The Hunter, The Dragon And The Smokey Mountain Angel

The old man and woman carefully placed Julia in their plush Cadillac. Julia thought it was beautiful and a lot more comfortable than the bus. Then they gave her the full tour of the town.

Pigeon Forge had changed and yet it had grown into what she expected. This place had always been a vacation town, a weekend getaway most people visited to cram as much fun as a family could in a few days and then leave the rest of the mundane week to the natives.

The lights from all the mini–golf and goat–cart race tracks blazed in their new LED bulbs but all the new, larger than life, attractions dwarfed that. The main road had restaurants built like castles, a huge dragon rested on top of an arcade, the Titanic and even a giant King Kong clashed for her attention. The attractions were dazzling like Las Vegas but she had always thought that this place made her feel like she had gained not lost something of her humanity when she went to bed at night.

“Sgt. Bryson,” The old woman said from the back seat, “That is the name on your duffel bag.”

“Oh, no my name is Julia. This bag was given to me at the last minute when I left the hospital.”

The old lady smiled at the gentleman sitting in the driver’s seat then looked back at Julia and asked, “Would you like to visit Gatlinburg before dinner?”

Julia shook her head. She loved Gatlinburg but she wanted to go home right now. However, these people were so nice and she doubted dinner would be waiting when she got home. She said, “No thank you but can we stop at the ATM?”

The old man said, “Julia, your money is no good tonight.”

Julia’s heart skipped a beat then she realized what he meant and she smiled. She answered, “Yes sir, and thank you but I need to check something.”

A few minutes later, the car stopped and Julia extracted herself from the front seat, hobbled to the ATM and inserted her card. The machine asked her for her pass code and she paused... It had been a year since she had thought about pass codes. Keeping secret numbers used to mean life and death. Her training included flying top–secret aircraft, undercover work and the use of super computers to authenticate her battlefield observations, so her team could finish the job.

The strong pain–medication made her mind feel fuzzy. It was frustrating; she couldn’t even remember a 4–digit ATM pass code. Then the number hit her. She punched in her code and selected checking. When her account appeared, she thought her heart really had stopped. The account was empty.

She checked the savings but it was the same, empty. She stood there just looking at the screen willing it to show hundreds of thousands of dollars, but all she saw was a blinking $0.

She printed the account history and stared at it. A year ago, the account was fully withdrawn and it had remained empty since then. This was all wrong. She had started, over four years ago, with a large signing bonus and then was quickly promoted; with increased pay and other bonus’s due to her high test scores and natural abilities. After her hospitalization, she should have still received full pay and benefits until they discharged her a day ago... She had deposited everything into this account.

With that money, she was going to pay off her house, take her son to Disney World and then get her a civilian job with a Computer Science Degree. Now she had nothing.

“This is impossible,” she whispered to herself, “The Air Force takes care of their own.” Then she relaxed. It had to be some clerical error and she’d get it ironed out tomorrow.

When she was back in the car, she could tell that dinner was becoming an event. The elder lady was saying, “But this young lady is special, we only do this once a month, so we should go somewhere big.”

The old man said, “I agree, that’s why we should go to the Catfish Barn. The old gang will be there. It’ll be like home.”

“Okay Jerry, okay,” The old woman said in resignation, “I just wanted to go somewhere special.”

“Anna, this is special,” Jerry replied and the debate ended.

Julia didn’t care what she ate. After being in the Air Force, traveling the world and going through Special Forces training and then eating hospital food for nearly a year, she had grown to be content with the basics. Anything hot and with sauce seemed like a luxury.

The car rolled into the parking lot and Julia smiled. It was hard to remember but she thought she had eaten at this restaurant a long time ago when they called it something else. This large, old house had a wraparound porch and a tin roof. The more she looked, the more the fog cleared. She had eaten here before. The new owners had updated everything. The building was now green but it still looked antique. Even the red roof had rust spots painted on it. She loved it.

Jerry moved like someone half his age. He hurried around to the passenger side of the car, opened the door for Julia and held out his hand. She took it with a smile and he waited as she very slowly came to her feet. Then she waited as he helped his wife out of the car and all three walked across the parking lot.

The parking lot’s short hill was simple enough to climb but the restaurant’s wide steps leading up to the porch gave her some trouble. She needed more pain medicine. When she reached the top, she stared at the old wooden doors. These were the original doors, she was sure of it. They had restored them to match the aged look of the rest of the building.

Jerry pulled on the antique doorknob and the door made a creaking sound as it opened. Julia wondered if the creaking sound was another fabrication intended to make the place feel authentic but bright lights drew her attention away from the doors. The restaurant was packed and loud. The majority of the people were in their elder years and they all stopped when they saw who had just entered.

“Hey Jerry! Hey Anna!” Several people yelled at once. Jerry and Anna beamed and waved to their waiting friends.

All the tables seemed full. Julia wondered how long the wait would be but a hostess appeared from nowhere, greeted them by name and quickly escorted them to a table that was near the restroom and the main exit.

Anna said, “We called ahead and reserved our usual table.”

After sitting, people began lining up to meet the pretty young–lady who had returned home from the war. Julia felt like a rock star. She smiled and shook hands until she couldn’t feel her fingers. Fifteen minutes of introductions passed before the server took her order. She said, “Medium rare rib eye, mashed potatoes, green beans, coleslaw and sweet tea.”

As soon as the server walked away, Jerry thrust out his right hand and Julia took it. The old man shook her hand gently and said, “Welcome home Julia.”

Julia smiled. She said, “Thank you. It seems that everyone here knows you.”

Jerry squeezed her hand a little tighter and said, “Just old friends. We get together sometimes like this. Many of us served together in Vietnam. Where were you stationed?”

Julia straightened in her chair. She was under strict orders, “Everything you have done since joining the Air Force is top secret.”

Julia said, “I’m not supposed to talk about that.” She saw the disappointment in Jerry’s eyes and before he could lean back in his seat she added, “I can’t tell you where I’ve been but I can tell you in general my job was to hunt terrorist and identify their location.”

Jerry finally released her hand and set back in his seat. He looked away from her and his mind seemed to drift far away. She knew that look. She gave that same look to her nurses when the conversation turned toward the war.

The entry doors opened and a young family with a little boy her son’s age came in. She imagined for a moment that Rand would do something amazing and had found out where she was. Then, any second her son would come bouncing through those two old doors and make everything that had happened to her over the past year be worth it. But, the doors closed behind the family with a squeak.

The music died and then a new song began. Julia thought that someone must have dumped a hundred dollars into the jukebox and selected every patriotic song she could think of. The music was sometimes sad but the song had just changed to an up–beat tune and several people stood up and started dancing.

Julia wanted to dance. She was tired but she wanted to celebrate her release from hospital rooms with no windows and medical personnel who would only give her the most basic information about life outside her room’s four walls. She realized that this was the first time she wasn’t heavily medicated in over a year and everything felt different. The sound of children running around the restaurant shaking the silverware on tables, laughing and being unruly made her happy. It had been a long time since she had felt this way.

Jerry seemed to rouse himself from his reminiscing and his eyes settled back on Julia. Julia felt his gaze but an old man dancing with his smiling bride in the far corner of the room held her attention. She wished she could redo the past 10 years. Jerry kept staring at her and she turned away from the dancers to see his question.

Jerry asked, “How are the boys?”

Julia knew what he meant. This was the longest war in US history. When she had left for training that first year everyone seemed to know exactly what they were doing but as the years passed all that changed. She answered, “The boys are doing their duty.”

Jerry nodded as he chewed on the inside of his bottom lip.

Julia looked at the entry doors again and then back at Jerry. She didn’t know if she should be scared or angry, both emotions were coming through. She said, “I haven’t talked to my commanding officers or anyone from my squad in a year.”

Jerry frowned as he shook his head, “That sounds very suspicious. I still talk to several people from my unit and that was,” He looked up for a moment and then back down at her, “I don’t know– over 35 years ago,” he paused and then he asked, “And how about you?”

He was looking her in the eyes but she knew he was talking about her injured body. How did it come to this? Julia said, “That is so top secret that even I’m still not sure what happened. I can only say that I was on duty one moment and the next I was strapped down to a hospital bed with ten doctors and a floor full of specialist clapping and cheering. At that time, I barely even knew where I was or who was there but all those happy faces lifted my spirits. I’ll never forget all the help those angels gave me.”

Ann smiled and said, “You are a very special girl.”

Then Jerry’s eyes grew dark and he said, “There’s talk of them expanding the war.”

“Forget all that war talk,” An old man sitting next to Jerry said, “we got a mystery right here in town. It’s that mountain over there by Dollywood.”

Jerry rolled his eyes and said, “Oh know, here we go again. There–ant–no government cover up.”

“There is too a government cover up,” The old man said with a scowl.

“But that mining company has employed dozens of people,” Jerry said as he shook his head.

“Who?”

“Who what?” Jerry snapped back.

“Who has been employed? Name one person.”

“I don’t know who they hire. I saw the add in the paper the other day.”

“Nobody reads the paper anymore but us old timers and we ant–goanna be miners any time soon.”

“I don’t know about that.”

“Come on Jerry, you just want to believe that it’s okay but something happened almost a year ago and no one’s talking about it.”

“You ant–stopped talking about it Frank!”

Frank looked over at Julia and said, “Did you feel the trimmers?”

Julia remembered swaying in the parking lot when she stepped off the bus but had been too emotional at the time to think anything about it.

“You did feel the trimmers,” Frank said as he nodded.

Julia said, “You said it’s a mining company.”

“That’s right!” Jerry snapped, “that’s what they do, they blast rocks.”

“Everyone in town has complained about the trimmers,” Frank pointed toward Dollywood, “Earl even called Dolly Parton and complained to her. Those trimmers are shaking the town at all times of the day and night... Now why would they do that? Can’t they work when we’re all awake? Something is going on in there.”

Jerry laughed, “Earl called Dolly Parton. What’s she goanna do, sing–em a song.”

“Dolly Parton ant–no joke. She has some pull around here,” Frank said with a slight tremble in his voice, “And what about what happened that one night.”

“Oh no,” Jerry said.

“Oh yes, helicopters by the dozen!” Frank looked at Julia, “They used the double whirlys, the ones with two fans on one chopper. And they were carrying something big, huge in fact and they dumped it right into that mountain.”

“Who saw that frank,” Jerry said, “just a bunch of late night stoned teenagers. You’ve been hanging out at the Waffle House past your bed time.”

“I heard the choppers myself.”

“But you didn’t see what they carried.”

“I know there ant–been nothing like if before and nothing like it since.”

“It was just the mining equipment, if it was anything. They need big drills and trucks.”

“Why wouldn’t they just truck–em in?”

“You know how narrow those winding roads are out there around the mountains. It was probably easier to just fly in that equipment.”

“Then why didn’t they do it in the daylight. That’d be safer?”

“I don’t know Frank.”

Everyone at the table turned as their server and two helpers lowered plates filled with food. The stake sizzled and it smelled so good that Julia could already taste it. Her stomach growled, she was so hungry that she instantly forgot the conversation, said the blessing and shoved a spoon into her mashed potatoes. The nerves in her right hand often gave her problems but as soon as she was chewing the first bite of thick country potatoes, she ignored her shaking hand and cut a ragged strip of meat, swallowed and stuffed the juicy chunk into her mouth. Juice dripped down her chin and she looked up. Everyone at the table was staring at her.

She swallowed, took a drink of sweet iced tea and said, “Hospital food never tasted like this.”

Frank smiled as he started cutting into his stake. He said, “I bet it didn’t. You go right along eating just as you feel.”

Julia took two pain pills and with that, everyone started eating too.

After dinner, Frank walked Anna, Jerry and Julia to their car. He said, “Now Julia, you need to come by the Waffle House after ten. This here is where the old folks go before bed but the kids your age have a better time down there.”

Jerry helped Julia into the front passenger seat and shut the door. Julia’s medicine had started to take effect. She could feel her body less and her mind began to sink into numbness. She rolled down the window and said, “Thank you Frank. I think I might stop by some time. You can tell me more about that mountain.”

Frank’s smile widened and Jerry snorted, walked around the car, helped Anna into the back seat and then he sat in the driver’s seat. He said, “Good night Frank.”

“Goodnight Jerry, goodnight Anna,” Frank said and then turned and headed back inside the restaurant.

Jerry started the car. He asked, “Which way Julia?”

Julia said, “Drive like you’re going to Dollywood but make a left onto Mountain haze road. You can drop me off at my driveway. It’s the third one on the left.”

The car shifted into drive and rolled onto the main road. It was dark now and all the lights from the attractions were impossible to look away from but it was a short drive to her house. The car stopped at her mailbox and Jerry got out and opened the trunk. He met Julia with her duffel bag as she was getting out of her seat.

He said, “I can carry this to your front door.”

Julia smiled and she felt a tear roll down her cheek. She said, “It’s okay. I can take it from here. You don’t know how much this night means to me.” She looked over at Anna sitting in the back seat and said, “Thank you for your service and for caring about all of us returning home from the war. I’ll never forget this.” Then she took the bag from Jerry before he could insist on carrying it any further.

He gave her a long hug and slipped something into her front pocket. He said, “This is our number. You call us if you need anything sweetheart.”

Julia nodded, holding back tears and adjusted the weight of the bag on her shoulder. Now wasn’t the time for emotions. Jerry returned to the car, backed up and headed back the way they had come.

Then she took a deep breath and started for the house, stopped, turned to the mailbox and opened it. It was packed full of mail, too much to stuff into her already overstuffed bag. She shut the little door and started walking down the long gravel driveway. After a few steps, she wondered about that,

Why would Rand let the mailbox go unchecked for so long?

She’d have to come and check it on her way back out. Perhaps the Air Force had sent her checks to this address...

The temperature had dropped since she had first gotten off the bus. Winter was nearly over but the cold was fighting back. There was a faint glow in the sky coming from town but she could barely see her own feet. She looked directly up but saw nothing and she thought that the clouds must have moved in and were covering the sky.

Her eyes settled on her one story log cabin. It looked sad in the dark. Her home sat partially on a hill overlooking a valley surrounded by distant mountains. The valley was a beautiful sight, one that she returned to in her mind many times during the most stressful situations over the past several years.

At this moment, all those years away from her son felt heavy on her heart but staying married for Noah’s sake wasn’t in his best interest. Rand had no real education and he would never be able to afford this place on a deliveryman’s salary, not here anyway. She had worked and paid all the bills, mostly by herself, while he went to school those first years; but he never finished. A year after they were married the real fighting began. All the clues had been there from the beginning but she had worn rose–colored glasses. The fighting only got worse and though she never wanted a divorce, watching her son cry at their feet as they screamed at each other removed her illusions.

She never wanted to go away to war either but it was the only opportunity she had to get away from Rand and provide a stable future for her son. There were other options. Colleges around the country had offered her scholarships but she needed money now. That was what she thought at the time and it was what she was thinking now.

At first, Rand had agreed to divorce her promising to split everything 50%. Then she left for boot camp and he got a lawyer and changed his mind. Since he was the only one home with their son, she would have to pay him Child Support. She didn’t fight it because there would soon be enough money and when she got out of the service, she could petition for more time with him.

Realizing that she and Rand were never really in love was the saddest part. The greatest part, the part that made her never regret her relationship with him was Noah.

She would have been home sooner but the Air Force offered her another signing bonus, and a jump in rank and base pay with extended benefits. With that raise, she could realize her long–term plans. She would have enough to return home with college money, get a degree, pay off the house and survive on her own.

Julia looked around and wondered why all the lights were off in the cabin. They never kept all the lights off. Noah was afraid of the dark. They had LED nightlights that turned on automatically when it got dark. Floodlights positioned on the corners of the house should have kicked on when she approached them but they didn’t.

She carefully walked up the steps and knocked on the front door. After a minute passed, she tried opening the door but found it locked and the spare key was missing. That was a surprise. Rand always put things back where they belonged. It was one of the few good things about him always needing to be in total control.

The wind started blowing, as the moment grew longer and she wondered what had happened. Rand’s parents were dead and his sister lived in Canada now.

Where else would he be.

She turned and started down the driveway along the right side of the house leading to her favorite place to be, the backyard. The large trees on her right enclosed the property. They always made her feel like she lived in seclusion though Dollywood was just down the road and the town only a few miles away.

The passageway opened to a small backyard with a deep well and an unfinished garden. In the far right corner was an overgrown, gravel road that led up and over the mountain but she would need Rand’s 4x4 to use it and it wasn’t here. Next to the old road was an open–garage connected to an old shed. To her left was a clear view of distant mountains. A small fence lined the left edge of her property. Beyond the fence, the ground dropped hundreds of feet ending in a small creek.

She remembered being scared that Noah might fall over that fence and she’d taken pains to teach him about the danger.

Snow started to fall. At first, it was little specks of glittering powder but it quickly turned into a heavy downpour of fat flakes.

She walked up the steps to the back door and tried opening it. The knob wouldn’t turn and the windows were all dark. Her mind seemed blank as she stared at the door wishing that it would open and her son would be standing there ready for a big hug.

She dropped her bag and carefully walked back down the steps to the open garage and returned to the door with a crowbar. The cold metal stung her left hand but her right hand had gone numb. She plunged the crowbar’s straight end into the latch and pulled. Pain shot through her shoulder, back and left leg. She groaned as the sound of cracking wood came from the door jam. It made her pull harder on the bar and it popped, the door swung inward and the crowbar dropped to the floor.

The ground began to shake and she held onto the door as she looked toward the mountain. A few seconds later, the trembling stopped but she waited a minute longer, listening for any movement or any sign that someone was waiting inside. All was silent. Then she took her bag by the strap and dragged it inside, pushed the crowbar out of the way with her good foot and closed the door. It wouldn’t re–latch but it stayed shut.

“Hello,” she said loudly into the darkness. The sound of her voice returned as a hollow echo. The place felt empty but she checked anyway, looking through each room as she had done hundreds of times in the field but someone had removed nearly everything in the house. She couldn’t believe that all her belongings were gone. All her clothes, jewelry, guns and even her old TV were missing. Then her disbelief turned to anger and then sadness...

When she opened the door to Noah’s room, she paused as a deeper wave of emotions passed over her. This was her favorite room in the house... In her mind, she saw the bunk bed with a slide on the end that she had purchased for him. He was very excited, jumping and clapping, as he watched her put it together. Eventually she had to make him stand in the hall and watch from the doorway. When she had finished tightening all the nuts, she helped him climb the ladder once and showed him how the slide worked but from then on, it was, “Mommy, me do it!”

In the corner of the room, next to the window used to be a little table where he’d draw her pictures of rainbows and mountains.

She was crying again but the tears felt like ice on her face. Then she turned and continued searching but the house was empty. She only found one small closet, under the stairs leading up to the bonus room that had old phone books and stacks of printed papers, all trash. An idea came to mind. The house was cold and getting colder. The army hadn’t designed this suit for the winter; she wasn’t supposed to be going into theater. She needed to get warm, rest and tomorrow she would sort all this out.

The fireplace still worked. She took several phone books from the closet and dropped them down on the hearth, checked that the chimney was open and clear then started tearing out sheets of paper from the phone book. She didn’t think that she had any survival gear but she checked her bag anyway. There were some extra socks and men’s underwear, a sleeping bag, survival meals ready to eat, a tin cup, spoon and a large knife. Her eyes lit up as she examined the knife, twisted the bottom and out fell three matches, a flint and other small items.

But her eyes stayed on the matches and the flint. “Matches or flint?” She said to know one, then selected one match. “The papers should burn quickly.”

Then she set everything down neatly and went back outside to the covered shed. Under a ragged, blue tarp sat a large stack of dry wood. She took as many of the smaller pieces as she could carry, four, and dumped them next to the fireplace. After several more trips, she was very tired but satisfied.

Minutes later the fire blazed and the room began to warm up. She unfolded her sleeping bag, put on her over coat and extra socks and fell asleep...

She dreamed of a scientist who made a powerful machine that looked like a smaller version of Saturn. It was spinning out of control– shattering the boundaries between parallel universes. Then she was underground watching a fire–breathing dragon locked in a prison of blue smoke– fighting for his freedom. And then, she was in another world where zombies chased her and her friends through swamps. And each time she awoke between dreams the Earth was shaking...

A rough voice from within her said, “The Hunter is searching for you.”