Chapter Sixty Four

Spring arrived with bright sunshine, the smell of fresh air that wafted with the scent of flowers, rich earth prepared for gardens, freshly mowed lawns, and color in everything awakening from the long winter sleep. Spring also brought news that Mathew needed to return to work high in the mountains with the logging crew. This news caused a great deal of excitement in the house! Mathew gave notice at the junk yard where he had worked through the winter, Kily began preparing her mental list of camp supplies, and Dillon, who was now five, began packing his favorite toys. Butch followed everyone around bouncing and prancing as his body picked up the air of excitement and before long they were making last minute preparations for their departure back to the mountains.

Kily double checked her list against the supplies and items Mathew loaded into the pick up. When she was reasonably sure they had gotten everything, she declared they were ready. "Just have to lock up the house," Mathew said, as he walked back up the sidewalk. Kily was secretly happy they had decided to pay the rent on the house again, even though they would be gone for the entire Summer. It saved her a lot of work in packing everything up to put in storage. It would also make things easier at the end of the Summer when the logging season ended and they once again moved back to the city.

Dillon’s head bobbed to the side in peaceful sleep as he took the short cut, and Kily watched the scenery of the mountains as Mathew drove the pick up along the familiar winding mountain roads. Kily recognized landmarks as they approached the turn off to their camp site. When they reached the familiar fork in the road, Mathew turned onto the skid road and drove down to the little clearing. Kily took a deep breath as she stepped from the pick up and felt as if she had arrived home.

The rest of the afternoon was taken up with setting up camp. Dillon, who was delighted that his short cut worked so well, tromped through the clearing and nearby woods with Butch close on his heels. Kily could see him stop periodically to carefully observe animal tracks, and investigate just who had been in the little meadow while they had been away in the city. She smiled to herself as she realized that Dillon was becoming quite the little mountain man.

Mathew began work two days later and Kily resumed watching the sun rise over the world each morning. The year before they hadn’t arrived until mid June, and the weather was much warmer. Now, though, the mornings were still very cold, and Kily had to bundle up against the chill mountain air. During the last season Kily had worked out all the logistics of camp. Tree stumps that served as seats, a piece of plywood laid over fallen logs served as a nice camp table, a fork in a large pine tree had served as a place to set up her camp stove, and hang cooking utensils, and the near by creek for fresh water and bathing down stream. Setting up camp this year was very quick and easy, and Kily found herself settled in right away.

With the weather still cold at the high elevation, Kily’s main problem was bathing. Having to bathe in the icy water of the creek was her only draw back. Trying to keep the kids clean using the cold mountain water was not an easy job. It required hours of heating water just to get a semi warm bath.

During her second week at camp Kily was determined to find an answer to their problem. She told herself there had to be an answer, she just hadn’t thought of it yet. Several days went by, and Kily suddenly blurted out, " I have an idea!" Dillon who was playing nearby, said, "what, mommy?" "We’re going to build us a hot water heater," Kily exclaimed proudly! "Yippee," Dillon said, as he got to his feet clapping. "Can I help?" he asked excitedly. "Well, I think so," Kily said, "I just have to figure out a couple of things."

Kily put the kids in the pick up and headed for town. Dillon told Kily that he was too excited to take the short cut, and spent the entire two and half hour trip asking questions all the way down the mountain. Kily stopped at the junk yard that Mathew had worked at over the Winter months and bought a 50 gallon barrel. From there she went to the hardware store and bought, copper tubing, some copper garden hose fittings, and several garden hoses. Kily knew that Mathew’s father was retired and loved to work in his shop, so she headed over to his house. Once there she asked if he could weld a door and a chimney onto the 50 gallon barrel, and turn it into a wood burning heater for her. At first he stared at her as if she had lost her mind. He began to ask questions about why she wanted him to do such things, and Kily tried to explain to the best of her ability. He finally got the idea that she was wanting to create a wood burning heater and enthusiastically began to work. He created a door and welded it in place. Under Kily’s suggestion he laid the barrel on its side and cut a hole in the top to create a chimney. He looked at Kily and said "what are you going to do for legs, young lady?" Kily had to admit that she hadn’t thought about that! Mathew’s father rummaged around in his scrap metal pile, and found enough iron to create a base and legs for the barrel. Next they coiled the copper tubing around and around the inside of the barrel, and Kily asked him to cut a hole just big enough for the copper tubing to poke through on the front and back. "What are you going to use that for?" He asked. "I want to put one of these garden hose fittings on each end of the copper tubing, so I can connect a garden hose to each end," Kily said proudly! Mathew’s father stared at her confused, "Where you going to get the water from?" he asked, "there’s no water faucet up there in those mountains!" "I know," Kily said, "but I believe that I can use gravity flow, if I place the barrel in the right spot!" He shook his head, cut the holes, and secured the connection to the copper tubing. When they were done, both of them stood looking at Kily’s idea. "I don’t know if it’s going to work," he said, uncertainly. "Is this our hot water maker," Dillon asked with excitement! "It sure is," Kily said, as she admired their handy work. They loaded the barrel into the back of the pick up and Kily headed for camp. Dillon tried hard to avoid taking the short cut, but gave in as his little eyes slowly closed on the long drive back.

Kily put the pick up in reverse and maneuvered as close as she could to the edge of the creek. Satisfied that she was as close as she could get, she hopped out of the cab and walked to the back of the bed. Sky was still asleep, but Dillon had woken up just before they reached camp. "I’ll help," he said proudly, as he followed her to the back of the pick up. Kily walked around the bank of the creek, and figured the best spot to set the barrel up was about ten feet away. There was no way to get the pick up any closer, so Kily resigned herself to the fact that she would have to drag the barrel to it’s proper place along the low bank.

The barrel was heavier than Kily thought, and she was tired and sweaty by the time she got it into the spot she thought would work best. Dillon clapped his hands as Kily declared they had gotten it where it needed to be. Kily went back to the pick up, checked on the still sleeping Sky, retrieved the garden hoses and headed back to the barrel. She guessed that Mathew would be home in about an hour, and she was hoping to have her idea working well, and producing hot water by the time he drove into camp! She wanted to give him the honor of having the very first shower.

Kily quickly connected a garden hose to the copper tubing sticking out of the front of the barrel. Then she went behind and connected another garden hose to the copper tubing sticking out the back. Dillon busied himself with uncoiling the hoses, and found himself hopelessly entangled in rubber hose. Kily laughed and helped him out of the middle of the now tangled hose, and set to work straightening it out. She drug the hose she had connected to the front of the barrel up the bank until she had stretched it out its full length. Making certain there were no kinks in the hose Kily dropped the end of the hose into the crisp, cold mountain water of the creek. She laid a rock over the end of the hose to secure it in place and walked back down to the barrel. Next, she went to the hose she had connected to the back of the barrel, untangled it, and walked down the creek until she had stretched out the full 50 feet of the garden hose. Kily was pleasantly surprised when she dropped the hose to the ground and water immediately came pouring out! "Wow," she told Dillon, "I ‘didn’t even have to suck on the end of the hose to get the water to siphon!" Dillon picked up the hose and let the water run over his hand. "It’s cold, mommy. It didn’t work," he said with a frown. "Not yet," Kily said, "next we have to build a fire inside the barrel. The fire will make the copper tubing real hot, and the water flowing inside it, will heat up. When it comes out the back of the barrel it should be hot water!" she said proudly. Dillon and Kily gathered wood and made a fire inside the converted barrel. They made sure to use small pieces of sticks and wood so the fire would burn very hot.

When Kily could feel heat emanating from the barrel, she and Dillon walked down the creek to see if they had hot water coming out the other end. Dillon picked up the hose, and Kily quickly took it out of his hands. "Let me check it first, okay," she told him gently, "I don’t know how hot it might be and I don’t want you to get burned." "Okay," Dillon said a little disappointed. Kily checked the water and sure enough, it was hot! Not hot enough to burn, but it was very, very, warm. "We did it," Kily told Dillon, "Yippee," he exclaimed, jumping up and down. Then Kily let him feel the water. Kily hung the end of the hose over a low tree branch, and headed back to the pick up. She parked the pick up in its usual spot and carried Sky into the tent.

The van the loggers referred to as "the crummy," pulled into camp, and Dillon ran over yelling, "hot water, hot water," Mathew stepped out of the crummy and gave Kily a quizzical look. "What is he talking about?" Mathew asked. "Come with me and I’ll show you," Kily said. The rest of the guys in the crummy stepped out and followed along with curiosity. Kily led them down to the creek, and proudly demonstrated what she had done. All the guys followed the garden hose down the creek to where it hung from the low branch, and each one stuck their hand under the hot running water. Kily hadn’t realized that the heat from the fire had intensified, while she was back up at camp, and the water was much hotter now, than when she and Dillon had left. "Ow," Mathew said, as he jerked his hand away from the running water. "Well, I’ll be damned," one of his co-workers said. Mathew grinned from ear to ear and gave Kily a big hug. "Now I’ve seen everything," Mathew’s supervisor said, as he tipped his hat far back on his head.

The guys all stood around checking out the new shower, each one talking about ways they would have improved it. Kily went back to camp thinking to herself, "well, why didn’t they just build one to begin with, instead of standing around talking about how THEY would have done it!" She thought to herself.

The next day Mathew came home from work with some surprise gifts from the guys. It seemed that everyone wanted to be a part of Kily’s new shower. One of the guys had brought up an old wooden pallet to place under the running water. His instructions were to place it underneath the running water to stand on. This would keep feet out of the mud as a person showered. Another one of the guys sent up a splitter that attaches to a faucet, so a person could have two lines going at the same time. His theory was to run an additional garden hose down the creek, gravity flowing cold water through it. Then attach both hoses to the splitter. This would allow regulation of the hot and cold water, just like a regular shower. A third guy working with Mathew sent up a brightly colored shower curtain! His instructions were that he didn’t want Kily stimulating the wild life with her naked showers! They all got a great laugh at that!

Mathew took all the gifts and headed down to the creek. Kily carried Sky and she and Dillon watched with amusement as Mathew situated the pallet, ran another garden hose down the creek for cold running water, attached the splitter valve, and threaded a thin rope through the holes at the top of the shower curtain and hung it from tree to tree. They all stood back to admire the results of the combined effort, and Kily had to admit, it was definitely a weird site to behold. Seeing the brightly colored plastic shower curtain, in the middle of the wilderness, just simply put a person’s mind out of whack! But, the shower worked great, and Kily was not about to complain! Everyone had showers on a regular basis after that, and Mathew got teased every day at work, about being the cleanest logger on the job!

The early morning hours were still cool but Kily knew that within a few short hours the summer heat would consume the land. The deer would find relief in the shade of tall ancient trees, snakes would wind their bodies onto heat drenched boulders, flies would buzz, and the animal people of the forest would rest until the sun began to set on the distant mountain ridge and the land would begin to cool. Sky fussed and Kily picked her up. She rubbed her eyes with tiny fists and yawned. Kily kissed her cheek and said, "good morning sleepy head." Sky lay her head against Kily’s chest and snuggled against her. "Good morning, mommy," Dillon said as he climbed out of his bed. Kily put her hand on his young shoulders, "come on you two, I’ll make you some breakfast," she said as she guided Dillon out side. Kily had made forest green cushions to fit on top of the tree stumps Mathew had cut with the chain saw for their chairs and Dillon took a seat on one as Kily sat Sky down in the high chair she had brought to camp this year. The forest green of the material seemed to blend naturally into the surrounding trees and shrubs of their summer camp and Mathew had teased her unmercifully about bringing so many modern conveniences to their out door living. Kily smiled as she thought about how much he liked sitting on the cushions after spending the work day sitting on the house sized caterpillar he drove to make logging roads all day. Kily busied herself with making bacon and eggs then sat down with the children to eat. "Did you get enough Dillon?" she asked as she gave Sky one more bite. Dillon rubbed his tummy, "yes, I’m full mommy," he told her. "Can we go swimming today?" he asked. Kily smiled, "yes I thought that would be nice when it gets so hot later this afternoon," she told him. The sound of a motorized vehicle caught their attention and both Dillon and Kily stood up. It was very unusual to hear anything other than the sound of the logging crummy in their paradise. Since it was only early morning, Kily knew that it could not be the logging crummy, unless something had happened to Mathew. For a moment her heart raced, and she stood very still as the sound of the motor drew closer. Within a few moments Kily watched as an old station wagon rounded the tree lined corner and came into view. The station wagon bounced from side to side as it painfully made its way along the rutted dirt road, and came to a stop a few yards away from the camp. Kily was shocked to see that someone was driving on the road and even more surprised to see that it was a station wagon. This road was something you would only drive a pick up or a jeep on and not a family type car that sat so low to the ground. Kily put her hand over her eyes to shade them from the sun and saw a man and a woman step out of the car. In an instant she realized that they were the friends she and Mathew had made while they lived in the city for the winter. "Oh my gosh," Kily exclaimed, "I can’t believe you guys came all the way up here," she said with genuine surprise. Betty and Dean carefully navigated the dried ruts in the road and were making their way up to Kily. Kily watched as they comically stumbled and watched their slick city shoes slid off the sides of the dusty ruts. Kily picked up Sky and she and Dillon walked toward the new arrivals. Kily saw the back doors of the station wagon open and watched as a young boy Dillon’s age emerged to follow his parents. "Hi," Dillon said with excitement as he saw the younger boy. The child who was trying to follow his parents stumbled and fell into one of the ruts, Betty turned quickly at his startled yell and went back to help him. Dean met Kily as she walked toward him and gave her a huge hug. Betty reached the tearful child and helped him out of the rut, then opened the car door and picked up her young daughter. Kily greeted Dean warmly and watched as Betty made her way carrying the little girl in one arm as she hung onto the little boy with the other. When she reached Kily and Dean, he took the child from her arms and Kily hugged Betty. "What on earth are you two doing up here?" Kily exclaimed. Dean laughed, "well we thought we would take a little adventure and surprise you and Mathew, I had no idea that when you said you lived in the wilderness that you really meant wilderness!" he said astounded. Kily laughed and led them all back up to her camp. "This is so beautiful," Betty said breathlessly, "but its also a little scary because it’s so primitive!" Kily laughed loudly, "I love it up here," she replied. Kily showed Betty and Dean around her camp. They marveled at how Kily had set up her home. "Would you look at that," Betty said with admiration, "Dean can you make me something like that at home?" She said as she admired how Kily had all of her pots and pans hung up within easy reach of her cook stove. "Well maybe," he said to her and inspected the way Kily had skinned a thick willow branch and tied it horizontally between two trees. "Oh, I see," he said, "all you did was use raw hide to tie this thick willow branch to these two trees, then what is this that makes the hooks to hold the handle of your pans in place?" he asked. "They are cured bear claws," Kily said simply. "No kidding?" Dean said in amazement. "Yes," Kily told him, "I just notched the willow so that one end of each notch is wider than the other end, then I slipped the cured bear claws into the wide end and pushed them down into the narrower slot so they would hold in place. When you turn the whole thing over the claws are snugly held into the notch with the claws facing upwards, and wha lah, you get a bar with hooks on it!" she told him as she laughed. Dean and Betty were amazed at Kily’s ingenuity. "See," Kily told them as she lifted the ring at the end of one her pot handles off the upturned bear claw, "it goes on and comes off easy." Dean laughed, "Honey, I’m not sure I can make you a pot hanger for your kitchen like this one, I have no idea where on earth we would get bear claws!" Betty and Kily laughed, "It’s okay Dean, I understand completely!" she said as she kissed his cheek. "Betty if you will hold Sky for me, I’ll go down to the creek and get some ice tea for both of you," Kily asked. "Ice tea, out of the creek?" Betty said a little hesitantly. Kily laughed, "well it’s my refrigerator," Kily explained, "I keep a couple of glass gallon jugs in the cold mountain spring water so we can have something cold to drink on these hot days." Betty laughed and held out her arms to take Sky. Kily retrieved a gallon jar of icy cold tea from the creek and returned to the camp. "Kily this outdoor kitchen is simply breath taking! I love how the evergreen trees and dense ferns surround you, and the color of the wild flowers just dazzle my eyes!" Kily smiled, "yes, I love it to." Kily I spend money to try to get my house to smell like this, and just smell how your kitchen is so naturally. I can smell earthy roots, blackberries, wild mint, jasmine, cedar and pine all at the same time, its all mingled into a beautiful aroma with incredibly fresh air!" Kily laughed, "I know, I love waking up to this every day." "Betty I don’t think its possible to make you a kitchen like this," Dean said a little sheepishly. Betty laughed, "If only I could recreate this view and the smell in my own home! I would be the envy of everyone in my neighborhood!" she exclaimed. Kily took a seat and retrieved Sky from Betty’s arms. "The last time we made a trip into town, Mathew brought his old jeep back up while I drove the pick up, we can take a drive today while Mathew is working and I can show you some of the fascinating things about these mountains." Kily told them. "And we can go swimming!" Dillon added. Dillon looked at the young boy whose name was Tony, "Tony you wanna come see the ant hill I found?" he said with enthusiasm. "Sure," Tony said and then looked at his mother for permission. Betty looked at Kily questioningly, "It’s ok," Kily assured her, "it’s just over on the other side of that fallen tree at the edge of the camp." Betty smiled, "sure Tony, go ahead and have a ball, I’m sure that ants are fascinating." she told him wryly. Kily made a picnic lunch that consisted of elk meat sandwiches on home made bread, potato salad she had made the day before, wild strawberries mixed with a hint of honey from the bee hive Mathew had robbed, and fresh peaches picked from the ancient orchard that had been planted by early settlers in the meadow a few miles down the road. Kily wrapped the gallon jug of ice tea in thick Mullen leaves to keep it cold and placed everything in the back of the old jeep. When they were ready they all climbed into the jeep and Kily drove them around the mountains and happily watched as they delighted in seeing endless lines of mountain ridges that stretched farther than the eye could see, stopped in beautifully scented natural meadows alive with abundant wild flowers and herds of grazing elk, drove down rocky trails to gaze at cascading waterfalls with water so clear you could count the fish swimming in the pools at the bottom. "How about we stop at this waterfall and go swimming for awhile," Kily asked. "Yeah," Dillon shouted and scrambled out of the back of the jeep. Dean and Betty looked at each other with sweaty faces then smiled and nodded agreement. "Good," Kily said firmly, "because this is our favorite swimming hole, and I’m afraid Dillon would just have a fit if we passed it by." Dean laughed and helped Betty out of the jeep, then took their daughter, Silvia who was only a few months older than Sky. Kily picked up sky and led the way down the narrow path that would open up to the breath taking view of the three leveled water fall that emptied into the big pool at the bottom.

Dillon and Tony splashed happily in the smaller pools that one of the water falls made, and Sky and Silvia giggled as Kily and Betty held them in their arms dipping them in the cool water. Dean splashed loudly as he dove from the top of another waterfall into the crystal clear pool below. "This is heavenly," Betty said as she wiped water away from her face. "I could just get lost in living up here Kily," she said. "Yes, I know," Kily told her, "it is so very hard to leave when the logging ends and Mathew’s job comes to an end for the season. "I don’t know if I would ever want to go back," Betty laughed.

When the sun moved to a position in the sky that Kily had learned meant it was about 3:00 p.m. , she gave everyone the bad news that it was time they headed back to camp. "Mathew will be coming home soon and I want to have his dinner ready for him when he gets there," she told them. "Yes, it will be good to see him," Dean said as he wiped water from his arms. "Don’t worry," Kily told him, "you will be nice and dry by the time we get back to camp. In the mean time you should leave as much water on you as you can, because the breeze from the open jeep will blow on your wet skin and will act like an air conditioner. It’s a natural way to stay cool up here," she laughed. "Really?" Dean said. "Yes," Kily told him. "Whenever I have to get work done or stand in the sun to gather herbs, fruits, berries, or stuff like that, I get my clothes wet first, and then even the slightest movement of my body creates a small breeze that moves across the wet material and keeps me cool." "Well, I’ll be darn," Dean said, "I’m gonna try that," he told Betty, then took his dry shirt to the water and immersed it in the cold mountain water. When he returned he struggled into the wet shirt and said, "Okay, I’m ready to go!" Kily laughed, "You know, it would have been easier to put the shirt on dry and then just jump back into the water to get it wet, rather than to try wriggling into a wet shirt." Betty laughed loudly, but it was so much fun watching him wriggle and twist and turn as he tried to get that wet shirt around his shoulders and over his chest," she said with great humor. Dean blushed, "well next time I’ll do that," he said and climbed into the jeep.

Kily guided the jeep through a natural meadow and down into the tree line, she veered right, wound her way through a stand of thick firs and came out on the other side of the meadow. She stopped the jeep in a small clearing and stepped out. "What is this place?" Betty asked. "Well as near as I can tell it’s an old homestead," Kily told her. Kily grabbed a bucket that had been covered in the back of the jeep and walked toward an old building that was mostly fallen down. Dean, Betty and the two boys followed. "See over there," Kily said as she pointed to a neat row of peach trees. "Yes," Betty said. "That’s the orchard where I pick the peaches we had for lunch." "Oh," Betty said as she surveyed her surroundings. "And over here you can see where whoever lived here had a garden at one time. You can see how the ground is different here as if it was tilled many, many times, and there are even some small remnants of what was probably fence posts to help keep deer and other animals out at one time." Kily explained. Dean surveyed the ground and said, "Oh, I see what you mean." "What do you have in your bucket, Kily?" Betty asked. "Well, when I found this place last year, I found some vegetables that are still sprouting over by this damp spot, and I come to pick some for our dinner, so when I do that I always bring the compost back here and cover the ground with it so they will continue to grow." Kily told her, "that way I’m giving back for what I take here." Betty stared at Kily for a few seconds, "wow! That’s really a smart way to think," she said. Kily laughed, "over there is what was the house I think. If you go look you can see that the walls are covered in very old newspaper. The newspapers are really thick on the walls where the elements haven’t destroyed them, I peeled some back and you can still see the dates on some of them. They date back to the 1800's." This caught Dean’s attention and he hurried off to inspect the newspapers on the interior walls of the building. Kily scattered the contents of her bucket on the ground and then pried up some carrots and onions she would use for their dinner that night. When she had refilled her bucket with the fresh vegetables she made her way over to the building where Betty, Dean and the boys were. "This is amazing," Dean said as she approached. Kily laughed as she heard him talking about the things he had read in the old papers. He recited the price of coffee, beans, flour, and sugar as they sold in the 1800's, and talked about news of the day which he could only partially read on several of the papers. "What I don’t understand here," he said, "is why would people line the inside of their house with layer after layer of newspapers? And they didn’t do it just once, the more you peel back the layers of papers the older the dates get. Who ever lived here added more and more papers each year?" "Well I’m sure, because of course we have no one to ask," Kily told him as she also inspected an article on one of the yellowed and cracking papers, "but I do know that some people use to insulate their homes with newspaper. As I understand it, newspaper is a great insulator. Maybe that’s why they kept putting layer after layer of them on the walls. The winters can be extremely cold up here." Dean pondered this for a little while. "Well, it certainly makes sense I guess." Dillon and Tony busily chased a lizard as it scampered between the grayed and brittle boards. "There is a graveyard a little farther up the hill if you want to go see it," Kily said to Dean and Betty. "Oh, yes, I would like that," Dean said with excitement.

Kily drove the jeep along the ridge line for a little ways past the dilapidated homestead. Then turned the jeep up a slight incline to the highest peak of the mountain. An open clearing sat in front of them with one lone fir tree at the highest point. Kily stopped the jeep and everyone got out. "It’s up there," she said as she pointed to the single tall fir tree silhouetted against the afternoon sky. "Come on we can walk up there," she told them. The small group stood next to the three headstones that over looked the vast expanse of mountain ranges. "Wow," Dean breathed out, "if I were going to be buried somewhere, this is exactly where I would want to be buried too," he said with a hint of awe in his voice. "Yes, it is breath taking," Kily agreed. "It’s more than breath taking, Kily, it’s incredible! There is nothing here to obstruct a person’s view in any direction. It’s as if you’re sitting on top of the world looking down at the magnificent beauty of all of creation. This is a place where you can see forever, and never see it all, it is so vast, and so beautiful," he said as he turned to take in the incredible view. "Look," Betty said as she read the tombstones, "two of these people died only a few years apart from each other, in the early 1800's, but the third one is about twenty years after the first two." "I know," Kily said, "It makes me think that the first two might have been a mother and father, and the third was maybe the son, because they all have the same last name." Betty and Dean stood silently lost in thought about the people who had lived on this mountain so long ago, and what life must have been like for them. "I always wonder what happened to the other person," Kily said softly. "What other person?" Betty asked, "there are only three head stones here." "Yes," Kily said respectfully, "but someone had to bury the third person, I always wonder who did that and whether or not it was a wife? A child? or who?" Kily said lost in thought. "Whoever it was that buried the last person here, is not also buried here, so I always wonder if they also died up on this mountain and there was no one left to bury them, or did they leave this mountain and go to live in the city?" Dean looked at Kily, "wow, your imagination really does run wild, huh," he said with a laugh. His comment brought Kily out of her wondering, and a little embarrassed she said, "well we better be getting back to camp so I can get some dinner going before Mathew gets home." As they walked back to the jeep Kily chided herself for slipping into her "fanciful" side, and vowed to be more careful when around other people.

Back at camp Dillon and Tony ran through the woods, squealing with delight as they climbed over fallen trees, discovered new animal burrows, and played amongst the lush ferns. Kily stayed busy fixing a dinner of paper thin slices of venison that she seasoned with onions, salt, pepper, and the remnants of the fresh garlic she had gotten in town the last time she went. She steamed the fresh carrots she had picked at the homestead, and made a delicious salad out of wild greens she had picked along the way. She sliced thick slices of homemade bread, and placed a platter of sliced peaches and wild strawberries on the table. "God, I didn’t realize how hungry I was until I smelled all this wonderful food cooking," Dean said as he rubbed his stomach. Kily placed smaller bowls of butter and homemade jam on the table and interrupted her conversation with Betty to tell him that Mathew would be home any minute and then they could all eat.

Kily sat rocking Sky in her lap as she enjoyed the cool summer night. Mathew had arrived home to find Betty and Dean at their camp and was delighted to have their company. After they had all eaten, Mathew took Dean down to show him the shower Kily had created and Dean came back spouting many compliments on Kily’s ingenuity. Kily listened to her friends talk about the many new things that were happening down in the city, and Kily felt lucky that she was able to be up in the mountains where life felt so free and natural. The night was filled with talk and stories of from everyone. Tony and Dillon had fallen asleep hours before, Sky slept peacefully in Kily’s arms and Kily found her thoughts drifting off as the background conversation lulled her to the edge of sleep herself. Kily was startled to full awareness when Mathew let out a yell of surprise. Kily jerked her head around to see what he had yelled about. "Look at that!" Mathew said as he jumped up. Kily saw Dean and Betty jump to their feet as well. Startled, Kily jumped up as well, "what’s the matter with all of you?" she said and patted Sky’s back in comforting pats as the baby sensed Kily’s panic. "That," both men said in unison and pointed at the camp fire. Kily looked from the men to the camp fire and couldn’t believe her eyes. The flames in the fire flared and whipped back and forth, but it wasn’t just the fire that caught everyone’s attention, it was the face of a Native American warrior made up of the dancing flames that was so startling. Kily blinked, then blinked again to be sure of what she was seeing. No matter how many times she blinked the face was still there. The fiery face consisted of even the finest details, and Kily saw high cheek bones a chiseled nose, and firm lips. Lines formed at the corners of the eyes, the eyes moved in their fiery sockets. Long braids came down both sides of the face, and Kily saw two feathers that did a fiery dance with the evening breeze. The fire moved adding subtle changes to the face and Kily was startled. "What is that?" Betty said with a shaking voice. "I don’t know," Kily whispered. Everyone stood mesmerized by the flickering face in the fire. Kily couldn’t take her eyes off the face within the fire. She watched the two feathers that protruded from behind the head as they flowed back and forth when the fire moved with the night breeze and it seemed to Kily that the fiery eyes were focused on her. Instinctively, Kily moved closer to Mathew. "Wow," said Mathew, "did you see that?" "Yeah," Dean whispered back, "it looked like the eyes followed Kily." Mathew looked at Kily and softly said, "Let me hold Sky, and you slowly walk around to the other side of the fire." "No way," Kily stammered. "Look, I think he’s watching you, Kily," Mathew said in amazement. "I want to see if he turns his head when you move." Kily looked from Mathew to the fire and back at Mathew again. Hesitantly, she handed Sky over to Mathew and slowly walked a few feet away. To her amazement, the fire shifted, and the Indian man’s eyes seemed to follow her. Slowly, Kily walked around the fire and watched as the flaming face actually seemed to turn and follow her. Betty had recovered from her initial surprise and grabbed her camera. Kily completed her circle around the fire and stopped next to Mathew. "I could swear he’s smiling," Mathew said softly to Kily. Kily watched and thought she could see the Indian’s mouth open to speak. At that moment the flash from Betty’s camera blinded everyone! As soon as the flash went off a great flame shot out of the campfire, and the Indian man’s face was gone. Each of them stood there for a long while lost in their own thoughts. After a long silence, Betty leaned over and whispered, "what was that all about?" Kily did not have an answer. Mathew looked at Kily and said, " What did he want?" "I don’t know," Kily replied. As suddenly as the silence had come, it was broken and everyone started talking at once. None of them knew what it meant or why it had happened, nor did they have any explanation for it. They spent the rest of the night sitting by the campfire exploring all the possible explanations, but really had no clue as to its meaning. The four of them sat for hours trying to understand what had just happened. In the late hours of the night Kily finally relinquished the sleeping Sky to her own bed and sat with the others watching the fire to see if the face would return. At some point in the hours before dawn Kily fell asleep curled up next to the fire she had watched until her eyes involuntarily closed.

Early the next morning Kily woke to find Dean and Betty gone. "They said the forests are just to spooky for them," Mathew said a little nervously. Great Kily thought, "now they will think we are crazy!" When she voiced her thoughts to Mathew, he simply said, "well if they think we are crazy, they will have to think they are too, since it was something we all saw together." Kily felt a little relieved to hear his words, and knew that he was right, this was something they had all seen together.

Kily worried about her friends for the next two weeks. It just felt bad to her that they had left so suddenly without even saying good bye to her. She kept herself busy and tried not to dwell on their reaction. It was Saturday and Kily and Mathew had decided to take a ride into the forests to investigate places they had not yet explored. Kily was busy putting together a lunch they could take with them when she was pleasantly surprised by Betty and Dean pulling into camp. Kily greeted them with hugs and welcome backs, but as they stepped out of the car they both exclaimed they would be leaving before nightfall. Kily chuckled nervously about this, but said she understood, she also noticed they did not bring the children back with them. Mathew and Dean took a stroll down by the creek and Betty settled onto a cushioned stump. "You know, Kily, all the way home from here, I tried to convince myself that what we saw that night was just our imagination. It was just to bizarre to believe otherwise. You know, a trick of shadows, stuff like that. I thought I had it all figured out in my mind and gave it no more thought after that. Until, that is, I developed my film!" Betty reached into her pocket and pulled out a picture. She handed it to Kily. " It was real, Kily. Look, there he is." Kily stared at the picture in amazement. Sure enough there was the Indian mans face, floating as a part of the fire. The picture had captured his flaming feathers and the outline of his face. Mathew and Dean returned from their stroll and everyone took turns looking at the picture. After much discussion none of them could understand, or explain it. The couple stayed for a couple of hours then true to their word they left well before dark. Mathew handed Kily back the picture and said, "had to be a trick of the light, and shadows." Kily wondered how he could say such a thing when the evidence was clearly captured in the photograph. She also knew that further discussion with Mathew on the subject was fruitless so she kept her thoughts to herself. She couldn’t help but wonder what words she might have seen or heard from the flaming Indian’s mouth had the flash not gone off at that very moment!