I had plenty of gas, and, in early summer, the weather was warm, but my GPS was down. I was lost in the back roads of Kentucky, around Sassafras.
It was evening and I knew that I had only about half an hour of effective light left. I'd by-passed a grimy mom-and-pop motel about an hour ago, and now I wished I'd stayed there, even if it was a dump.
I'd followed what looked like a state road, but which had dead-ended into a county road, and then into a township track, which had turned into hard-packed gravel. My Burgman + sidecar were just not off-road vehicles, and I got to thinking that I'd have to just find a couple of trees to tie my hammock to, when the track dead-ended in a brush-enclosed 'short-dumping ground,' full of trash, a couple of burned out cars and old mattresses.
The smell told me something largish had died a few days before, and it took only a minute to find the road-kill deer carcass, which I knew would attract bugs, birds and bears. No place for me to hang around.
I'd just started wrestling the scooter and sidecar around in the narrow space, when I saw, directly ahead of me, a narrow, two-lane track. I thought to myself, maybe there's a house at the end, or at least a hunting cabin or shelter.
So, I flipped the power button on the scooter with my left thumb, and cautiously eased forward down the track, in simulated 1st gear. It was one of those paths that are spaced about the width of a left and right set of Model-T Ford car tires, with weeds and small bushes growing between, and my scooter and sidecar just fitted. The track—you couldn't really call it a road—led around a curve, between two masses of rock that left little but the track between them, and surely prevented me from turning around, so it was forward or nothing.
I came out on a small clearing ... and was disappointed. There was no house, shack, shelter or anything. A lonely pile of roughly-shaped stones to my left announced that, at one time, there had been a chimney there, and probably a cabin, but I couldn't even make out the size out of what was left. The ground fell away on three sides of what looked like a little acre platform of earth-covered rock.
But, there were two trees positioned just perfectly for a man to swing a hammock, and I wasted no time in doing that, in the fading light. Six minutes, and I was set to sleep out. The air was still warm, and there weren't many bugs out. I heard a small splashing, and quickly discovered a small spring, flowing out of the rocks behind the tumbledown chimney. There was a largish, flat rock a few feet from my hammock setup, and I discovered quite a bit of dry, fallen wood on the ground, just to one side of a large bramble bush.
Off in the far distance was evidence of a strip-mining operation, with what looked to be a large dragline, but I had to use my monocular to see it.
Minutes later, I had a small fire going, and a few minutes after that, I was heating canned stew and munching crackers from my small cache of emergency breakdown foods, washed down with hot tea made from the spring water. Dinner followed, as I lounged back in the hammock, which served as a chair. The twilight faded to dusk and then to dark, and the stars came out in their tens of thousands, clear and cold.
I filled the stew can with water, three times, to ensure that all bits of my fire were out, and cold. I tested the ashes with my hand to make sure.
Easing back in my hammock and pulling the quilt under and over me, on the foam pad, I thought I spied a very faint glow inside the brambles, but, truly, I was very tired, and it could have just been the reflection of the sliver of moon on a bit of water there.
I'd rigged the tarp over the dark-green hammock, so that a nightly shower or the morning dew wouldn't soak me, and I'd put a dull, black cover over the Burgman and the sidecar. I knew that I'd have to leave an LED light on, if I had to get up in the night to pee, 'cause if I'd have gotten turned around, I'd never find my setup again in the dark.
Animals never bothered me, and—unless they could see in the dark—I was protected from any 'two-legged' predators, too.
I doubt if I lay awake more than five minutes before falling deeply asleep.
The dream that night had a surreal quality. I was surrounded by shadowless, soft light. Looking up from my hammock, I could see the cabin that was there, and the chimney was intact. There was a small trickle of smoke coming out of the opening.
I got out of my hammock and stood, looking.
The cabin was a shack, and I estimated about 10' by 15'. The large flat rock I'd cooked on was the front-door step. The ground around the cabin was cleared, and I could hear chickens somewhere, clucking and scratching.
I was me in the dream, and I looked around and saw my hammock, still attached to the trees. The bramble bush was gone, though. Over to the middle distance, there were roughly-cleared fields and what appeared to be a corn crop ripening. But, surrounding the whole area was a wall of mist, about a half-mile distance. This left the cabin, the spring, some woods and the crop visible, but the distance was totally obscured.
I heard a moan, and looked up. Standing in the doorway of the cabin was a young girl, in what appeared to be a cheap dress of gingham, with a scrap of a cap on her head. She was a sort of brunette, with intensely black hair, but green eyes, an odd and not unheard-of combination. She was slender, small but not tiny. She was barefoot and distinctly grimy.
She was holding one arm in her other hand, and I could see, even from thirty feet away, that her right arm was broken, and she was in a lot of pain.
We looked at each other for a few moments.
"Hello," I said, "I'm Tom Cattus." I added, "Uh, I'm not from around here. I needed a place to sleep."
She didn't say anything for a little time, and then smiled gently, and said, "Ah be Jenny. That thar be yar sleep sack?"
Looking back at my hammock, I smiled gently, too, and said, "Yeah."
She looked up at me, and then smiled a bit more, saying, "Come you in, th' latch-string's out." She turned and entered the cabin, and I followed her inside.
The shadowless light was inside, too. I couldn't tell where it was coming from.
The interior of the cabin was pretty bare. There was a small table, a couple of rough wood benches. There was a small iron kettle set onto a swinging arm, set into the side of the fireplace. The fire was small, and it looked like it was going to go out soon.
My damsel-in-distress genes reared up, as I said, "Jenny, do you need more wood?"
She nodded over in the direction of the stone hearth, where there were some chips and a couple of leaves, and she said, "it's all done now. I got no tea, neither."
Still standing, I said, "I'll get some more wood." I went back outside, and gathered up several armloads from around the property, and put them on the hearth. Jenny put the small logs on the fire and soon it sprang back up, alive and dancing.
Continuing to be worried, I asked to see her arm, which she placed on the trestle table. I reached out to touch her skin ... and my hand slid right through her arm and landed on the table.
Forcing down the urge to jump, I turned to Jenny, who was looking at me, eyes crinkling in what I thought was sadness.
"Uh," I thought frantically. Finally, I got up the nerve to say, "Jenny, give me your other hand."