Read R.E.M.: The Hidden World Online
Authors: Corrie Fischer
"It’s just a name, they’re just stories….it doesn’t mean anything."
Her now trembling knees and sweaty palms disagreed.
Snap!
She assumed the sound was a twig buckling under the weight of some creature, but what it was, she did not know. Her already pounding heart beat faster as she attempted to prepare for the worst. She held in her breath in an attempt to remain silent, and leaned her back against a nearby tree. Terror filled her as the micro seconds seemed to stretch on for an eternity.
“Come on, baby….are you sure you wanna wait one more?” The young man’s voice faded in through a haze as he entered the room. As Emily opened her eyes, she was only half aware of anything that surrounded her. This was certainly not her best friend’s house. That much she was sure of. The man who had spoken sat down on the fluffy surface directly by her side. “Were you nodding off?” His voice was gentle, but it was apparent from the stench on his breath that Kyle indulged in more alcohol himself.
For several moments, Emily did not respond at all and instead just laid there, attempting to regain normal thought processes. During this time, Kyle just stared at her, his eyes weakly concealing the comical sarcasm he so loved. Emily ignored him, finally focusing on her surroundings, or attempting to focus. “Woah” was all she could gesture up in response.
“On second thought….maybe you’ve had one too mannany….I’ll get you some wata…” His words slurred with uncertainty; yet his body moved efficiently as he jumped off the over-sized bed and sauntered out of the room. Emily glanced around, still in a daze. She determined this was Kyle’s apartment by the family photos that so precisely decorated its pale walls. She had only been there on a few occasions previously. Kyle often insisted they go out to spend time together and have fun. He once admitted that it helped him deal with accepting Emily's terms. She understood his temptations and recognized she asked for quite a bit from him. Therefore, she respected that they generally spent time away from this private location.
Currently, there was no recollection of how they even made it from the crowded party to this secluded area. She assumed Kyle must have driven them there.
I don’t remember him getting drunk though…
Scanning the bedroom, Emily got a unique perspective on it. After all, this was certainly the first time she was drunk in his bed. His room had a light, airy feel, except for the distinct stench of alcohol. It was now Emily saw a bottle of rum lying empty beside the bed, the remaining contents spilling onto the pure white carpet.
Aw….he must’ve waited till we got back safely to enjoy…..how sweet…
Continuing her observation of this strange, yet somewhat familiar room, Emily noticed a certificate of some form hanging on the wall. “Whaa? I didn’t know….he….has gotten….a degree…” Emily’s curiosity got the best of her and she decided to investigate further. This proved to be far more of a challenge than she expected. She managed to prop herself up on the bed. Her head spun and ached, but she managed to turn her legs from their prostrate position to the edge of the bed.
Just then, she heard the distant voice of her boyfriend calling from the kitchen.
Is that where the kitchen is
? Emily was lost. “Damn, we sure do have a lot of alcohol in here to celebrate the rest of your birthday tomorrow!” His excitement was followed by a series of chuckles, then an “Oh shit” trailed by even more laughter.
Still completely incoherent, yet trying to show concern for her boyfriend, Emily managed a simple response. “Whaaa happened?”
Wait….oh duh, it’s my birthday…..finally 18…soon enough I will be free at last!
As the thought of an almost intangible freedom slipped through her mind, Emily attempted to plant her feet on the ground. Unfortunately, she forgot about the empty bottle beside the bed. Her foot landed directly on top of it and her already questionable balance gave way completely.
Whoosh
! Before she knew what had happened, Emily was down.
After a moment of sheer terror, Renee finally saw the silhouette of a young man amongst the trees. When she determined the figure was Sam Kale, she released the entrapped air from her lungs. “Whew!” Though Sam was not entirely unintimidating in his own regard, at least Renee’s concern of being lunch was completely alleviated, for now at least.
"Oh I’m sorry, did I scare you?" Sam asked with the slightest curling of his lips. He had approached her amongst the trees and
she felt free to resume a normal stance away from the oak.
"Me, scared? No, of course not, I just thought you were a wild animal I’d have to erm...…" She twirled her hair as she struggled with the words.
Sam couldn’t hold back his reaction any longer. He released a roaring stream of laughter. "I’m sorry, it’s just...." His sentence was cut up by several moments of laughing. He eventually calmed down, leaving them standing in silence.
Looking around, Renee was getting antsy to get farther away from the church and her father; so not letting another second slip past her, she asked Sam as simply as she could. "I’m going to run away, do you want to come?"
"What?! When I saw you run out of the church, I thought you just wanted a temporary escape…not a permanent one!" Renee didn’t reply but, instead, maintained her steadfast pose and wasted another precious minute waiting for him to re-think his words. "I mean…you can’t just run away." He flung his open palms into the air, as if the gesture would help Renee listen. It did not.
"Why not?" Renee's confidence shocked even her.
The trees surrounding them appeared ordinary enough. She could see no logical reason to be intimated by this forest, or any other for that matter.
"Why not
? I’ll tell you why not, because your parents love you, and what about all your friends? You’re just going to leave them without so much as a goodbye?!" Sam was obviously flabbergasted at the idea.
"First of all, my mom hasn’t ever taken my side over my father's, so she must not love me too much….and my father, ugh, don’t even get me started! As far as friends are concerned, you’re my only
true
friend, so no one else will care that I’m gone." This newfound assurance excited her to all the possibilities that could be waiting outside this small town.
Sam did not seem to share her enthusiasm. He paused a few seconds, rubbing one hand across his chin, clearly deep in thought. Finally, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a worn fifty cent piece.
She immediately recognized it as the one his father had given him years before. “You still carry around that old coin?” She was surprised at his dedication.
“Yep, everywhere; now watch this.” He proudly flipped the coin in the air, catching it perfectly in his palm, covering the results. “If I get heads, then I’ll go with you, ok?” Renee nodded
and then held her breath. Slowly, Sam pulled back his fingers, revealing…..“Heads! Looks like we’re running away!”
"Oh, Sam, thank you!" She
rushed forward and hugged him like it was their first day of kindergarten again. Even at her youthful age of thirteen, she felt they had already spent an entire lifetime as friends. After all, they had numerous memories over the past eight years, and it excited her this could be another opportunity for their friendship to grow.
S
he released her grip on him and returned to her steadfast pose, prepared for the adventure on which they were about to embark. "Alright, well we better get going unless you want the church choir finding us..." She let out a chuckle but Sam didn’t laugh. Not thinking anything of it, she went back to the mission of which way she wanted to go.
Scanning the numerous, nearly identical trees, she now realized she was clueless as to which way she had even come
from, let alone where she should lead. Desperately wanting to embrace her new found sense of adventure, she was thoroughly tempted to select a direction at random.
Wait….Sam will not follow blindly…there must be a reason…
she scanned the forest again, hoping some of her father’s logic would come to her now. She had to admit, her father had always been a plethora of information. Her eyes instantaneously caught sight of a dead tree lying across the forest floor a few feet from them. Then it hit her and she embraced the impulse to slap herself on the forehead.
Moss! It always grows facing north….that’s it!
She approached it quickly, desperately hoping to identify the fluffy green substance resting on the tormented, dead trunk. Sure enough there was a layer of scruffy moss on one side of the fallen oak. She pointed the opposite direction as she explained her reasoning. “This way….the moss always faces north….so in this case towards the church….we should go the opposite direction.” Renee smiled, feeling quite proud of her explanation.
“Sounds good to me…” Sam did not know a thing about tracking, but Renee had successfully convinced him, so
he followed her lead. They proceeded on in silence for some time with only the sound of crunching leaves to confirm they were still moving.
Renee’s mind began to wonder as she soaked in all the beauty the forest had to offer. Trees se
emed to sparkle in the sunlight as a variety of plant and wildlife surrounded them. She intermittently identified the sound of squirrels scrambling up and down trees. She often envied their ability, and dreamt of having such climbing skills herself. She watched now as one to her right stuffed an acorn into its oversized cheek. She could not help but smile at the sight.
It was certainly true that, despite her thicker weight, she had always been an outdoorsy girl. She loved swimming, hiking, anything that brought her and nature together. She and her mother had recently developed a new tradition of mountain biking together. They would ride for hours without stopping
. Her favorite spots were always those amongst the wooded trails. Unfortunately for them, her adventures alongside her mother had always occurred in the northern woods that rested opposite of the southern chapel. She had grown to know those woods well on the back of her metal contraption. The area they were in now, however, was completely new to her. Looking around at these unfamiliar trees, she continued to reflect on her past trips with her mom. She had discovered the act of biking instead of hiking provided a few distinct advantages. For one, it allowed her to see far more of the forest in a shorter time span. Also it helped avoid, not entirely though, the attachment of ticks. Those horrid little creatures were one of nature’s downfalls. There was only one dweller she despised more than those, cockroaches.
Her fear of the nasty, little things had truly developed a year prior.
She was taking a shower before school, like any other day. Stepping out of the water’s embrace, she plucked her towel from its resting place, and prepared to dry off. She flung her hair downward and was just about to wrap it in the fluffy, comforting cloth. It was at that moment she discovered a visitor on her towel. It was a cockroach at least three inches in length. She immediately dropped the towel, screamed, and ran to her room in her birthday suit. Thankfully, her father was already at work and her mother was downstairs reading, clueless to her daughter’s peril. Renee quickly corrected her ignorance by repeatedly yelling for her mother. It felt like an eternity before Merlot was finally knocking on her bedroom door, demanding to know what was wrong. When she explained what happened, her mother burst into laughter. Renee insisted that her mother should just kill the dreadful thing and bring her a fresh towel. In hindsight, she now felt guilty, recognizing how she may have come off as a tad rude. Her mother seemed to understand the demands were merely out of panic. She always had a way of understanding Renee’s true intent even when others could not. Ever since that day, she had developed an odd habit of never drying off without thoroughly scanning her towel beforehand.
Suddenly her attention was drawn back to the present. She and Sam must have been walking along for at least twenty minutes. She now heard a loud crunching of leaves behind them.
There’s no way that was just a squirrel.
“Sam, get down.” While quietly barking out the order, she followed her own advice, crouching near the ground. Sam obeyed and watched attentively for any sign of movement.
Nothing…
Two minutes crept by without a sound. The silence started to overwhelm her with a noise of its own, a buzzing that pounded against her heightened ears. She began to panic. A million thoughts rushed through her mind. Her head spun with nausea and, for a split second, everything seemed to go black. “Renee.” Sam whispered, pulling her from her trance, and crunching leaves in the process. He was shifting around too much.
“Shh
!” She lifted a finger to accompany the command. She knew she had heard something. She was sure of it. Sam followed her orders and did not move another muscle.
It had been five minutes now and Renee had come up with two possibilities:
Either I’m crazy, but of course I can’t be, right?...they always say if one is questioning their sanity that person must not be mad…the other possibility is that what I heard…this person…is my father.
An avid hunter, her father prided himself with the ability to remain motionless for hours. She debated which of the two was worse; believing she was crazy, or that her father was here, now.
Before she could come to a conclusion, Sam burst through the buzzing with a suppressed shriek. “
Renee!
” His voice was desperate, his breathing heavy. When she finally looked in front of her, she saw it. There, four feet from her face, slithered a snake with bands of black, yellow, and red. Remembering a common phrase about a boy named Jack, she determined immediately that the creature in front of her was in fact…
“RENEE! RUN! IT’S A CORAL SNAKE!” The extremely exasperated female tone was clearly not that of Sam Kale, who was now scrambling to his feet. However, to Renee’s surprise, neither was it the voice of her father.
Who said that?
Renee’s mind spun as her eyes searched for an answer. Sam jerked her up by the arm, yelling as he did so: “COME ON!!”
Renee continued to scan the area for any sign of the woman who had identified the snake, but was disappointed to discover no one. As her arm pulled ahead of
her, she came to her senses and caught up with Sam. The forest flew past them in a blur. Their feet pressed onward almost automatically; shear adrenaline had clearly overtaken Sam. Her mind attempted to reflect on what had happened. Despite her body’s frantic movements, her psyche was oddly relieved. The thought of a total stranger following them was somehow more comforting than either of her two previous assumptions. The trees continued to fly by, as though they had a life of their own.
Wait, they do, don’t they?
As they finally came to halt, she had to smile at her own foolishness, happily admiring the forest and its beauty. Her breathing was labored, but her mind was now at ease. Sam, however, was pale as a ghost. Upon meeting his gaze, she felt her own smile melt away. He turned from her with a pained expression. As he did so, she caught a glimpse of moisture in his eyes. “What’s wrong? We’re both ok.” She placed her hand on his shoulder, hoping to draw back his attention, but Sam just stared at the ground, refusing to look at her. She removed her palm from its perch and decided to take a different approach. “I’m sorry I shushed you. It was wrong of me. I should’ve listened to you sooner. I really didn’t…”
“No.” His response cut her short.
“I don’t understand, what’s wrong?” Renee was truly lost, in more ways than one. She had no idea what could have upset him like this. In all the years she’d known him, he had only cried once, and that was when his nine-year-old dog, Midnight, died. Seeing a snake in the grass shouldn’t have caused this sort of reaction from him. After all, they had both grown up in the country and were quite accustomed to wildlife.
“I’ve never….” Sam seemed to be trying so hard to contain his concern, but without much luck. “What happened to you, Renee?” His face shifted and he was staring
at her directly.
She
was even more confused now. “Huh, what are you talking about? I thought I heard something which ended up being that lady, and then….”
“What lady?” Sam’s expression filled with worry. Renee felt a chill run up her spine.
“The one who called it a Coral snake!” She started to panic. Sam’s face said it all; he had heard no voice. Goosebumps began to sprout all over her body. “You didn’t hear her?” As Renee voiced the question, Sam’s pale face grew lighter.
“No. I knew something was wrong with you.” His voice faded into a mumble. “You’re just as crazy as your father…”
“What did you say?!” Adding to her other symptoms, Renee’s face grew red with fury and her hands made fists.
“You heard me!” Sam snapped suddenly, getting defensive. Then he froze; his mood instantly changed. “Oh my gosh, did you hear that?!” Sam now seemed to be panicking.
“Very funny, Sam. Now you’re just mocking me, I’m telling you, I really heard someone, a woman and….”
“Did she have an extremely soft voice?” Sam was no longer looking at Renee. His eyes were scanning, searching for something…or someone.