Fresh Mountain Start

2

Peeing in the dark is unpleasant. John put the phone down on the sink, camera pointed upward, and looked for a patch of wall that seemed clean enough to put his hand out to balance himself on. Relief came and he tried to flush it away, forgetting there was no running water. The tap made threatening clanking noises when he, moments later, forgot again that there was no water, and he left the bathroom with his stomach twisting into a tight ball of regret.

'Gary?' he shouted up the stairs as he came out the door, but then he saw the silhouette of his husband standing outside, through the panes of greyed, tinted glass. The rain was still coming down, but there was Gary, just staring at the car. 'What're you doing out there? I thought you were-'

He opened the door, and what had been a shape on the porch dissolved into a tree in the distance.

'Huh,' he said. He could have sworn it was Gary standing there. He continued to stare at the tree, the door open. It was a strange looking tree, now that he focused on it. Four long roots that clumped together into a bulbous centre, which turned into one trunk that stretched upward, not quite as tall as any of the trees around it. The more he looked at it, the less he understood how it had grown into that shape.

Did it just move?

He took a step forward, bringing his phone up to try and shine a light on it-

'Someone out there?' Gary asked, coming down the stairs. 'Movers?'

John turned slowly away from the tree.

'No,' John said. 'I thought you were standing out on the porch, but it was a tree. How's things up there?'

'Did you call the movers?' Gary asked.

'Not yet,' John said. 'The bedroom?'

'Maybe it was a wolf or something you saw,' Gary said. 'I hear they're-'

'Gary,' he answered. 'The bedroom.'

'Now don't start,' Gary said. 'I don't want it to turn into a drama.'

'You don't want what to turn into a drama?'

'Because I know what you're going to say-'

'What am I going to say?'

'You're going to start about the house, about buying out here and- and, well, it's just-'

'Gary.'

Gary sighed.

'Bedroom isn't ready. Guess someone left the window open at the last viewing, and, well, some animals must have got in. We'll need to thoroughly clean everything before we can sleep up there.'

'How bad is it?'

'I mean, it's not great,' Gary said. 'At least our furniture is coming tomorrow. I imagine.'

'And the water. And the electricity,' John said. 'Great first night.'

'It's an adventure,' Gary said. 'Come on. Relax a little.'

'It's not a fucking adventure though, is it Gary. It's the house we've put all our money in to and tied ourselves to. Some fucking adventure.'

'We're not having this conversation again tonight,' he said. 'Come on. I'm tired. Let's go check the living room.'

'Do we even have anything to sleep on?'

'Oh, you're right, shit. I'll go get the sleeping bags out of the car.'

Gary walked past him and out into the rain.

For a brief moment, John looked back up at the treeline, trying and failing to find the strange tree again. He looked back down at Gary, protected from the rain and cold by the light of the now raised door of the car boot. He turned to go back into the house, and his foot scraped on something.

A piece of paper on the floor.

It was yellowed with age, and he thought it might crumble as he picked it up. He noted with surprise that it was completely bone dry, in spite of the heavy rain, with four sentences written on it in a broad, spiralling handwriting.

ALL ALONE OUT HERE.

THIS WAS A MISTAKE.

DON'T DRAW ATTENTION.

THINGS HAPPEN IN THE MOUNTAINS.

He stared at it. Turned it over. Looked up at Gary, and then out at the treeline again.

'You coming in?' Gary said, running back from the car.

'Yeah,' John said, shoving the note in his pocket. 'Sure.'

'Come on,' Gary said, closing the door behind him. 'Let's eat and get a good night's sleep. We've got a lot to do tomorrow.'

John followed his husband in to the living room, the note weighing heavily in his pocket.