SKINWALKERS

Chapter One

Summer of 2012

It was the last hour of the drive to the northern coast and almost midnight as we approached La Connors Campground.  I’ve been here several times to this quaint yet nostalgic Bavarian landscape. Mom loved it in particular because it remind her of our bohemian and Slavic roots while my dad was more invested in adding to his German stein collection. Located fifty miles north of our hometown of Seattle, La Connors had the best bratwurst and sauerkraut that I just had to have with a chilled mug of cream soda. Odd combo but you would just have to try it.

My family was diverse to say the least with my mom’s family and my stepfather’s family all mushed together in one agonizing soup. There were eight of us all together, and I was the youngest of the brood. Thankfully this trip was just me, Zach, and Jessica and we got to have one of the double beds in the back for once. The drive was long and my last year of high school was now behind me. Opting out of the senior trip to Cancun, I decided to go on our coveted family trip to the Puget Sound.

I know; what was I thinking right? Well, first off, I was never terribly popular being the quintessential tomboy that I was, and my particular crowd of friends could never afford to go out of state-- let alone out of country. I was lucky enough to have a passport only because my step father was Chief Master Sergeant and nuclear weapons technician for almost forty years. Being a military brat had its perks and I was able to see the world as a result of my dad’s labor.

I flipped through my yearbook while my sister Jessica gnawed on her fingernails habitually in the back of the thirty six foot RV. The strum of the motor beneath us came to a slow idle. Only ten more miles before we were to arrive at the campground, and dad probably had a close run in with a dear. I couldn’t count how many times my dad ran over one.  He always carried a pistol tucked inside his visor as he drove in case he had put some road kill out of its misery. That was always sad to watch.  I’ve only seen him use it once and that was enough for me.

“What kind of an idiot stops in the middle of the road?” my dad barked through the front windshield as if the driver of the other vehicle could actually hear him. The brakes grinded against the worn brake pads making a horrible screeching sound as the RV slowly came to a halt.

With our curiosity peeked, Jessica followed me to the front, craning our necks like school kids over my parents shoulders. All I could see was the back of a red Ford pickup truck with a stoked up black Harley tied down in the back.  The pickup truck flashed his hazard lights on.

“Great…” Dad said.  Jarring the stick shift with frustration, he barely put it in park.  “Let’s see what this kid needs…” Begrudgingly, he got out of his captains’ chair and unlocked the exit door behind us. “You guys stay in here…Zach, lock the doors behind me will yah?

Retired now as an auto mechanic, my father always felt the need to help those with car trouble, specially a young man in the middle of nowhere. After walking around to the side of the RV, dad opened up one of the side hatches underneath and pulled out a crowbar. The red glow from the truck’s hazards reflected my dad’s silhouette. We watched as my dad approached the truck with caution.  The guy in the truck waved my dad on and gestured something wrong with the front end. My dad went to the front of the truck, motioning the guy to pop the hood.

“Just great…this will take all night.” Zach huffed as he took his headphones off and tossed his drumsticks on the floor.

“Oh hush…you know how your father is, it’s not like you don’t have a bed or something to sleep in…go lay down if you’re tired.” Mom said as she turned on the reading light above her head and fingered through the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine. Mom wasn’t happy either, but you never mess with a man’s vice.