Heart of the Woods

It was a beautiful day. A pleasant breeze swayed branches of newly leaved trees as the warm sun shined radiantly through, and the scent of honeysuckle hung lightly in the air. For the five figures standing at the edge of the forest it was the best spring break weather, absolutely perfect for going camping.

Jeremy checked all the backpacks making sure there were four water bottles each, bags of bread, peanut butter and jelly, changes of clothes, tent supplies, toiletries, and other useful items. Nothing was going to go wrong on his week of catching up with his good friends who decided to go to different colleges. With a satisfied nod, he picked up his bag, and proceeded to lead the way into the forest, friends following closely behind. He was always best with directions.

Soft rays of light made the darkness of the forest tolerable. Birds chirped in the branches, deer and rabbits shook decayed leaves left over from last fall, branches rustled in the wind, and the disruptive noise of shoes stumbling clumsily over wedged rocks and twigs made a symphony of nature’s sounds.

“Jer, I’m getting so tired,” Jeremy’s younger sister Jamie whined. He heaved a heavy sigh, oh Jamie. It was his mother’s idea to bring the ten year old with him and his three friends. She thought he ‘needed to spend more time’ with her. Taking in the way Jamie’s clothes and golden ringlets were sticking to her body from trying to keep up and the sudden multiplication of freckles on her reddened face, he felt a pang of guilt. He did love his sister, and although the only family trait they shared was their bright green eyes, they had been very close at a younger age.

Instead of retorting in a patronizing tone, he gave his three friends apologetic glances. Merrick, glasses nearly slipping off his nose, was busy looking down at a deer print, his almond-shaped eyes squinting to follow the tracks into a narrow thicket. Amy grinned in response, brilliantly white teeth gleaming in the sun light. With her black pixie-like hair cut and light hazel eyes, she was the most fun and easygoing one of the group. She slowed down to walk with Jamie.

“Come on kiddo! We’ve only been walking for an hour. I’ll tell the boys to slow down for you,” Amy practically sang, patting the small girl on the back. Unable to resist her optimistic mood, Jamie slowly relent her complaints.

Samuel, the joker of the friends, proceeded to grab his walking stick, slouch over, and shuffle along like an old man. “This better?” he snickered, prodding Jamie gently on the side. Samuel’s light brown skin and wavy hair made him look like the furthest thing from an old geezer. She giggled, unconsciously aware that her pace had already quickened.

It took several more hours before signs of nightfall fast approaching snuck up on the group. Jeremy was forced to set up camp without reaching their destination. His goal was to get to the creek that flowed deep in the woods. This was the first time he had ever gone camping without his father there to accompany him and his friends, but he figured he was more than able to do the job himself.

Reluctantly turning around he hollered, “Alright, it seems we didn’t set off early enough to reach the creek. We’ll have to stop here for the night.” No one seemed to protest as they threw their tired bodies onto the grassy ground of the meadow they had arrived at. Samuel, being the largest and tallest of the friends, had decided to give Jamie a piggyback ride for part of the walk and was glad to take the extra weight off of his back. The break on her feet did nothing for her arms, as they had to carry two backpacks in exchange.

They had agreed on bringing two large tents and Amy decided she was going to put them together. After struggling to find which parts connected, she gave Jeremy a sheepish look of resignation. Chuckling softly, he joined her and explained which pieces hooked up to the next.

By the time the tents were set up, darkness had fully taken over. The warm spring afternoon was replaced with a slight chill and the trees surrounding the small meadow triumphantly covered many of the stars; a sliver of a moon glowed weakly above them.

“Why don’t we start up a camp fire?” Merrick suggested, shivering as he wrapped his sleeping bag around himself. Jamie nodded impatiently, barely visible in the depths of her deep purple blanket.

“Sounds like a good idea,” Amy said, quick to jump up, grab Samuel’s shoulder, and head in search of large dry branches. Jeremy began putting rocks into a circle, guiltily tearing up the grass to make room.

Before long, a small, crackling fire lit up the dark camp ground. Trees were illuminated by the warm fire as the light flooded throughout the meadow. Huddled up against the heat, Jeremy remembered camping with his father as a young boy. The trickeries of forest shadows and wildlife had terrified him. He glanced at his sister, making sure the fears he used to have didn’t affect her.

“Hey man, loosen up a bit,” Samuel said, noticing his concerns for Jamie. As Amy tore open the bag of marshmallows, Jeremy realized he was being foolish. Jamie was laughing and clearly enjoying her time despite her previous complaints.

By the time the bag of marshmallows was a fourth emptied, Jamie had begun yawning. Contagiously, the entire group started to feel the effects of walking for hours in the rough forest. Muttering their goodnights, Jeremy, Jamie, and Amy headed off for one tent, the two remaining friends, the other. Samuel had been too tall and muscular to be comfortable in a room with two guys and Jeremy felt the need to check up on his sister during the night.

As the sounds of those around him settled into the steady rhythms of sleep, Jeremy began to think of past camping trips. His dad had always been there with him, being the main reason the whole experience was as exciting as it was. The feelings of the memories brought with them a flood of sadness. His father had gotten in a bad car accident a year ago, barely surviving. The car had exploded and according to doctors, it had been a miracle that he had lived. Such a blessing came with a downside; his father was forever in a wheel chair, face and body burned in irreparable ways.

Jeremy had always been the ‘splitting image’ of his father, according to his family members: dark brown hair, bright green eyes, small pointed nose. Jamie was more like his mother. He knew it explained why his mother could so easily enjoy the presence of her daughter and not him. She couldn’t help but see her husband’s past looks in the face of her own son. The knowledge did little to ease Jeremy’s anguish, however. He needed to do this camping trip with his friends- needed to feel as if he could do the things for Jamie that his father had for him- but he knew he was failing. Ever since the accident, he struggled with the fear of not meeting up to expectation and not making it to the creek as planned felt like a big downfall.

Sighing, he allowed his thoughts to settle down. Sleep was calling if he wanted to get up early enough to make it to the location with time left over to go fishing and cook their catches the following evening. At long last, his mind slowed as a dreamless sleep took over his worries.



The sound of bickering birds woke Jeremy from his rest. Yawning, he crawled over to the front of the tent and quietly unzipped the flap door. No one else had awakened. Stretching, he rose to stand. The recently risen sun told him it was still very early. Never being one to need much sleep, he decided to get a head start in his trek through the woods; it would be much easier to get everyone to the water if he had already found it.

As Jeremy walked through the woods, breaking a branch every couple of paces to make a trail back, he felt his mood begin to lighten. Birds sang in the distance and the freshness of the spring air cleared his head. He would get everyone to the camping spot in no time and it would be great. All he needed to guide him was the compass and his memory of hiking with his father: North-northeast.

“Jer, wait!” a voice called behind him. Turning around, he was surprised to see that Amy was hurrying over a log to catch up to him. Her hair flew in a mass of disarray around her face as she approached where he stood waiting.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, caught off guard at not being able to tell anyone had been following him.

“Well, I heard you get up and I didn’t think it was a good idea for you to be wandering off alone.”

Shrugging, he answered, “I’ve been in forests all my life. It’s not too dangerous or anything. I was just going a little ways ahead to see if we were anywhere close to the creek.”

“Don’t you think it’d be best for us all to go together? It’s part of the fun,” she insisted, automatically understanding his motives for going alone.

His response was to shake his head. Now I can’t possibly send her back all alone. It was pointless to continue on without the rest of them now. Plus, Jamie shouldn’t be left by herself. “Let’s just go back.”

The retracing of steps was uneventful and quiet, but as they approached, the sound of bickering disturbed the tranquil setting.

“No, no, NO. I told you, man. You have to fold it horizontally first.”

“I’m telling you, it’s supposed to be vertical. You don’t see your way working.”

Amy and Jeremy both rolled their eyes. Samuel and Merrick were probably scaring off deer for miles away. They passed a thicket of trees and entered the meadow to see Jamie had just crawled out of their tent.

“Gee, thanks for waking me up,” she grumbled, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

Jeremy wasn’t the only one who thought it was too early to deal with Jamie’s whining. He walked over to his friends and quickly put up the tents.

“Ha! I knew I was right,” Merrick grinned. Samuel, the sore loser, glared at him.

“Alright, let’s all eat before we go anywhere,” Amy exclaimed as she patted her stomach hungrily. The girl could eat a horse and never lose her thinness, Jeremy thought.

Apples, milk-less cereal, and juice, unfortunately would be all there was for her wild appetite. Shaking out the last crumbs of their cereal, Jeremy and his friends groggily got up and cracked their backs. His mother was very strict about trashing perfectly clean forests, so Jeremy placed the used water bottles and juice boxes into a plastic bag, hanging it from a tree. His plan of going back the exact way he came would have to be a good enough tactic, proving that he did take her words to heart when he returned with the bags.

“Let’s get going,” he said. The food had given him a renewed sense of energy, adding spring to his step.

To pass the time, they took turns picking songs to sing, snapped funny photos when someone tripped, and kept on the lookout for unusual looking rocks to add to Merrick’s collection. However, after a few hours, everyone began to grow weary of getting to the creek.

“Are we there YET?” Jamie asked for the tenth time. We’ll never get there if you keep nagging me, Jeremy burned with anger. She was getting on his last nerves.

“I’m sure we’ll be there soon,” Samuel said exasperatedly, again. It was clear that everyone was beginning to doubt whether they’d actually get to their destination. Jeremy checked his compass again; this was getting ridiculous. But, everything read that he was going in the right direction.

“Look, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if we don’t get there within the next couple of hours we’ll just have to start heading back. I know it doesn’t take this long to get there unless the compass is a little off.” Jeremy knew it was time to admit things weren’t going as planned.

Sure enough, the hours slipped by and nothing had changed. The forest surrounded them, never altering in types of trees that could reveal the desired creek. Shoulders slouched, Jeremy stopped walking.

“Hey, even if we don’t get there, this was a pretty fun hike,” Amy said earnestly. His friends nodded in agreement even though he knew they were only trying to make him feel better.

Taking out his compass, he studied it, turned it around, back and forwards. It hardly moved. He froze in panic. There was no way to find their way back if the compass hadn’t worked. Taking a gulp, he spilled the news to his friends and sister.

“You mean we’re stuck here?” Jamie exclaimed incredulously.

“Yes, Jamie.”

Everyone stood in silence, not knowing what to do. Try to retrace the way they came? Sit still until someone got worried and searched for them? No one knew.

“I have an idea,” Merrick started slowly. He was always the quickest to brainstorm. “If we watch where the sun sets, we can use it to gauge our way back. It rises in the East and sets in the West.”

“That sounds like a great idea, Merrick. Only… We can’t go walking in the dark. We’re exhausted as it is. I suppose we could mark the direction West and East are and head back in the morning?” Amy suggested.

“Sounds like a good idea,” Samuel agreed.

It was settled. Jeremy started with the tents, giving his mind something to do other than to think about how terrible this vacation had gone, Amy and Jamie went to collect rocks and sticks for the fire, while Samuel and Merrick stood on two boulders nearby, trying to figure out the best way to trace the sun’s retirement into the night.

Once camp was set up, everyone relaxed. There was no point in fretting when the sun wasn’t going down for another few hours. Merrick took out his deck of cards so they could play Go Fish and Old Maid- easy games for Jamie to understand- until it was obvious where the sun was sinking. Once it was figured out, Samuel grabbed a stick and dug a deep line to identify where West was.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I think now would be a great time to have some of those remaining marshmallows,” Samuel grinned. Tossing around the bag Jeremy thought, this actually isn’t too bad. My friend’s are having a good time even though the compass acted up. Creek or no creek, they were going to have at least a little fun.

As it started to get later, Jeremy decided to get Jamie to sleep so she wouldn’t be too grouchy in the morning. She didn’t protest, much to his relief, as she practically sleep walked towards the tent. Now was his chance to catch up with his friends. He had a lot to tell them from his college experience.

Amy started. “As you all know, I had absolutely no idea what I was going to be majoring in over the summer. But while I was trying out random classes, it turns out I have a real passion for interior designing. Being the artsy student in high school never really guided me to something I could put to use as a career. I then thought about how I had always been interested in those television shows where people would redesign houses, and it amazed me how I had never seen myself heading in that direction.”

“That’s really great, Amy,” Samuel replied. “I myself have been doing pretty well in my first semester.” They all knew how Samuel was planning to be a work out trainer. It was no surprise that he was doing so well.

Merrick then decided to explain how his computer programming courses were going. “I really love it. I’m not looked at as the smart Asian nerd now. Everyone in my class is just as technical as I am.”

When all eyes landed on Jeremy, he felt the pressure. “As you all know, I was unsure about what I wanted to do. Unfortunately, I’m still pretty unsure. My mother wants me to go into business management and I don’t really feel like I’d do well if I headed in that direction.”

“Jer, I’m sure you’ll do well at whatever you put your mind into,” Amy said. “I personally think you’d make a great lawyer.”

He couldn’t help but laugh at that. It took a lot of wit to be a good lawyer, something he didn’t think he had too much of.

“Just keep your options open. It’s not like you need to know what you’re going to do right from the start,” Samuel said, giving him a light punch on the shoulder. At least he had some amazing friends to help him out.

The topic of partying quickly overcame any negative emotions traveling in the air. Amy laughed about her embarrassing incident at a club, Merrick bashfully admitted to not having any partying moments to describe, while Samuel and Jeremy joked about how wild some of the girls they had seen acted.

“Pft, it’s not like all girls are crazy when they party,” Amy rolled her eyes. But even she had to admit that there was little to back up her retort. “Men are just as bad,” she added knowing she had made a better point.

“Can’t argue with that,” Samuel laughed, the deep booming of his voice disappearing into the depths of the woods.

Before Jeremy could say anything, the crunch of branches snapping made him spin around. It was Jamie.

“Guys, I found something interesting! You have to come see,” she frantically gestured, running off behind the tents.

“Jamie, I told you not to go wandering off by yourself. You’re supposed to be asleep.” Jeremy shook his head, standing up after a long period of sitting on the hard ground; his friends did the same.

“I couldn’t sleep,” she called from up ahead. “So I got up to walk around until I got tired, but then I saw this light.” A light? Maybe they had walked towards the edge of a town. This was worth investigating, Jeremy decided.

“Alright, let’s go check it out,” Jeremy replied, picking up his backpack and blanket; it was cold. A few quick strides caught him up to his little sister. Samuel and Merrick took their flash lights out of their bags to prevent a nasty fall. The idea of an adventure made the night walk intriguing.

A hoot of an owl called out into the night as the friends followed Jamie. Before long, a pale glow of yellow light gleamed through the trees, outlining figures of raccoons and gleaming eyes of unidentifiable creatures.

The eerie setting did nothing to quench the groups’ interest. Getting closer, it became apparent that it was in fact not a glow from a house or town. With a puzzled glance between friends, each cautiously approached the source of the light.

It was a golden trail, beautifully shining through the darkness of the forest that tried valiantly to engorge it. What none of them knew was that at the moment of contact, the pathway would send them on a riveting journey, testing both knowledge and mental endurance in which only the strongest would survive.