Charlie

Terry loved her only child, as deeply and richly as she could. Life had been difficult since her husband, Ed, had died in an automobile accident on his way to work, and money was tight. She had managed to keep her and her son afloat, barely, by doubling up with a job as a checker at the Kroger and substitute teaching at the local elementary school.

Terry and Charlie lived in a small two-bedroom cottage on the edge of town. Though the house was tiny and in disrepair, Terry loved the fact that it bordered on a tract of protected forest, so as Terry hung laundry or played with Charlie in the small back yard, she could gaze out into a realm of quiet beauty and wildness. She would tell her friends that, besides Charlie, this is what kept her sane.

Charlie and his mom would take walks into the forest as often as they could. Though there we no established trails from their house, their regular treks had formed familiar paths. One of them ended in a pristine spring-fed pond a few miles in, where they had cleared a spot to have picnics.

When Charlie was six, Terry started letting him go into the forest alone, with firmly established rules. He had been asking to do this since he was much younger, but Terry was adamant until she considered him old enough. She made him carry a whistle and a wristwatch, so he could stick to their agreed upon length of time for his hikes and signal if he ran into trouble.

Charlie felt entirely at home in the woods. He and his mother had spent so much time exploring that he fully knew his way around. He knew every hidden hollow in the large trees, every small hill, every pile of boulders, the tallest tree, the spring that formed a small stream. He constructed a small fort amid a group of trees out of fallen branches and logs and laced more branches to make see-through walls and roof. He made a rudimentary table and chairs to furnish his fort and decorated with found natural objects: feathers, stones, and interestingly shaped chunks of wood.

Terry had given Charlie a watertight plastic chest she had purchased at the local Goodwill, and it became a repository in the fort for Charlie’s special books and other items he did not want to get damaged.

Charlie got in the habit of running into the forest to his fort right after the school bus dropped him off at home. Terry packed him a sack with a snack bar, a piece of fruit, and a water bottle every day, and he took his homework in his backpack to complete in his fort, when the weather complied.

Sitting in his crude chair, Charlie rapidly completed the math homework, and struggled through the geography assignment. For some reason, Charlie found it hard to visualize how the countries of the world fit together, and he kept forgetting things like the fact that Chile bordered on three countries with its long slinky shape. Math made sense to Charlie, while geography did not. He was far more interested in the characteristics of the land he studied, its mountain ranges, rivers, forests and the creatures that populated them. Why there were these seemingly arbitrary dividing lines was beyond him.

Charlie was visited regularly by the birds and squirrels of the woods around his fort and often a curious animal would hop through the porous wall and sit on his table and watch him while he did his homework. The visitations became so frequent that Charlie made a point of bringing an extra slice of bread, crackers or nuts in his snack bag to provide for his guests. Soon, there were few times that Charlie was in his fort when he did not have one or more creatures accompanying him.

Winters in the part of Oregon that Charlie and Terry lived were not severe enough to prevent Charlie from spending a little time in the forest, but they were cold enough that Charlie was unable to do his homework there. He missed the visitors to his fort, and began leaving some scraps in the yard outside of his house. The food was always gone the next day, and Charlie often got a glimpse of a coyote, fox, or raccoon as they ventured into the yard to see what he had left for them.

When Charlie was eight, he came home from school one spring day to find a note from his mother. She had to fill in a shift at the Kroger that evening for a sick friend and asked if Charlie would please not go out into the forest that afternoon. She had left dinner ready to heat in the microwave.

Charlie hated not going into his beloved woods, but his mother only rarely asked this of him, so he contented himself with a plate of cookies and milk while sitting at the kitchen table and digging into his social studies homework.

Charlie was not very interested in this particular assignment, and often stared out the window when trying to determine the answer to the questions posed at the end of the chapters in the textbook. He was surprised to discover that animals had gathered at the fence line: several squirrels, a moose deer, a coyote, two raccoons, and even a fox. Not right next to each other but then again, not too far apart, either. He thought it very unusual and went to the larger living room window to see better.

From this vantage point, Charlie could see that even more creatures had gathered. Several birds were on the top of the fence, and all of the animals seem to be looking at the house. Maybe, he thought, they were wondering where he was. He walked to the rear door, and quietly opened it, hoping not to disturb the animals, and stepped out onto the porch. None of the animals showed any fear at all and were definitely looking at him. Charlie went back inside, and grabbed a light jacket from the coat hook, put it on, and stepped back out. All of the eyes were on him. Charlie began to walk slowly toward them, afraid of scaring them away, yet curious as to why they were there. As he came closer to the back of the yard, several of the creatures backed sideways from the pathway that led into the forest, almost as if they were allowing him entrance. Having no fear of these creatures and thoroughly entranced by the gathering, Charlie went on down the path. The creatures, one by one, started following him.

Terry arrived at the house after her shift was over, and came into the living room, fully expecting to see Charlie watching TV or reading. He was not there, nor was he in the kitchen. Or bedroom. Terry did not panic, until she finished searching the house and begun calling for him on the back porch. She was met only by the silence that accompanied the forest. Then, she panicked.

The evening was starting to get chilly, so Terry grabbed her coat and hat, and a flashlight, and took off down the usual path they took into the forest. She figured her son would have gone to his fort, though she was surprised that he would have specifically disobeyed her request. Charlie had never done anything like that, but he was getting older, so maybe it was natural that he might be pushing his limits.

When she got near the fort, she stopped to listen. There was a quiet commotion in the woods ahead, with sounds she could not readily identify. Terry hid behind a large oak and peered at the fort that was perhaps thirty yards away. The hut was awash in soft golden light, with what looked like slow moving sparks swirling in the darkness. She could see Charlie through the walls of the fort, sitting in his chair, very still but smiling. The soft light provided just enough illumination of the forest to reveal that the structure was surrounded by a huge number of animals, all very still and gazing into the fort. Dozens of birds were on the roof, looking down. Terry would have been terrified, but what she was witnessing was peaceful and still. It was like the moment before a wedding, or a coronation. There was almost a reverence to the setting, and while Terry had some fear for her son’s well-being, there did not seem to be anything ominous, so she just watched and took it all in.

The golden light was moving now, and seemed to center on Charlie, and, for a moment, he was the only thing glowing in the forest. And then, it was over, and the many creatures slowly and peacefully disbursed. Terry turned on her flashlight and walked to the fort, where Charlie was now standing. He looked at her with a big smile on his face, and he said, gently, “Hi, Mom. Sorry I did not leave a note. Something incredible has happened.” He walked over to her and gave her a hug and held it for several moments. “I’ve been given a job to do, Mom.”