Liraz

I sucked in a cold breath and watched fog rise into the air when I breathed out a few seconds later. I looked up at the starry night sky before stepping back into the cave I had taken shelter in for the night. The forecast was heavy snow for the next few days and I was planning to leave the next morning hoping to get out of Yellowstone National Park before the storm hit.

I threw a few more logs on the fire and got inside my sleeping bag and tried to fall asleep. Eventually, I did. The next morning, I woke up to a wall of snow covering the entrance to the cave. I tried digging myself out. I was freezing though and it was hard to start another fire without a steady wood supply which had mainly come from the trees outside the cave.

I kept digging but I could feel my limbs getting sore and numb from the cold and digging. I took a break and passed out. I woke up hours later, I assumed, it was hard to tell inside a cave. I was shivering and panic was starting to set in. If I didn’t get out, I would freeze to death. I kept digging through the snow covering the entrance, but it felt like no progress was being made.

When I was about to give up hope I broke through and saw sunlight. My hope was renewed and I dug myself out quickly and made my way back to the entrance of the park and my car.

But I couldn’t find my car. I decided maybe it had gotten towed or ticketed. Well, it would suck having to bail it out, I needed warmth and food and decided to catch a bus back to town.

I paid for a ticket for the bus with the little money I had on me and got on. The drive was about thirty minutes. When I arrived at my house, where I and my parents lived, it seemed quiet. The lights were on but something seemed off. I knocked.

My mother came to the door. She gasped and backed up away from me like I was a ghost. I probably looked like one, that or a caveman frozen in ice.

“Zeke?” she questioned.

“Yeah, what?” I said.

“Where have you been?” she asked.

“What do you mean? I told you I was going camping in Yellowstone. I know I’m a little late getting back but you’re acting like I was dead or something,” I replied.

“A little late? Do you know what day it is today?” she asked.

“I’m gonna guess November 5th,” I reply.

I had left two days before Halloween and I’d spent about a week in the forest.

“It is Zeke. November 5th, 2021,” she replied.

“2021?” I asked. “That’s not right. It’s 2020,” I reply.

“No, Zeke. You’ve been gone for a year. We thought you were dead,” she replied.

“But that doesn’t make any sense, I wasn’t in that forest, or that cave for a year. At least it didn’t feel like that long. No, I would have frozen to death, there was a storm the week I left. It would have killed me. This is some cruel joke, right?” I reasoned.

“It’s not,” she replied.

“Where’s dad?” I asked.

“He spent weeks, months looking for you. He pushed himself too hard, had a heart attack in the summer. He passed,” she replies quietly.

“He’s gone?” I question.

“Come inside, you’re a mess. You must be cold. No, actually, we should take you to the hospital,” she started.

I just starred at her blankly still stunned by the fact that it had been a year since I’d been here. People thought I was dead. Gone.

She turned around and grabbed her coat and keys. She dragged me over my car. I hadn’t even realized it was in the driveway. I just sat silently as she drove. The silence wasn’t that odd. I was closer to my father and I honestly had no explanation for what happened to me.

She parked and paid and dragged me into the ER. She quickly screamed at a doctor that I had spent a year in the forest and that I should be checked out for frostbite, hypothermia, and any other issues.

They found a slightly low body temperature, but no wounds or frostbite. My mother also demanded a psych evaluation. Honestly, it was the only other “explanation” but nothing was found. They hooked me up to IV to give me warm fluids but other than that they said I was fine.

My mother telephoned the police station well we were waiting and took me off the missing persons database.

“He came home?” someone on the phone asked. “Where was he?”

“I don’t know. He says he doesn’t remember,” she replied.

“Zeke?” I heard someone question.

I turned towards the voice.

I saw my friend, Eli, dressed in a lab coat and button-up and tie.

“I heard they found you. Where have you been?” he asked.

“In the forest apparently,” I mutter.

“What do you mean? Apparently?” he replies.

“It didn’t feel like I was in there for a year. It might have been a week at most. Like what happened? Where did that year go? I was only trapped in a cave for a week. I would be dead if it had been a year so what the fuck? How am I alive? I don’t have frostbite or wounds. Nothing,” I reply.

“That sure is weird. Supernatural even,” he replies. “So, what are you gonna do now?”

“I don’t know. My job’s probably gone. When news spreads people are going to have questions and you know how much I hate publicity,” I reply.

“Maybe it’s time you moved. You always talked about taking a road trip, living in a camper somewhere up north,” he replies.

“I just disappeared for a year. I worried my mother sick and she just lost my dad and you’re suggesting I leave?” I reply.

“You could have died out there. But you got a second chance. I say take it. You won’t get another. I’ll watch out for her. Call her and me every week but Zeke, don’t take this for granted,” he replies.

“I got to go, but think about it,” he replies.

He turns tail and leaves before I can say anything.

Eli was always the smart one. Graduated early, went to university, graduated with a doctorate degree to practice medicine, got married to his long-time girlfriend, and had a kid a year before I left. He was a planner, knew what he wanted, and went after it.

Maybe he was right. Before I left, I had wanted to relax and enjoy my life after a bad breakup and loss on a promotion. Maybe it was time to see more sights.