifted toward the bridge. It wasn’t really going that fast, be thought, but there was no traction beneath the locked wheels at all. The front bumper hit the bridge concrete rail opposite Gee and the car spun to the side and down the embankment.
Gee was on the move before he heard the crunch and splash of the car hitting the river rocks below. He had his cellphone in hand before he reached the other side of the bridge to look over at the car. It took a moment for him to identify the black car in the dark waters.
“9-1-1. State the nature of your emergency,” the operator said.
“This is Gee Evars at the Tenth Avenue Bridge in Rosebud Falls. A car has missed the turn and crashed down the embankment into the water. Number of people is unknown. It’s dark so I can’t tell how deep it is but the headlights are definitely under water. I don’t see movement.”
“Help has been dispatched. Please stay on the line. We may need further information.” Gee held the phone as he carefully navigated the steep slope near the bridge abutment toward the submerged car. His feet slid out from under him and he stopped with a foot at the water’s edge, held by one of the rocks. Crawling more than walking, Gee moved upstream toward the falls. At this distance, he could see the car better, though darkness hindered his assessment.
“The vehicle is in about four feet of water if my guess is right. It is leaning far to the left downstream and is wedged against a good-sized boulder.”
“Rescue vehicles are approximately seven minutes away. Is there any sign of movement in the car? People?”
“Nothing. But… The driver’s window is shattered. The car is definitely filling with water.”
“Police should be with you shortly. Please stand by.”
“There’s no time,” Gee said. He pulled off his coat as he moved farther upstream from the car, now being hit by the freezing mist from the falls. He tossed the coat and his hat on the ground with the cellphone and started into the water.
Thin ice near the shore broke under him as he pushed toward the car and caught the rear bumper, keeping from being swept along in the current. Pulling himself along the passenger side of the car to the wheel well, he got another handhold and fought his way to the backdoor handle. It offered little purchase but the current pushed him against the car and let his feet touch the rocky riverbed in chest-deep water. He made his way carefully along the side of the car, reaching the passenger door window without having his feet swept from under him. Using the edge of the windshield as an uncertain grip he pulled out of the water and plastered his face against the window. He searched the interior for signs of life.
The airbag had deployed and was floating on water above the steering wheel. He could see the pale hand of the driver and no one else. Gee pulled at the handle of the passenger door but it did not move. Locked. He looked frantically about for something to smash it open but all he had was water.
The honeycomb pattern spreading from the left side of the windshield toward him showed the safety glass was held in place only by the tough plastic laminate between two layers of glass. It was the weakest point Gee could find and from this angle he could see the man’s face, partially submerged. Gee raised a wet gloved hand and pounded down on the windshield. It took four blows with all the strength he could muster before he managed a hole. He tore at it with one hand while keeping himself anchored to the car with the other. His quickly numbing feet were wedged into the front wheel well.
Gee reached through and grabbed the man’s hand, tugging toward him. Of course, the movement was minimal, stopped by the seatbelt, but the face turned away from the water as the head flopped closer to the shallow side. In that moment, Gee recognized the unfortunate driver.
Using both freezing hands now with one grasping the steering wheel, Gee squeezed himself through the broken windshield and into the front of the car. His sodden clothes threatened to drag him under the dash. A frozen eternity after losing his left glove, Gee managed to release the seatbelt and drag the man toward the passenger side of the car. A light swept the water and penetrated the rear window, then came to rest on the car. Gee continued to pull the man over the console and found the passenger door handle. The door was on the upper side of the car and Gee fought both the current and gravity, pushing with his feet against the gearshift to press the door open and push himself into the gap.
“Help!” he called toward the light. “I have a man who is still alive! Help!” His voice sounded feeble but Gee could see more lights in front of the flashing blue and red emergency vehicles being trained on his position. He closed his eyes against the brightness and held on.
Comments
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