What Happened at Black Bear?

  “Out of all the dumb ideas you’ve ever came up with Fallon this has got to be the dumbest one yet! This is the shit that white people do in the movies!” Anyone driving by could hear Fallon’s sister Ava fussing at her through the car speakers. 

“I mean I am part white.” Fallon deadpanned

“I’m not playing with you Fallon. I mean who just decides to get in their car and drive up to Black Bear Mountain? In the dead of winter. By themselves!” 

“I’m not by myself Ava. I’ve got Boxer with me.” Fallon shrugged referring to her Great Dane that was laying in the backseat of her truck enjoying the four-hour ride. She should have known sending a txt to her sister saying, “Hey, going up to Black Bear Mountain for the week.” Was nothing going to go over well with her sister. 

“Right because Boxer makes everything better.” Ava snapped

“Hey! He does make everything better.” Fallon sighed, “Look Aves I need to do this okay?” 

“I could have come with you. You didn’t need to do this by yourself.” 

“I do. He was my dad.” 

“You think I don’t know that. Not trying to take anything away from you but I was close to him too. Once upon of time.” 

“I know. I’m sorry.” 

       Fallon whispered. She glanced over at the box that contained the ashes of her father. Just a few days ago was the first time she had seen her father in nine years, and he was delivered in that box to her front door. His final request was to have his ashes released at Black Bear Mountain, the place where he spent the rest of his days in his cabin, by himself. 

“You don’t have to be sorry Fallon.” Ava spoke gingerly, “I know this has been a lot on you. Me and ma just didn’t want you out there alone. What if something happens out there? We would never know. And we just want to be there for you. We love you.” She could hear the hurt in Ava’s voice, and it made tears well up in her eyes. 

“I know, I know. I love you guys too and I’m sorry I shouldn’t have cut you guys out of this process. He was someone y’all loved too.” She sniffed, “Maybe I should turn back, yea I should turn back. We can pick a day where we’re all able to do this together.” 

“No Fallon you’re almost there. It’s about to be dark soon you don’t need to be coming back down that mountain in the dark, and I’m looking at the weather reports it looks like we’re about to get some heavy snow. So…just make sure you get to the cabin safely. Do what you have to do-.” 

“Hello? Ava?” 

    A second later Fallon heard the beeping sound indicating that signal had been lost. She picked up her phone from the cup holder and so that she had no signal. Just great she thought to herself. 

“Well Boxer I guess it’s just me and you for the rest of the ride. Are you going to talk to me?” Boxer huffed and flopped his head back onto the seat, “I guess not.” 

   Fallon popped in a CD she had with her and let that guide her the rest of the way through the windy roads. It was another hour before she was pulling up to the Cabin her father owned, which is apparently now hers. It had started snowing 20 minutes after getting off the phone with her sister and it picked up now. Looking at the snow starting to cover the cabin in front of her windshield looked like something she would see in a snow globe. It wasn’t the biggest cabin she had ever seen, though she had never seen one in person. It wasn’t smallest either, maybe medium? 

     Fallon didn’t know. She just couldn’t believe that her father had been only 4 hours away from her this whole time, cut off from the world. There weren’t many homes in these mountains and for good reason, if you got snowed in up here you were stuck here for a while and you had better hope you had enough supplies to last you. Once again Fallon looked over at the box that contained her dad. 

“Why’d you leave us?” 

         Luke Peters left his family when Fallon was 12 and Ava was 17. They remember all the fights that happened between him and their mother Kathy right before he left. He wasn’t spending time with them like he once was. It was like he was a whole different person and then one day he wasn’t there. Fallon wiped the tear that fell down her face, shaking off that broken feeling and gathered her things to get out of the car. 

“Come on boxer. Let’s go see what dear old dad had going on in here.” She sighed stepping out of her truck. She opened the back door and let Boxer free, and he was excited about that as he stretched his body out from riding in the back seat for so long. She took out the letter that was addressed to her from her father.

Dear Fallon, 

         If you’re reading this, it means I am no longer here on this earth. I know it’s a shit way to find out and I know I have no right to ask this of you, but I need your help. I have a cabin out in Black Bear Mountain, its where I’ve been living for the last few years and its where I would like to have my remains scattered. I wish I had the time to tell everything since I’ve last seen you, but I don’t so I’ll just leave you with this buttercup. I love you and everything I did was take make sure you had a great life even if I wasn’t in it. 

Love, 

Your dad. 

P.S. when you get to the cabin the key is under the mat

        Isn’t that where all people put their spare keys? It’s dumb in this day and age, but people still do it. Fallon walked over and lifted the mat and low and behold there the key was. She picked it up and opened the door letting Boxer in to explore while she went and got her bags and her dad’s remains. Even though she’s a firm believer that more than one trip is for suckers, she had to make a second trip to get the groceries for her and Boxer. 

       Once she was finished placing the last bag down by the door she stopped and looked around at the place. In her line of vision, she spotted an old fireplace, a desk by the front door which was good, because she could work on her material. Fallon’s an illustrator for a comic book company. What better way than to get some work done in a remote cabin, just like the people she’s seen on screen. She also saw a couch, not just any couch it was the one from her me-maw’s house. You know that brown colored cloth one with flower patterns all over it from the 70’s? 

     It looked like it should have stayed in the 70’s too, but it made Fallon take a good look around at the place. On the mantle Luke had pictures in frames, there were 3 of them. One of him and her mom Kathy, it looked like when they first started dating. The young couple were all smiles, Luke had his arm wrapped around Kathy’s waist and she was leaned into him looking at the camera. There was one of them as a whole family Luke, Kathy, Ava and her.

     They were sitting on that same couch except for it was at her Me-maw’s house then and Fallon looked like she was no more than a few months old, again there were smiles dawned on their faces. And the last picture was of just Fallon, she couldn’t have been no more than 10, but she remembered that picture. She was standing underneath a tree at the park, leaning on it, arms crossed and of course smiling. Her hair was wild and frizzy from rough housing with the other kids and playing in that summer’s heat. Her dad had told her to stay right there as he hurried up and snapped the picture. 

        He told her he wanted to remember her that way forever and come to think of it that might have been the last day she saw her dad smile. Fallon snapped out of her memory with more questions. If he had these memories of them, why didn’t he stay? Maybe she’ll find her answers in this cabin. Fallon continued to survey the room and saw an entertainment center with a decent sized tv and a…VCR? 

      This place really was like a Time Machine. Who has VCRs anymore? Next to it were tapes some of her favorites from childhood and some unmarked ones. Maybe she’ll check them out when she got settled later. She moved on from the living room to down the hall where she discovered two bedrooms. 

       One looked plain, like maybe it was for her dad. She moved on to the next room and when she opened the door, she was shell shocked at what was in front of her. It looked exactly like her bedroom from when she was a child. From when she last saw him. The room was in the in between stage, where you’re still a child, but going into the teen faze. From the boy band posters on the wall, to the toys scattered around, to the day bed. 

     It was what was on the day bed propped up that really sent her into Deja vu. There was an old patchy stuffed bunny, HER stuffed bunny. 

“Patches!!” She called out. 

    She couldn’t believe it! She thought that she lost him and the move after her father left. Couldn’t find him anywhere and Fallon was devastated, but turns out her father had him the whole time? It just raised more questions. Why did he take it? 

     Why does this room look exactly like her old one? And if he missed her this much, why didn’t he ever come around? This all felt off. This room felt off. You know how you getting a feeling? 

     Felt like someone had been in a room and moved something just slightly and it made it feel like everything wasn’t right, but you couldn’t put your finger on it. That’s how Fallon felt looking around. She shook herself out of her trance when she heard Boxer start barking, profusely. Following the sound to the kitchen, wasn’t much there either. You know the usual fridge, sink, stove wasn’t even a dishwasher in there. 

     Just a table for two in corner. There was a door though, right next to the refrigerator. Looked like it might have led to the basement, that’s what Boxer stood in front of barking at non-stop. 

“Boxer! Hey relax. Relax!” She told the Great Dane, petting him trying to get him to calm down, “It’s alright buddy. It’s just a door.” Fallon talked to him looking over the old heavy oak wood door. It had about four locks on it and a chain, “Hopefully it’s just a door.” She rephrased her wording. 

     That door looked creepy. It was old and worn out, a lot of scratches around the side of the door and the bottom of it. Like someone was trying to escape. Getting that same feeling she got from the replica of her old room, Fallon just hopped and preyed those locks worked and whatever was down there stayed down there because one thing Fallon is not a fan of is creepy basements. 

“You know what? Let’s go for a walk!” She clapped at Boxer who immediately stopped his paranoid barking and started his tail wagging, spin around in circles excited barking. They made their way back to the front of the house where Boxer went straight for the door, whining already. He was more than ready for his walk. Maybe that’s all it was that was bothering him, Fallon put into her mind, “Alright, alright I have put my coat on first you know.” 

      Fallon bundled up in her coat, gloves, hat and scarf, making sure everything fit snuggly before putting the leash on Boxer. Once outside they could see that the snow had picked up. So much was coming down you could barely see the trees going down the mountain and it looked creepy how there was nothing else but that cabin for miles. Creepy is becoming Fallon’s favorite word right now. Maybe she should switch to the word eerie for a while? 

That’s what it felt like to walk through the mountains as just a woman and her dog and no one else around for miles. Silence over taking her, just the crunching or her and Boxer walking on snow, leaves and rocks. The wind whipping around them. It felt even worse than being in the cabin. Outside felt more open, like anything could get to her. It felt like she was being watched. 

She decided to make their walk quick. Once Boxer did his business, Fallon made a bee line back inside. While on their walk Fallon was able to find a few sticks laying around in the snow. She thought it would be nice to put that fireplace to use later. Fallon shook off the bad feeling and got Boxer and herself settled. 

She set up Boxer’s bed, got the fire started, changed into her flannel pj’s. The tired had finally hit Fallon from doing all of that driving and just the emotions of being in her dad’s final living space. She kept it simple and heated herself up some soup that she brought with her, some crackers and her favorite mango passion juice. Looking at the two-person table that sat in the kitchen, she decided she didn’t really want to sit there. That felt depressing, so she opted to sit in the living room on old Me-Maw’s couch and pick one of those movies sitting by the VCR to watch. 

Now originally, she was going to go with Beauty and the Beast it used to be her favorite after all, but she went with one of the unmarked tapes that were sitting underneath her favorite childhood movies. She popped one in and pressed play on the remote once she was settled sitting crisscross on the couch with her bowl of chicken noodle in her arms. She glanced at Boxer who laid cozy by the fire before turning her attention to the tv. Slurping up some soup she zoned in on what popped up on the screen. There was her father and a little girl. 

No more than 9 maybe. They were in this house and they were sitting at two-person table in the kitchen. Who was she? Did he have another child after he left her mother. It was best to stop asking herself questions and pay attention to what was happening on the tape. 

The girl had her head down. Fallon could barely see her face. Her hair was in the way, it was frizzy like hers. From what Fallon could see the child looked miserable. Luke was sitting across from her smiling creepy at her. 

There was that word in her vocabulary again, but it was true. He had reached over to the girl and touched her arm tenderly, making the girl flinch but she made no move to take her arm away. 

“How was school today sweetheart?” He asked so sweetly. Like he uses to do for her when she came home from school. They would sit down and talk about their day over a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and milk. It was just time for them, no Ava no mama. Just them and now he was doing their ritual with some other girl. Fallon felt a pinch of jealousy.

“I-i-it was okay.” The girl responded back in a soft voice. It was almost hard for Fallon to hear her through the TV. But she heard the fist that came slamming down onto the table loud and clear. 

“Those are NOT the words I told you to say!” Luke’s voice boomed. Fallon stared at the TV wide eyed. In her lifetime with him she had never seen him this angry. Sure, she remembered her parents arguing, but she didn’t remember him being this irate. 

“I had a great day at school today dad. We got make these cool paper hats in art today. I’ll show you after I finish my sandwich. And Tessa asked if I could come over this weekend for a sleep over, can I go? Her family is going to the aquarium.” 

         Fallon almost dropped the hot bowl of soup in her lap from shock. Those were once words she said to her father. She remembered that very well. How could she ever forget all the weekends she spent at her best friend’s house growing up? 

“We’ll have to check with mama pumpkin, but I’m sure it’ll be okay.” Luke replied happily. 

“Please stop.” The little girl murmured 

“What?” He spat out. 

“Please stop. I’m not her.” The little girl lifted her head up and took the hair off her head. That wild hair wasn’t her own. The wig was brown, and she was blonde. Fallon could see the tears that steamed down her face. She had he own tears watching this horror play out in front of her. 

“Put it back on.” He said dangerously low 

She shook her head no, “I’m not her. I’m not Fallon.” 

 That’s when Luke got up stocking over to the camera cutting it off abruptly. Anger evident in his face was the still before the tape stopped. Leaving Fallon, the question. What happened at Black Bear Mountain?