Somewhere in Neverland

Skylar waited all night for the guilt and worry to set in.

She switched buses twice, stopped for breakfast at a place called Mama’s Café, picked up some nonperishable products from a convenience store, and entered the Redwood National Park Forest a little after twelve. When she found a good spot a couple miles in, she set up camp and turned on her cell phone. It blew up with missed call notifications and endless voicemails from her mother. When none of them turned out to be from her father, Skylar sent him a text of her coordinates and turned the phone off again.

To kill time, Skylar set up a fire pit, got a small fire going, and set some water to boil, all while periodically checking her phone. Around four o’clock, she left the phone on, hoping her dad would call. He should have called by then and she was starting to worry. Still, she didn’t feel the least bit guilty about deciding to come – she did, however, feel immense relief when she couldn’t remember ever having told her mother which park they were going to.

After a dinner of hot chili-from-a-can, Skylar set up the large, four-person, 78” tall tent her mother had insisted on her packing two days previously. The sun soon started to set, but still she heard nothing from her dad. Maybe he hadn’t heard her message. Perhaps he was working late. Or maybe he didn’t really want to camp with you in the first place, whispered a nasty voice in the back of Sky’s mind. She did her best to ignore this, but the coming darkness made her feel more and more uneasy. It was only nine o’clock when Skylar snuffed out the fire and zipped herself inside the tent.

It was a long night, made even longer by her sudden fear that a predator would follow the lingering smell of chili to her camp. Night had come so quickly that, by the time Skylar thought to hang her food somewhere away from camp, it had been too late. So Skylar sat up most of the night with her hatchet close at hand.

In the small hours of the morning, Skylar sat bolt upright. She’d only just laid down in hopes of getting at least a couple hours of rest when the sound of something brushing against a nearby tree made her suddenly reconsider her disbelief of the expression “I almost died of fright.”

Outside the tent, she could hear the faintest sounds of rhythmic thuds as something extremely large wandered through her camp. There was a sudden flurry of movement as whatever it was stepped into the still-warm fire pit. The stones around it clattered noisily and the creature thundered away from Sky’s camp as fast as its legs could carry it. It hadn’t sounded like paws, though; if anything it had been hooves. An elk or possibly a moose, Sky thought.

Still, there would be no rest for Skylar now, and it took a long time for her thumping heart to return to its normal rhythm.

The sunlight was most welcome as the morning arrived, bringing with it song birds and the chirping of a hundred insects. A path of deep hoof prints ran through the center of the camp. Skylar could hear bees buzzing nearby as she hastily packed up the camp and started out heading east. Her cellphone, which she’d unwisely left on throughout the night, was nearly dead and so, giving up her hopes that her dad would call, Sky turned it off and put it into her backpack.

She was freezing in today’s outfit – light-colored jeans and watercolor striped tank top – but knew it would warm up fast once the sun got on up in the sky. The metal water jug clanked against the side of the guitar case as Sky walked, her progress slow despite the relatively clear ground. Her aqua-green boat shoes, which had seemed like a good choice earlier, were rather thin in the soles and she felt every rock and stick she stepped on. Even worse were the scratchy, knee-high socks she had on to protect her legs from ticks.

She’d covered a good distance by the time the sun came directly overhead. It shone through the trees so brightly that Sky decided to stop and enjoy its warmth while she ate a lunch of cold Chef Boyardee Beefaroni. She sat with her back against a large tree, her NY baseball cap low over her eyes, much more at ease than she had been last night. She didn’t suspect any scary beasts were tracking the scent of her food, let alone anything else.

But just as she was picking over the last several chunks of beef, Skylar heard a snuffling sound just behind a tree three yards away. She froze, eyes instantly scanning the perimeter. Oddly, she wasn’t the least bit frightened, though. Somehow the daylight made things less scary. The snuffling continued, then a nearby bramble crackled loudly as a small, blonde creature emerged.

It was a dog. Or, more accurately, a puppy. It was bone-thin and covered in mud and yuck, its entire body roughly the size of a full-grown cat. It kept low to the ground, but its long tail wagged innocently as it crept closer to Sky. Its dark eyes locked onto the can in Skylar’s hands.

“Hi,” Skylar said cautiously. “Are you lost, little guy?” The puppy licked its lips, its tongue bright pink in the afternoon light. One thing was certain – this puppy hadn’t known the company of a caring human in a long time. Possibly never.

Slowly and precisely, Skylar spooned out the last mouthful of beef and extended her arm out toward the pup. It watched her warily, then approached and eagerly lapped up the small spoonful. As the puppy stuck its nose in the can itself, Skylar dug what was left of last night’s chili from her backpack and let the dog eat that, too.

Leaving the can for him, Skylar stood up, tugged her pack onto her shoulders, and began to walk away. The puppy was friendly enough, but she didn’t feel like dragging it along with her if it didn’t want to come.

But, as it was, she’d only made it a few yards when she looked back and saw the puppy was following her. It made things more relaxing, somehow, having a dog with her. The little things like her shoes being too thin or the air being too hot didn’t seem to bother her as much as the day progressed.

The day passed without much more eventfulness. Several times, Skylar stopped to admire a particularly pretty sight; there was a creek with strawberries growing on either side of it, which Skylar actually had to stop and photograph. But nothing of significance really happened beyond that, and soon it was getting dark.

It was as Skylar was searching for a suitable clearing in which to make camp that it happened. The puppy, who Sky had decided to call Sammy, was fast asleep in Sky’s arms and started to kick in her sleep. Skylar got distracted by this and took her eyes off the ground – she’d been picking her way carefully through the darkening undergrowth – for just a moment to look at Sammy.

Suddenly, the damp ground beneath her feet gave way. In an instant, Sky was tumbling in a mess of earth and rushing wind. Sammy slipped from her arms. There was a loud, echoing snap as Skylar hit the ground hard on her side.

Her vision went white, like a sudden, blinding flash had gone off. A hot wave of pain flared through her body but, before she could really register it, the light faded into blackness and she was engulfed in nothingness.