Chapter 2
"You must be the lost firefighter." The voice came from behind me, shattering the silent world of nature in which I had been so completely engrossed. I jumped, startled by a human voice. Turning, I saw a man standing at the end of the trail where the forest came to an abrupt halt at the large flat rock upon which I stood. He looked very old, but the brutal weather of Alaska can age a man if he spends a lot of time outside. He had long white hair that almost glowed. In contrast, his skin was dark as leather and as creased as an unmade bed The hint of a smile gathered his face in even more creases. He wore a yellow helmet just like mine and was dressed in the heavy clothing of a firefighter.
"I'm a firefighter, but I didn't know I was lost." I responded.
He chuckled. "If the fire boss sends me looking for you, then you had better be lost."
He pointed towards the eagle, which was now just a black dot on the rising sun. "You have been touched by eagle spirit."
"Oh." I responded, glancing at the eagle. "You saw that, huh?"
"Yes. I did not want to intrude. Such a moment is rare in a persons life.
"Are you ready?" He asked, turning towards the trail behind him.
"Yeah. Just a second." I said, glancing over the precipice of the cliff. The bear and the moose were gone. "Yeah, I guess I'm ready."
He led the way, moving with a graceful agility of a deer and easy quickness one would not expect from a person who appeared to be so old.
"What's your name?" I said to his back as we walked up the trail.
"Willy." He tossed the word over his shoulder. Still looking forward he said, "White people call me Chief Willy."
"Are you a Chief, Willy?"
"I am to white people.", He said, making me chuckle.
"Apparently you're a tracker too." I said.
"I have done a lot of things, and some of them I'm good at. Tracking is one of them." He responded. "Plus - ", he added, "You were easy to track. I figured out what happened by following your footprints from the hollow where the flare up started. You got caught in the fire, found the trail and figured it would lead to water, which was the right thing to do."
"Man, you're good." I said, impressed.
"Been doing it a long time." He said, and then suddenly turned off the trail and started walking through the thick of the forest. As I followed him in silence, I looked down and saw a trickle of a trail etching its way between the trees. Branches of fir trees dangled in front of us which we swept aside as we followed the trail about a hundred yards before coming to a clearing of white sand that spilled out from the trees and slipped into a crystal clear river. Across the river was a matching sandy beach that stopped at the forests edge. The forest climbed majestically up a mountain that snuggled up to another larger mountain. The mountains seemed endless, clothed in forests and rivers it looked as if they strived to touch the sky.
"So, what are you doing in Alaska?" He asked me as he studied the clearing from the edge of the forest where we had stopped.
"Well, like a lot of the guys here, I just got out of the service a short time ago. This is my way of winding down."
"Fighting forest fires is your idea of winding down?" He asked with a tone of surprise.
"Huh! You should have seen what I was doing before this." I paused, listening to the mesmerizing water bubble gently in front of us, thinking about what I was doing in Alaska.
"I guess I'm looking for my place again. I'm not sure where I belong or what I'm even doing here. Out here, in the wilderness, it seems to have kind of a healing effect on me.
"You know, it's a place where I can clear my head and figure out what I'm suppose to do."
"What do you want to do?" He asked as he started to walk across the sand, satisfied from his survey that there was no other animals to intrude upon. I followed behind him, thinking about what I would like to do.
"Well, I really like to write and do art work, but I don't see how I could make a living at that. I read a lot of philosophy - always have. I guess I'm trying to find myself in those books."
"Books are good." Willy said simply as he bent down at the rivers edge, scooped water into his hands and drank from them. He stood and said, "I'm reading all the time."
"Oh, really." I said with interest. "Do you carry any with you?" I asked looking at his back pack.
"Don't have to - you're standing in it."
I looked down at my feet thinking I might have stepped in a wild animal surprise. "What am I standing in?" I asked dancing around.
A slight grin crossed Willy's face. "You're standing in my book." He said, sweeping the horizon with his hand. "This is my book of philosophy. Every thing you can learn about what life is and who you are is in my book. You just have to know the language of the forest spirit - how to read it."
At that moment I realized that when you are searching for something, something that you want desperately, circumstances, or fate, or maybe just a shot of the dice, will present it to you, and it may come in the most unexpected ways and in the most unlikely places. It can be abstract or hit you like a train, but you have to be paying attention, be in the right frame of mind to see it when it presents itself.
This day was already most remarkable for me. I had beat deaths calling flames. I had a spiritual communion with a bear, a moose and her calf, and a most powerful one with a bald eagle.
Now, I found myself sitting at a rivers edge in a forest that wasn't even on a map, listening to an old man who spoke to me in a way that nearly shocked a revelation from me, because I could feel the truth in what he said, even if I could not articulate it very well in my mind. I knew what he met. I could feel the essence of truth in what he said. I wanted to know the language of the forest spirit. I wanted to be able to read Willy's book.
All content - poems, posts & images - are ©2010 by John Evans. No permission is given to post, share, copy, print, e-mail, reproduce, distribute or link to. All Rights Reserved. Please contact John Evans at JohnEvansPoet.Com for licensing inquiries.
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