A Walk in the Woods - A Short Story (Part 1)

sgtechservices (64)in #story • 8 years ago (edited)

I took a walk on the Westmoreland Trail today, which is a system of trails through the woods and along the river just outside of the town where I live. Since it's October and the beautiful fall colours are making their yearly blazing entrance into our lives, I thought this would be a good reason to get out and go for a walk.

It was a warmer than usual fall day, but the colours were still nice to look at. The path meandered along the river and went from open areas to being thickly packed with towering trees. I usually thought about nothing and everything while on these walks because you can go the whole walk, sometimes an hour or more, without seeing a single soul.

The leaves were crunching underfoot and the squirrels were rustling around in the trees, but thankfully there wasn't too many bugs. They had pretty much disappeared for the year, thank fuck. It's not easy to enjoy a walk through the woods when you are being harassed by mosquitoes, deer flies, horse flies, and other pests. In fact, I once had a deer fly harass me for a kilometre and a half on one of my walks. Buzzing me, landing on me, being shooed away and then coming back. I knew the little bastard would bite me if given the chance. That is until I smashing him against my arm on one of his landings. Then and only then did the harassment stop. Take that you little prick.

Well anyway, back to my walk. There was nothing special or noteworthy about this particular walk. It was quiet, it was pretty, it was peaceful, blah blah blah. Until....what the fuck is that? Shit. Is that a body? It looked like a body but I was still a fair distance away. I got closer and closer until I could make it out. Yep, an old man laying face down just off to the side of the trail. Fuck me, now I have to deal with this, was my first thought. I felt a little bit of shame for thinking that. This poor guy was dead after all, but still...fucking hell. Fortunately, I could still get cell phone service out there on the trail. I guess I should call 911.

“911, do you require police, fire, or ambulance?”

“Which one do you call if you’ve found a dead guy?” It sounded more smart-assed than I intended it to.

“You’re sure he’s deceased? You’ve checked for a pulse?”

Hmmm. I hadn’t thought to even check for a pulse. I’d have to touch him to do that right? I guess I couldn’t just gently kick him a few times and see if he moves? I bent down beside him and immediately thought of a scary movie where the “dead guy” reaches out and grabs the poor unsuspecting bastard that is standing there. I checked his pulse. Nothing. I put my hand under his nose so that I might feel him breathing. Nothing.

“He’s definitely dead”, I told the 911 operator.

Ends up that all three decided to show up for a dead guy. Police, fire and ambulance. But it wasn’t going to be for awhile. Now I had to decide what I do next. I guess I should stay, right? But do I have to? I mean, he’s not going to be less dead when the authorities get here if I leave, right? But it might look just a little suspicious if I call it in and then fuck off. I decided to stay.

I only sat there alone, well, kind of alone, for about five minutes when I saw a figure coming up the path. The police, fire, and ambulance stations were only a few minutes away, so I thought it must be them. As the figure got closer, I could see that it was just some guy. Of all days to have someone else on this part of the trail...now I’m going to have to explain this shit.

“Woah!”. I heard him say as he got close enough. Here we go. “Is that dude alright”?

I resisted the urge to say something really sarcastic. Strangely, the guy laying face down in the leaves and dirt and not moving WASN’T alright. He was not alright at all. In fact, I would imagine he hadn’t been alright since he made the “I think I’ll go THIS way” decision at the fork in the trail 50 yards from where dropped.

“No. No, he’s dead”. I managed to keep it short and relatively sarcasm free. “I found him 5-10 minutes ago.”. “The police and ambulance are on the way”. I decided to get that in before he asked if I had called 911, lest he think that I was just hanging out with a dead guy.

He stared down at my new, immobile friend for a few moments and sadly shook his head. The sight of death will make anyone pause for a moment and ponder how fleeting life is. One moment you are walking down the path on a lovely autumn day, enjoying the colours and the warmth, being together with nature, and the next minute your lights go out for good. I could see my new, actually alive companion was contemplating all of these things.

“Wanna smoke a joint?”.

I looked up at him. Did I hear what I just thought I heard? Do I want to smoke a joint? I was trying to think where on my list of things to do smoking a joint would fall if I had just walked down a trail and came across a guy sitting on a rock looking at a dead guy face down on the ground.

“Yes, I do.” was the answer that came out of my mouth. Let’s face it, if I had a bottle of whiskey with me right now I’d be at least two or three shots in. My new friend, who looked like Nicolas Cage if he had gone full hipster, reached into his pocket and pulled out a joint and lit it up.

He sat on the rock next time mine and I could just imagine what walking up upon this scene would look like now. Two guys sitting on rocks smoking a joint, while another guy is lying dead on the ground. It’s like Cheech and Chong meets Weekend at Bernie's.

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