Chapter 2.2

Sara was jolted awake by a notification on her cell phone. She was briefly disoriented about where she was when she awoke. The memory of the trapper cabin and her fall down the embankment quickly came back to her as she started to move and felt pain. Sara picked up her phone and saw it was a text message from her husband, Kevin, saying he hoped she was having fun. 

Sara laughed and said out loud, “Sure, I’m having fun. A homicidal deer almost killed me, and I’m trapped in a cabin of death. I’m just freaking dandy!”

She sent a message back to her husband saying she was good and would call him shortly if she had signal. Sara saw the time on her phone when she sent the message and was in disbelief. She had been asleep for hours. According to the time, the sun was getting ready to set. That meant she would be in the cabin for the night whether she wanted to be or not.

Sara let out a long groan of pain as she slowly got out of her sleeping bag and stood. Soreness had crept into her entire body on a level she had never experienced before. She lowered herself into the chair at the table and began to plan what to do and what to tell her husband. 

Sara knew if she told him what happened, he would try to organize a search party and utterly lose his mind until she returned home. She also knew that not telling him would be wrong and the same as lying to him. Ultimately, Sara had to tell him and do her best to keep him calm. She was a trauma nurse, and she was sure her injuries were not serious. They were only painful and inconveniently timed. Sara sighed as she dialed her husband and hoped the two bars of signal held out.

“Babe! Are you alright?” Kevin asked Sara as soon as he answered his phone.

“I am, but I need to tell you something,” Sara said with hesitation.

“What?”

“Okay, you have to promise me not to panic when I tell you this.”

“Uh, why?” Kevin asked with considerable concern in his voice. “What’s wrong?”

“I had a little accident, but I’m fine,” Sara told him. “I have some bumps and bruises and a cut on my lower leg, but nothing serious. I promise I’m alright.”

“Yeah, that doesn’t sound alright,” Kevin said. “Send me your GPS location, and I will send people to you.”

“No,” Sara told him flatly. “Kevin, I am fine. I’m in an old trapper cabin that is warm, dry, and, to be honest, really freaking cool. I’m safer where I am than I would be if a team came to me and we all had to hike out. I’m not leaving, and you are not going to organize a rescue party because I fell down and got a cut and some bruises. This isn’t the first time I have fallen down while hiking, and it won’t be the last.”

Sara was met with silence on the other end of the line. She pulled her phone away from her ear to make sure the call had not dropped. She opened her mouth to say something when Kevin responded.

“I know, and I’m sorry,” Kevin told her softly. “You have been doing this since long before we ever met. That is one of the things that I love about you. The fearlessness and self-reliance you have. I trust you, and if you say your injuries aren’t serious, and you are alright, I believe you.”

“Thank you. I really am okay. I fell down an embankment, so I am banged up but nothing that will last. And don’t worry; it was more of a slide than a fall. There just happened to be rocks that I hit on the way down. They weren’t boulders or anything, just small ones buried in the hillside. And I should probably stop talking because I am not helping my case,” Sara said with a laugh.

“You’re fine,” Kevin said with a laugh. “Tell me about this cabin you’re stuck in. How did you find it?”

“Well, I found it because I fell,” Sara told him, leaving out that the deer had caused her fall and had led her to the cabin. “The place is tiny, but it is really amazing. It’s made of cedar logs, and it’s in good shape. The inside of it is completely dry. There is a small table, a couple of wooden chairs, an old cast-iron stove, and a couple of things that look like they were once beds or sleeping areas. Whoever was here left behind traps and a bunch of stuff over on some shelves that I haven’t looked at yet. After I get my camp stove set up and dinner cooking, I will be exploring and see what they left behind.”

“I know the circumstances of you being there are not the best, but that sounds really amazing,” Kevin said. “Please, please, mark that location on your map. I need to see that cabin for myself.”

“I will, and I will send you pictures of it if I can.”

“Perfect! Hey, I am going to get off here so you can get things set up for the night and rest,” Kevin told her. “I love you.”

“I love you too. Bye, Babe,” Sara replied

“Bye,” Kevin said before he hung up.

Sara sat holding her phone for a moment before placing it on the table and standing carefully. She picked up her backpack and hefted it onto the table, feeling every bruise as she did. She took everything out of it and spread it across the dusty surface. This was the first time she had checked her gear since the fall, and until that point, she had no idea what had been damaged or destroyed. As she looked through her things, the only sign of damage seemed to be a small dent in her cooking pot.

“At least Ted didn’t destroy all of my stuff along with trying to kill me,” Sara said to herself as she began to set up her camp stove on top of the old cast iron wood stove.

Sara limped back to the table and sorted through her stash of freeze-dried meals to find one that looked appetizing. She settled on lasagna, and after putting it on the stove to cook, she dropped back into the chair. She swallowed a couple of acetaminophen tablets and nibbled on trail mix while the pot began to simmer.

Sara began to study the small, one-room cabin. She was using her flashlight from where she sat to look at each part of it and at what the trapper who had once lived there had left behind. The steel traps hanging on the wall sent a shiver down her spine each time she saw them. The shelves, which held what looked like random items and a few small wooden boxes, were as far from where she sat as possible, so those would have to wait until after she ate, or at least until the pain medication took effect.

Sara picked up her camera bag and took out the camera. She began to take pictures of the inside of the cabin and to zoom in on the shelves to investigate as much as she could. She was trying to take her mind off being irritated by the weather and getting hurt. There were things she wanted to do, and sitting in a creepy little abandoned cabin in the woods during thunderstorms was not one of them. She had planned to keep a steady pace and make her way through much of the state forest. Now, she would have to change all of her plans and the schedule she had laid out. She sighed as she put her camera down. 

Sara looked at her battery lantern and quickly realized she needed to find another light source before the batteries died. The lantern batteries were rechargeable, but her solar charger and inverter would be useless with the storms. She glanced toward one of the boxes on the shelves and wondered if she might be lucky enough to find a candle or two in one of them. 

Groaning again as she pulled herself to her feet, Sara slowly made her way to the stove to check on her dinner. After a quick stir, she went to the shelves and began to search. Peeking in the first wooden box, Sara felt like she had hit the jackpot. She found several old candles and a simple brass candle holder. As she continued to search through box after box, she also found oil lamps containing small amounts of oil and some personal belongings, including clothing, a comb, and an old straight razor.

Sara looked into the last wooden crate and found a small metal box inside. She took out the metal box and carefully opened it. In it, she found a delicately embroidered handkerchief that had almost certainly belonged to a woman. When she picked up the handkerchief, she discovered a bottle of perfume and an old photo of a young woman in a wedding dress beneath it. From the style of clothing and look of the picture, it had to have been from the 1800s. 

Sara quickly and carefully put everything back into the metal box and closed it again. She felt like looking in it was wrong and intrusive, as if she had invaded the privacy of the woman in the photo and of the person who had placed it in that box. She quickly gathered the candles, candle holder, and oil lamps she had found and took them to the still cluttered table. A sudden clap of thunder made her jump as she lit one of the candles.

“Dinner by candlelight tonight isn’t that romantic,” Sara said sarcastically.

Sara threw some of her things on the table back into her backpack. She wanted to clear the table a little and change the bandage on her throbbing leg before she ate dinner. Sara held her small flashlight in her mouth for added light as she placed clean gauze and antibiotic ointment on her leg wound. When she was done, she packed her first-aid kit away in her pack. She was drained from the day's events and really only wanted to go back to sleep, but knew she should eat some of the meal that was finishing up on the stove.

Sara stood to take her dinner off her camp stove and, in doing so, bumped the table. That caused something underneath it to fall to the floor. Sara cautiously picked it up and examined it. What had fallen to the floor was a small book, yellowed with age and well worn. Sara opened the cover and saw something handwritten.

“Herschel Allen, 1879,” Sara mused as she flipped through the pages. “Well, Mr. Allen, it looks like I am going to learn a lot about you while I’m here.”

Sara placed the small journal on the table. All thoughts of being an intruder left her mind as she looked at the book before her. She felt an overwhelming need to know what was in those pages and about who had lived in the cabin she was inhabiting.

Sara quickly finished her dinner and began to eat. With every bite, she stared at the journal. As much as she wanted to start reading it, her eyelids were growing heavy, which meant the reading would have to wait. She left her pot still containing food on the table. She broke a lightstick and tossed it into a corner by the door to use as a light at night. After blowing out the candle and turning off her lantern, she crawled into her sleeping bag and was asleep as soon as she lay her head down.