Short Essay - What would you do?

Walking into the woods. It is mid day, the sun is out and bright, but the end of year makes it hard to feel the warmth of the rays. Bundled up with a knit cap, gloves and a scarf I walk forward. The crunch of leaves from the fall of months ago prevents any stealth that I thought I might have. I am apprehensive about checking this site out, but being the low man on the totem pole, I was assed out. In a daydreamers moment I realize that I love this time of year. I can see my breath as I exhale; the moisture in the air mixed with the decaying leaves has an earthy smell. Even with gloves on my hands are cold, so I shove them in my coat pockets. Jerry said it was only about 50 feet into the woods, I turn around and look back to gauge how far in I am and figure this should be about where I should find it. I stop to assess the surroundings, looking for something out of place, something to indicate, “Hey look here!” All around there are woods with no end in sight. I start thinking about how far away this is from any civilization that could hear me if I screamed for help. With that thought I pull out my cell phone to see what kind of signal I have, and of course it is one bar. I close my phone realizing I am distracting and psyching myself out. I start looking around again. What was it that Jerry said? He said something about a large rock would mark the spot. I start talking to myself, saying, “Great help that is, there are a million rocks out here. How do I even know I am in the right area?” Then just as if someone turned a light on, I saw exactly what he was talking about. He was right, I will have to give him that, it is big and obvious, the only thing that could have made it more obvious would have been if it were painted pink. I walk over to the rock that I am locked in on. I notice a change in the soil; it is muddier over here. My boots slide a little and collect clumps of mud as I walk forward. I get to the rock and kneel down to get a closer look. I don’t touch it, cause I have no idea what the real story is about this rock. All Jerry told me was there was this rock out in Great Falls Woods that has a history. It is small town folklore that it has a spirit. People know about it, some say it is evil and others say it grants wishes. He sent me to take pictures and write any notes about what I felt while I was here. I pull off my gloves, shove them in my pocket and pull my little notebook out of my back pocket. I look and find another rock to sit down on, about 2 feet away. I decide to just start describing it, to see if anything comes to mind. It is about 3 feet tall, 2 feet in diameter, kind of rounded, and it narrows at the top, if I were to compare it to something I would say it reminds me of those stones from Stonehenge. Then I get this feeling of ‘yes’, like whatever Stonehenge is, this is very similar. So I start writing whatever pops into my mind, no matter how off the wall it seems, I feel like I am playing charades with myself. Mystical, human connection, mother earth, death, rebirth, love, purpose…these words just start pouring from my mind. They are contradicting themselves and they really are not explaining anything at all. I decided to take some pictures. I shove my notebook back into my pants pocket and I pull out my camera to take a snap shot to help me elaborate later on, because I just know that Jerry will want to throw a piece in about this at the very last minute when he has nothing else. I pull out my trusty little point and shoot, I put new batteries in it this morning, so I would be sure to have juice for some pictures. I take a couple shots from various angles; front and back to be sure I have a whole 3D view. Something catches my eye, I bend down to pick it up, it is a man’s ring, well I assume it is a mans ring, because it is rather large, it would fall off my thumb, if I put it on. It is oddly clean, I wonder how long it has been here, and who lost it. It has some distinguishing features, a unique look, but nothing that indicates that it would have been expensive. I toss it in my pocket, take a couple more photos from a distance, to try and capture where it is positioned in the woods. I look around for some sticks to try and mark it in a way that will allow me to more easily identify it when and if I should come back. I take a couple more pictures and notice that the light is fading, so I start heading out. I put my camera back in my coat pocket and pull out my gloves as I walk back towards the edge of the woods, where I entered. As I get to the tree line the temperature drops a little more and gives me a good chill. It is about sunset, I timed it just right. I decide to stop and look at the pictures. Nothing really shouts out at me, except for the fact that it is a larger than average rock. Once I saw it, it does seem much more obvious now, the way Jerry was explaining it, but if I had just glanced at the photo I would have wondered what the person taking the picture was taking a photo of. I flip through them, cause they are all about the same, just from different angles. I stop at one cause there is something in the photo that is brightly reflecting light. I check to see what the settings were for the camera when the picture was taken, and oddly it seems that the flash hadn’t recharged yet, because under FLASH it says “not triggered.” But whatever it is, it is reflecting a very bright light. It is like a large star burst at the bottom middle of the photo, but to the left of the rock. I roll through the other photos and they are all normal. I turn my camera off and start walking to my car. When I drop my camera in my pocket I hear a metal on metal clank, then it dawns on me that the light was probably the ring I found. I am at my car, I am eager to get back into the warmth. I open it up, hop in and start the car. The sun is pretty much gone, so the cold is really racing in. I crank the heat all the way up and wait a little while the car warms up. Turn on the radio, pull out my cell phone, and still only one bar. I wonder who lives out here, how there can be such a grand story about this rock when there is no one around. How far did they have to come to discover this rock in the first place? I reach in my coat pocket and pull out the ring. I hold it up trying to use the little amount of natural light that is left. Suddenly it glints, or sparkles…I think to myself, am I seeing things? Did I just see that? I try to recreate the reflection, and nothing. How odd? I put it back in my pocket and decide to drive home, I giving myself the heebeegeebees, I must be a lot more tired than I thought.

That night I got home, uploaded my photos and transferred my thoughts from my notebook to my computer. I jotted down some quick thoughts about the photo and the ring. I was tired and it was cold. All I wanted to do was get warm and fall asleep. The piece won’t be due until next week anyway. I set the ring on my notebook next to my laptop and then went upstairs, took a shower and got into bed. That night I had wild and vivid dreams. I dreamt that I was watching a murder take place. The pieces that I can put together make sense in my mind. I see the picture but trying to describe it was a lot harder than I thought.

My view is from above. I don’t see myself; my view is from my perspective, my eyes. I see two people talking heatedly. At first I cannot tell if they are male or female, I am too far away. Instantly I am closer. I am a bit startled at the sudden change and try to see if they notice me, but it doesn’t seem my teleportation affected them. Now I can tell they are two males. The guy on the left who is of average height has his hands in his pockets while he listens to the other guy. When it is his turn to speak he uses his hands to talk and indicates how serious he is. It is dark so their features are not distinguishable. The guy on the right is only slightly taller and has glasses on. His posture is much more agitated. He keeps interrupting the guy on the left. The guy on the left seems more in control; his voice although stressed and serious, is controlled. All of the sudden the guy on the left grabs the guy with the glasses by his coat at his chest and just thrusts him to the right, straight down into the dock. I gasp. I sit exceptionally still not breathing, afraid that he heard me. He says to himself, “He should have listened.” My heart is thumping so hard I cannot hear myself think. I am afraid he hears it cause he turns in my direction looking around as if he heard something. He realizes it was just a rat. I exhale with relief and then I wake up in my bed. I am thinking to myself, what the hell was that? I wonder what I ate last night, that was one crazy dream.