6. Coming Round the Mountain
COMING ROUND THE MOUNTAIN
JO
Hallucinating. The stress of the world ending is causing me to hallucinate. That’s the only explanation for what I am seeing and hearing right now.
“I love you…”
The rock face, the mountain side, is moving. It’s speaking to me.
“…Jo.”
My name is unmistakable in the voice, like rocks tumbling.
“What the hell?” I screech, sitting straight up. “Who’s there?”
“Please do not be afraid.” The voice gravels out. There’s no one else around, just the weirdly gorgeous face in the rocks.
“The stress of the world ending is making me halucinate.” I mutter as I start gathering my clothes.
“You’ve awoken me, Jo. The love you have for me has brought me life.”
I pull my flannel over my sports bra. I’ve clearly spent too much time hiking alone. And now I’m paying for it.
“I spent eons asleep until you arrived.” The voice continues, “That must mean something. Please, let me show you how grateful I am.”
The ground shakes, so hard this time that I have to steady myself on a tree beside me. In front of me, a tall stone pillar rises up from the dirt.
It’s shaped like a person, a statue, it’s a naked woman. A very familiar woman. It’s...me...carved from smooth polished stone. Twice as tall as I am, but the likeness is unmistakable. It’s me. Without any clothing on.
I reach out to touch it. The stone is cool and hard under my fingers. This doesn’t feel like a hallucination. I whip around, back to the face on the cliff side. But it’s gone. Maybe it was never there.
“Maybe I am going crazy.” I say mostly to myself. Something about hearing my own voice helps ground me. I close my eyes. I’ll count to ten and when I open them and turn back around, the statue will be gone. “One, two?—”
“Jo. Is everything alright?”
I’m not even at three before the strange voice interrupts me.
“Who are you?” I insist, keeping my eyes closed.
“I’m Mount Mitchell.”
I shake my head emphatically, opening my eyes again to check. Yep. The statue is still there.
“Alright. What sick pervert weirdo is this? Are you peeping hiker? Some guy I ignored on Tinder who followed me out here?”
“I am Mount Mitchell. I have enjoyed your visits for some time, Jo.”
“You really are the fucking mountain, huh?” I ask.
“I know that you love me too. I feel it when you visit me. That’s what woke me in the beginning. I have been with you every time you’ve walked on me.”
“Really?”
“I was with you always. I helped clear the path the night the batteries on your flashlight died. I helped you climb me last Thursday. I changed the trail so I could lead you here, to my beautiful waterfall.”
“You led me here?” I ask. It actually makes a lot of sense. I didn’t follow the wrong path or get lost. The mountain led me here.
“I wanted you to see me, in all my glory,” Mitchell says.
“It is beautiful.” I concede. Maybe the stress of the end of the world is making me hallucinate, but maybe I’m fine with that. “Better than this terrible thing.” I gesture to the statue.
“You don’t like it?” The now disembodied voice asks. It feels like it’s coming from the same direction as the wind whistling through the trees.
“It’s kinda creepy.” I call back. “Could you—make it go away?”
The ground shakes and the statue slowly disappears back into the earth to be covered with a layer of undisturbed dirt, like nothing was ever there at all.
“What can I give you instead? My beautiful Jo?”
“Nothing. Maybe a few more days on earth.”
“Are you going somewhere?”
“No, there’s a meteor coming. It’s going to destroy life as we know it.”
“What will happen to you, Jo?” the voice asks.
“Well, considering that I’m part of life, I’ll die.” I explain. “That’s why I came out here, to enjoy my last couple of hours alive with you. I was climbing to your peak to enjoy the view.”
There’s a long pause and then.
“I could show you more.” The wind suggests. “There are many beautiful places that the trails don’t reach. I can take you to my favorite spots.”
This does pique my interest. Places I’ve never been? Picturesque spots I’ve never seen and will never get a chance to see after today?
“Fuck it. Let’s ball.” I say.
There’s a little rumble under my feet. “Go right.” The wind tugs at my shoulder ever so slightly, and I look to the right.
There’s a path through the trees that I’ve never seen.
Certainly, there are deer trails and small paths on this mountain that I’m not familiar with.
But this almost seems to open right in front of my eyes.
The trees moving slightly, the ground leveling.
I guess I’m following through on this one.
I pick up my bag of supplies and head for the unknown path.
I’ve always enjoyed hiking alone. But now, here in the woods, with just me and the soft sunlight filtering through the trees, and the wind at my back. I am beginning to understand why I never felt alone while I was in the mountains. There’s a gentle feeling of being watched.