Whispers of Old Winds by George Seaton

Author:George Seaton
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2015-11-25T00:00:00+00:00

MICHAEL IS here. He’s not crying, but I think he’s close to it. “I saw you,” he says, his eyes meeting mine, his expression so sad.

I’m lying on a stretcher, and someone tells Michael they’ve got to go. I’m lifted into a boxy ambulance, and the last thing I see is Michael standing there, his hand to his chest, where he clutches my dog tags. “I’ll follow you down the mountain,” he says. It appears as though he wants to say something more, but someone closes the ambulance door

Merle Hogan, a volunteer fireman with the Pine County Fire District, sits beside me as Bob somebody—I can’t remember his last name—stretches my arm out and says, “You’ll feel a small prick.” He carefully inserts the IV needle, and I think, well, small pricks are okay if they’re sleepers.

I sense the ambulance begin to move. “How’s Digger?” I ask, turning to Merle.

“He’s as good as you. They took him in the other ambulance.”

“Good. That was Skip’s tow truck. Right?”

“Sure was,” Merle says. “Deputy Jim came up with the idea, and it was a good one.”

“I know they pulled me up with his cable, but how’d somebody get down to us without causing a slide?”

“Deputy Jim again. He got those two twenty-foot ladders old man Landon paints with and just kept sliding one in front of the other as he made his way down to you guys. One of you kept waving that pole around, and he zeroed in on that.”

“Digger okay?”

“You already asked that, Sheriff, and, yeah, he’s doing good. I’m going to get your boots off.”

“Okay.”

“You hurting anywhere?”

“Just my head.”

“Yeah. You and Digger both got some ugly on your foreheads. What happened?”

“I think we hit each other when we fell.”

“You feeling woozy?”

“A little.”

“Look at my light,” Bob says, and he shines his tiny flashlight into my eyes. “Might have a concussion.”

“Great,” I say. “Do you know who finally decided that Digger and I might be in trouble?”

“Oh yeah. Mary said Michael came into the station a while ago and said something was wrong. Then Henry Tall Horse came in almost right behind Michael and said the same thing. He told Mary exactly where you were. Deputy Jim got the ladders and pulled Skip outta the bar and told him to get his ass up here.”

Michael. “Michael, you say?”

“Yup. Don’t know how he knew, but he was right.”

“There was something on top of us. A frozen body maybe?”

“Strangest thing I ever saw. It was a black bear, but it wasn’t. It had long legs and arms. Spread-eagle. Frozen stiff. Had mostly a bear’s face and all, but there was more bare flesh on it than a bear usually has, and those arms and legs…. I think Deputy Jim is gonna have the forest service take a look at it.”

I feel as though my eyelids have become too heavy to stay open. And they don’t. My mind, too, becomes heavy. Dark and heavy.

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