Chapter 3

Dash

I stared at Michelle’s picture for a while that morning. There was no real need to be up at seven every day, I just wanted some sort of routine, otherwise, I’d never get out of bed. I combed my hands through my hair; it was so long now, too long. I didn’t bother cutting it or shaving my beard anymore, who was I ever going to see? The last time I’d talked to an actual human being face-to-face was just over a year ago when I kissed my sister goodbye and left my life forever.

I didn’t rationalize a need for personal grooming other than what was necessary for healthy hygiene. DJ would’ve called me a Sasquatch; he was obsessed with the mythical creature. He’d be nine now. He had his mother’s smile, almost an exact replica. I wonder if he still thought about Bigfoot or me? Did he terrorize Allesandra with tales of the half man mountain creature? Did they ever talk about me? Did they know I’d become that half man half monster DJ was so fascinated by? It was ironic, I’d become more Sasquatch than man these days. They had to believe I died, it was the only way to keep them safe, but it left them without a father. We all had gaping wounds.

I tried not to dwell on it and had to remind myself it was for the best. What I’d done was keeping them alive. To the world, Michelle and I both went up in flames. There wasn’t much left of the car or anything else after the explosion turned our lives to dust; it was the perfect getaway.

I don’t know how I got out of the car before it exploded. When we crashed into the guardrail, it hit her side the hardest… The fuel tank was on her side, it ignited and the car blew up. I wanted to go back for her, but she wasn’t there, nothing that could be recognized of her, at least. I could feel warm wet liquid dripping over my eyes and then a rush of heat that knocked me out. When I woke up in the hospital, I had twenty-one stitches on my chin, another reason for the beard, ten stitches on my forehead and whiplash, but other than those few injuries, I made it out untouched. Michelle was scraped up into a body bag; it didn’t seem fair.

Mark and the drug cartel were still looking for me. I’m pretty sure Mark didn’t believe I was dead. Not long after the crash, he tried to buy my company. My sister refused to sell it to him and took over in my place. Without any medical or scientific training, most thought it was a risky move for her. She was ten years my junior and at twenty-two years old, had just graduated from NYU in marketing and graphic design. Most people knew she had to be getting help from someone. All I wanted to do was keep Rainseed alive so that our work could continue.

My sister gave up her life to raise the two kids we left behind, Dashell Jr., who was nine years old and his little sister Allesandra, six. They were almost too young to remember us, but not young enough. They still had a lot of questions, and it broke my heart. My sister was doing an excellent job raising them and running the company, but she was living a life she felt obligated to live and didn’t really want. She was young and deserved a chance to chase her own dreams.

All of what we’d sacrificed weighed heavy on me, but I tried not to let it destroy what little I had left. I was still doing good for the world. I had built this house to be our mountain hideaway, a place Michelle, the kids, and I could go to escape the city. Now, it was a fortress, trussed up to protect me from the monsters outside. I never opened the door to the upstairs attic space which had a set of bunk beds and decaying toys on dust-covered shelves. I couldn’t bear to throw them away, so they stood as relics of a life long gone. The lower part of the house had been converted from a cozy living room, kitchen, small office, and master bedroom, into a high-tech security stronghold against the world.

The media mourned my “death” for almost a year and had just started to taper off with my name mentioned less and less in the press. It was quite morbid for me to watch, but heartwarming as well; so many people expressed their love and sadness over the loss of both Shelly and I. I guess the only upside to all of it was, I knew we were loved.

When I was in the witness protection program, law enforcement got word that the drug cartel speculated I might have survived based on the fact my company was still in business and there were no photographs of my burned body on the dark web, where such things could be found.

The men pursuing me that day, simply vanished. Their car was left in pieces on the road. Police officers found the unattended wreckage and said it belonged to an elderly couple who had reported it stolen. There were no detectable prints in the car and no way to connect it to anyone. Most of the witnesses were either injured or dealing with their own damages and didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. Surveillance footage did show two men dressed in black from top to bottom, but no faces could be made out from the footage. The car beside us must have also slipped away.

There were conspiracy theories that speculated I was still alive. Most were recreational internet groups, but the cartel and Mark had their eyes everywhere. I wasn’t ever going to be truly safe. This was as good a hiding place as any. The police knew where I was, but with no one to prosecute and no reason to hold me hostage, they let me live here without forcing me back into the witness protection program. It’s dangerous but had become less so to the point that my life was just monotonous and boring.

The cabin was well camouflaged by trees in the heavily wooded remote area. The only thing I had to worry about were the glass windows. In the light of breaking dawn, they’d reflect across the valley. Anyone would’ve known it wasn’t a reflection which could naturally occur in a forest as dense as Eagle Mountain’s.

At night I made sure to shutter the thick metal overlays which obliterated any light generated in the cabin. After sunrise, I could open the metal shutters and enjoy the incredible view of the mountains and valley below. This place would’ve been heaven if it wasn’t also a prison.

That morning had started like any other morning. I got out of bed wearing my favorite pair of flannel pajama bottoms and went to the small media room to check security footage from the night before. I’d outfitted the house with several cameras, both around the periphery and in the nearby woods. I also had infrared scanners which could detect human movement and activity from at least a mile away.

Since the cabin was so remote, having only one dirt road and no signposts or lights, the only people who ever traveled this way were the delivery service I used to deliver my necessities each month and the occasional lost traveler. Since interactions with anyone were dangerous, I simply watched what was happening around me without engaging with anyone.

The lost travelers would go up the hill to discover a dead end and make their way back down again. My cabin couldn’t be seen from the road, or from the air; it was almost as invisible as was I. The previous night’s surveillance had shown me the antics of a family of raccoons who’d darted up and around my porch looking for food, with the younger male raccoons scuffling for dominance.

My friend the black bear and her cubs had come by sometime in the early morning probably looking for their last meal before hibernating and there was a constant buzz of woodland rodents scurrying this way and that. Just a normal day on my mountain, nothing scary or nefarious to worry about, so I decided to raise the blinds and let the sun in.

This was the best part of my morning, opening up to the natural world around me. I would never get tired of the view. Crystal blue skies, graced by pillowy white clouds, with evergreen trees towering above to the sky, perfuming the air with intoxicating aromas of cedar and pine. I’d open the window and let the scents waft in to chase out the stuffy musk of seclusion.

Next on my morning agenda was always coffee, the rich espresso was imported from Italy. I craved tastes, smells and textures more than ever as they made my isolation more bearable. Breakfast was a fresh fruit, yogurt, and juice smoothie, and then a hike in the mountains behind the cabin before I started work. Every day it was the same routine, it kept me sane and made me feel like my life had a purpose.

Looking down from the mountain, I could only see a hint of the solar panels on the cabin, but I knew what I was looking for. To the untrained eye, the large black glass panels looked like a small body of dark murky water. The tiny house with its bullet-proof shutters and intentional lack of human presence seemed even more lonely when seen from the mountaintop.

I decided to take a hike to the tiny house I had at the top of the nearby mountain and at about ten o’clock when I returned from my hike, I fired up my Mac Book Pro and got to work analyzing data and diving into my research. For company, I listened to the CB radio and chatter from truckers and workmen on local construction sites. I found their banter comforting and it informed me about happenings on the mountain. I also listened to the police scanner at the same time. It made for a bit of noise pollution, but after hours of deafening silence, a little auditory chaos was welcome and helped me think.

I liked the comfortable underscore of white noise and information. Apparently, the biggest storm of the season was expected to hit that night. I hated those kinds of storms. They were dark and foreboding and often snowed in the roads and pathways making me feel even more isolated and trapped in this place.

My heart raced just thinking of what the night was going to be like. The metal shutters on the house could be warmed to melt the snow around the house, but in order to open and close the front door properly, I’d have to shovel away the layers that piled on the porch. I did have a snow blower, but I hated lugging it around.

These storms were dark and miserable and often brought the demons in my psyche to the forefront. I hated grief, it robbed my soul, but on dark stormy nights, grief was often my only companion.

“Charlie, Charlie,” the CB radio cracked.

“Charlie, over,” A jovial man’s deep and rasping voice responded.

“What’s your ETA? Over?” The first man, maybe a younger man, asked.

“Gonna be in before that black cloud is, over,” he said offering assurance to the younger man.

“Ma’s cooking a goose, she wants everyone home tonight, she’s tellin’ me to tell you to get home now. You won’t answer your cell, over,” the younger man scolded.

“Lost reception. Tell Mom I’m fine. If I don’t make it home, I’m at the Rusty Spoon. Over and out.” He sounded like he had no intention of making it home for Ma’s goose, that made me laugh, wonder who was at the Rusty Spoon?

“Ma’s gonna kill you if she doesn’t see your face, over!” the younger man shouted.

“So will Lucy. Over and out again, lil’ bro. Tell Mom not to worry,” the older man was getting what he needed tonight, and it wasn’t going to be Ma’s goose.

Strangely the line went to static, either the brothers were out of range or that storm was gonna blow the roof off the place. I had my own satellite tower which was private and encrypted so I would probably still have internet and cell reception. It rarely went out, but a big storm could damage the tower and that’d be a problem. I looked out the window, crystal blue skies to the west and menacing blackness to the east. We had maybe a few hours left before everything would go dark. I made sure to make the most of it and took my laptop outside. Despite the cold, it was probably going to be the last daylight I’d see for a while.