Anaideia 28

As night fell, a faint hint of snow seeped through the trees. We climbed through the brush as gently as possible so as to not cause alarm. I made it a point to not have the Uzi on full display as we neared the campfire. About 50 yards out we could make out the few men surrounding it. There was only three of them and along with their horses. Vic shouted out before approaching.

“Hello there!” he yelled.

All three of them leapt up with weapons drawn. “Do not be alarmed!” Vic shouted. “We come in peace! I assure you!”

The men, three roughians with long scraggly beards, slowly reholstered their guns as we came near. Vic lead the pack with his hands in the air. “We’re fellow travelers,” he told them standing at the edge of camp, “all we wish is to warm our bones by the fire.”

The larger man looked him up and down then spat a wad of tobacco. “What happened to yer eye there feller?” he asked.

“I seemed to have misplaced it,” Vic joked.

“I’d say so,” the man said.

“Mind if we have a seat?”

The man didn’t object.

The four of us cautiously sit on one side of the fire while the other three dug into their cans of beans and slop with the juices dripping into their beards. The leader continued to stair at us while we rested our hands over the fire. “Boys got any whiskey?” asked Dale.

“No,” said the man.

We silently resumed warming our bodies while the gang of three scarfed down. One threw his can into the fire then belched. “How comes you fellers ain’t go no horses?” the lead man asked us.

“It’s a long story,” said Vic.

“Well you better get to explainin.”

Sensing the tension, Vic shifted in his seat. “What’s it to you, partner?”

“Four fellers wonderin the woods with no horses. There must be sumthin wrong with y’alls.”

“Maybe something is. Does that bother you?”

“You’re goddamn right it does! Sumthin about it don’t smell right.”

I slowly yet stealthily reached into my coat and placed my hand on the Uzi fearing something might go down. Vic meanwhile glared at the man from across the fire. “I’m open to having a cordial conversation with you, mate,” said Vic. “I told you that we’re fellow travelers. There’s not much use in knowing anything more than that.”

“I’ll be the one to determine that!”

“Mate,” Vic calmly said, “there are terrible things in these hills. A man like yourself can easily go missing.”

“What are you insinuating, mate? What’s a one-eyed peckerwood like yourself gonna do?”

“What makes you think I’m talking about me?”

The man laughed and spat into the fire. “You’re going after Penelope! Can you believe that shit?!” he asked his comrades. “A bunch of city boys chasing after an imaginary princess in the woods! I’ll be goddamned!”

“She’s real,” said Vic, “and she ain’t no princess.”

“Yeah, well, I ain’t seen nuthin like that in my lifetime,” the man grunted. “You boys must be on sumthin. You see that trail over yonder?” The man pointed behind him. “In the mornin y’all should go headed that way. There ain’t nuthin in these hills for ya.”

“If you don’t mind me saying so,” said Vic, “I’ll be the one to determine that.”

“Now look here boy,” the man said sternly, “I’ll give you the night to rest up. But if I find you again, I’ll hog tie you and drag your ass back to the city. You hear? This here is private property.”

Vic didn’t reply. He picked up his gatherings and began setting up his own camp several feet away. The rest of us sat silently around the campfire while the three men with horses belched and farted. I actually slept good that night. But in the morning, we awoke to find the men and their horses gone. I walked over to Vic’s spot where he was packing up his things.

“We’re on to something,” he kept saying to me like a raving madman.

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“Those men were hiding something. This ain’t no private property.”

“How do you figure?”

“It’s just a hunch.”

“Vic, we can’t keep going on hunches. We aren’t going to survive for much longer.”

“Then I reckon you ought to go walkin down that trail!”

“I might do!”

“Well go on!”

“Boys boys boys!” Dale intervened. “I say fuck this shit and let’s go home.”

“So this is it then?” asked Vic. “After all I did for you? I shot up a bar to rescue your ass!”

I instantly regretted my words. I looked to the ground for a bit then looked at Vic. This much I at least owed the man. “Vic, you’re my friend,” I said, “I followed you to the edge of the earth and I’m prepared to go further. But let me be clear: you have one more day.”

TO BE CONTINUED…