Turn Around When Possible by J. C. Laird (best e ink reader for manga .TXT) 📕

“Just a wild idea I had; maybe she can talk for me.” Cindy leaned forward and kissed his hot, feverish forehead. “I’ll find somebody; we’ll get you out somehow.” Before he could respond, she had disappeared out the rear of the SUV and vanished into the brilliant sunlight.

Robert listened to her go, confused, scared and sad. He took a sip of melted snow, pressed the cold bottle against his forehead and closed his eyes.

Cindy made her way slowly upward through the rocks and trees, finally arriving about fifty feet below the ridge line leading to the road. She stopped and grimly surveyed the terrain. On another day in another time she could have zigzagged up through the hard scrabble and stunted trees and scrub to the top. But today Cindy could go no farther up, just as she could not descend below the wreckage to the ravine.

She took Samantha out of the pocket of her sundress and turned it on. The small screen lit up; she was close enough for Twelve Mile and Knox Creek Roads to show on the map readout. Samantha almost immediately chimed in. “Turn around when possible. Turn around when possible. Then, turn right on Knox Creek Road.” Cindy drew back and hurled it as hard and as far as she could.

#

“How you doing, Tina?” Brian stopped and turned around while adjusting the shoulder straps on his day pack. Tina had halted about ten feet back on the trail and was taking a swig from her water bottle.

The svelte, brown-eyed brunette finished drinking, capped her bottle and gave him a look. “Slow down, Brian; we’ve been going uphill ever since the Knox Creek trailhead. What’s the rush?”

Brian gave her an appraising look, admiring her legs showcased in the walking shorts and hiking shoes. “Sorry, babe, just got carried away with the hike.”

She laughed, shouldered her day pack and caught up with him. “It’s a good thing I love you; the first week away from classes and you have me hiking in the mountains. We could have gone to the lake, or at least something a little more romantic. How far before the gang picks us up?”

He checked his watch and the GPS. “We’re about four-and-a-half miles in. The old Twelve Mile Road should be up ahead, then it’s nine miles to Harris Road, all downhill I might add.” He gave her a hug. “Jimmy will pick us up there; we’ll meet the others at the cabin for the weekend, and then, my fair lady, I’ll give you a big dose of romance all weekend long. We have the whole summer now. No more Boise State until the end of August.”

Five minutes later they spotted the hiking posts and arrows, double-checked their GPS, and headed downhill. They hadn’t gone more than a hundred yards when Tina grabbed his hand.

“What was that?”

“What was what?”

“I heard a voice, someone talking.”

“I don’t hear anything, except birds and the wind”

They had stopped and Tina was looking around in all directions. “I know I heard something.”

They stood frozen on the hiking path, the wind sighing through the pines around them. Tina glanced down at the ground. “A car has been up here recently; look at the tire tracks.”

“Who, in their right mind, would drive up a hiking trail?” Brian asked.

Tina punched him in the arm. “It used to be a county road, dummy.”

They started walking again when a faint voice sounded to their right. “Turn around when possible. Turn around when possible. Then, turn right on Knox Creek Road.”

They both heard it this time. “It’s coming from over there,” Brian said, indicating the general direction to their right. They walked through several yards of scrub and grass, a few trees, nearer the edge of the mountainside.

They waited quietly for a minute. The bland, toneless message came again. “Turn around when possible…” They located the source in the grass near the edge.

Brian picked up the object, staring at the screen. “It’s an old Tom-Tom GPS, look at the thickness and the old screen graphics. Still, it couldn’t have been here very long; these old things had an internal battery life of only a couple hours. The battery indicator says it should be dead; a hiker must have lost it. But if they turned around like it says, we would have run into them.”

Tina had walked a little farther, following a set of tire tracks in the soft earth towards the rim. Nearer the edge the grass was dug up, scrub uprooted and a small sapling snapped in half. “Oh, my God, Brian, I think a car may have gone over.”

Seconds later they were both looking down the treed and rock strewn slope. Tina spoke, worry evident in her voice. “I don’t see anything, but there’s a lot of rock outcroppings and trees; maybe we should hike down a ways and have a look around.”

“Or maybe we just hike back double-time, report this and get the authorities up here ASAP,” Brian said.

“But what if somebody’s hurt?”

“And what are we—” Brian was cut off as Tina grabbed his arm and pointed.

“Over there to the right, about fifty feet down by that small outcropping, near the crooked pine.”

Brian shaded his eyes, squinting. “I don’t see anything; there isn’t a wreck or ….” He stopped, his eyes catching the twinkling of some object by a large rock edge. “You mean the sun reflecting off glass or something?”

Tina was already clambering over the side, half walking half sliding down the loose scrabble towards the glinting object. “Let’s check it out; it’s not that far down.”

“Geez, babe, it’s probably just a broken bottle or something…” But Brian dropped the old GPS and bounded out after her, heading down. “Slow down, Tina, wait up…”

They found the body of a dead woman partially hidden behind a large rock. The twisted and broken figure was on its back, one out-flung arm and hand stretched above her, the sun catching and reflecting sunlight off a silver wristwatch.

From this vantage point, Brian and Tina could see the glinting wreckage of something several hundred yards farther down. Silently, hurriedly scrambling downward over rocks and around trees, they soon arrived at the remains of a vehicle. They found an injured man trapped inside, feverish and delirious.

Brian shed his day pack and handed it to Tina. “Get some water down him, and try to get him to eat a nutri-bar or trail mix—something.” He gave her his backpack and a quick kiss. “Finally, all the jogging, hiking and intramural basketball is going to come in handy. I’ll run back to the highway for help, or to wherever I can at least get cell phone service.” Turning, he began heading back up the mountainside.

Tina had crawled inside the crumpled vehicle to help the injured man. She gently took back the almost empty water bottle she had given him—she didn’t want him to upchuck. “Hey, slow down on the water; there’s plenty of it.” She looked in alarm at the grey pallor of his face and grimaced in distaste at the smell of urine and the coppery odor of blood inside the vehicle. “How long have you been trapped in this car?”

“A couple of days I guess. My wife, Cindy, kept me alive. She put the tourniquet on my leg to stop the bleeding, got snow for me to drink, found some granola bars to eat, medicine to take and kept me warm when it got cold.” He was actually grinning now. “She must have found you. What are the odds of that? Where’s she at?”

Tina looked away, biting her lip. She took a breath and turned back. “She’s resting up near the top. It was actually the GPS that got our attention; we heard it giving directions near the hiking trail.”

The man shook his head. “Another miracle, the battery on Sam should’ve been dead.” He continued droning on about his wife, delirious and oblivious to the obvious.

Tina turned away again; she didn’t want the injured man to see the tears brimming in her eyes. The image of the dead woman would always be etched in Tina’s memory, her bloody body bent and broken, splayed on the rough landscape. The woman must have been violently ejected from the vehicle on the way down. The only consolation Tina could think of was that her death had obviously been swift and painless; she hadn’t suffered. As for her husband, thank God the GPS was functioning and sunlight had reflected off her wristwatch.

The man, who’d said his name was Robert, was still rambling on about his wife, Cindy. He was saying something about the tourniquet… “She said I’m supposed to loosen this every so often to keep some circulation in the leg. She’s pretty smart; not only did she tie together clothes to make a blanket and cut the tops off bottles to collect snow, she used the belt from her sundress for the tourniquet.” Eyes bright with fever, the man was staring with pride at his bound leg.

Tina jerked around and gaped at the belt tourniquet, the image of the dead woman stark in her mind. The woman had been slim and petite and wearing a yellow sundress, the kind that was belted to accent a narrow waist. Tina remembered the dress loops; the belt had been missing.

High above, Samantha lay half buried in leaves and grass; her monotone broke the silence once more, “Turn around when possible...” Her screen faded and darkened for the final time.

###

Text: John C. Laird
Images: Alexandra Laird
Editing: Valerie Fee, Alexandra Laird
Publication Date: 10-05-2012

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