Yazen (Ponith) Read online

  “Good seeing you guys. We’re going to go grab a bite as well,” Brad says while pulling Jenn’s hand to their table. Jenn waves and follows Brad.

  “You’re not a very good liar,” Alex says quietly while finishing his burger. He knows me too well. I quickly finish my burger and get up to pay our bill. As we’re leaving, I look back at Jenn to see if she’ll look back at me, but she doesn’t. She’s smiling at Brad and I can feel pressure against my chest, like I’m having trouble breathing. I force myself to look away and follow Alex outside.

  “So, do you want to go hiking?” Alex asks as he belches out the aftermath of his burger. I really just want to go home and do nothing because I don’t feel like being around anyone right this moment.

  “I don’t know. I’m not feeling too well; I may just go home.” I’m hoping Alex doesn’t realize that I’m lying again. He must have picked up on it right away because he raises his eyebrows at me in question.

  “You’re not going home. Follow me; I know what will make you feel better,” Alex says while walking away from me. I suppose he won’t tell me where we’re going. I don’t argue with him because I know I won’t win the argument. After a few blocks though, I realize we’re heading to Alex’s house.

  We pass a lot of tourists on our way to Alex’s. An annoying bunch because they just don’t treat our city like their own. They pollute, get in the way, and they are flat-out rude. They feel that they’re on vacation and don’t have to pick up after themselves. We leave behind the tourists and walk a few more blocks to Alex’s house.

  “Wait out here for a moment. I have a surprise for you,” Alex smiles as he heads inside. I wait out on the front lawn, watching a blue bird scavenge for food. Then I hear the front door shut, and I turn around to find Alex holding two of his rifles. I know exactly what we’re going to do – hunt.

  “I figure we can go and blow off some steam; maybe it’ll make you feel better. Dad got us two new rifles because they were on sale. So, what do you say?” Alex holds a rifle out for me to grab.

  “Sounds fine, let’s go.” I grab the rifle and we start to walk to the edge of town. We have to be careful because we don’t exactly have hunting licenses. I haven’t gone hunting in a few weeks, and the last time I went out with my grandpa we only shot a few rabbits, nothing big.

  We finally get to a pathway that leads into the trees, eventually turning into rows of Sitka spruce trees. The trees are so thick this time of year; they’re all blooming and the scenery is beautiful. I can’t even properly describe the smell, so fresh, open and free; it really opens up your lungs. There are big yellow and black butterflies flying, landing on wild flowers while some squirrels run up and down the trees chasing each other, rustling the leaves on the ground. Birds are in the tree tops, singing tunes to one another, different melodies each time I’ve never heard before. As the wind sways the trees, any noise of the town is lost to the ears.

  “How far into the woods do you want to go?” I ask Alex as we venture further in, down what still appears to be the trail. I know we have to go pretty far so we don’t get caught by anyone. The further we go, the thicker the trees get and the harder it is to follow any resemblance of a path. I’m not even sure we’re still following any but Alex seems bound to lead us away.

  “Let’s go out to some of the ponds; maybe we can find some animals drinking there that we can track,” Alex responds while moving some branches out of our way. One of the branches he moves swings back and hits me in the arm, stinging and cutting it slightly. Luckily just a long red scratch; no blood.

  “Sounds good. I’m excited. I bet these new rifles will bring us some luck. I wish I had brought my hunting knife and some other supplies that we may need.” I’m trying not to act too worried, but it’s one of my pet peeves. I don’t like venturing into the woods unprepared because anything can happen. Maybe it’s just my grandpa rubbing off on me.

  Alex shakes his head at me, “You are such a baby. We’re almost there.” He points his finger straight ahead of us, although I don’t know how he can see anything through the brush and the trees.

  But then right on cue, there is an opening and whichever pond it is, it’s big. There’s a lot of muskeg around as well as a few pine trees leaning out over the pond. We slow down, to try and be quiet. We look to see if we can see any immediate signs of wildlife. It’s pretty quiet, except for the wind and a few tree frogs croaking.

  “I think we should try another spot. I don’t think we’re going to have much luck here,” I whisper to Alex and he nods. I’m glad I have my sneakers on, as it’s very muddy here.

  “I agree. Let’s walk around this pond and see if there is another pond a little further back. I don’t want to leave until we at least shoot these guns once,” Alex says in a grim tone.

  “By the way, before I forget, I’m going to have a party at my house tomorrow for my birthday. Would you like to come?” I ask him.

  “Sure. Will Jenn be there? Just kidding, man, sounds fun to me. Count me in,” he replies.

  As we get close to the end of the pond, out of nowhere Alex falls down a muskeg hole. Alex screams as he falls into the huge hole. It looks nearly 7 feet deep. I’m lucky enough that there was some space between us so I didn’t fall in as well.

  “Alex, are you okay? Did you break anything?” I start to shout and panic a bit, waiting for Alex to respond. I’m afraid to get too close; I don’t want the ground on the edge to cave in under me.

  “Yeah,” he groans, “I’m fine. I don’t think I broke anything, but it’s too high for me to get out. Can you reach over and let me try to grab your hand?” Alex’s voice is in a panic.

  Now I really wish I had brought some rope and my other supplies. I lay down next to the hole, trying to find a stable spot so I don’t fall in as well. I hold my foot against a tree root for stability and try to reach for Alex’s arm but he’s just down too far for me to reach him.

  “I can’t reach. Let me think for a minute,” I say as my mind is racing. I’m looking around everywhere for something long enough for Alex to grab onto.

  I don’t want to use the rifle because it’s not safe. I keep telling myself not to panic, that we’ll figure this out.

  “Hurry up! I don’t like it down here. There are ants crawling all over me and I keep sliding down every time I try to grasp something to climb up. It’s too wet, and I’m soaked in mud,” Alex yells, as it seems that his panic is starting to take over just a bit.

  I walk over to a tree that has a broken branch hanging off of it, and I start to tug at it to get it loose. It’s thick enough that I think it will hold Alex’s weight to pull him up, so I run back to the hole with it and tell Alex, “Try climbing up this branch. I’ll hold it and pull while you try to climb out.”

  I get my feet positioned so I don’t fall in as well and hang over as much as I can to lower the branch down to Alex. He’s able to grasp it and he starts to climb the wall, but he keeps sliding back down.

  “I can’t do it,” Alex yells. I can tell he’s starting to give up. I really don’t want to leave him because I may not be able to find my way back to this exact spot.

  “Try again! Use your arms to pull yourself up the branch. I’ll pull as well,” I tell him while still in the same position, ready to try and pull him up. Alex grabs the branch again and starts to slowly pull himself up, every now and then trying to put his feet against the wall. I start to pull the branch up at the same time as he’s climbing up and he finally gets up close enough to grab my hand. I drop the branch and pull him out of the hole.

  “You look gross,” I say as I’m laughing, out of breath. He’s covered in mud, water, and leaves.

  “Oh yeah, I’ll show you gross,” he says while chasing me around to rub the mud on me.

  As we’re running, we turn a corner and both come to a full stop and try to stand as quiet as we can. We’re a couple of feet away from a huge brown bear that’s snarling and showing its teeth, saliva hanging from the sides of its mo
uth, growling at us. I guess we were in its territory and it saw us way before we saw it. We don’t have our guns loaded yet either, so they’re useless to us at the moment.

  “What do we do?” I whisper to Alex. I’m petrified, literally shaking from fear. I don’t want to make any sudden movements to upset the bear.

  “All that we can do,” Alex whispers. Then all of a sudden he shouts, “RUN!!!” Alex takes off running at a full sprint back to town. I follow right behind him and pray that I don’t trip over any branches. I’m running so fast that my lungs are burning, and I’m trying to gasp for air. Tree branches keep whipping us in the face as we run. Although I can’t see it, I can hear the bear is right behind us and it’s faster than I thought it would be.

  As we’re getting closer to town, we still haven’t lost the bear. I don’t think that we’re going to be able to lose it. I don’t know how close it is just as I lose my footing on some rocks and fall, scraping my knee, drawing blood. I drop Alex’s rifle and I try to grab it quickly, so I can try to get back up. The bear sounds likes he is only a few feet away from me.

  BANG.

  Out of nowhere, a gun goes off and the bear takes off the other way. I look over and realize it isn’t Alex. He’s standing with his rifle in his hand and it’s not loaded. I start to stand up, holding my knee, and Alex walks over to me. We’re looking around trying to find who has fired the gun.

  I see someone walking toward us, from the corner of my eye, through some bushes.

  “Grandpa? What are you doing here? Did you just shoot at that bear?” I question him, as I’m trembling from my scraped up knee.

  “One of the guys at work told me he saw you boys come out here earlier with some rifles. I wanted to check on you since it’s so late and you haven’t come back yet,” Grandpa says with a disapproving look on his face.

  “Thank you, sir,” Alex responds before I can say anything, “I’m sorry that we came out here and didn’t tell anyone. I know how dangerous it can be. Please don’t be mad at Zac. It was my fault that we came out here,” Alex says in regret.

  “It’s okay, Alex. I’m just glad everyone is safe. How is your knee, Zac, and what happened to you, Alex? You’re filthy … but maybe I don’t want to know that answer,” my grandpa says with a smirk. Alex shakes his head in agreement.

  “Thank you, Grandpa, I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. My knee is okay,” I say to him, while I feel myself still in shock. I still can’t believe we were just chased by a bear.

  We start to walk back to town, and my grandpa has his truck parked on the end of the street. He gives us a lift back home and he makes Alex sit in the back because he’s so dirty. He drops him off first and then we head home.

  “Bye, Zac, see you tomorrow,” Alex yells and waves goodbye. I start to wave back.

  “Wait. Here’s your rifle; I almost forgot to give it back to you,” I say while handing it to him out of the truck window.

  “Thanks. Maybe next time we can really use them. I’m going to go shower, I feel absolutely disgusting,” Alex laughs and heads inside.

  My grandpa is quiet for the rest of the ride home, and I know he’s not happy with me. When we get home, he puts his rifle away and goes right to bed. I have a feeling he’ll talk to me in the morning about this once he’s not mad at me anymore.

  I go to the kitchen to heat up a piece of leftover pizza for dinner. I decide to call Jenn before I go to bed to make sure she’ll come over tomorrow for my birthday. I pull my phone out of my pocket and dial her number. It rings twice before I hear her voice.

  “Hello? Zac?”

  “Hi Jenn, I’m calling to see if you will come over to my house tomorrow for my birthday party?” I ask her, while remembering her day with Brad and I start to feel frustration again growing inside of me.

  “Oh, yeah! I’ll definitely be there. I’ll see you tomorrow, Zac,” she says and then all I hear is the click of me hanging up on her. I’m so irritated that I couldn’t say goodbye to her, but I’m happy that she’s still coming tomorrow.

  I put my phone on its charger and go to bed for the night. I don’t even want to recollect the day I had today.

  Chapter Three

  “Wake up, Zac! Get dressed and meet me in the living room,” Grandpa yells as he knocks loudly on my bedroom door.

  He startles me awake and I immediately sit up in bed. I was dreaming that Jenn and I were out at the river all alone, swimming and laughing. I look over at the clock and its 7:30 in the morning. I don’t understand why I can’t sleep in on my summer break.

  I roll out of bed, grab some clothes out of my closet, and head to the bathroom to shower. I finish getting ready and head down to see what my grandpa woke me up so early for. I know he’s going to lecture me about going into the woods yesterday unprepared, waking me up this early as punishment. Probably a full day of chores as penance.

  As I enter the living room, my grandpa is sitting on the couch with the camping bag that I got out of the attic for him. His face is stern, so I’m not sure how this conversation is going to go.

  “Good morning, Grandpa. I want to say I’m sorry again about yesterday. I promise it will never happen again; we were just being stupid,” I tell him while sitting on the couch next to him.

  “It’s okay, Zac. You just have to remember everything I’ve taught you about the woods and how to survive. It’s very important, but that’s not why I called you down here. I’m not going lecture you; I just want to explain this bag to you, okay?” Grandpa asks sincerely.

  “Yeah, of course. Sure,” I tell him. I’m shocked and curious to see what is in the bag. I watch as my grandpa picks it up and puts it on his lap. He undoes the snap and opens it. I scoot to the edge of my seat, trying to peer in the bag, but I can’t see inside of it.

  He reaches inside of the bag and pulls out a small, rainbow-colored, oval-shaped gem. He opens his hand with it on his palm and waits for me to grab it. I pick the gem up and look at it closely. It’s a strange gem, a type that I’ve never seen before. It looks valuable and I wonder why there are so many colors in it. It looks like it could be a gem that could be used in jewelry.

  I look over at my grandpa and he looks discouraged, let down. A frown on his brow. I don’t understand.

  “What's wrong?” I ask him.

  “Oh, nothing, Zac. I’m happy to finally show you this gem that I’ve had for a long time now,” he says.

  It feels like he’s not telling me something, holding something back.

  I roll the gem between my hands trying to get a closer look, when I see something catch my eye inside the gem. It’s a reflection, a dull light that plays off the colors in the stone. I bring it closer to my face to get a better look. It rolls off the green, blue, and white parts and I have to blink my eyes just a bit as it reflects just right into my eyes. My hand begins to tingle, as if it were falling asleep, and I drop the gem on the floor in surprise, rubbing and stretching my hand.

  “Oh geez, I’m sorry, Grandpa. I didn’t mean to drop it, but my hand just cramped on me,” I say with regret. I look over and see my grandpa smiling. I’m a little shocked and relieved, as he doesn’t look mad at me for dropping it on the floor.

  “It works!” he says while picking up the gem, “Do you remember the stories I used to tell you about the other planets? The ones in the paintings that you were told weren’t accounted for in your school’s history books?” he asks me.

  I nod my head yes.

  “Well, bear with me for just a moment but I want to explain these planets to you some more. I think I have quite an adventure in store for you this summer that I want you to do instead of sleeping in all day. You can take a few friends with you and, actually, I’d prefer it if you did that. It would be a lot safer and I think you would have a lot more fun,” he says while going back to the bag. He pulls out a big leather journal out of the bag.

  He gets a grin on his face and continues, “I want you to go to each of these planets and learn about them. I wa
nt you to experience them like I got to,” he says to me.

  I’m staring at him with a confused look on my face. What in the world is he talking about? Experience other planets? How am I supposed to go to another planet without a space shuttle? Either he has one of those hidden in the garage or he is definitely losing it. I’ve always enjoyed his stories, but it sounds like he is starting to live in his stories.

  He scoots a bit closer to me, putting down the leather book, and grabs my still-tingling hand. He holds it close and examines it carefully.

  “You won’t be able to go to all five planets this summer so you’ll have to break up your trips. I can even tell you which one would be the best to start with ... Will you please do this for me?” Grandpa asks me with an optimistic look on his face. I haven’t seen him this excited in a long … never. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this excited before.

  I really don’t know what to say right now. Is he going crazy in his old age and just talking nonsense? I can’t tell if he’s serious or not but he sounds so excited.

  “I'm not trying to sound mean, Grandpa, but I think we need to talk about these stories. You know they’re not real, right? There’s no way I can go to another planet, unless I’m some sort of astronaut. They’re stories you told me when I was little, not reality,” I tell him.

  “Zac, I know this sounds crazy, but please hear me out. I promise to you that I am fully sane,” he says.