Chapter Ten

On the way back to the highway, it took a while before Becky’s car began to run smoothly as it had been sitting for a long time, but Jon seemed to know exactly what to do with it. She felt safe with him at the wheel.  

“Thank you, God for sending this man to help me,” she said silently. “Thanks for  all of your help, Jon. I really do appreciate it.”

“I am just doing my job. You said you are alone.”

Ned followed behind them in the truck, so they could speak freely to each other, without any interruptions.

“I am,” said Becky cautiously, not wanting to tell him too much. “My parents died when I was young.”    

“Why on earth did you come up here all by yourself?”

Bit by bit, she told him about her trip to the city to meet with the publisher, her disappointment because of the manuscript rejection and her desire to get home as quickly as possible.

“I should have headed back home on the highway, but this gravel mountain road is supposedly so much shorter.”

“It is, but it can be treacherous too,” he told her. “The highway would have been a lot safer for you.”

“I had no idea.”

“That is what BBB is, the publishing company that is run by that cantankerous old man.” Jon was deep in thought.

   

“I understand that he tends to be hard on writers.”

“I don’t know about other writers, but he sure threw me for a loop.”

“I guess.”

“Maybe I was just expecting too much.”

Jon and Becky enjoyed each other’s company thoroughly, talking openly about their lives which were similar in many ways, as they travelled down the gravel mountain road towards the highway.

Suddenly, Jon pulled off to the side of the road and got out. Ned pulled up right behind him.  

“Wait here for a moment. Keep the car running, as it will charge up the battery,” Jon said, as he walked back towards the truck. He pointed towards the ditch and Ned got out of the truck.

Becky waited patiently while they pulled a large, wooden, red barrier out of the ditch and loaded it onto the truck. “Road closed,” Becky read. There was small yellow sign beside it that said “Animal crossing.”  

“No wonder you didn’t see any signs,” said Jon, as he got back into the car. Ned waved, as he drove past them.

“Ned is going down to the corner to block off the gravel mountain road again, before anyone else tries to come this way. He is just a crotchety, old codger who means well. We will catch up with him at the corner.”

Jon handed her his lunch box and thermos. “I have some sandwiches and coffee. Let’s take a minute and have a bite to eat, as you must be starved.”

“I have not eaten yet today,” she said, smiling, knowing Jon was taking good care of her.  

When Jon and Becky arrived at the highway, a while later, Ned was standing there arguing with another man who was insisting on being allowed to travel up the gravel mountain road. Jon got out, went over and talked to them both for a moment. Then he and Becky, headed towards the city. 

“The guy is just one more tourist,” he said.

“He would not have gotten much further than I did.”

“Probably not, Becky, as he did not know the area had been evacuated.  He would not have been able to get to the gas station to fill up his gas tank either. It is a good thing that you get good mileage on this car.”

Becky knew that it was still a long drive to the closest garage.

When they got there, Jon stayed right with her while the service man replaced her battery. He wanted to make certain that she was all right after her ordeal and enjoyed every moment he spent with her. She was thrilled at all of the attention he was giving her.

“I know that you will probably be fine on your own from here, but can I call you later?” Jon asked.

“I would really like that,” said Becky, without any hesitation. She pulled up the directory on camera phone and handed it to him, so he could write down her number. I need your name, address and date of birth too, for our report. It will be on your driver’s license.”

Becky had no qualms about giving him the information he needed.

“I will have to charge up my camera phone battery,” Becky said to him. “I will do that as soon as I get into the city. I will rent a motel room for tonight. Then I want to talk to that publisher again.”

 

“I want to know how you make out with BBB. Maybe this man will purchase your new manuscript, especially since you have photographs that go with it. I still want to see them, as well.”     

 

“I will show them to you,” she promised.

          

Later on that day, Becky met with the publisher again. He was surprised to see her and thrilled with her new manuscript. This time, there was absolutely no question about her credibility. What he really liked was the photograph of the moose.

Jon called her later and they talked for a long time. He decided to take the time to get to know her better and she wound up accepting his marriage proposal a year later.

  

Becky’s new book became a best seller. She was a successful freelance writer, as well as a nature photographer. Jon encouraged her all the way to the top.

The Majestic Mountain Range had been the biggest challenge of her life, but she had been victorious over it and in many ways, it proved to be the best thing that ever happened to her.   

Chapter Nine: Day Four

Day 4

Becky awakened to the sound of a truck. The sun was not up yet and as it came closer, she could see its headlights in the distance.

“Finally, someone is coming up the road from the highway!"

She quickly climbed out of her sleeping bag and got out of her car.

The truck stopped within a few feet of her fire and several men jumped out. One of the men began to swear when he spotted her.

"What kind of an idiot are you, starting a fire in the middle of the road?” the older of the two yelled at Becky. Someone could get killed.”   

"This is not a camping spot!" yelled the younger man, waving his arms in the air. "Don't you know there is a forest fire in the vicinity area? You could have caused another one here!"

“Why are some people so dumb?”

"Go easy on her, Ned" He realized that they were yelling at a girl. "She is still a kid!" 

"What are you doing way up here anyhow?" The older man was definitely angry. "Did you know that this road has been closed for a long time because of a rock slide just up ahead?"

The younger man suspected that there were some serious problems, or she never would have stopped here.

"Speak up,” the elderly man ordered. “What is going on here?”

Becky was almost on the verge of tears. She considered heading back inside her car and locking the door, but her fiery temper started to surface. She was not about to tolerate be bullied when she needed help.”

"I am stranded with a dead battery," explained Becky as they approached her. "Can you help me get my car started?"

"Good God, how long have you been sitting here?" The younger man showed serious concern. “Are you by yourself?”

"This is day four," said Becky quietly, nodding her head. "I think that the forest fire was started by lightning. I climbed that rock cliff to check it, but I think the rain has put it out."

"You climbed up there?" The young man spoke in a soft voice, as he could see that she was frightened.    

"Yes, I have been up on the rock cliff twice." 

"My God, you did something so foolish? The elderly man was still angry.  “You could have been killed by climbing up there.

“Let her explain, Ned.”

In the early morning light, could see that the younger man in a ranger suit was clean cut, well dressed and he wore a ranger’s uniform.     

“I stopped here for a moment and then my car would not start. I saw smoke rising to the west and was concerned about the forest fire. I hoped to be able to see it from a distance and I was gong to decide which direction to run, if I was forced to leave.”

“That was probably a wise thing to do.”

Inwardly, the younger ranger was commending her for doing something to help herself.

“I saw a plane flying overhead, but they did not see me,” said Becky. "I climbed up the face of the cliff and made an arrow up there, hoping someone might spot it from the air. When I was building the arrow with rocks, I found a mountain goat pathway and came down that way.

“So you found a better way to get up there.”

No matter what she said, the young ranger seemed to understand. 

“Likely story,” said the older ranger.

The second time that I went up, I wanted to check the forest fire and the direction it was heading. When I woke up, forest fire ashes were scattered everywhere. From the top of the rock cliff, it looked like the forest fire was almost out as there were only a few intermittent patches of smoke, but not enough to be concerned about.”

Both of the rangers were astounded. 

“We should have come up here yesterday when we initially spotted the pillar of smoke in this area, but we did not think there would be anyone here. We probably would have done that too, if there had not been a recent forest fire.”

“I was trying to figure out which way to go home and knew I might have to walk out of here, either back to the highway or towards the gas station. In both directions, it was a really long walk and I was concerned about the wild animals.”

“I think we owe you an apology, young lady. Your concern about the wild animals is well justified,” said the young ranger. “Do you know that you are parked in an area where there is an animal crossing?”

“I figured that out when I saw them heading across it and then returning the same way. I took a number of photographs of the animals and also documented my experience here.”

  

The older ranger decided to go up the white goat mountain path and check out the forest fire from them.

“I should make him climb the face of that rock cliff like I did,” she thought to herself, but pointed out the pathway to him.

Becky was attracted to the younger ranger, but tried not to show it as she showed him the help sign she had made on the gravel road. There was evidence of numerous animals having crossed the gravel road over it. She also showed him the mountain spring.

“Everything that I am saying is true,” she said.

“I believe you,” replied the young ranger, who could not help but feel drawn to her. “You are one spunky young lady,” he said to her. “Let’s see if we can get your car going. You will have to turn around and drive back to the highway because this mountain road is closed. There was a rockslide further ahead, several weeks ago. You would not have been able to get to the garage up ahead. Besides that, there is no one there anyhow, as the last folks left because of the forest fire. That must have been our plane that you spotted.”     

“I did not see a sign that showed the road had been closed,” replied Becky.

“It was not there this morning either, but we did take the time to look for it either.”

Becky spotted the older ranger on the top of the rock cliff, waving at them. 

“The forest fire is out!” he yelled. “Now put that other one out too!”

“She told the truth,” thought the younger ranger. “I am relieved.”

Becky quickly doused her fire and scattered the burning ashes across the gravel road, stomping on them to make certain that they were all out. Then she doused the ones that were still burning with water.

“By the way, my name is Becky.”

She saw the young ranger watching her and reached out to shake his hand. It felt comforting, warm and tender.

“I am sorry,” he replied. “We should have introduced ourselves to you right away. That is Ned up there on that rock cliff and I am Jon. “Toss that rock on the side of the road, so that no one runs into it. Why did you put it in the middle of the fire?”

“I needed some way to make coffee,” she replied. “I used it to warm up a can of beans initially. Then I washed it out and cooked chunks of steak in it yesterday and baked a potato for supper on the rock.”    

“You are really quite ingenious. You must have gone camping before?”

“Many times,” replied Becky, as she picked up the flat rock and tossed it on the side of the road.

“While you gather your things together, I will see if I can do something about getting your car started.”

“In the winter, if your battery is low, plugging it in or leaving it in the sun will often help. I have been hoping that the sun would do the same thing. It almost started yesterday. I would not have been stranded here much longer.”    

“You are right on that account too,” said Jon. “Put your crow bar in the trunk as you won’t need it. We always help people who are I trouble, so you have nothing to fear from either Ned or I. We have a set of booster cables in the truck.”  

Becky opened her car door and pulled the lever to open the car hood for him.

“It looks like you are taking good pretty care of your car,” he said.

“I try,” said Becky. “I always have to look after it because I am on my own.”

“Super,” thought Jon. “I am too,” he said.

Jon went back to his truck, drove it past Becky’s car, turned it around to face her car and opened the hood of his truck. 

“You may need to replace the alternator,” he said, as he cleaned the battery posts on her car. He had seen the help sign on the gravel road and spotted animal tracks crossing the road.

“Try starting your car for me now,” he said. It groaned and almost started.

“Let’s try giving it a boost,” he said to Ned, who had just come down from the mountain cliff.      

Becky decided to let the rangers worry about getting her car started and she went to the mountain stream to wash her hands and face.

Jon watched her from a distance. The sun glowed on her red hair when she brushed it.

“I always loved red heads,” he said to Ned.

"That battery really did die?" asked Ned, who was not about to engage in any conversation about the young woman. "How on earth did she get her own fire to burn when everything was so wet?"

"She is just one smart lady, and beautiful too."

“Thank you, God for rescuing me,” said Becky, as she headed back towards her car. "Since I have to go back down the highway, I think that I will pay another visit to BBB, before I head back home tomorrow.” Becky said.

“You would probably be wise to replace your battery before you head anywhere else, so that you don’t have more trouble on the highway.” Jon replied. With Ned’s assistance, he managed to get the car started.

“I am not made of dollars,” Becky thought to herself. “If I have to, I have to.”

“Ned can drive our truck and I will drive your car to the nearest garage on the highway. That way, we will know that you are safe.” What he really wanted was to spend some more time with her.

“I would appreciate that,” said Becky with a smile. She wanted to spend more time getting to know him too.

Chapter Eight: Day Three

Becky felt the warm sun streaming into the car caressing her face gently, as she awakened to a new day in the Majestic Mountains. She had slept late, probably because she had been exhausted and she no longer felt the same sense of urgency. She was relatively comfortable considering her circumstances, and more at peace than she had been for a long time.  

“God, I give you this day. Thank you for your protection during the night. Keep me safe today too.”  

She pondered her predicament.

“I have never pretended to understand everything, but somehow it seems that there are no guarantees in life when it comes to having parents or siblings. Some people have parents and grandparents throughout their entire lives, while others do not. Many of them have an abundance of of aunts and uncles too, as well as cousins by the score. I do not. My foster parents and friends are my only family. Is that the way life is supposed to be?" she wondered.  

She knew there were no easy answers to her questions.

“Whatever happened in my case? I am so alone.” Becky was almost in tears, “God, what did I do to deserve this?”  

Becky decided not to dwell on self-pity. She got up and went outside to check her fire. There were still a few smoldering pieces of wood, so restarting it was not necessary. She just had to add more evergreen branches and wood to the fire. Again, the white smoke rose straight up. 

"I wonder how natives make their smoke signals. That is another skill to add to my list of things to do, someday. For today, I am going to finish my new manuscript, write an introduction to it, as well as a dedication to my parents and then spend some time focusing on my current goals. That should prove an interesting challenge."

She went down to the mountain stream to wash and shampoo her hair, taking a change of clothing with her.

The water was quite cold, but refreshing.

"That certainly feels better." 

Becky continued to wonder what to do about her current situation. Attempting to walk back to the highway seemed too risky because it was so far and there was a high likelihood of encountering wild animals. Going to the gas station on foot was just as risky. It could prove to be a total waste of time, particularly if there was no one there because of the forest fire.

It was still spring and that made it even more unlikely that there would be people there yet, unless they were year round residents. Even if there were some people there, the forest fire rangers might have enforced evacuation. Maybe the airplane that she saw had picked them up. In either case, they would likely return sometime, but when, she wondered.

"Stay here. Sit tight!" She told herself. "Keep your act together. You need to keep your head on straight. Stay busy." 

Playing a waiting game did have some distinct advantages. It was like being on a camping trip when she needed it the most. She was not suffering, hungry or thirsty. The weather seemed to be warm enough and she had access to clean water and a fire. If she took some precautions and was careful, she probably would not have any problems with wild animals.

She watched a chipmunk trying to carry an acorn from tree to tree, and managed to capture it on her camera. 

"God, here am I in the middle of the beautiful Majestic Mountain range, with nature at its finest. It is so magnificent!"

Becky rinsed out several pairs of socks, as would need them if she decided to try to walk out of the wilderness. She spread them on the hood of the car to dry. In the sun, that would not take long. She refilled her empty water bottles, and changed the water in the ones in her backpack again. 

"I don't have any insect repellent, but I do have several cloves of garlic in my cooler. That will work." She peeled one, squeezed the juice out of it and rubbed on her face and arms.

“That is almost overpowering. Next time, I will water it down in a water bottle.”

She checked the food in her cooler.

"I have to cook the steak I bought immediately, or toss it out soon." 

Becky cut it the meat into small chunks with her pocketknife, emptied the hot water out of the tin can sitting on the rocks and set the pieces inside. "I need a skewer but this will work, too. I can bake a potato on the flat rock in my fire and eat some raw carrots.”

“I do need some salt.”

She checked her glove compartment in the car and was able to find several, small packets of salt and pepper left over from her last visit to the local diner.  

"This will do for now."

Chapter Seven

“What should I do?” was the big question in Becky’s mind, as she considered her options. “If I can get my car started, should I go ahead, turn around or simply stay here?”
 

Becky knew that even if she was able to drive to the gas station, there was still no guarantee that anyone would be there to fill up her gas tank Beginning to realize the seriousness of her predicament, Becky decided to check all of the fluids in her car. They were fine for the moment and she had extras in the trunk, just in case.

“I would probably be wiser just to turn around and head for the highway, but it is so many miles. The gas station is much closer, but if there is no one there, I will not be able to fill up my gas tank. I do not want to be in another predicament there, or further down the gravel road, if my gas tank hits empty. Here it is a waiting game with wild animals lurking around.”

Becky was beginning to be frightened, but knew she could only stay where she was or start walking. In total wilderness, that was too risky. 

"Good old Bessie!" she said to her car. "I don’t know why you let me down this time, as you almost never do." She checked the air pressure on all of her tires as well as on her spare tire, and they were fine too. "I have a bicycle pump, if I need it. Too bad I don't have my bike here." 

She smiled at the thought of trying to bike out of here. It was getting too warm to stay inside the car so she got out and realized the air was starting to cool down. She began to gather branches and dead wood for the night. 

"This is probably an old logging road," she said, surveying the collection of decaying stumps in the immediate vicinity. They broke apart easily, but they also had ants in them too. She knew that she had to be careful with them. Sand flies and mosquitoes began swarming around her. "If I stay close to the fire, I won't get bitten." She could hear bees or wasps buzzing nearby, but did not see a hive anywhere. "There must be one somewhere around here.” 

As the sun set in the west, Becky enjoyed it fully. She sat on a log close to the fire until it started to get dark, then re-stoked the fire and pulled her sleeping blanket down from the car roof. It was far too risky to sleep outside because of wild animals and knew that smoke from her fire would not necessarily be a deterrent. Wolves and bears were the greatest threat and she was determined to distance herself from them, as much as possible.

"Unfortunately, I don't have any kind of protection," she said aloud, suddenly wishing that she had taken lessons on how to use a rifle when she was still in high school. The boys she had gone to high school with, had all joined the rifle club and learned how to use them properly because hunting was important in the mountains.

“Maybe I should still find a rifle club and do that! Someday, perhaps!”

Becky took the crow bar for her tire jack out of the car trunk and set it on the dashboard where she could reach it, just in case.

"I hope I will not need it."

When the sun went into hiding for the night, the moon rose quickly and it was not all that dark. She found tremendous joy in watching the stars and decided not to think about wild animals.

An hour later, she spotted a falling star. 

"I will never forget this one, or how beautiful it is," said Becky, as she made a wish on it. "Imagine that! In a million years, I never would have pictured myself stranded in the middle of a mountain range, watching a falling star."

Later, she spotted a large owl perched on a tree branch, almost right across from her car. 

"He is my watch dog," she thought. "I don't think he will stay around for very long if other wild animals approach the area."

Becky started re-thinking her book interview. 

"That was only day before yesterday. It seems like ages ago. So much has happened to me since then. Yesterday was day one of my wilderness adventure, today is day two and tomorrow is day three." 

She made a mental note to date and number each page of her new manuscript knowing that might prove important to her later.

"I wonder if my other manuscript made any sense to that publisher. It almost seemed like he did not really understand what I wrote. Did I write way above his head? If son, that is not the first time that this has happened to me either."

Becky sighed. 

"One of my writing instructors in college told me that my writing was too subjective for her, too much in depth and far too philosophical to comprehend fully." She thought about it for a while. "When I write about my own personal experiences, I don’t really need to justify what I write to anyone else." 

Becky was not tired enough to fall asleep immediately. Although it was getting late, mentally, she was still alert. She began racking her brain trying to figure out an appropriate title for her new manuscript and wrestled with a few possible titles. She decided to write a dedication to her parents, too.  

Later, when she heard she heard the owl hooting, it was a comforting sound in the darkness.

"I am not really all alone here," she thought, as she gradually drifted off to sleep. Later she awoke to the sound of wolves howling in the distance, but knew that they were not close enough to worry her.

"What did I expect?" she asked herself, as she drifted back to sleep. "After all, this is wilderness country."

Chapter Six

"Now I understand why my fiction manuscript was rejected by BBB Publishing. When I think about it now, it was terribly boring and lacked excitement. It actually reads more like a collection of facts or a documentary than a fiction. I must have needed to experience a real adventure like this, in order to understand what was wrong with it.”

Becky was seriously considering apologizing to the publisher who had read and rejected it.  

“I really should." She still wanted some further input on it, from his perspective, as well. “I will call him when I get home.” 

She watched as a squirrel and several chipmunks scurried across the gravel road, then spotted a skunk a while later. The number of animals crossing the gravel road was decreasing and the birds were coming back, too.

"I love the sound of birds. They wold warn me of imminent danger, too. But I still need someone to rescue me. I know that may not happen for a while. It is more likely that my ingenuity will get me out of this predicament.”

Becky looked at the wet ashes of her fire, wondering what would be the best way to rebuild it.

“Evergreen branches usually catch fire very easily. All I need is some dry newspapers and a couple of smoldering branches to create enough smoke to raise an alarm. The smoke will be visible for miles and the branches will dry out and burn eventually. Later on, I can add some pieces of dead wood. There is no wind now, so the smoke will rise straight up.”

She wondered what else she could do. 

"I should put my sleeping bag back on top of my car as the roof has dried off in the sun." She did just that. "No one is going to steal it here and it certainly won't blow away." She placed several rocks on it, just in case.

Suddenly, Becky spotted a doe and fawn watching her through the trees and was able to capture photographs of them. “They are so beautiful!” "This is a good sign," she decided, smiling as she watched them cross the gravel road and disappear into the trees. A little while later, a mother bear with two small cubs, led them across the gravel road. It was fun to watch them, as the cubs tumbled and rolled down a slight embankment. 

“I have to remember not to try to play with any bear cubs while I am here, as the mother bear can become very aggressive if she thinks she has to protect her babies.”

Becky snapped pictures of them. She knew her camera phone should be re-charged, but there was no way to do it. She also tried to start her car again. This time, it groaned, but almost started. She quickly turned the key back off.

"I knew that I should have waited a while longer before I tried again. Maybe it will run next time. I am determined to remain optimistic!" 

With the increasing heat from the sun, the likelihood of getting her car started without a boost was gradually increasing. There were still no other vehicles on the road, which did concern her. If no one came along or she could not get her car going, she would have to walk back to the highway.

"This is camp country,” she reminded herself. “Someone has to show up eventually. I know that is a possibility."

She envisioned the surprise on the face of a young, good looking, romantic ranger if he spotted her car on the gravel road and smiled.

Being relatively cautious because of the wild animals in the area, Becky headed to the mountain spring to refill her water bottles. She had not touched the ones in her backpack yet, but decided to put fresh water in them anyhow. Fresh water like this tasted wonderful.

"This mountain stream may be one of the reasons why the animals use this particular animal trail."

Looking upwards towards the top of the rock cliff, she spotted a white, mountain goat standing there watching her. Several others appeared too. She wondered if they could tell that someone had been up on their rock cliff. As she tried to photograph them, they quickly disappeared, but she did manage to capture them in a photograph.

"They are curious and will be back. I will catch them then."

Becky's fire was burning again by suppertime and she was able to make some coffee.

“That tastes so good!”

She could no longer see any sign of smoke rising to the west. The smoke from her fire was rising straight up, so she knew that it was relatively safe. The rain had obviously put out the forest fire, but Becky realized that she would have to be careful with her own.

“I certainly do not want to start another forest fire. In fact, I would rather not have a fire burning at all and would not have one if I did not need help.”

Inwardly, she was silently pleading with God for help.

Chapter Five: Day Two

Becky awakened just as the sun was rising and immediately knew that something was wrong because there was an almost overwhelming, stifling odor. 

"Oh my God, what is that awful smell?"

As she became more alert and aware that this was not a dream, she sat up and looked around. It was time for a reality check. What she saw was a fine, gray, powdery film on her car window, and it was definitely not snow. She realized that it was ashes from the forest fire and that during the night, they had blown in and covered her car, as well as everything else in sight.

"I may have to get out of here, fast," she thought, reminding herself not to panic. "Before I try to go anywhere else, I need to know what that forest fire is doing first." 

Becky knew that there was no time to waste. To check the forest fire meant that she had to climb back up to the top of the rock cliff, but this time she could go up the white mountain goat pathway to the top. 
She started out immediately, dreading the worst.  

"God, help me!"

Surprisingly enough when she reached the top of the rock cliff,  she saw that there was almost no sign of the forest fire to the west, only intermittent pockets of smoke here and there. 

"Thank God for that!" 

For the moment, the fire was out and Becky was still safe where she was. She breathed a sigh of relief as she watched the beautiful sunrise and captured photographs of it, as well as some pictures of the forest fire area with its patches of smoke.  

"I need a picture of my arrow too." 

Becky brushed the ashes off the arrow she built from rocks and then headed back down to her car.  

"I'll have to rebuild my own fire. When I think of it, I never did have plan C for ashes, but maybe I will not need one now. Maybe the wind that blew the forest fire ashes over here will blow them away, too."

She knew that was might not happen. Ashes covered her help sign, so she quickly rewrote the word help.

"The most important thing for me to do is to try to let someone know where I am. The worst of my problems for the moment is that stifling air from the ashes, but if I stay inside my car, I won't have to breathe as much of it."

She quickly stirred up her fire and added a few green branches and dead wood to it. They started to burn slowly, creating smoke that headed directly upwards. Gradually, the wind from the west started to pick.

Becky ate cold cereal for breakfast and sipped on water inside the car, as it was still far too smoky outside. There were too many ashes being blown around to stay outside. Shortly after that, it started to drizzle and within an hour, the sky broke loose and it poured. Everything was drenched, but she stayed warm and dry. 

"So that is why the forest fire died down to the east," she said aloud. "The wind blew the ashes over here, but then the rain that followed, put the forest fire out over there. Now it is coming here. Thank you for the rain, God!"

Becky was very grateful that she did not have to try to flee, but the rain also put out her fire.  

"Rebuilding my fire is no big deal," she decided. "I will that when it dries up a bit here. I can manage without a fire for the time being, but I did want to make some coffee in the tin can the beans were in. I will have to settle for water."

As she formulated her plan, she suddenly heard a loud noise coming from the forested area. She grabbed her camera phone just in time to snap photographs of a huge, black bear lumbering across her sign on the gravel road. 

"Somehow that bear must know that the forest fire is out and that it is safe for him to go back. He looks determined to get where he is going and he is not at all interested in me, or my car."

Over the next few hours, a number of other animals followed his lead across the gravel road, as Becky watched in sheer delight.

"That animal trail must go somewhere important to them. This whole scenario may be potentially precarious for me, but it is still beautiful to watch."

A bull moose that followed shortly seemed to know that Becky was still there, but he did not stop or wait around for long.

"If I was braver, I'd follow that path too, just to see where it goes. My curiosity could get me in big trouble though, so I had better not chance it."  

Getting restless from sitting in the car, Becky opened the window cautiously. The rain had died down and it appeared that most of the ashes had disappeared too. The air was fresher and the trees were a deeper shade of green. In the gradually clearing sky, Becky could see one vertical, sharp edge of the rain cloud moving off further to the west.

"I think that I'll sit tight for a while longer. I know what I should do.” She sharpened a pencil with her penknife and pulled a fresh package of printer paper out of her brief case. "If I am going to document all of this, I have to do it right now. I needed this kind of experience in my life to inspire me to write another manuscript." 

Becky inwardly hoped that no one would come along and rescue her just yet, because she wanted to use this valuable time to write about what was happening, without any interruptions. As she wrote, she munched on a can of mixed nuts.

She wrote freely and her words flowed with an intense passion. This time, writing was almost effortless compared to the difficulty she had encountered while writing her previous manuscript. So many things had happened in the past few days and she trying not to forget any of them. Keeping the events in the right order would help her to stay focused, as so she made a brief outline of them.

Her writing was fast and furious. Becky could not recall ever writing with this intensity of passion, as she wrote non-stop for several hours. She became so engrossed in her writing that nothing else seemed to matter. As she reached the end of her manuscript, she breathed a deep sigh of relief. 

“I have the photographs to prove everything that I have stated is true. They are in the order that I took them too, so I can check my manuscript against them at any time, but not at the moment. I had better do a few other things like try to rebuild my fire.”    

Chapter Four

Becky decided to stay exactly where she was unless the forest fire became a more serious threat. She knew it was possible that could happen at any time and dreaded the thought.

“God, please send enough rain to put out the fire in that area before it spreads any this way.” 

As the day wore on, the billowing clouds to the west seemed to be dying down, while the smoke from her small fire on the gravel road continued to rise straight up. With early evening mist settling in and the distant forest fire smoke, it was almost ethereal as long shadows of evening hung heavy everywhere.

Becky felt content and even more surprisingly at peace with God, herself and others, even though in the back of her mind there was concern related to the forest fire.

“How long will it take for someone to come along?” She wondered. “There should have been a vehicle on this gravel road by now.”

She realized that there was no point in fretting and as it began to get dark, she pulled her sleeping bag off the car roof and set up her makeshift bed in the back of the car. 

She was still tempted to sleep right beside her fire but decided not to do so, as it would be safer in the car, especially if there were bears that came out of the forest. She could still smell some smoke and suspected  the animals would not return while they could smell it. She knew that by morning things might be different.

To the west, there was a reddish glow as the sun slowly disappeared into the lingering cloud of smoke. Obviously the forest fire was still burning, but not in the same way that it had previously.

“Maybe God has answered my prayer?”

Most of the sky was clear. The moon was beautiful to behold and the stars appeared to twinkle. An occasional flash of northern lights danced in the sky, lighting up distant mountain peaks. 

Becky added more wet branches and old, dead wood to her fire and began to get ready to settle in for the night. Using her bottled water to wash and brush her teeth was no longer a problem. She decided to stay fully clothed wearing runners too, with her backpack easy to reach in case she had to leave the area suddenly. 

"Plan A: stay where I am. Plan B: go which ever way is most appropriate depending upon the direction of the wind and where the forest fire is heading."

Becky was trying to plan for every possible scenario. "One thing about being in the mountains, even when there is some smoke in the air, it still is really fresh," she thought, as she drifted off to sleep.

Becky continued to wrestle with her thoughts throughout the night and dreamed that she was climbing back up the rock cliff. This time a gentle, white mountain-goat led her up the pathway.

Becky had taken a major highway several hundred miles to meet with her publisher. Having made trips before, she decided to take the gravel road directly through the Majestic Mountain Range when she headed back home, as it was many miles shorter. This would be a new experience for her. Her entire life had been one of many new experiences and discoveries. This gravel road was just another new challenge to her, this time a mountain to overcome. The Majestic Mountain range was gradually beginning to look like it might be the biggest challenge of her entire life.

Becky was not afraid and had learned to confront fear early in her life. By facing her fears head on, she was not controlled or bound in any way by fear. She loved life and all it had to offer. She was determined that the typical reactions to fear like fight, flight or paralysis would never do her in, as she was a natural over-comer from the moment she was born.

As a newborn infant, she had struggled for survival because of a difficult delivery and numerous complications following her birth. She was an only child. Her parents were kind, loving and compassionate. She overcame one problem after another and gradually increased her courage, as well as her strength. 

Tragedy struck when both of her parents died following a motor vehicle accident. Her father was gone almost immediately. Just before her mother passed away in the hospital, she told her daughter, who was age eight at the time, that everyone is born alone and dies alone.

“Millions of people spend many years living alone, by choice,” she had said. Becky always remembered her words. 

Becky made the choice to live alone as soon as she was old enough, much to the dismay of her foster parents who were almost too over-protective. They knew that she would have to find her way through life and made her promise to visit whenever she could. She agreed to do that.

Becky's foster mother had started a diary when Becky first came to live with her. Becky watched her write in it every day and she began to write too. Later, she found her foster mother’s diary and was devastated by what she read. She never told her foster parents that she had learned the circumstances of her parent's accident.  

Over the years, Becky completed high school and received numerous awards for her writing. In fact, she won a full, scholarship for college, where she focused on professional writing. She became determined to become a freelance writer. 

Upon graduation, the local newspaper where she had worked part time while in college, hired her immediately. They asked her to move to a different city in order to expand their horizons, so once again, Becky’s life changed. With full time work guaranteed, she was able to purchase a house on the outskirts of town. She worked full time and dedicated her spare time to writing. Over the past year, she had struggled with her first, full-length, fiction manuscript. In many ways, it was not unlike the story of her life, but her gut instinct gut instinct told her that this was going to be another challenge in her life. For Becky, rejection was never easy for her to deal with, but the rejection of her major fiction project had blinded her mentally and emotionally.

Being stranded in the Majestic Mountain range made her realize that this area was truly as gorgeous as others had told her it would be. There were waves of tumultuous rocks, some of them with snow-covered peaks that glowed in the sun and moonlight. Majestic Mountain was astoundingly beautiful and majestic.

She had wanted to see these mountains up close for a long time. In fact, she longed to spend time in the mountains, so that she prove to herself and others that she was not the fragile china doll that everyone thought she was. China dolls are fine sitting on the shelf, but she was determined there was no way that she was going to spend her life like that. She had struggled early for her independence and was not about to give in to defeat. Striking out on her own in a new city gave her an opportunity to see what she was capable of doing on her own.

“The worst I could do would be to fail, but failure is not on my agenda,” she insisted to herself. It took a lot of courage to pack up everything she owned, leave everyone she had grown up with and start afresh in a city where there were only strangers. “They won’t be strangers for long.”

She had hoped to meet someone who she would fall in love with and eventually get married, raise a family and live a full life. So far, that had not happened, but she knew there was always a possibility of that in the future. 

       

Chapter Three

Becky was growing increasingly anxious as time went by. She lived on her own and knew that no one would miss her as she had not informed anyone when she left, or told anyone where she was going. Nor did she call anyone to say that she was heading back home. 

The flight of wild animals across the road seemed to have halted, at least for the moment, but she was concerned because of the lingering smell of smoke. The clouds were rising straight up.

"The smoke may keep me safe from wild animals for the time being. With a forest fire in the vicinity, I am probably a lot  safer here than I would be if I started walking," she said aloud.

She looked at the small fire she had just started on the gravel road. At first, it had seemed crazy to build a fire particularly when there was already a forest fire in the area. 

"My fire is highly unlikely to spread, as everything is still too wet. The smoke from it may raise an alarm if someone spots it, but I am going to need more dead wood and evergreen branches to keep it going. I had better do that now while the wild animals are gone."

The mountain seemed very quiet without a breeze, animals or even the of chirping birds. They too had fled.  

"So tragic, it looks like they were frightened by the smoke too, too."

While she was gathering evergreen branches and dead wood, Becky heard the sound of water trickling down the huge rocks beside the gravel road. She knew that some of it was probably from melting snow but as she explored the area further, she realized there could be more to it than that.

"I found a mountain stream!" She said excitedly. "If I am correct, I won't have to worry about running out of water." 

She reached out, cupped her hands together and sipped it. 

"Perfect!" she exclaimed excitedly. "That mountain water tastes really good!"

She went back to her car, gathered the empty water bottles together and filled them up.  She placed several in her backpack, in case she had to leave the area on foot, in a hurry. The others, she put in the car for later.

"I should try my car again," she thought. She touched the hood of the car and it felt warm. "That sun may actually be charging the battery! Maybe there is hope for old Bessie, yet."

Becky was right because when she turned the key, it groaned as if to say, “I am not ready yet.” 

"There is no rush, Bessie!" she said calmly, hoping that the sun would keep shining throughout the day. "It may take a while."

Around noon, the same plane flew past in the opposite direction, but again, there was no response to her frantic efforts to gain their attention.

"God, it is just you and I up here." 

Becky was determined to survive this ordeal. With a fire and water, she could probably outlast almost anything. She decided not to even think about the possibility of a major forest fire heading her way, as there was almost no wind now.

"It is lunch time. I have a can of beans that I can warm up on the flat rock that I set in the middle of the fire. I was actually thinking that I could use it to warm up my sleeping bag tonight if it is cold. I may not be here then. Maybe someone will come along before then."

Becky knew that even if she spotted wild animals returning, they would probably not venture near her fire on the gravel road. She considered sleeping near it, but knew that she would be more comfortable in her car.

"Maybe I should find a higher spot and try my camera phone from there. If someone has a satellite dish set up somewhere in this area, I might be able to get on the Internet and send an e-mail to get help that way. My GPS would work then, too."

“Let’s see, where exactly am I?”

Taking her mountain road map out of the glove compartment, Becky off marked the individual mountain peaks that were visible. She had driven anywhere from an hour to two hours, non-stop. At one point, she recalled crossing a huge bridge that spanned a river. She spotted it on the map. She remembered staying within the speed limit most of the way, and was able to pinpoint the most likely place where she was and marked it on the map. 

"I don't have any way to tell anyone where I am unless my phone works, so I don't know why I did that. Maybe it will work, when I climb up that rock cliff. I won’t know unless I try.”

Becky tried to recall other places she might be able to pinpoint, but drew a blank. She knew that it was at least another 20 miles to the gas station. Suddenly, she started to panic.

"That is too far to walk if I have to go through a forest fire."

She looked to the west and the smoke from that direction was still rising straight up. Thankfully, it did not seem to be getting any closer.

"If I climb up the rock cliff, I will be able to get a better look at the forest fire. Actually, I will be able see farther in all directions."

Becky picked up her camera phone knowing its batteries would get low before long. 

"I will try my camera phone when I am up there and then save the batteries for emergencies only!" She laughed at herself. "If this is not an emergency, what is?"

She could not see any more animals and decided to climb up the rock cliff. It was steep and going to present a challenge, but there were intermittent rock ledges all the way up.  

"I can do this! I can!" she thought to herself. "God, I need your help. I have never been or  wanted to be a rock climber."

It was rough going for her as she was unaccustomed to rock climbing. She scraped one knee on the sharp edge of a rock, as she climbed higher and higher.

"Ouch! Majestic Mountain, you are never going to get the best of me! I will conquer you, or die trying."

As she got closer to the top she was tempted to look down, but decided not to. 

"Don't do that!" her inner spirit cautioned. "Just proceed upwards!"

Short of breath because of the altitude of the mountains, Becky gradually climbed all the way to the top of the rock cliff. The view in all directions was remarkably beautiful. To the east, what she could see was pristine, deep green, woolly  trees. In the opposite direction, there was a town partially surrounded by a forest fire, but it was still a long way from where she was.

"I was right! That is a forest fire to the west. If I do decide to walk, I will have to be careful about which direction I head. It could be risky depending upon the direction of wind is blowing.”  

Going straight ahead on the gravel road would take her to a small lake with a few tiny cabins near the water's edge.

"That must be where the gas station is located." She knew that it was near a country store and tourist center. "That's got to be it." In the direction from which she had come, there was only the long winding, gravel road and more deep green, woolly trees. 

"I could stay up here and keep an eye on the forest fire, but I may not need to do that. Thank God that it was so wet  overnight. The forest fire might not head this direction at all. In fact, it may just burn itself out."

From where she was standing on the edge of the cliff, Becky could see her red sleeping blanket on the roof of the car. The fire she had built was smoldering with its heavy smoke rising straight up. 

"I can probably tell what is happening with the forest fire just by watching the direction of the smoke from my own fire. I have another idea, too. Up here on top of this rock cliff, I could construct an arrow pointing towards my car."

There were many rocks on top of the cliff and so she started picking up ones that were large enough to be visible from the air. It took a while to gather them and they were heavy.

"Someone might see the smoke, if I keep my fire going, A plane could swoop low enough for someone to see the arrow."

When Becky tried her camera phone, it was immediately apparent that there was no Internet access which really did not surprise her. She was able to capture some beautiful photographs of the Majestic Mountain range and the forest fire.

Becky also found what appeared to be mountain goat tracks and realized that this flat-topped, rock cliff was one of their spots, but like the other animals, they too must have fled when they smelled smoke coming from the west. The mountain goats had left a distinct trail and so following it down to the gravel road was a lot easier than climbing down the face of the cliff.

Becky gathered more wood for her fire. She was no longer concerned that it would spread, but she was beginning to worry that the gravel road might not be open because of the forest fire. There was no sign of any travelers, or trucks along the way. Because of the rain and snow, altitude and smoke, there were no mosquitoes or black flies either, which was a blessing in disguise.

"I should make couple of hot dogs," Becky decided and pulled a package of wieners and hot dog buns out of her cooler in the trunk. "I have enough food for the time being and I have always loved camping. I will just make the best of a bad situation, for now.”   

Chapter Two: Day One

Just before dawn Becky was still dreaming, but she gradually became aware that she was struggling to break free of something. Suddenly, she understood what was happening. She was entangled in her sleeping bag on the back seat of her car. She vaguely remembered tossing about as she slept, trying to get comfortable. She also had vague recollection of distant thunder and lightning. As the sun started to rise, she yawned and stretched. 

The events of the previous day flooded her thoughts. 

"That publisher could have at least offered me the option of doing a re-write," thought Becky. "Maybe if I had stuck around longer, he might have. I may never know for sure." 

Becky knew speculation in this respect would be a sheer waste of time. With that thought in mind, she sat up and realized that there must have been snow overnight, as it was visible on the front window. She was also aware snow could fall at any time year round, this high up in the mountains. 

"One good thing about a snow fall here, is that the snow plow will come through to clear the road eventually, unless the roads are so bad they have to be closed.That is a possibility too, but I hope it does not happen.”

Becky got out of her car and was pleasantly surprised to see that it barely covered the ground. 

"There is not enough here snow to plow, but there is enough to make driving treacherous!" 

She was astounded at the height of the deep green, woolly trees partially covered with sparkling snow. They were astoundingly beautiful! 

"I have to take some digital photographs!Otherwise, no one will ever believe how beautiful this actually is." 

Becky reached inside for her camera phone and within several minutes, she had captured some of the most beautiful photographs she had ever taken. She spotted a few wild animal tracks in the snow and took photographs of them, too. 

"I know that these are probably rabbit tracks, but I don’t recognize the others. Maybe they are deer.”  

Becky decided that this was one moment she would treasure forever. She took a photograph of herself against the backdrop of the rock cliff and trees, as well as another of her car, still partially sprinkled with snow.

Becky watched as the sun slowly rose higher and higher in the east. What a gorgeous morning it was in the Majestic Mountains! 

As she turned back towards her car, she was horrified to see black clouds billowing high above the mountains to the west. 

"Oh no, it looks like bad weather heading this way. To the east, the world appears as bright as joy itself, in contrast to the west with its darkness of sorrow. It's not unlike my life in so many ways!"  

She quickly snapped a photo in each direction. 

"I can see a balance in the nature. This is a remarkable combination of beauty and non-beauty! I will be glad that I took these photographs when the snow melts later."

She began thinking about her car with its dead battery.

“I should have bought some flares yesterday, but I did not think of it. Oh well, maybe I won't need them. If the sun stays out and it gets warm enough later, it could recharge my car battery and I will be able to drive out of here," she said to herself. "Just in case, I should check through my groceries and get prepared to ration them."

She reached into a grocery bag on floor by the passenger seat, pulled out a box of cereal and began to nibble on it. 

"This will suffice for breakfast!"

She washed the cereal down with bottled water and then used a few handfuls of clean, fresh snow to wash her face and hands. It was refreshingly cold, but invigorating. 

"I do not have a lot of extra bottled water, so I should not waste what I have washing."

Becky vaguely recalled passing a number of lakes beside the winding mountain road, but did not know how close any of them were to where she was now, as she had been too upset to pay much attention to them, or to anything else.  

Suddenly, almost directly in front of her car, a huge, bull moose lumbered across the gravel road. He stopped and stared at her, as if to ask what she was doing there. Then he turned away and headed into the trees. 

Quick thinking on Becky's part enabled her to snap a photograph of him, too. 

"Wow! That was so neat," thought Becky. "I am so glad to be here, at this exact moment in time. It does not really matter why I am here."  

The moose was the first of the wild animals that would cut across the gravel road almost directly in front of her car that day.

"I don't recall seeing an animal crossing sign anywhere," Becky thought, as she captured photographs of other animals scurrying across the road too. "I wonder where they are going. What is wrong?"

Becky looked to the west and suddenly knew what was happening. She could smell smoke drifting towards her from that direction too. There was not a lot of it, but it definitely was smoke.

"Oh my God," she said aloud. "That is not another storm. The lightning during the night must have triggered a forest fire there. It is a good thing that it snowed here overnight."  

Moments later, she spotted a small plane heading directly west. She took off her blue jean jacket and waved it in the air frantically, but it was too far away.

"Maybe there will be more planes," she thought to herself. "How can I get their attention?" 

"I know! My sleeping bag has a bright red lining."

Becky quickly pulled it out of the back seat and spread it, red side up, across the top of her car. She also began taking pictures of the smoke billowing on the distant horizon. "If it gets too smoky, I won't be able to get any good photographs. No one will see my red sleeping bag from the air, either."

Becky knew that someone might spot a 'help' sign too, so she decided to make one in the wet snow and gravel on the road, in front of her car. "If it is large enough, someone might spot it from the air." 

She made a huge 'H' from one side of the road to the other, approximately twenty feet in front of her car. 

"That works!"

She did the same thing with the 'E', the 'L' and the 'P'.  

"Break time!" 

She sat on the hood of the car and nibbled on some crackers and cheese. None of the small animals crossing the gravel road paid any attention to her, so she photographed them, as they went by.

"They are too busy fleeing from the smoke to pay attention." 

"Maybe I should build a fire here. I have some matches in the glove compartment. Everything here is quite wet,  and if I can start a fire on the road too, its smoke would be visible from the air."

Becky began rummaging through the trunk of her car, looking for something that would burn easily. She found a bag of old newspapers and ripped up a cardboard box.

"The paper and cardboard, along with some evergreen boughs and dead wood will create lot of smoke and won't burn very quickly either, so it should be relatively safe." 

Becky knew that time was of the essence and quickly gathered pieces of dead wood and cut off several wet, evergreen branches with the pocketknife from her backpack. She built her fire right in the center of the road, about twenty-five feet behind her car. It started immediately and its smoke began to rise almost straight up in the sky.

“That is good. The west wind is dying down. I will have to wait for someone to spot it. I am glad that I am wearing blue jeans and runners, as I may have to hike out of here."

She stocked up her backpack, just in case the distant forest fire headed directly towards her, which it might.

Chapter One

From a distance, Majestic Mountains appeared to be clothed in woolly green, unlike its traditional orange autumn robe, customary white, winter blanket or black off-season granite. Becky, a nineteen-year old freelance writer, was driving homeward on an unfamiliar, gravel mountain road that traversed the Majestic Mountain range. Angrier than she had ever been in her entire life, she was almost unaware of its majesty and beauty.

Earlier, she had driven many miles for a scheduled meeting with a potential book publisher. He had sounded like a gentle man on the telephone and had agreed to read a fiction manuscript that had taken her almost an entire year to write. Trusting him, because he owned his own publishing company, Becky had submitted it to him by mail.

The publisher immediately, politely and flatly rejected her manuscript, as soon as she entered his elaborate office in the huge, publishing complex. Becky was stunned, to say the least. Her first instinct had been to run, to get out of there as quickly as possible and never return. She had never felt so humiliated in her life.

She turned and did just that, before he had time to say another word to her.

"I don't handle rejection well," she reminded herself. "I know that I never have and probably never will."

Becky had been writing professionally for several years and had sold a number of her articles and documentaries, but she had received very little financial remuneration for them. Now she almost dreaded checking her e-mail and her mailbox, as some of the work she sent out to publishers,  was being returned to her, unopened. She had even offered to be a ghost-writer for a company, but nothing came of that either.

“How can I possibly survive as a writer?” she asked herself.

As Becky rushed out of the building, she felt so torn apart emotionally that she almost stumbled on an elderly, gray-haired transient with a long beard, perched like a hungry bird on the front steps.

"Excuse me!" he yelled at her arrogantly. "What is your rush? I am a person too, you know!"

"Sorry," she replied and hurried past him. Later, wondered, “What on earth did he mean by that?”

When Becky reached her old car on the end of the huge parking lot, she unlocked the driver’s door and tossed her manuscript on the passenger seat. She got into the car and tried to start it.

"Oh, no!"

The car had groaned, but did start. It was not the first time that she had problems with it and knew it needed a tune up. 

Becky, heart broken and almost blinded by salty tears that she tired to hold back, headed homeward.

“I have to get out of here now!”

A while later, she looked at herself in the rear view mirror and was startled to see her empty, blood-shot eyes staring back.

“That is not me! I look so horrible. What am I doing, and just who I am trying to kid? My whole life has been a disaster, a series of disasters, one after another. Each one has been worse than the last." 

Her mind turned back to her devastating interview with Bart B. Barkley, the owner of BBB Publishing Enterprises. He was a short, stout, partially bald man of about sixty, not what she had envisioned him to be at all. 


"Whatever happened to the tall, dark and handsome men who own publishing companies?" she asked herself. 
  
Bart B. Barkley had seemed pleasant and gracious enough on the telephone and when she first arrived. She thought that everything was going well when she entered the room, other than the fact that he obviously did not approve of her attire. She was dressed in t-shirt, blue jeans and runners, appropriate for her long drive. 

The publisher did not say a word about what she was wearing, but Becky understood immediately when his young, blonde secretary entered the office wearing a professional black suit with a lacy, white blouse and high patent leather heels. She had tied her hair back with a black velvet bow and her long, gold earrings hung down to her shoulders. She wore a matching gold watch, necklace, bracelet and several diamond rings.


"That is not me either! She certainly did not have red hair and freckles, and was dressed in professional business attire. I will have to make a note of that for next time, if there is a next time, that is!"

She laughed at the thought of having to dress like that for an interview with a publisher, and kept on driving.

Mile after mile quickly flew by.

She only wanted to get home as soon as possible, and it was a long drive. It was not as if she could outrun her frustration, embarrassment and humiliation. She was extremely disappointed because she had bared her soul in her manuscript, and pinned all of her hope for career success on this particular writing project. Inwardly, she felt like she was suffocating.

“Letting him read my manuscript was a really dumb thing to do!” she said aloud. “Now he knows all about me and my past. It is a good thing that I wrote it as fiction. Maybe that will keep him wondering. Still, that is not good!”

The publisher had just shaken his head sadly.

“I am sorry,” he said apologetically, as he handed the manuscript to her. “This is not what we are looking for.”

She was tempted to swear at him, but she knew that it would do no good. So what if it had taken her a year to write that particular manuscript? Did he not consider her wasted hours?

About an hour later, Becky almost missed her turn onto the Majestic Mountain gravel road, but just in time, she spotted a hitchhiker who was standing on the corner. She was not about to pick him up, and was far too engrossed in her own world to stop to ask him where he was going, or if he needed help. As she sped up the gravel mountain road, she was not paying attention to road signs either.

"Why am I wasting my time writing?" She asked herself aloud. "What am I trying to prove to the world?"

She started to laugh aloud.  

"I can pretend to be a freelance writer, but I still have to work at my full time job elsewhere in order to survive financially. This was not my first rejection and probably won’t be my last, but somehow this one threw me for a loop.”  

Becky was growing increasingly devastated as more and more ridiculous thoughts clouded her mind. She drove on knowing better than to exceed the recommended speed limit for gravel mountain roads. Time flew by very quickly, as she bounced back and forth between silly laughter and ridiculous tears that were seeking an outlet for expression. She struggled to hold them back.

Suddenly her laughter became almost hysterical and turned into a full-fledged veil of blinding tears. Unable to focus on the mountain road any longer, she pulled off on the side, stopped the car and turned off the ignition.

“I need a break.”

Becky sat in the car and sobbed openly. After a good cry, she dried her tears and then got out and walked around the car. On one side of the gravel road, there was a huge, rock cliff. The other side looked like a deep green, woolly forest. There was no question that this was wilderness country.

She opened the passenger door, bent down to pick up the manuscript that had fallen on the floor, and hugged it tight to her chest. 

"This is my work and I know good writing when I see it! I am proud of my manuscript, even if no one else likes what I wrote. I don't care." Inwardly, she knew that she did care and was hurting badly.

Becky brushed back the red hair that had tumbled around her face, turned and reached into the back seat for her old leather briefcase, opened it, found her blue jean jacket and put it on. Then she placed her manuscript inside the briefcase, very carefully.

“There will be other publishers,” she said, patting the briefcase. She stretched her legs and did her best to regain her composure.

“I cannot let this devastating rejection destroy me, or my writing career.”

Becky was a natural born survivor, who had experienced many disappointments in her life. She also knew that it was getting late and she had to keep on driving in order to get through the mountains in daylight. She got back into her car. As she turned the key in the ignition, the alternator just clicked.

"Oh no!” she exclaimed. “I have killed my battery, too!

She tried to start it a second time, but nothing happened.

“This is a fine predicament that I have gotten myself into now! Here I am miles and miles away from anywhere and may have to spend the night in my car. I may be here indefinitely, or at least until a mountain ranger, or someone else comes along. I wonder how long that will take. Oh, well, maybe it will be a good looking, young ranger who likes red heads.”  

She smiled realizing that she had almost panicked, but knew that she had to remain calm. It would be getting dark soon and she had to be ready for nightfall.

“I hope someone will come along and offer assistance with my car, before it gets dark.”

Becky pulled her camera phone out of her purse, but there was no dial tone. She had not expected to hear one in this mountain range. The only possible exception might be if she was in the vicinity of some place that had a satellite dish. 

"No such luck. The last thing that I needed was to have this happen to me today of all days.” 

She set it on the dashboard of the car.

Becky had a sleeping bag and a pillow. She took them out of the trunk and tossed them on the back seat. She felt under the front seat for her flashlight, but could not find it. She did find her pen light in the glove compartment and it worked.

“That will suffice for the moment. Maybe my other one is somewhere in the trunk. I had better go easy on using the pen light, as the batteries will not last very long. I should save it for an emergency."

She laughed aloud again.

"An emergency…if this is not an emergency, I don't know what is!"

Becky checked but was unable to see any lights behind her and there were none up ahead either. She was alone in the wilderness. It was just beginning to get dark and becoming colder, too.

"I may have to wait a while!" she said to herself, as she climbed into the sleeping bag. “I might as well get as comfortable as possible.” She knew that the sleeping bag would keep her warm. "I am not afraid of the dark and I have been out camping in the mountains, many times." 

In the heart of the mountains, night begins almost as soon as the sun hides its face behind a mountain peak. 

"I might as well rest while I can," she mumbled, as she drifted off to sleep.