Chapter 2: The Awakening

Friday afternoon was a time of frustrated desires for Melissa and Mark. "I'll miss you." He kissed her slightly parted lips. "I wish there was some way we could convince your parents to let you come along. I feel it would be..." He paused and thought a moment before he continued. "I don't know why. It's just that for some reason I feel it would be right and proper for you to go with me."

Melissa sighed. "God, my mother is too Molly Mormon to even consider such a thing as a weekend camping trip with a guy. She almost had a heart attack when I told her we used a lot of tongue when we kiss. She believes passion is the beginning of a life of depravity." Melissa laughed, "Like her three sisters and Grandma, she lives in a state of perpetual denial."

She raised her eyebrows and asked, Isn't The Sisters Of Perpetual Denial an order of Catholic Nuns?"

"Bad humor," Mark told her and shuddered.

Then she shuddered as she thought of her father's reactions. "You know how he would act. My father is a disgusting hypocrite and a pervert."

Rachel tapped and called through Mark's door. "Melissa, your mother called and asked me to remind you about the Relief Society you are to attend this evening."

"Thanks, Mom, we'll be right out." Mark patted Melissa on her fanny and sat up after she rolled off of him. "Just give us a couple of minutes," he called out.

Rachel was aware, in a not too specific a way, what they had been doing and would do more of in the future. She neither disapproved nor condoned their relationship. She accepted it as a given in their lives. However she preferred the probable heavy petting Mark and Melissa engaged in to the way things were to what they might become if the two teens felt threatened in their personal lives.

Until Mark's recent obsession with the origins of man, Mark and Melissa were together daily. However, she was not aware of whether or not they engaged in full sex. Neither had ever expressed a desire to stray or experiment with others.

She also knew for certain they both would elope at the first signs of strong adult interference with their commitment with each other. The single reason Melissa had not run away years ago was because Mark refused to leave home. Now she was certain he would not hesitate to elope at the first sign of interference from anyone, especially Melissa's parents.

That first time they went to his room and closed the door, Rachel made no protest. She recognized it would be futile and might harm her relationship with both her son and Melissa. Instead, she had what passed for the talk with him and Melissa. "Son Mark, Melissa dear, please use precautions. I trust you to act with good sense and decorum." Mark smiled and nodded. Melissa blushed and their childhood friendship deepened and became the present deep relationship that would end with marriage, babies and deep love.

Rachel added as the two teens headed back toward Mark's room, "Remember Planned Parenthood now administers the patch. I'll pay the costs.

"Mom, how did I get so lucky?" He kissed her on the cheek and returned to his room ... Mark laughed to himself that his mother was so accepting of their non-existent sex life. His mother was one of the most mature adults he knew.

His mind came back to the present. Mark sniffed the air in his bedroom and savored the faint scent of Melissa's perfume. He decided, yes, love is definitely in the air. It is definitely love, oh yes ... He took another deep breath and smiled.

On this particular afternoon, Melissa went into his bathroom to brush her hair before she left to go home. "Mark," she called to him through the open door, "I intend to tell the bishop at tonight's meeting I don't accept nor do I believe the so-called teachings of the Church. I'm sick of this nonsense."

Mark agreed, "Yes, it might be best. Your mother is a very sweet person. Her main problem is that she has been totally indoctrinated since birth. It's hard for her to overcome from that sort of conditioning." She nodded her agreement. They got out of the shower and dried off.

Mark slipped on a pair of cutoff sweats and a loose tee shirt. They kissed once more and she left to go home. He sat at his computer and concentrated on his research of the upper Wasatch Wilderness Area. He had a nagging urge, almost a compulsion, to camp out in the area almost due south of Upton near Elizabeth Mountain. That troubled him. Because "Urges" did not fit into Mark's orderly and logical life, he did his best to discount them. His latest search turned up nothing new. Yet Dad's notes referred to what could only be a super computer hidden up there in the rocks somewhere.

Later, after Melissa had gone home, Rachel smiled at her son and told him, "I have a new request Mark dear. Please air your room out after this. Right now my eyes are burning from all the free passion floating around in the air."

He laughed at her mock seriousness. "Very well, Mother mine, I'll store a case of air freshener in my night stand." Then the phone rang.

Twenty minutes later, Rachel came back into her son's room. "Mark, we need to talk." Rachel Stone sounded serious.

"Okay, what's up?" He looked over his shoulder at his mother and waited.

"Carl is planning to cause you and Melissa trouble. He has begun to act even more like a jilted lover. Angela just called and told me she's quite concerned. As soon as Melissa came in their back door, he began to question her. He was almost incoherent with rage. If I didn't know better..." She let the thought hang unfinished in the air.

"You're now almost eighteen and she will be eighteen three more months after your birthday. Carl told her he made a complaint to the authorities. I believe I better call our lawyer tomorrow to and alert him to start legal action at the first hint of trouble. I have his home phone."

Rachel blushed when Mark did a double take and then gave her a questioning look. He ignored the implications of why she might know their attorney's home phone number. "Mom, you know that puke already groped her a few times. She told him the next time she intended to turn him in to CPS. Then she really laid into him this last time. I have a hunch this is his preemptive first strike. She also told him that on her eighteenth birthday she intended to move in over here."

His mother frowned and added, "That definitely was not a good idea. For her to confront him like that may lead to serious consequences at a later date. I'm glad you plan to weekend in the mountains. Perhaps we can defuse this if you're not here."

"Damn it, I wish there were some way Melissa could go up there with me." The nagging urge to bring Melissa along had grown stronger.

"There isn't a chance that man would permit her to go camping up in the mountains with you." She smiled at her son. "I want you to come eat and then relax for the rest of the evening. We'll get an early start tomorrow and I'll drop you off wherever you choose."

"I believe it might be best to start right near where Utah State Road 150 crosses into Wyoming. Take the Elizabeth Mountain turnoff and go south about ten miles. I'll get out there cut back west toward Upton. I'll call you where to pick me up, probably at the store in Upton or closer to Pineview." He gave his mother a hug and headed for the kitchen.

Rachel followed along behind and marveled how much Mark was like his father. Again, she thought of the wonderful man she had married and wondered why he had to die. Faulty brakes on a wet street and he was gone in a split second.

"You're thinking of Dad again," Mark told her.

No matter how many times he did his little mind reading trick with her, it startled her. It went against everything she believed about a rational universe where there was no room for ESP. "How do you do that?"

"I pick up on your emotions, I guess. It doesn't scare Melissa." He grinned at his mother. "In fact she thinks it's great whenever I'm able to connect with her.

Rachel made a face, "Son Mark, there are times you scare the hell out of me." She shook her head at his easy attitude.

The next morning was Saturday. Rachel drove Mark up to the point where he planned to begin his weekend hike and let him out a little under thirty miles southeast of Upton up in the Wasatch Mountains, close to Elizabeth Mountain. She dropped him off with his backpack and the admonition to be careful.

Mark carried the best quality sleeping bag on the market. In his back pack he kept a small paraffin stove, fish line and hooks, a hatchet and knife and his great grandfather's old trenching tool, a GI issue from World War 2 that had belonged to his father. Mark had no of need a compass. His unerring sense of direction was as accurate as any GPS unit.

His father had the same ability. The only other items he carried for survival were his flint and steel fire starter kit, as well as wooden matches, dipped in paraffin to make them waterproof and enough food for three small meals. So far, he had never touched his emergency packets. Each year Mark threw them away on their expiration dates and replaced with fresh. He was aware there are sufficient edibles in the ground and above ground to keep a person fed if that person knew how and where to look.

Rachel kissed his cheek when she let him out at the point where his trek began. She said, "Call me if you get into trouble." That was another "oh yes." She insisted he carry her Global cell phone. With one last wave over her shoulder, she turned her van around and drove back toward home.

Mark's planned overnight hike was along an old game trail that petered out just before it could intersect another old, little used path that led down almost all the way into Upton. From there, he planned to call his mother for a ride home. He hoped to find answers, including why he felt driven to make this weekend trek.

The point where Mark picked up his planned trail began with a steep climb to the east. It soon leveled out for a few miles until it petered out and became a dim and seldom used game trail. Mark planned to follow along the base of a steep mountain for a few miles and then switch over to another trail into a cleft caused by an ancient waterfall at some time hundreds or thousands of years ago.

His mid day rest stop was a small clearing with a pool of sweet, ice-cold water in the center, fed by melting snow higher up in the mountains. It was shady there and the water was icy cold. This was always his first planned rest stop, almost eight miles from the drop off point where he began his hike.

As usual, Mark averaged a little over two miles an hour, as he hiked over the rough terrain. He took his time and enjoyed the surrounding countryside. He stopped for a five-minute breather every hour even though he had not yet begun to tire. His fourth stop meant eight miles of his hike was behind him.

Mark slipped his backpack off and sank down on his belly beside the small pool. He dipped his face into the cold water and drank deep. The snow water always tasted sweet. When he pulled his face out of the water it felt as if someone had rubbed crushed ice all over it. "Damn, but that's good." Every time he stopped at this point, he said exactly those same words.

This time he began to feel anxious. He had felt "urged" to make this hike for a purpose. Yet so far all he had to show for his hike was an enjoyable walk with nature. "Well I'm here, where are you?" he asked the sky.

He flopped over on his back and rested. His muscles seemed to melt into the thick bed of soft pine needles. His body felt beyond mere "good" It had been the same when Mark, his father and mother all went hiking together while his dad was still alive.

For some reason, he always felt a hollow emptiness when he came camping up there in the mountains alone. Yet at the same time, he felt he was somehow connected to his father just by being there. This time an air of expectancy seemed to make itself known. Mark felt something was about to happen. He shrugged off the feeling and relaxed.

A light breeze whispered in the tops of the pine trees. The sunlight filtered lazily through the branches. A perky little red headed Chipping Sparrow looked down from his perch, high in a tree. Mark figured the little bird and his mate had a nest nearby.

He closed his eyes again and napped. There was no hurry. He decided to enjoy the moment and put off any thought of the reason for this hike. He felt Melissa and he had to decide what to do about Carl Puffin, Melissa's father of record. The man's obsession with his daughter was dangerous for both families. Mark decided the man should be put away. He napped...

A strange sound that didn't belong woke Mark. His eyes popped open the instant he heard it. He lay quiet and unmoving while he listened. He wasn't certain what he had heard, only that, whatever it was it seemed out of place. Then he heard it again a low, rumbling moan, unlike anything he had ever heard before. Where there had been the usual natural sounds before the strange noise, all at once all the little chattering and rustlings that make up the background noise in the forest were gone. Every bit of the small animal life went silent. Mark stood up and slipped his backpack on.

He heard it again. The sound came from somewhere up the mountainside. It was a mournful sound that made him think of dying elephants of all things. Mark decided to take a careful look. He remembered Alice's comment after she fell down a rabbit hole or fell through the mirror, "Curiouser and curiouser." Mark nodded to himself. This was truly "curiouser and curiouser."

He took his time as he headed uphill toward where he thought the sound had originated. Without warning, the ground under his feet started to tremble. In an instant, Mark turned around to make a fast getaway. He barely took three big steps when he heard a crash behind him. Then all was still again.

Mark stopped and turned back around, fearful of what he might see. There was an opening in the face of the sheer mountainside where none had been moments before. At first glance, it seemed to be the entrance to a shallow cave. He estimated the opening to be nearly five feet wide by about ten feet high.

A little at a time, the wild life resumed its chatters and chirps once again. The Chipping sparrow had returned. It looked down at Mark as if to blame him for the disturbance. Mark's curiosity got the better of his common sense. He walked up to the newly made opening and peered inside. Sunlight shone in just enough for him to see it definitely was some sort of tunnel and not the shallow cave it had seemed at first glance.