Mental Games - 16. A Close Call

It was still raining the following morning, but it was a warm, gentle rain. Undeterred by the weather, the fathers and sons sauntered down to the rowboat to try their hand at fishing. Mike rowed the boat out to the middle of the lake and then they all cast their lines into the water. After more than an hour, they had only managed to catch a couple of fish, but they judged them to be too small to keep. After releasing them back into the lake, they had nothing to show for their effort. That didn’t bother them though, because they had still enjoyed their time together and it proved to be a nice father-son bonding experience.

It rained throughout the rest of the morning, so the families opted to stay inside and play more games. They had just started to set up the board game Clue when there was a knock at the door. When they went to answer it, Jack and Megan were waiting there, anxious for their daily swimming lesson.

The kids had seen Mike and Adam out fishing in the rain with their fathers, so they weren’t about to allow a little drizzle prevent their instructors from keeping their promise. Mike and Adam quickly agreed they would do this for them and changed into their swimsuits. Then, they took Jack and Megan down to the lake for a little more practice. The kids were doing much better and Megan was no longer afraid of the water, which was a good sign. Mike and Adam found the youngsters enthusiasm for the lessons, as well as seeing their progress, to be all the reward they needed.

After the session was over, the boys dried off and got ready to spend some time with their parents. Since it was still raining out, everyone agreed to play Clue to pass the time. It didn’t take them as long as they expected to determine a winner, because George quickly figured out whodunit. Since it was still early, they decided to play Monopoly next.

The two families played a fierce and cutthroat game, but it only got that way after Mike acquired the two prized locations. Once he had purchased both Boardwalk and Park Place, Mike was aggressive in adding first houses and then hotels, so he could charge more when the others landed on the spaces. This led to him making more than a few enemies when he refused to cut them any slack when anyone ended up on one of those squares.

In an attempt to retaliate against him, the others tried to make deals with each other that would allow them to do something similar to Mike. Unfortunately, this only made matters worse and led to considerable bickering between the co-conspirators, when they thought they were being taken advantage of in one of these other deals. Since their working together was ending badly, Mike wound up winning the game.

Once it was over, Rita announced that she wanted another chance for revenge at Racko. She seemed quite obsessed with beating her son, so the others relented to her request. Before they had a chance to get things set up to start the game, however, Jack and Megan showed up again. They were now ready for their afternoon swim lesson.

As the boys walked outside with their students, Mike and Adam discovered it had stopped raining, the sun was trying hard to peek out from behind the clouds and it was also beginning to warm up. It was considerably nicer than it had been during their earlier lesson, so this time the four of them enjoyed their time in the water much more than they had previously.

“Are we getting better?” Jack asked, once they were ready to quit for the day.

“Yes, you certainly are,” Adam agreed. “You’ve both shown a great deal of improvement, but you still have a lot to learn. I don’t want you to start getting cocky or reckless now and start acting like you know it all. The important thing is that at least after these lessons you should be able to hold your own in most cases.”

“What do you mean in most cases?” Jack challenged, looking confused and maybe even a little offended.

“Even though you’ll do fine in a pool, pond or a calm lake, there are other places that you aren’t quite ready for yet,” Adam answered. “You'd probably have trouble with fast moving rivers and streams, but you’d also have difficulty in flood waters. They can all have extremely strong currents that could pull you under the surface and it would be more than you’re ready to deal with yet. You would also have trouble dealing with the ocean waves and currents. They can also be very strong and could either suck you under quickly or drag you out to sea.”

“Oh, ok,” Jack conceded, as he nodded that he understood. “I see what you mean now.”

It was getting close to dinnertime when the four of them completed the swim lessons, so they said goodbye and returned to their own cabins. Since it was time to eat, this also meant the Racko game would have to wait until after they’d finished their meal. Once the table had been cleared and the dishes washed, though, Rita reminded the others that they’d already agreed to play.

They started out in the same groups they had used the previous evening, so it was the mothers and fathers going against each other first. After several heated hands, Adam’s mother won the first game. Then it was Mike and Adam against the fathers. This game wasn’t quite as heated as the one just completed and Adam was eventually declared the victor. Then it was time for the big showdown – Mike and Adam against their mothers.

Unlike the second game against them the night before, Mike and Adam didn’t take it easy on their mothers this time. Each one played as hard as he could, but in the end Rita was the first to reach 500 points. She was ecstatic that she had finally beaten her son and began to do a little victory dance in celebration. It reminded the others of what a younger child might do after defeating an older sibling at something, so they all chuckled over her antics. It was also getting late by this point, so they eagerly agreed it was time to get ready for bed.

Jack and Megan showed up early on Thursday morning, anxious for their next swimming lesson. This time Mike and Adam’s parents agreed to join them, since Megan was eager to show them how well she was doing now. The Washburns and Bermans watched as Jack and Megan swam about and praised them for how much they had improved and accomplished in such a short time. This seemed to please both of the youngsters, because Mike and Adam saw their students swell with pride.

They all stayed in the water together for quite a while, until the adults began to tire. Then, both sets of parents went up to the cabin to dry off and change, but Jack and Megan wanted to stay there a little while longer. Mike and Adam gave in, but said the extra time would have to count as their afternoon lesson. The boys explained they wanted to spend some time with their parents too, so they would do that in the afternoon. Since they had spent so much time with Jack and Megan already, the kids reluctantly agreed. The younger pair, however, made Mike and Adam promise they would come and get them, if they changed their minds.

Later, while Mike and Adam were eating lunch with their parents, they made their next suggestion. “What do you think about taking a hike this afternoon?” Adam wondered.

“Maybe once our food has settled,” Rita answered half-heartedly. “As long as we don’t go too far.”

“We won’t,” Adam confirmed. “We’ll just follow one of the trails into the woods and see where it leads. I’m sure it will be shady and very beautiful at this time of day.”

When they all agreed to do this, their mothers went to put on a pair of comfortable walking shoes. Then, after sitting around for a little while longer, they each grabbed a bottle of water and were ready to go. Mike and Adam quickly selected the trail they would take and the others followed them as they set off.

It was very peaceful and quite lovely as they made their way down the trail, with the green canopy of the trees blocking out the sun. The air was filled with the scent of pine and the sounds of nature, as the birds graced them with their songs. Since none of them were talking, they didn’t scare away the wildlife either. This allowed them to spot a handful of squirrels, a couple of rabbits, a chipmunk and quite a few birds. After about an hour, Judy spoke and got everyone’s attention.

“Can we stop and take a breather?” she wondered. It was obvious from the way she was panting that she was slightly winded. After all, the path they were on wasn’t exactly flat.

Once everyone else agreed, the group took a break and waited until the others were ready to go on. Before that happened, however, Rita asked a very pointed question.

“Would you mind if we started back now?” she wanted to know. “I think we’ve gone far enough and the walk back will be more than enough exercise to last us the rest of the day.”

George could tell the boys looked disappointed, so he hurriedly offered an alternative suggestion.

“If you two want to keep going, then we’ll walk back with your mothers so you won’t have to,” he offered, while indicating Dave and himself. “I think we’ve also had plenty of exercise for one day too, but if you boys want to keep going, now you’ll be able to. It will be easy for us to find our way back, since we stayed on the trail, so you won’t have to worry about us either.”

Once that had been agreed to, Mike and Adam set off again. As the two sets of parents watched their sons walk away, they continued to rest for a little while longer, before starting back to the cabin.

Mike and Adam walked for about another half-hour before Adam suddenly reached out and grabbed Mike’s arm. This caused Mike to stop and turn to see why Adam had done this. When he did, he noticed Adam holding up his index finger in front of his mouth, to let Mike know to be quiet. Adam then pointed into the woods, as he attempted to bring something to Mike’s attention. When Mike looked in that direction, he spotted what had caught Adam’s eye. It was a doe with her fawn.

The boys stood and watched the mother and her speckled baby as they slowly walked through the trees, totally oblivious to Mike and Adam’s’ presence. As the deer moved farther away, Adam gave Mike a signal to let him know that he wanted to follow the pair and get a closer look. Mike nodded in agreement, so the two of them slinked off, as they quietly stalked their prey.

About twenty minutes later, something unexpectedly spooked the deer. The mother’s tail flipped up into the air, showing the white underside to signal danger, and then the pair bounded away as quickly as they could. The fawn showed no hesitation in following its mother’s lead and did its best to keep up with its protector.

The boys immediately set off after them, hoping they might be able to catch up with the pair again. Before they were able to do that, however, Mike and Adam wandered into a clearing. As they entered the area, Mike’s eyes nearly popped out of his head.

“Holy shit! Look at all of the marijuana plants,” he gasped. “They’ll be worth millions once they’re processed.”

“Someone must be cultivating them here, because they certainly wouldn’t be growing like this normally,” Adam pointed out. “Maybe we should get going before anyone else shows up,”

Before they could move though, they heard a twig snap behind them. When they spun around to see what caused the sound, they came face-to-face with two angry looking guys. They were both wearing camouflage clothing and each was holding an automatic weapon. The boys quickly concluded they must have been the ones who made the noise that caused the two deer to flee.

“What are we going to do with them?” the shorter of the two men asked the other guy. Before he could answer, Adam spoke up.

“Look, we’re just a couple of college students on vacation with our parents,” he confessed. “We’re certainly not here to hassle anyone about some weed. Hey, it’s legal in some states now, so why should we care what you’re doing with it?”

Neither man said anything and merely stared at Adam and Mike. The looks they were giving them as they were deciding what to do made both boys feel extremely uncomfortable.

“We don’t care about this stuff. We’re just here with our families and decided to take a hike,” Adam continued. “If we don’t show up soon, our parents are going to report us missing. Once they do that, the woods will be crawling with law enforcement officers and search teams looking for us. They’ll probably run across this spot in the process, so you can either let us go and trust we won’t say anything, or you can wait for the others to show up and find out what you’re up to instead.”

The two men quickly started conferring with each other, as Adam was sending them a single thought. ‘Let them go. Let them go’.

Eventually, one of the men turned toward them and spoke. “Get the fuck out of here and don’t come back.”

Without hesitation, Adam and Mike immediately began racing back the way they had come. When they reached the trail, they stopped to catch their breath for a few moments, before heading back to the cabin. As they walked along the path, Mike turned to Adam and spoke.

“I’m fucking glad you have your ability and were able to convince those guys to let us go,” he stated. “They certainly didn’t look very friendly and I think they might have been ready to kill us to protect their crop.”

“They probably would have, but now I’m worried about anyone else that might accidentally stumble upon their little operation,” Adam confessed. “The next guys probably won’t be as fortunate as we were, so what are we going to do about it?”

“Nothing, as long as we’re still at the lake,” Mike quickly replied. “If something happens now and one of them gets away, then they’ll obviously suspect we had something to do with it. Since we told them we were here with our families, they might come looking for us to make us pay for ratting them out. That could involve our parents, but those guys might also round up everyone else at the lake, as they attempt to discover who we are.”

“But what if someone else finds this place first, before we have a chance to report it?” Adam countered, looking concerned. “I’m sure they won’t get away as easily as we did.”

“I think there is less of a chance of that happening than having them come after us if they get busted,” Mike reasoned.

“Maybe the chances are slim, but someone else could still get killed before we report it,” Adam challenged.

“Look, we aren’t even sure if it’s just those two guys or if there are more people involved,” Mike replied. “Once we get home you can call the State Police or D.E.A. and tell them what we saw. You can even suggest they check this place out and have a helicopter fly over the woods first, to make sure the plants are still there and haven't been harvested. The pilot should be able to spot the clearing from the air and the police have equipment to detect heat signatures on the ground, so they’ll know if there are more guys around. Once the cops have that information, then they can raid the area and bust those guys. That way it won’t look as if we turned them in. It will just appear that they were caught in a random fly by.”

“Ok, we’ll do it that way then,” Adam agreed. “If those guys didn’t have the weapons, then I’d probably just leave them alone. If they weren’t such an obvious threat to others, I’d let them have their plants and not say a word. But since they appeared ready to shoot us, I’d feel responsible if they killed someone else later.”

“Me too,” Mike agreed.

When Mike and Adam got back to the cabin, once again they didn’t say anything about their experience. Instead, the boys asked their parents what they wanted to do next and were quickly informed they’d do anything that wasn’t strenuous. With that in mind, Adam suggested the six of them could play 'UNO'.

Throughout the game, Mike and Adam were unable to shake the images of the potentially fatal confrontation from their minds. Their parents noticed something was distracting them, because they occasionally had to remind their sons it was their turn. The boys brushed it off by saying they were just tired, since they had spent longer in the water that morning and then did more walking than everyone else in the afternoon.

“We also followed a mother dear and her fawn into the woods,” Mike told them. “The fawn still had its spots and didn’t leave its mother’s side. When she got scared and took off, the fawn stayed right with her.”

“Oh I wish I could have been there to see them,” Judy stated, with a wistful expression on her face.

“Yes, it must have been a truly inspiring sight,” Rita added.

After hearing their mothers’ reactions, both boys began thinking that they were grateful the women weren’t there at the time, especially under the circumstances. They might not have been able to get away if all of them had been together.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, although Adam and Mike were still unable to shake off their earlier encounter in the woods. Even after turning in for the night, Mike and Adam tossed and flopped around in their bed, as they experienced a very troubled slumber. Their minds kept going over what might have happened earlier in the day and these thoughts were deeply disturbing.

Both boys were still a little tired when they finally got up the following morning. They didn’t complain though and did their best not to let the others catch on that something was troubling them. Although they were still having difficulty shaking the thoughts of the previous day’s encounter from their minds, they didn’t want to do anything that would alarm their parents.

Even though it was a lovely day, neither boy was anxious to follow another trail into the woods, so they convinced their parents to spend the morning swimming again. Once Jack and Megan showed up, they all went down to the dock and jumped in. Mike and Adam were a little surprised that Jack and Megan jumped off the dock too, since they usually just waded out into the lake. The kids seemed to handle the experience fairly well though and didn’t panic when their heads went under the water. Instead, they quickly worked their way back to the surface again and then laughed about it.

Later, the two women began to get tired and notified the others that they were going to get out of the water. After exiting the lake, they climbed up the bank, sat down on the grass and leisurely began to sun themselves. A few minutes later, they all heard some popping sounds, followed by several more and then another burst of popping noises. Judy looked toward the men and spoke.

“What do you think that was?" she wondered, as her curiosity got the better of her.

“It sounds like someone is hunting,” Mike quickly answered, as he looked over at Adam with a mild look of horror on his face.

“That was no hunter,” George countered. “A serious hunter wouldn’t be using an automatic weapon, and from the sound of it, that definitely was.”

“Maybe they’re just target shooting then,” Adam quickly offered, since he didn’t want to panic the others.

“I suppose that’s possible,” George relented, “but it would be kind of dangerous to be doing that around here, unless there’s a range in that direction. Otherwise, shooting a weapon with that much firepower could endanger anyone in the vicinity. It would be unwise to just start shooting a weapon like that unless there was a properly constructed burm or another obstacle behind the targets to prevent the rounds from going farther.”

“Well, there are a lot of trees,” Adam eagerly offered.

Mike and Adam, however, had their own suspicions. They weren’t sure how they were going to discover what actually took place, but they definitely had a bad feeling about it.