Paradise

The dusk settled in on the crimson edge of a fiery sunset flattened against a windless evening. Driving
into the Olympic Rainforest in Olympia, Washington against the backdrop of tall pine trees creating
green coats of branches against the sunset, the escaping light of dusk was soon becoming the
encroaching darkness of night. Stacy’s 78′ Chevy Sedan’s forest green paint job blended with the array of
forest growth. The thick foliage almost blocked out the dusk as slivers of sunset peeked around the tall
fir trees. Stacy was thinking about Mack’s detailed conversation on why she should take the shortcut
through the Olympic Rainforest. He was adamant that as a shortcut to Highway 2, the 20 minute drive
through the forest would save her at least 2 hours of driving time to her home in Vancouver,
Washington. Leaving the University of Washington and final exam behinds, Stacy was eager to spend the
winter break with her family and friends.

Her headlights illuminated the dirt road carved through the Rainforest as she drove slowing down to
20mph to avoid any sudden deer or other animals darting across the road ahead. As Stacy came to a
turn in the road, her engine sputtered and died. The whispers of the Rainforest closed in as she sat in
her car in the middle of a two lane road with headlights now black on black with the sudden settling of
night. The cold quickly replaced the heat in her car as she tried frantically to place a 911 call on her
Blackberry. The no service icon illuminated a battery light that was already half over when she heard the
distinct sound of heavy footprints coming towards her. Thoughts of bears, Bigfoot or some other large
animal dragging her out of the car started the screaming that permeated the forest. She was so
hysterically that the knock on the driver’s window drowned out the stranger’s voice outside shouting,
"Ma’am, ma’am can I help you!" as he gently placed his toolkit on the road next to her door. Stacy
turned toward the friendly face of an older man smiling and signaling for her to roll down her window.
She started to hyperventilate and began vacillating between wanting to trust her benefactor and
wanting to trust her instincts that kept her hand away from the lever that would open the window and
her to whatever would come next.

Stacy calms herself down first and then thought about the situation, since she is stranded in a rainforest
without any cell network, she has no choice but to accept any help that she can get. Stacy got a good
look on the old man and she seems to trust him. So her decision all goes to opening the window and
trusting the old man. She pushed the lever to open the window and just when she was about to speak,
the old man interrupted her and said “Ma’am can you open the hood of your car so I can take a look at
it?”, Stacy replied in grateful tone “ Yes, of course, thank you so much for helping me!” Stacy then pulls
the lever beside her to open the hood and then she exits the car so that she can also take a look at it.
While the old man was fixing Stacy’s car, Stacy asks the old man in a confused manner “Where did you
come from? I didn’t see any headlights from miles away.” The old man replied “You’re not the only one
stranded here taking the shortcut.” then he points his flashlight towards the other side of the road
revealing a car on the side of the road with mild smoke coming out from the hood. Stacy not only just
noticed the car on the other side of the road, but also notices that the turn she took a while ago was
gone and nothing could be seen but endless darkness on the opposite direction. The Old man then says
in a comical way “You know I didn’t think anybody else would take this shortcut, everybody else seems
to take the long and painful cut if you know what I mean” Stacy smiles and then asks in return “how
about you, why did you take this shortcut?” The old man replied in a grumpy tone “I was on a hurry to
get out of Vancouver and me and my wife had a bet that nothing bad would happen to me if I take the
cursed shortcut that everybody avoids” Stacy replied in a sarcastic and curious tone “Cursed?” Old man
replied “Not everybody takes the shortcut also meant not everybody ever arrived while taking it” as the
old man then finishes fixing the Stacy’s car, he asks Stacy to turn it on. Stacy tried turning it on more
than two times and finally on the 4th try, the car is finally turned on and seems to be working well
enough to be driven again. Stacy shows her gratitude to the old man by offering the old man a ride to a
repair shop on the way to Vancouver so that they can tow his car over there. Even though the old man
was heading on the opposite way he has no choice but to go back to Vancouver, so he accepts the offer.
On the way to Vancouver, Stacy asks the old man “Where were you heading outside of Vancouver?” as
Stacy keeps her eyes on the road while driving. The Old man replied “Yes, I have someone to visit
outside of Vancouver and scold him for not going home during winter break. My son, who works as a
teacher in the University of Washington, has not been returning any of our calls and messages about
spending a winter break with his parents” Stacy then replied in a sympathetic manner, “I am pretty
much just like your son actually, avoiding home, too busy being out there in the real world, it took me
just now to realize that the that family is a part of the real world” She then feels a sudden migraine after
asking herself why she is only returning home just now. Then out of nowhere, they hit something that
was jumping over the road that startled both of them. Stacy then hits the brakes and asks the old man in
a hysterical tone “Did you see what I just hit, was that a person?” The old man then calmly replied “No, I
didn’t see it, but I saw it dropped on the left side of the road, I should go out and see, you keep the
engine running”. The old man exits the car to see what they hit, upon looking on the side of road he
then shouted, “We hit someone alright!” as Stacy comes out, leaving the car turned on, filled with guilt
and tears slowly dropping from her eyes as she saw a deer barely clinging into life on the side of the
road. Stacy then runs back to the car and grabs a med kit in the trunk, just when she was about to treat
the deer, the deer has died. Stacy still then tries to save it by trying to put it on the trunk and driving the
deer to an animal clinic, the blood stains her clothes while she was trying to carry it, but the deer was
too heavy that she asks the old man to help her. Then out of nowhere the Old man snaps her out of it by
holding both her shoulders and aggressively shouting “There is nothing we can do Stacy, Move on and
look ahead! We can’t stay out here for long!” just as when the old man was finished shouting, the
rainforest suddenly went silent as to even a single wind hits a pine tree cannot be heard and then the
engine of the car stopped and its headlights turned off. Stacy was scared more than ever to the old man
and yet she was rational enough to realize her overreaction towards an unfamiliar situation. Stacy then
said that they should bury the deer. When the old man returns to a calming tone, he told Stacy “You
start the car, I’ll get this deer out of the side of the road and then we go” as the old man slowly carries
the deer into the rainforest. Stacy obeys while wiping her tears and the blood from her clothes. Stacy
tries to start the car’s ignition, and she noticed that the moonlight doesn’t reflect the car interior
anymore so she has to turn on her flashlight from the med kit. As Stacy, tries to start the ignition the
second time, she noticed a sound blending in with the car stalling at the front of the car, and on the
third ignition, the sound was starting to resemble a growl. And then on the fourth ignition, the engine is
finally running and the headlights were turned on, but Stacy sees nothing on the front of the car. Just
when she thought it was nothing, the sound of growling is back but is coming from her side of the
window this time, Stacy points her flashlight on her window and it reveals teeth connected to a very
small silhouette of a four legged animal. And then suddenly something else bigger tipped the car over to
the side of the road while Stacy is in it. . Luckily, Stacy wore a seatbelt but still hit her head on her
window. Stacy felt lightheaded afterwards and is upside down in the car. And then she saw the Old man
flashing his flashlight towards two bears, while shouting “Ill distract them, Go!” as he was running on the
other side of where Stacy is. When the large bear’s attention went to the old man, Stacy exits through
the broken window on her left and then ran into the rainforest, she then hears the old man screaming in
the distance as she ran further into the rainforest. Even though she got away she still hears the
crunching of leaves and the snapping of twigs following her. Stacy thought of something that could help
her escape the bears, she suddenly remembered that playing dead is a way on avoiding a grizzly bear.
Even though she has not seen clearly on what kind of bear it was, she still chose to do it. As Stacy lies
there on the ground motionless and holding her breath, the sound of light footsteps came closer and
closer. The Bear cub sniffs the body of Stacy slowly in a cute and curious manner, then the sounds of
heavy footsteps came closer and closer while Stacy can’t hold her breathe anymore, she took one
breathe and smells a very familiar perfume. The Huge bear sniffs the body of Stacy and flips her over to
see if she is dead. The bear bought it and left with her cub towards the deeper parts of the rainforest.

Even though the bear left, Stacy was still left in shock and took her a while to gain the courage to stand
up. Stacy looked around if it is safe to go back to the car then she hears a familiar voice echoing coming
from the deeper parts of the rainforest, she leans her ear closely to the sound and on the second echo
she has no doubt now that she hears her mom’s voice, she ran towards the voice without hesitation, as
she kept running with tears on her eyes, she reached the car instead even though she ran the opposite
way. Stacy saw the old man on the road unconscious. She quickly goes to the old man and tries to wake
him up. Just when Stacy was about to get the med kit from the car, the old man suddenly wakes up
calmly and Stacy was never been more glad to see that they were both fine. The Old man said “I must
have fainted” and Stacy replied “Me too” as they laugh together in a gladly way. Stacy then thought
about what she heard in the forest and then decided it was nothing. Although none of them sustained
any major injuries, the car is tipped over on the side of the road, and they were only left with the option
of walking to the city to get both their cars towed. As the night progresses, Stacy and the old man were
only left with two flashlights, toolbox and a med kit and a complete void behind them. While walking,
Stacy just realizes that she didn’t even get the chance to ask what the old man’s name was because of
the deer, so she respectfully asked “Sorry I didn’t get ask earlier, because of the deer and the other
things, but what’s your name again?. The Old man then replied “My name is Craft Mournez and I insist
being called only by my first name, Craft.” Just when she was about to introduce herself back, she
suddenly realized that she didn’t even tell her name to him before and yet he already called her by her
first name and she is certain that all her identification is on her wallet. But she also thinks in her head
“maybe I just accidently brought it up or maybe he saw my school ID in the car while I was driving”,