Outside Forces

  ***

  Richard’s truck rolled to a stop in the gravel parking lot where the trail up Heart Mountain began. Tawnie stared out the passenger window. She hadn’t said a single word during the entire twenty-minute drive.

  “Well, we’re here, and it’s a beautiful sunny day,” Richard said cheerily as he put the truck in park and killed the engine. “And look,” he said pointing across the lot, “only two other vehicles. Looks like we might be one of the first to reach the top today.”

  The two other vehicles were parked at the south end next to the trees. A single occupant sat inside the nearest car, busy studying a map or trail guide.

  Tawnie finally broke her gaze away from the window and looked at her father, who responded with a smile before stepping outside. She shook her head at him, slipped out the passenger side, and slammed the door.

  “Why does she have to be such a bitch to me?”

  He hoped she had let it go already. He sighed and shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  Tawnie shouldered her backpack, pointed to the trailhead across the gravel lot just past the outhouses, and started walking.

  Richard followed behind her as she continued ahead into the heavily treed path. The right words evaded him. She had grown so much since they last hiked anywhere together. Tawnie was what he would have called handsome for a young lady: slender and lean with rich, dirty-blonde hair that she always kept cut so it lay just above her shoulders. Her skin was dark in complexion and she bore rugged and chiseled facial features like his. He almost chuckled when he thought about how much like him she was in other ways: passionate, outspoken, and always determined to a point of bullheadedness. If he could understand his own reason for doing anything in his life, then he knew he could understand Tawnie, too.

  “You are entitled to feel the way you feel, you know,” he said.

  She kept walking. Her pace picked up.

  “Tawnie,” he called out to her. “Whatever Michelle has done or hasn’t done doesn’t change things between you and me. If you feel upset being around her, I understand, and I certainly don’t dislike you for it.”

  She stopped in her tracks and turned around.

  “I just don’t see what it is you see in her.”

  He frowned. If he said anything in response that praised Michelle, he knew Tawnie would take it as a jab at her mother. “C’mon,” he said. “Just let it rest for now. It’s going to be a long day and we need to keep moving.” He looked up at the clear blue sky above. It really was the perfect day for a hike.

  The trail meandered through the trees parallel to the highway, across Heart Creek, and down an old river bed. Richard heard a small buzzing sound off to his left near the highway. He only noticed it because of how extraordinary it was. It was unlike any vehicle, and it sounded more like a small aircraft. The trees opened up and Richard pointed towards the highway a couple hundred feet off to the left and hollered at Tawnie.

  “Tawnie! Look at that!”

  She looked. “It’s a drone. So what?” she said with indifference. “They’re all over the web these days.” She was clearly still perturbed with him.

  The drone was small and sleek looking, with pointed wings protruding out at odd angles. It hovered high above the highway traffic momentarily and then accelerated, moving along with the flow of vehicles, until nearly disappearing from view before zooming back.

  “I’ve never seen one close up before, that’s all.”

  Tawnie shrugged and kept walking.

  “That one really moves fast.”

  He watched the drone whizz down the highway in one direction about a quarter of a mile before turning around and coming back. “I didn’t know they could go that fast. Look at that…” he turned with the drone as it zoomed past. “That drone goes as fast as those cars.”

  Tawnie was too far ahead and had already disappeared around a bend in the trail. “Tawnie, did you see…Tawnie?”

  Tawnie apparently didn’t care about any drone flying down the highway. He jogged to catch up to her. Another fifteen minutes passed before a T-intersection introduced a new trail to the right. They turned onto the new trail and started to ascend immediately. The trail climbed rapidly up along the western ridge of the mountain, and Richard immediately felt the effects of the sudden ascent. His heart began to pound.