Wendigo

Chapter 4

Sara had quickly cleaned the old iron pot and set up her tarp to funnel water into it. She had managed to position it so that the pot was just outside the cabin door, so all she had to do was open the door and pick it up when she was ready for it. The pot also made it easy for her to boil the water to ensure it was safe to drink. She was now peeling off her rain gear and hanging it on one of the many hooks in the cabin walls.

When Sara sat down at the table, she picked up her phone and was happy to see that it was charged to half power. That would give her enough charge to call her husband and fill him in on how she was doing. She dialed his number and waited for him to answer.

Kevin was chipper when he answered, “Hello, my love. How are you this morning?”

“All things considered, I’m good,” Sara answered. “I’m still at the cabin, it’s still storming and pouring rain, and I am still not up to continuing with my adventure in the forest, but that’s okay. I don’t really believe in destiny, but I think I was meant to find this cabin.”

“Why do you say that?”

“I found the journal of the man who built this cabin. And get this, I think he keeps mentioning his wife, and we have the same first name. I mean, her name is spelled differently than mine, but the same name.”

There was a pause before Kevin replied, “That is freaky.”

“Yeah, I know. Kev, I’m telling you, there is something in that journal I am supposed to read and tell someone about. I haven’t found it yet, but I just know it’s there.”

“If that’s your gut feeling, go with it. If that means staying in that cabin your entire trip, do it. To be honest, with you being hurt, I feel better knowing you have a safe place to be and are not trying to stay warm and dry in a tent in the middle of what looks like will be at least a week of thunderstorms.”

“A week? Crap! I haven’t been able to pull up the forecast. It really says a week of thunderstorms for my area?” Sara asked.

Kevin replied, “Yeah, it does. I’m sorry. When you left, I know that it said only a couple of days of rain with little chance of storms. Every time I look at the weather, they keep extending how long it will last and increasing the severity.”

Sara sighed, “It is what it is. I can’t control the weather. Mother Nature reminds me of that with each hiking trip I take. You know what, though? I don’t mind being stuck here for a while. My leg is bruised along with a cut, and it hurts to walk. When I woke up this morning, everything hurt from falling down that embankment. And before you ask, it isn’t serious. I’m just sore, like if I worked out too hard and pulled a couple of muscles along with it.”

“Like I said the last time we talked, I trust you,” Kevin told her. “You’re a trauma nurse. There is no one better to diagnose your injuries than you. You also need to conserve your phone battery, so I am going to get off here. I will check the weather in a little while and text you the forecast for where you are so you know what to expect. Sound good?”

“It does,” Sara said. “I love you.”

“I love you too, bye.”

“Bye,” Sara replied.

She hung up her phone and laid it on the table. She looked at the journal, beginning to reach for it, then stopped. She needed to bring in her water before she got lost in the reading again. Limping to the door, she opened it and hefted the pot inside, gently placing it on her camp stove. She turned on the stove to start boiling the water to make sure it was safe to drink, even with it being rainwater. When she turned back to the door to close it, the white-tail buck was standing at the doorway.

“Oh no!” Sara almost yelled. “No, no, no, no, no. Get out of here! I am not letting you come inside.”

The deer huffed at her before it turned and walked around the side of the cabin, out of sight. Sara rushed as quickly as she could to the door, closing it and tying it shut. She leaned her back against her door as she caught her breath. The shock of seeing the deer at the door and the pain she was in left her with a racing heart and gasping for air. After a moment, she returned to the table, sat, and propped her leg up before she began reading again.

“Alright, Herschel,” Sara said as she opened the journal where she had left off. “Tell me your story.”

October 6, 1879

The snow finally stopped falling, but the cold is brutal today. We checked the traps and found nothing. Not a thing has been stirring during this blasted snow. At least nothing but Jim and me. We are the only things without the common sense to stay where we are warm.

Jim keeps giving me that willow bark tea to drink. It is a vile-tasting concoction, but I have to say, it has made a world of difference in the way I feel. In just a few days’ time, I feel better than I have in years. Jim says that it keeps his tribe members spry up into their eighties and nineties, sometimes longer.

Jim told me more stories today. I think he was trying to keep my mind off the weather and the empty traps. Regardless of why he is telling them, I enjoy it. A couple of the ones he has told me have been downright hair-raising. He told me one about a thing called a wendigo. If my hair wasn’t already gray, that one would have turned it. I will have to see what his stories and the weather bring tomorrow.

Sara stopped reading and thought of what Steve had told her about the wendigo in the area where she was. A shiver went down her spine. She did not necessarily believe in their existence. Still, the thought of a creature that eats human flesh and is always starving was disturbing.

Sara sat watching steam come off the pot of water on the stove. She was trying to imagine what it would be like to be in the tiny cabin for months on end and during the winter, sending another shiver down her spine.

October 11, 1879

We had another tough day. While running the trap line, I stepped in a hole and twisted my knee. I could barely make it back to the cabin with Jim’s help. I never thought much about going back to Missouri and leaving this life until today. When I came here to start over, I never planned on leaving. After how this season has begun, I don’t know if I have this in me anymore. I have yet to say a word to Jim about my doubts of continuing. I feel as if I must finish this year or die trying. However, if I cannot do this another year, I want Jim to have this cabin and continue if he wishes.

Sara stopped reading long enough to turn her stove off and let the water begin cooling. Her mind was bouncing through all of the reasons why Herschel would have left his home in Missouri to start over as a trapper in Minnesota. She also wondered what he had been in Missouri. His journal showed he had at least some education. She had to keep reading to find the answers to her questions.

October 18, 1879

Today was a good day, and it took away all of the doubts I had about being here. Every trap had something in it. While cold, with snow on the ground, the weather was not as unbearable as it has been. Our heavy clothing and many layers easily kept the cold at bay.

Before heading out today, I put a large pot of rabbit stew on the stove, and it simmered all day. Walking into a warm cabin and smelling the aroma of the stew reminded me why I came here and that I never want to leave it. I told Jim, if anything happens to me, just bury me in a hole under one of the big oaks, and I will be happy. This is where I belong.

Sara marked her place in the journal, got up, and filled her tin cup with the still-steaming water. She needed a cup of coffee. One of her favorite things to do when it was raining was to curl up with a good book and a cup of hot coffee. While all she had was instant coffee, it was better than nothing.

As she stirred her cup, Sara found herself happy that Herschel was in a better mood in the journal entry she had just read than he had been in the one before. She had become personally invested in the man’s happiness and his life without knowing who he was. This made her even more resolute to find out everything she could about him and his family when she returned home. She also wanted to find out more about Jim. She felt a kindred spirit in him the way he cared for Herschel. When her coffee was ready, she picked up the journal and continued.

October 31, 1879

Today is All Hallows' Eve, which is fitting because I got the scare of my life today. There is something in this forest that does not belong here. What I saw was not a wolf or a bear, but something else entirely. Jim became almost as pale as I am when we encountered it, and he refuses to speak of what it was. I think his fear is what is making me the most afraid.

Last week we encountered a bear as we ran our trap lines. In the years prior, I would leave whatever I had harvested from the traps and walk away as quietly and quickly as I could. What Jim did is not something any sane person would do.

Jim raised his arms above his head, screaming like a crazy man, and bolted straight at that bear. I just knew he was a goner. I’ll be if that bear did not turn around and run away from him like a dog being chased out of a chicken coop.

That showed me that Jim is not afraid of anything in nature. For him to be frightened of what we encountered today makes me believe that it is not of the natural world.

“Oh, come on, Herschel!” Sara exclaimed. “What was it? Was it a bigfoot? Was it a dogman? What did the two of you see? I’m out here where you were. I need to know these things.”

Sara let out a sigh as she processed what she had just read. Could something be living in the forest that she needed to worry about other than the known wildlife and the crazed deer that seemed to be stalking her? The thought of something that would frighten a man who had no fear of a bear set her nerves on edge. She decided to take a break from reading the journal and try to push the worries out of her mind by planning her lunch and preparing it. Hopefully, when that was done, she would feel better.