Status: work in progress
Questions and Answers
Chapter 1
This trip was actually going better than I had ever expected. Considering that I was well known for being injury prone and somewhat of a klutz, I hadn’t hurt myself or run into any trees. The weather had held up, which was great since I was traveling in the Pacific Northwest where it rains twenty-four/seven, seven days a week, three-hundred sixty some days out of the year. Apparently I had been lucky enough to be travelling during those few days of no rain. Of course, I knew my unexpected good luck couldn’t last so I was trying to cover as much ground as possible. I pack up my tiny camp and head off in a north-northwest direction; heading towards a tiny Native American reservation on the rocky coast of Washington State. According to the stories my dad had told me before he was killed in an accident, my great-aunt lives on thereservation along with some of my cousins in the same house our family has been living in for generations.
Hopefully I’ll be able to find some answers to the questions I have about my father that no one seems to have the answers to. It doesn’t help that all my mom cares about is getting her new rich boyfriend to marry her. From what I can tell, he’s one of those people who got their millions of dollars from their parents instead of working hard and using some intelligence to get it for himself, which is one of the reasons my mom likes him so much, because he’s not that bright so she’d get whatever she asked for; like sending me to some boarding school in England for example.
I feel a small, wet droplet splash against my face. Looking up, I see that more droplets are falling from the now blackening sky. Looks like my luck has run out, I think to myself as I pull me hood up and double check that everything is secure in my water-proof backpack. After making sure that everything is secure, I trudge off farther into the woods, hoping to get within twenty miles of the reservation by tonight. That way, I wouldn’t have that far to travel tomorrow and would give me more time to scout out the area and figure out what my next move would be. I’m not exactly the most social person in the world, so it might help if I thought about what I would say to my great-aunt when I finally got the chance to meet her. I kind of doubt that just walking up to her and saying, “Hi, I’m your great niece. Would you mind answering some questions about my father?” would go over very well. She’d probably think I’m crazy or just very confused. I think about what I’m going to say and imagine what she’ll be like to pass the long hours of walking through the forest alone and in the rain. Eventually I stop and take out some food to eat while I walk, there’s no point in stopping and wasting valuable daylight time. There’d be time to stop and rest tonight after the sun had gone down. While I eat, I take some time to look around and take in the beauty of the forest surrounding me; all the trees, moss, small animals, birds, paw prints from some kind of large dog, maybe a wolf, everything there is to see I take in and commit it to memory. That way, years from now, I’d still be able to look back and see the sheer beauty of that day and maybe even try to sketch it out on paper to show my two best friends.
I walk until I can barely feel my legs, like to the point where they’re more like jell-o than actual legs. They scream in protest, but I force them to move a few hundred feet more as I look for a suitable place to set up camp where I won’t get drenched by rain or bothered by animals. Finally I find a fairly good place and set up camp, finally giving my poor, tired out feet the rest they deserve. After I’ve unpacked what I needed for the night, I sit down with something to eat and look over another map of the area. According to the map, I should be about five miles from my great-aunt’s house, meaning I could go and speak to her tomorrow if I wanted to. The more I think about it though, the more I think that it’d be best to explore the area first, and then talk to her. Maybe I could go to the beach tomorrow, I could sketch the waves or the cliffs, or even go cliff jumping. It got dark sooner than I would have liked, and with my natural light source waning rapidly and my little camp fire dwindling fast, I decided to go to bed and get an early start tomorrow. I finally fall asleep to the sound of a wolf howling in the distance.
Hopefully I’ll be able to find some answers to the questions I have about my father that no one seems to have the answers to. It doesn’t help that all my mom cares about is getting her new rich boyfriend to marry her. From what I can tell, he’s one of those people who got their millions of dollars from their parents instead of working hard and using some intelligence to get it for himself, which is one of the reasons my mom likes him so much, because he’s not that bright so she’d get whatever she asked for; like sending me to some boarding school in England for example.
I feel a small, wet droplet splash against my face. Looking up, I see that more droplets are falling from the now blackening sky. Looks like my luck has run out, I think to myself as I pull me hood up and double check that everything is secure in my water-proof backpack. After making sure that everything is secure, I trudge off farther into the woods, hoping to get within twenty miles of the reservation by tonight. That way, I wouldn’t have that far to travel tomorrow and would give me more time to scout out the area and figure out what my next move would be. I’m not exactly the most social person in the world, so it might help if I thought about what I would say to my great-aunt when I finally got the chance to meet her. I kind of doubt that just walking up to her and saying, “Hi, I’m your great niece. Would you mind answering some questions about my father?” would go over very well. She’d probably think I’m crazy or just very confused. I think about what I’m going to say and imagine what she’ll be like to pass the long hours of walking through the forest alone and in the rain. Eventually I stop and take out some food to eat while I walk, there’s no point in stopping and wasting valuable daylight time. There’d be time to stop and rest tonight after the sun had gone down. While I eat, I take some time to look around and take in the beauty of the forest surrounding me; all the trees, moss, small animals, birds, paw prints from some kind of large dog, maybe a wolf, everything there is to see I take in and commit it to memory. That way, years from now, I’d still be able to look back and see the sheer beauty of that day and maybe even try to sketch it out on paper to show my two best friends.
I walk until I can barely feel my legs, like to the point where they’re more like jell-o than actual legs. They scream in protest, but I force them to move a few hundred feet more as I look for a suitable place to set up camp where I won’t get drenched by rain or bothered by animals. Finally I find a fairly good place and set up camp, finally giving my poor, tired out feet the rest they deserve. After I’ve unpacked what I needed for the night, I sit down with something to eat and look over another map of the area. According to the map, I should be about five miles from my great-aunt’s house, meaning I could go and speak to her tomorrow if I wanted to. The more I think about it though, the more I think that it’d be best to explore the area first, and then talk to her. Maybe I could go to the beach tomorrow, I could sketch the waves or the cliffs, or even go cliff jumping. It got dark sooner than I would have liked, and with my natural light source waning rapidly and my little camp fire dwindling fast, I decided to go to bed and get an early start tomorrow. I finally fall asleep to the sound of a wolf howling in the distance.