A Nightshade Cry

Summer of 1985 in the eastern most coast of northern Canada. Sherri Belks, Betsy Marsh, and Cammy Fernandez finished for the day within their single family camping tent keeping warm after a long and exciting day of hiking along the coasts of Lord Selkirk Providences park. The three friends have been neighbors and best friends since childhood. Graduated from high school now, the three girls fulfill their childhood dream of doing something truly epic together that they would always remember, despite going in different directions for collages come the following fall. It's mid-August they were able to synchronize schedules to get away like this. Sherri had always been the trend-setting planner of the three. She was the bold one that brought them together at the elementary school cafeteria lunch table with her heartthrob Magazines. It wasn't long that Betsy, Cammy and Sherri were a formidable trio gushing over trending articles on the latest hot fashion and "How to See if He Likes you'' quizzes. With upright parents that contributed to the high-life of society, Betsy always found her time with her friends a welcoming escape from their over protectiveness and expectations. Even an hour at the local mall sipping on soda straws and gawking at the nerds that came in and out of the arcades were endless fun times to Betsy. Cammy Fernandez was the dreamer of the group. When it came to what she wanted to do, she wasn't right away sure. She found fascination in the idea of Cryptozoology. The topic was never taken seriously. Even her friends couldn't help but poke fun at her. It led to a secretly depressed heart within her and a loss of where she is to be. The other two girls knew where they were going and their families approved. She wished the same for herself. It made her jealous. As the sun's warmth stripped away from the deep forest, the girls hunkered down in silence within the camping tent they had so finely set up together that day. Now, the three resided within the warmth as drowsiness set in for the night. Betsy smacked on Bubbilicious bubble gum. She turned the page of a magazine she had been hoarding the entire trip complete with maps to the area they were in. A grin spread across her face as her emerald eyes lit up, tracing the tip of her pen along the trail they were blazing on the map. "Hey girls, check this out,'' she perked up, better positioned by her elbows adjusting her laying position to one more comfortable as she had shifted from her side to her stomach. "According to this map, we go less than half a day to go to be at the lake. Then we can set up there and spend the rest of the time doing whatever!'' Sherri had been laying on her back with her face towards her friends reading her own article in a lei magazine released the week before. Her slender hand lifted to her headset band to her Walkman bringing it down and around her neck. She lifted a slender brow. ''Oh yeah? That's cool. I mean, we gotta wait a while before we can do any real skinny dipping though." Betsy's jaw dropped mocking a gawk of disbelief at her friend. She picked up a red beanie within reach and threw it in her direction. "Oh, you are terrible, Sher! It's always about getting naked with boys with you!" Sherri stuck her tongue out and caught the beanie with ease. "Oh, there will be boys there too? Let me see that map. Where do you see that?'' Betsy held the map up indicating the marker to a black box illustration in the corner. ''Right here where is says 'In Your Dreams Sherri'.'' Sherri let out a puff of air as she reached in her bag to pull out a canteen filled with water. ''Well, at least someone in some magazine is writing my work. I submitted my article on the 'Must Haves in Fall' over three months ago and still no publishing in this piece of crap.'' She then dropped the lei magazine in exasperation towards Betsy, who responded with a sympathetic furrow of the brows. Cammy glanced up from her art drawing, likewise having been propped up on one elbow facing towards the other two. She had been working on a cryptic drawing for a little while with her fine graphite pencils. ''It'll be good to be closer to the source,'' Cammy said. She brushed a part of her thick hair from one side of her face to the other underneath her chartreuse knit cap. "We're almost out of water from the day's hike from drinking so much. Plus good piece of mind for fire-safety.'' Sherri gingerly sat up to avoid hitting her head against the slouching tent side and tilted back slightly, wrapping her hands under crossing feet with a roll of her eyes. "Yes, dad. Always got to be the killer of the fun.'' A frown came across Cammy's face as the words stung at her slightly. Rational commenting or thinking seemed to always get an under minding retort from Sherri. Cammy loved her friend and always appreciated her bold, adventurous nature. Although, sometimes she could feel an anxiety build up a mental wall, between them. This had been going silent and unspoken for a while. With friends hard enough to make or keep, Cammy kept her mouth shut most of the time but something about this moment started to make her feel a little angry, like the start of a bubbling tea kettle. Silence abruptly dampened the mood. Sherri reached for the stop button on her Walkman and the faint synth wave music coming from the ear pieces stopped. She let out a huff and shook her head a bit, trying her best to hide slight annoyance and sound sincere. ''Oh Camera, I'm just joking around with ya. Can't you take a joke,'' she said, calling Cammy by her nickname she used whenever she wanted to convince Cammy to see her way. Cammy's eyes narrowed as she struggled to hold her desire to squeeze her "6H'' pencil in half. Something seemed to topple inside of her. A loss for words coupled with an urgency to speak gripped at her. Betsy watched the two, wide eyes bouncing back and forth like a ping pong ball on a rec room table. She'd been always the mediator between the two when they got like this. ''Aww, come on Cammy. You know we couldn't survive without you here." "Yeah but that is just about all the fun I'm worth, isn't it,'' Cammy snapped. For a long moment, the three girls sat in silence, not a sound amongst them. Only the faint cricket chirps in the distance could be heard as the silent flames of tension fanned between them. Cammy took her eyes away from her friends. Something about the last thirty seconds stirred something inside of her. It was like the dark contents of a treasure chest buried deep under the ocean's surface level cracked open at last. Her senses were flooded by a sensation of deeper hurt. The feeling seemed to fester into something pernicious, gnawing even. She let her eyes fall to the drawing. Seeing where her gaze went, Betsy shifted her weight a bit to see better of the drawing in progress. Her friend was always on to drawing something of dark natures or concept. Sometimes they were monstrous normal animals of some kind, but often of plants of a twisted version of themselves. "So what you got going on there in your drawing Cams,'' she asked with a lighter tone, trying to cut the tension in changing the subject. Cammy didn't look up, either did she respond right away. She brought the next pencil she needed to change the gradient pick of light coming about some vulture like wings. For a second she was sinking into the drawing of the picture, debating on zoning out as she sometimes did to avoid speaking when she didn't want to. A sudden cry in the night sounded from the forest. All three girls looked in the direction of the tent door. Sherri and Betsy had let out a gasp in unison, while Cammy remained still. Cammy sat up, putting her drawing and pencils off to the side. She pulled away to a crawl to get out, undoing the zipper and exiting. Sherri watched after her. At first thought, she considered calling after her friend. Nothing came out of her mouth though. Several seconds passed and Cammy was zipping the door back up to keep the heat in the tent. "I'm going for a short walk,'' Cammy said. "I won't be long before you see me again.'' There was a slight crack in her voice. Within the tent Betsy looked to Sherri almost pleadingly as they listened to Cammy's footsteps over the leaves fade away as they grew fainter. Sherri stiffed and crossed her arms. ''Well, maybe she is going to go find herself a wendigo or something,'' She lifted the headset back up and pressed play on her device, covering her eyes as she lay back on her side to see the magazine again so Betsy couldn't see her face directly. Some distance away, barely out of range, Cammy heard the remark and felt a tightness in her chest. Why did she have to be so mean like that? So hurtful? Cammy let her feet lead the way down a meandering path with not anything to make shapes in the darkness. Starlight speckled the forest floor in a sporadic manner. Without consciously meaning to, Cammy wandered amongst some trees towards the nightshade cry that made her friends jump. She knew it to be the mournful cry of a barn owl. Some reading from a pamphlet informed her that they were great neighbors within the park. She remembered how she tried to tell Sherri about it and show her an image over the text, but Sherri was too busy flirting hopelessly with the young man behind the check-in hut's service counter. Thoughts led Cammy to keep walking, hands shrugged deep into her hiking shorts pockets at her sides. The more steps she took, the more she felt she was going somewhere. When have I ever felt I was going anywhere though, Cammy asked herself. Boys, sexy parties, high-life and six-figure focus? Is that all for me? All I am going to? The cries of the owl persisted, ever closer this time. Somewhere in the trees it must have seen everything. The owl must have seen the sudden dip in the path that Cammy was trailing towards. It could have seen the outline of where the edge dropped into a shallow decline where the earth hardened at the bottom. Cammy felt the feeling of depression setting in again. Images of condescending statements over the years encroached on her better judgment. Her vision became dark blurred as warm tears she fought back split over her cheeks. The timing was tragic, as just then, her foot snagged into something hard and bowing. Cammy lifted her hands as she toppled forward into a roll. Pain tore into her sides as she continued to roll and roll, downwards into a darkness. The steepness gave way into a sudden drop. Then there was stillness and silence once again. Cammy opened her eyes, feeling a stinging pain in her back. Her eyes tried to focus as she just barely made the image of a barn owl basking in moonlight atop a low branch of a tree nearby. For a second, she thought she saw something of a striking resemblance of the wings she had drawn and the form of the owl. ''Mothman..?'' she asked. It was finally so clear to her where she had been and where she was going. Then she turned her head, closing her eyes not wanting to try to get up. Darkness overtook her.

By Jessica G. BroeschePublished 5 years ago • 9 min read