Chapter 2

"Jamie," Seamus's mother said as his father closed the door, "I know you think that we're crazy for having moved out here in the back of nowhere. Maybe we are but your father worked for a government agency that was tracking certain trends. When he realized what was happening he started building and provisioning this cabin.

"All of that may prove to be a false alarm, but until we know for sure it will not hurt you to concentrate on being a little more light footed in the forest."

"I'm not sure how to do that."

"I know and since you haven't been taught it all of your life it is a challenge. So why don't you put your dog in your room and give her some water, then we will do a little practice."

Seamus moved the dog into his room and set out a bowl with some water in it so that she could have something to drink. "Hey mom," he said as he reentered the main part of the house, "can I have something for the dog to eat?"

"Not for a while, I want to make sure that bump on her head doesn't cause her problems."

"Then I guess that we should see how badly I can do at just walking around."

"Not just now you won't, what I have in mind is a little different. Come with me and I'll show you something that your father and I found shortly after we got here," Seamus mother motioned for him to follow her as she went out the door of their cabin.

Seamus followed his mother out of the door but dragged his feet somewhat sullenly. His mother led him just a few feet from the front of the cabin and then turned sharply away from the creek where he had found the dog. She climbed a steep hill that previously Seamus had avoided; the trail she took was steep and barely visible. A short scramble took them to the top of the steep ridge that defined the creek bank. Seamus was breathing hard when they reached the top to find his mother seated on a fallen tree trunk. She motioned for him to be as quiet as possible and to sit beside her on the log. When Seamus was no longer panting for breath his mother began to point out sights that he had not been aware of, he gaped in wonder to watch as a small herd of deer wandered through the meadow just downstream from their cabin. Perhaps an hour of sitting and watching the wild life let him catch glimpses of rabbits playing near a bramble bush and a fox with kits hunting mice. Finally his mother whispered in his ear, "It is time to go in." She then got up and led Seamus back to the cabin.

When they got back inside the cabin and had checked the dog, Seamus' mother had him sit at the table. "You've never even tried to go anywhere but the creek," she stated as a fact.

Seamus shook his head sullenly without ever taking his eyes off of the table.

"I know that you enjoyed seeing everything I showed you, so what is the problem?" she asked.

"Why do we really have to be out here away from everyone?"

"If you won't accept that we are right about the end of the world as you knew it then consider it a long field trip with practical exercises."

"I hate it all!"

Siobhan nodded her head sadly. She had suspected this by the way her son had been acting. "Well for at least another half a year here is where your father and I have decided to live so that is where you will live as well."

"I want to go home I'm bored all the time here."

"Shall I shoot your dog then?"

"Why would you do that!?"

"Well a big dog like that would be unhappy in an apartment. So to be responsible we would either have to find her a place to live or put her down. Anything else we did would be cruel."

"And you don't think it is cruel to me to make me come out here?"

"I suppose from your point of view it is cruel. Your father and I had hoped that you would get interested in learning about how to live here and learning how the animals live as well."

"Couldn't she go to the humane society?"

"What do you think happens to dogs that go there and that aren't adopted?"

"Idunno..."

"If they are not adopted within a short time they are put down. That means they are killed."

"Why do they do that?"

"Two reasons: first they can't afford to feed all the animals that are abandoned there, and second they don't have enough room for all the animals that are abandoned there."

"Oh..."

"So do you want to keep the dog?"

"Yeah, kinda, I mean I'd like friends too. There's just not much to do here."

"When we were living in the city you used to complain that you didn't get to go outside very much; now you have nothing but outside to go and see, and you're complaining again. I think that the difference here is that you are afraid because you don't know anything. I won't say that your fear is unjustified, just that your confidence in the city was not based on reality, after all there were a lot of dangers to you in the city, from cars to kidnappers." Seamus frowned at his mother's lecture. "What I'd like you to answer is this: did you learn anything today?"

"Not really."

Siobhan shook her head sadly and said, "Wait here for a few minutes. I have something you should read before your father returns."

In a few moments Siobhan returned with a slender booklet and a pistol. "You can read that or not," she said indicating the booklet, "but let me warn you once and only once, I will consider failure to read that book as refusal to learn. And since your father and I have chosen to live here according to that booklet, I will do you the small favor of telling you the consequences of failure to learn. In simple terms, lack of education equals elimination. I think that no matter how much I hate to do it that if you refuse to read that book I shall consider it self-defense to kill you."

"KILL ME!!!" Seamus shouted, "WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO DO THAT??"

"I wouldn't want to kill you," Siobhan said with a tear in her eye, "but you are continuing to refuse to learn."

"How am I supposed to learn when no one tells me anything?"

"I asked you just a few minutes ago if you had learned anything today, and you said; 'Not really, ' now I will give you a simple exercise. Try to think of things that you didn't know before today. Even just one thing will do for a start. Part of learning for you from now on will be thinking about what you see and trying to learn from it."

Seamus sat very still for a few minutes then said, "I don't know what I'm supposed to learn from it, but today is the first time I've seen deer that they weren't running."

"So why weren't the deer running today?"

"I'm not sure."

"When you are in the house a guess won't be as deadly as one outside might be. So tell me your best guess as to why the deer weren't running when you saw them today."

"We weren't moving?"

"So why would that make any difference?"

"I don't know."

"Well then, what about the rabbits that were in the meadow when the deer were there? They were moving, why didn't the deer run from them?"

"The rabbits aren't as big as us?"

"That is a good observation and I'm sure that it has something to do with the fact that the deer weren't running. In fact for now I'll accept it as given that you can learn if you want to. Ask questions if you want to learn. Your father or I may take you on a hike and ask you for observations in order to see if you can learn the answer to the questions you ask without us telling you the answers. This is because we believe that you will respect knowledge you work for more than knowledge that you are given."

"I guess I can see that. Does that mean you're gonna put that gun away?"

"I will if you get your dog outside so she doesn't embarrass herself if she's house broken."

"Why would she be embarrassed?"

"How would you feel if you wet your bed?"