Chapter 4 - Ashes of American Flags
They were deep in the trees now. Two hours into seldom touched wilderness that ran alongside a river. Highway 503 turned into an ever more lonesome road on that last stretch toward Spirit Lake. Nearly a hundred miles of dense, scenic woods toward one of the most deadly active volcanoes along the ring of fire. Sure, it had been decades since tons of ash had been thrown up into the air. That didn't make their destination any less dangerous.
Luna had the window down in the passenger seat. Her monthly 'gift' didn't lend itself to comfortable travel. She'd loosened Lane's pair of blue jeans she was still wearing and reclined in the passenger seat watching the rays of afternoon light sift through the trees, strobing across the empty highway.
"Did you read about the guy who died here during the eruption?" Luna asked, massaging herself. Her face scrunched up, fighting back the pain.
Lane kept his eyes on the road, "Yeah, I think a few dozen people died when it erupted back in the eighties. Did you mean someone specifically?"
Luna nodded, groaned, "There was this one man, Harry something, in his late eighties. He refused to evacuate as the lava came down the mountain side. Kinda makes you wonder, huh?" There was pain in her words, not just from the cramps, the motion-sickness, or bloating. A deeper sorrow hung in the air that neither of the Twins would fully understand until much later.
"I suppose, if there wasn't anything left..." Lane considered. He watched the lonesome road while the words rolled around in his mind. He watched a mental picture of the man staying behind with his house and worldly possessions as molten lava gradually made its way toward him. As the ash fell. Unbearable heat. Suffocation. It wasn't an easy or quick way to die. Lane's parents had reminded him again that material goods were never more valuable than any one person's life. Even the memories attached to valuable trinkets weren't really a part of the item itself. Any memories were locked away in the individual's mind, or soul if there was such a thing. Lane grimaced. He pitied the man who died for stuff and chose not to save himself. It was a despairing reality.
Luna groaned, "There's always something left to discover. The man had no hope. He'd forgotten that tomorrow always comes."
Lane scoffed, "That's funny."
Still massaging her stomach, Luna countered, "No. That's the truth."
"No, I mean, 'Tomorrow always comes,' is almost the exact opposite of what Uncle Dan told me this morning while you were... Busy." Lane caught himself. They'd lived with each other long enough that there was a quiet, respectable dance around openly talking about sexual partners. More often than not however Luna was the one who tap danced right on the line. Lane himself kept more of a healthy distance away from that subject.
"You two were talking behind my back?" She tried to force a wink, but ended up scowling through another bout of cramps.
"No, not directly. When we saw the black wolf-" Lane bit his tongue.
"Wolf? What wolf?" Luna asked in a near growl. Lane drummed on the steering wheel, hesitant to answer. Luna insisted, "Ursa Major?"
"I don't wanna break my promise," Lane spat out. He kept his eyes on the road, the pines, the blue sky obscured behind the branches reaching over the road. He couldn't look at his sister. He knew, he felt her disappointment and the guilt that came rolling behind it.
A moment of silence passed between them.
"You saw another creature, like the one on the shore didn't you?" Luna whispered.
More silence filled their jeep.
With both their windows down, wind rushed through their hair. Crows cawed in the distance. Forest creatures chittered unseen in the woods. The mix of invisible sound and pressing visible stillness all around them was unsettling, lonely, foreboding.
Luna's judgement continued to hang as a knife in the air.
"Uncle Dan speculated that wolf and the leopard, or whatever they really were, might be an omen," Lane started, he waited for his sister to chime in, but the unsettling silence remained. "Working hypothesis: it's on us to live in the moment and not worry about the future. I made a promise. I'm keeping it. We're on vacation. No mysteries. No missions. Just us taking our time--"
Luna reached over and grabbed Lane's hand. She gave it a soft squeeze. That was all he needed to feel reassured that whatever doom was headed their way, they'd tackle it together just as they always had.
"Looks like we're here," Luna said quietly.
A weathered oak sign pointed toward a nearly invisible driveway in the thick line of pine trees off the main road. Turning left from the two lane highway, the orange Jeep tumbled over well worn asphalt. Being conscious not to jostle the Jeep too much because of Luna's state, Lane carefully manoeuvred forward between the pines into a bus-sized archway of overgrown trees and brush.
They made their way up a modest incline and found themselves at a fork in the road. To their left a branching gravel road wound deeper into thick woods, seemingly to nowhere. A line of mailboxes suggested private residences. In the centre of the fork was a small pond with a model lighthouse floating on a pontoon. Their destination lie to the right. Standing on either side of the road were two massive black oak totem poles with a sign that arched high over the road; "Welcome to Trillion Pines Youth Camp."
Lane studied the carvings and felt a chill run up his spine. From the base to the top intricate and surreal depictions of a leopard, a wolf, and a lion all stood intertwined together. At the top of either pool, the animals held up women that appeared half deer, half human. Each Deer Woman held their arms outstretched to hold up the carved welcome sign.
"She's got a nice rack," Luna scoffed.
Lane raised an eyebrow.
