He snickered like a kid named Ronnie. “Was he your Scout leader?”
“He liked to think so.”
Ronnie, lead gremlin, already rubbed me the wrong way. I reached down to my pack, pulling my hatchet free and holdingit not in amenacingway, or at least that’s what I’d tell their parents. When I tossed it into the air, the blade spinning over the handle, all three boys tensed.
I snatched it out of the air and pointed it at Ronnie. “I’m not your Scout leader. Let’s get this straight. I don’t care about badges or whatever the hell you’ve got going. I’m here to teach you how to survive in the woods.”
The rush of being a mountain man returned.
“Like hunting?” Matt looked up from the floor. The smallest of the three, I don’t think he could wrestle a squirrel for its stash of nuts.
“You’ll die of exposure before hunger gets you.”
I had their attention. Either the threat of death or the large man wielding a small axe had lured them in. It was time to see exactly what this Scout leader had taught them.
“You come up to a stream, do you drink it?”
I pointed at Jeff, who nodded. “Yes.” His voice squeaked.
“Dead.” I moved on to Matt. “You’re bitten by a snake, what do you do?”
“I try to?—”
“Dead. There are no poisonous snakes in Maine.”
“Then how did I die?”
I turned my attention to the lead gremlin. “You’re lost in the woods. What’s the most important tool in your rucksack?”
“Matches,” he said with a smug smile.
“D-E-A-D.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out Pops’s compass, popping it to show them. “Don’t get lost in the first place.”
“My phone has GPS.”
“You live in Firefly, kid. You barely have service in town.”
The three boys turned to one another, trying to decide if I was being serious. Their Scout leader might have been well-intentioned, but he had done nothing to prepare them for thewilderness. If they wandered into the woods now, the best they could hope for is that a bear would not maul them.
I’d change that.
“Do I have your attention now?”
They were still undecided, but my questionable ethics had gotten their attention. I’d take the lack of protests as a sign we were ready to begin. If they were going camping, I needed to ensure they wouldn’t die on my watch. This hadn’t been much different from the first time Pops introduced me to being a mountain man.
“Your greatest asset will always be knowledge.” I handed the hatchet to Matt. If he had been undecided, a little faith won him over. He scooted closer as I slid my rucksack into the middle of our circle. “Brains’ll save your ass. Gear’s just backup.”
“How did you learn this?” asked Matt.
“My father taught me. His father taught him.” I took a moment and let out a steadying sigh. I never thought I’d need Pop’s wilderness wisdom. The legacy continued as I prepared to share the same lessons he taught me. I couldn’t let the gremlins see me get choked up, but something about this felt right, as if life had come full circle.
I pulled the ripcord, opening the bag. “You’re the next generation of mountain men.”
For a second, I could hear laughter,hislaughter. His voice.
“Let’s get started…”
“They’re all going to die.”
