It is officially time for Ihaan the Hermit to make his debut and stay! It’s time for y’all to meet him! Just before we ran into each other again, I had to have dinner with Camp Juniper. We had salmon and rice. I’m not a huge fan of fish, but I was starved that night, so I ate it. Twelve hours of canoeing left me famished. Yeah, I said twelve hours! If we didn’t get lost on Red Squirrel Lake, if Camp Juniper just listened to me, then it would’ve been a lot shorter. Thank you, Dad! I told you we should’ve stayed at that campground the two Quebecers were staying at! Did you listen to me, though? No!
Anyway, we brought some marshmallows with us on the trip, so we roasted them that night after we ate. By this time, it was finally dark. My family completely ignored me, so I sat away from them and ate my dinner. However, I refused to leave the light of the fire.
I forgot to mention this, but Uncle Harrison plays the guitar. Why do I say this? Well, it’s because he brought his guitar along on the canoe trip. He strummed it and sang along to one of his favorite songs. His foot tapped. Aunt Jessie, Uncle Macon, and Aunt Lydia listened to him, while Dad, Mom, and Uncle Clement roasted marshmallows. Uncle Clement kept on burning his marshmallows.
He threw down his stick and announced, “Yeah! That’s the tenth marshmallow I’ve burned tonight!” He cheered. “That’s a new record!”
Daddy chuckled and gave his back a pat. Everybody was really enjoying themselves. They weren’t even thinking about the Ghost of Ontario. I remember, my Uncle Bart told a story to Aunt Lydia. I looked away from them but eavesdropped.
Uncle Bart shared, “Once upon a time, Lydia, there was a teenage girl named Cynthia Baton. She lived in North Tonawanda, New York with her parents on a street known as Payne Avenue. One day, her parents told her that they were going to go on a weeklong canoe trip up in Ontario, Canada. Cynthia loved to canoe, and she was very good at it. So she was very excited.”
I scoffed.
“But on the night before they left for Ontario,” Uncle Bart continued, “she woke up to find that she had been sleep walking.”
“Bart!” Aunt Lydia gasped.
“Yes,” continued Uncle Bart, “Cynthia was on the dock, and she tried to get back in, but all the doors were locked. She ended up sleeping on the dock for the rest of the night. When she woke up the next morning, she found she was lying in a canoe floating up the Erie Canal, and a bunch of handsome, teenage boys hovered over her and fanned her with leaves.”
Aunt Lydia laughed, “That makes no sense whatsoever!”
“It’s not supposed to.” Uncle Bart explained, “Maybe if Cynthia didn’t cower over make believe ghosts, she’d get all those pretty boys.” He chuckled, “The end.”
I scoffed for a second time. This was all just a bunch of poppycock. The members of Camp Juniper were adults, so they should act like them.
Aunt Lydia soon clapped, and I heard Uncle Clement again. “Yeah! That’s twenty burnt marshmallows!” Laughing engulfed the campground, but nobody paid attention to me no matter how hard I tried to get noticed.
I narrowed my eyebrows and leaned down, picking up a leaf. With it, I wiped either side of my lips. I was not having fun. I couldn’t spend another day stuck in the wilderness with just adults that completely ignored me. Where was Ihaan when I needed him? My mind momentarily returned to the two portages we did that day. I begged that the next day wouldn’t be as hard. It really was a very tough day. I made one last attempt to join the circle of adults, but they simply just threw me out. I had had it with them!
I backed up, brushed myself down, and shouted, “Fine! Don’t listen to the teenager! I’m sure happy faces is the Ghost of Ontario’s natural prey!” They didn’t listen to me, and irritated, I shook my head. Sitting back down, I waited for the Ghost of Ontario to attack us. While I sat there, I thought about him. I thought about the canoe accident, his broken ankle, and the fact that he tried to drown anyone who disturbed his home. To myself, I asked, “Why would a little kid do horrible things like that?”
Picking up Uncle Bart’s whistle, I stared down on it and decided that it was time for bed. I would be the only one who got a decent amount of sleep that night. At the same time, I didn’t want to deal with the darkness anymore. Ghosts tend to like darkness. That’s when they’re most active. I’ve always seen them as nocturnal beings like hamsters and bats. I had a hamster once, but I could only play with her at night because she slept during the day. Whatever, I’m getting off topic again. Ihaan’s almost here. You’re hamster’s not. I don’t want to keep y’all waiting any longer.
I said goodnight to my family, but they were too involved in Uncle Harrison’s music, so they didn’t say goodnight back. How surprising. Not. I wanted to get away from them. I wanted to go home. I didn’t even think I would survive the rest of the trip. I was even afraid that I wouldn’t wake up the next morning. I wished I had that buff boy who saved me with me. With him, with those arm muscles and enchanting eyes, I would definitely be safe. He probably fought giants every day.
I turned on my headlamp, patted the mysterious pouch I wore on my waist, and tiptoed towards my tent. The further I left the fire and went deeper in the forest, the darker it became. The wind whistled at me, and I jumped. I held my flowers in place. I didn’t want to lose them again. My feet led me straight to my tent, and I stopped in front of it. I prepared to get in. I fell to my knees and undid the Velcro. I shook mosquitoes off the body of my tent, and a swarm of them whined by my face. Once pierced my chin, and I smacked it. Stupid bugs! Stupid, stupid bugs! Closing my eyes, I told myself, “I’m almost there. Once you’re in the tent, Kylie, you’ll be totally safe.” Would I, though? I mean, a ghost is a ghost. It could fly through walls. What happened next was what led up to me meeting Ihaan again. It actually was pretty scary. A rustle came from a bush.
My eyes widened. I twisted my head and peered into the forest, whispering, “There’s that rustling again.” More feet trampled through the forest. I heard them. They trampled in the direction of the path which led to the latrine. If it was the Ghost of Ontario, then I was ready to die. I already felt dead after that twelve-hour canoe trip we took that day. I had an urge to investigate whatever it was that was harassing me. Before doing so, I reached into my tent and grabbed Annie. I felt safer with her. I slipped her in the pocket of my pants and took a deep breath. It was time. I had to be brave, and I was.
Without Camp Juniper noticing, I slipped in the direction where the rustling had come from. It led me right to the path that led to the latrine. I stopped at the edge. I didn’t go any further. I didn’t want to. The path was way too creepy. In the light of my headlamp, I saw the mysterious shadow again. I held my hand out to it, “Wait!” but the shadow jumped and trotted out of my light.
This was where something very scary happened. It reminded me of The Revenant, you know, the movie where the dude is mauled by a bear, not once, but two times? My eyes landed on another bush. I thought I saw another pair of eyes in it. “Wait.” I said, and I trotted to the bush and poked my head inside it, “Is that an animal?” There was nothing in the bush. It was empty. Maybe I was just seeing things? I couldn’t have been. A few more seconds passed, and then I felt something tug my hair. I flinched, “Ow!” and whirled around, “All right, what tugged my hair?” Nothing was behind me. I circled the bush a couple of times, but still, nothing was there. This was where things really got scary.
There was a new sound behind me. Except this sound didn’t sound like rustling. This sound sounded like flapping. I started to sweat. I suddenly felt that I wasn’t safe anymore. “Oh no.” I mumbled. Very slowly, I turned my body. I gasped and frightfully leaned up against the bush. In front of me, glaring, hovered the creepy eagle...the eagle that had been harassing me all along since I first left North Tonawanda. It screeched at me and held out its talons. It wanted to attack me, like the bear in The Revenant.
I screamed. Turning on my heel, I dove into the forest and onto the dark path. I sprinted through it, and the eagle chased me from behind. “AHHH!!!” I screamed, and I looked back to it. The eagle’s massive wings were open wide, and its bill and unsheathed talons were pointed at me. It had very sharp talons. I ran my fastest down the path and yelled, “Countermeasures!” Reaching down, I picked up a few rocks and chuckled them at the eagle. They hit it, and I knocked it out of the sky. It crashed into the dark path. I dove out of the forest and landed right in the wide open area Uncle Macon had mentioned. The ground under my feet was rugged and rocky, but I continued to run. However, I ran so fast that Annie slipped out of my pocket, and I saw her crash down on her back. I gasped, “Annie!” and I whirled around, hurrying towards her.
However, just before I could pick her up, I heard the cry of the eagle, and it appeared at the top of a small tree. The rocks had slowed it down, but they hadn’t stopped it. It folded its wings, screeched, and spun towards me. I screamed again. Quickly, I left Annie and started to run again. Why was the eagle chasing me so? Was it the Ghost of Ontario in disguise?
It kept on chasing me. I kept on running, but I didn’t stay running for much longer because I tripped and fell to the ground. And I’ll tell you, that fall hurt too! Too scared to get up, I sat and saw that the eagle was still spinning towards me. It shrieked again, and at the tops of my lungs, I screamed, “HELP!!” and closed my eyes. I covered myself with my arms and listened as it flew closer and closer to me.
However, suddenly, over the cry of it, I heard pounding feet. I opened my eyes and unburied my face, looking up. To the left, coming towards the eagle and me was…oh no! Speaking of The Revenant, it was a bear! It was a bear that stood up on two legs! It threw itself between the eagle and I and held out its furry arms. Immediately, the huge, avian creature stopped in front of it. It didn’t attack it, and the bear didn’t attack back. My jaw dropped to the ground.
Now, at first, I thought the bear was a real bear, but it wasn’t. I prepared to knock it out. I crawled back and picked up two rocks.
Where the bear and the eagle were, the eagle shrieked and flew back a few feet. With its head, it gestured for the bear to move out of the way so it could get to me, but the bear shook its head no and continued to hold out its arms.
I shakily stood up and silently started to approach the bear. I held the rocks up to the back of its head. Unfortunately, the eagle saw me, and it screeched. Flapping its wings, it tried to zoom by the bear, but it lifted its paws and grabbed it. I screamed and dropped the rocks. One crashed down on the bear’s right foot, and it cried out. Dropping the eagle, it fell to the ground and reached for its foot. All right, it was down! This was the perfect time for me to knock it out! I picked up another rock and hurried towards it.
When it saw me, the bear quickly crawled back and got up. It turned to run, but it ended up crashing into a tree and falling down. It landed on its back.
“Ooohh.” I spoke. I continued to approach the bear with the rock when I noticed something very interesting. The bear had fingers instead of claws. Human fingers. It had hands. There were five, long fingers for each hand. I thought I was dreaming. How could a bear have human hands? This was very weird.
I watched as the bear slowly lifted its left hand and pressed it up against its tummy.
Carefully, I sniffed and tiptoed to it. Reaching the bear, I looked it up and down with my headlamp. This was where I realized…it wasn’t a bear at all! It was a costume. I gasped. A pinch of excitement engulfed my body. Was this who I thought it was? There was only one way to find out.
I dropped the rock I held and leaned over the motionless body of the bear. Lifting my hands, I grabbed hold of its head and slowly started to pull it off. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. Why is Kylie Juniper pulling off the head of a bear? That’s nasty! Well, if you haven’t guessed already, the head was a mask. This was definitely Scooby Doo at this point. Except, this person wasn’t a villain.
I dropped the bear mask to the ground and peered down on my find. Again, I gasped. It was him! Ladies and gentlemen, I give you…Ihaan the Hermit!
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