It had been over a year since the twists of fate and one tired truck driver had taken my wife from me. It had been a very difficult year after having been with her for so long. My friends had tried unsuccessfully to fix me up any number of times with a wide variety of ladies. I just wasn't interested. Even my kids had started to get into the act, apparently tired of me moping around and my less than stellar housekeeping. They insisted that mom would have never wanted me to stay alone and it was time to start dating again. At fifty years old the idea of "playing the field" just didn't seem all that exciting. I mean, yeah, I was still in good shape; still working out every day, just for the routine if nothing else. And I was considered to be good looking by the women who knew I was single again. But somehow the idea of dating again was daunting to say the least.
I still loved my fishing and camping. That was the one joy I could count on. Give me a lake and a pole and I could finally lose myself from that ever nagging emptiness that followed every step I made every day. I loved pitting my mind against the fish's instincts; trying to coax an unseen advisory into biting an artificial object that I was trying to make look real. To me that was relaxation. But work was also crazy busy and in a lot of ways I was starting to let work take over all my free time. If nothing else it was a good excuse to avoid the blind dates my friends tried to fix me up with.
When my friend Joe and his wife Angie suggested I spend several days at their cabin in Colorado I argued that I really didn't have the time. Finally after weeks of nagging by Angie I gave in and agreed to go relax at their cabin. They insisted they had everything set and I could enjoy the solitude and fishing with nothing to worry about. No phones, no computers, just Mother Nature and me. I had to admit that Angie made it sound awfully inviting. She had more than once insisted that it was so secluded she often went whole days without getting dressed, just enjoying the sun as she lay out sunning naked on the dock while Joe fished. I had to admit that the thought of her naked may have played into my being talked into going.
The day finally arrived when Joe would fly me up to the small airport near the cabin and a friend he knew up there would drive me to the cabin. All I had to do was take my pole, a change of clothes (if I even wanted one this time of year Angie teased) and enjoy myself for a while. Angie loaded my gear onto the plane and gave me a huge hug before heading off with a big grin on her face.
The flight up was a bit rough, the small twin engine plane bouncing continually in the turbulent summer air and I was more than happy to get back on the ground. Once his friend Rodney stared driving me to the cabin, up the twisting logging road, I was wishing I was back in the plane again; its ride far smoother than the kidney jolting jeep ride that I was attempting to survive. I honestly didn't know how Joe and Angie could stand to make the trip as often as they did, as rough as the road was. It was a relief to finally pull into the driveway of the log cabin, "cabin" being a bit of an understatement.
"There you go, Mark. Generator is around the north side." Rodney said as he shut down the engine.
"Looks pretty, how much land up here does he own?" I asked as I got gingerly out of the jeep CJ.
"All of it." He laughed. "The whole mountain top is theirs. They inherited it from her dad who was a logger way back when. They still log it. From what I understand the logging income pays for the taxes and expenses."
"If they own all of it, how far to the closest neighbor?"
"Oh, only about three or four miles down the mountain. The Carlisle's place is the closest. There's a radio in the cabin if you need something, but they had me stock it up for you so everything you need should be here. The lake has bass, brown trout, and a variety of pan fish." He said as he unloaded my pack of fishing gear.
"I don't suppose he has a boat up here?"
"Yeah, he has a small boat on shore near the pier. It has a small electric motor on a solar charger."
"Seems like he thought about everything." I said as I picked up my pack and rods.
"Almost." He said as he got into his jeep. "I don't know why he didn't just have you drive their hummer up here."
"No idea. Maybe it's so I was a captive. Force me to relax or something?" I said with a chuckle.
"Maybe!" He said as he cranked the engine. "See you around!"
I watched him bounce off down the road and realized I really was, for all practical purposes, a captive here. There was no doubt that Joe and Angie had planned this very well to force me to relax a bit. Part of me wondered what other surprises they had in store for me besides Angie's little trick of spiriting away my duffel bag so all I had was the clothing I wore.
I trudged up the winding grassy path toward the cabin. It was a single story of large brown log construction, easily twenty feet wide and eighty or more long. It had a large porch that ran the length of the building with an overhanging roof to protect it from the weather, and a number of lounge chairs set on it. I stepped up the front stairs and turned to look out over one of the most scenic views I could ever remember. Before me lay a long valley weaving between various sized mountains with miles and miles of fir trees making a green carpet extending down the valley and up the sides of the neighboring mountains; thinning to a green speckle as they approached each gray rock peak. The view would have been spectacular at any time, but with the sun sinking down toward the distant peaks, the few clouds that were hanging over the peaks were changing from fluffy white to burnt orange. I stood mesmerized at the beauty of the scene before me, the sun slowly being impaled by one of the distant peaks, the triangle bite taken out of the orange disk growing by the moment as if it were sinking into the mountain itself.
"Now I know why they keep coming back up here." I said to myself as I turned toward the front door, the only remains of the sun an orange tint to the sky. I stepped through the unlocked door and reached for the light switch, realizing belatedly that there wasn't any electricity to run things. Retreating back out into the quickly growing night I made my way around to the side of the building and found the generator set. I opened the control panel and a small lamp in the panel flicked on, glowing yellow and lighting the panel enough for me to see the starting instructions. The propane powered generator had simple enough controls, a run/stop switch, a start button and a main circuit breaker. I flicked the run switch on and pressed the starter button. The engine turned over quickly, the battery obviously having more than enough charge to spin it in this warm weather. Within seconds the engine had coughed to life and settled to a steady hum that was surprisingly quiet.
With power on, the cabin glowed gently and pools of light splashed on the ground from nearly all the windows. I closed the compartment door, quieting the system even further, before heading back into the cabin. I explored my temporary home, finding two bedrooms, a spacious sitting room, a large kitchen that seemed to have all the needed accoutrements, including a gas powered refrigerator that seemed to be stocked with anything I might need. My last discovery was more surprising, a hot tub sitting on a back deck that was apparently heated by gas, since it was already warm. The deck dropped off to a wooden walkway that was lined with solar powered lights and wound across the back yard toward a similarly lit dock extending out onto a glass smooth lake.
I walked the length of the boardwalk and out onto the dock, enjoying the sounds of the night, the stress of the trip flowing out and dissipating with the last bits of daylight.