Keepers In The Dark

“The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. It was a night late last month, in fact. Close to the summer equinox.

“This burning has significance, but I don’t need to tell you that. Of course it does. The reemergence of the flame signifies a return. The Return. The return of what you ask? Well, one can only speculate. But, if you know the right stories, your speculations might be closer to the truth.

“Before you say anything, I know, it’s not the original cabin. It’s the new one. Well, newer one, built in 1981 for the camp’s short lived resurrection-since it was shut down for good in 1992. They claimed major financial losses, but we all know that wasn’t the real reason.

“For those of you who don’t know, Camp Keeps is out there off Highway 2, east of Monroe. The property is still there. It’s mostly just foundations at this point. The rest is rotten to the core. The rebuilt cabin is an exception, since it was treated with chromated arsenicals, as well as other, possibly more mystical applications, to protect it from pests. It’s mostly a hangout for rebellious kids, the occasional, fearless backpacker who wants to risk the wilderness and, of course, the long line of the devoted Keepers who make the pilgrimage once a year to renew their vows. They are sworn to secrecy and they know better than to go out there in large groups. Usually, just one or two at a time make the pilgrimage, and if they run into each other they don’t acknowledge it.

“You don’t have to believe me, but I’ve seen them. Yes, I’ve been out there a time or two. Don’t look at me like that. I’m not crazy. It’s just, well, the place has history and it’s beautiful in its own way. It’s peaceful and quiet. I’m allowed to enjoy the solitude aren’t I?

“Anyway, it wasn’t a summer camp at first. Jeremiah Keeps, brought his wife, Rebekah, and only son out west at the beginning of the 20th century to an enchanted piece of land outside a town called, Calumny. Not long after, their son died, and, with mourning at his side, Jeremiah began his grand plans to start a mission for the children of America. A spiritual haven for the innocent and the eager to learn. The notion that all children were welcome wasn’t his original intent. Jeremiah knew that not just any child was worthy of proximity with the divine. Only children of reverence belonged at the feet of the pines.

“It didn’t take the Keeps long to convince the people of Calumny, or most of them, to enroll their children in their fledgling institution. Let’s remember Washington State hadn’t made schooling mandatory until 1924, so many of these children were underfoot or being put to use on the homestead. Parents were still reluctant toward letting a stranger raise their children. This all played into Jeremiah’s hands as he was friendly yet firm, charismatic and sensible. He told the parents what they wanted to hear with a little recitation of state laws to help with the decision.

“In the end, the parents relented. Since, both Jeremiah and Rebekah had established themselves in town as reputable and competent, and there was no one else proposing a consolidated effort to put the education of their children under one roof.

"The Keeper’s School of Natural Divinity was born.

“Parents were not allowed past the road that lead into the property, on the pretense that the children needed a place free of the interference of outside influences if they were to focus on their faith. And, though many parents may have disagreed with that reasoning, they nonetheless abandoned their children at the front gates. The children were dropped off at 6am on Sunday and expected to stay until 2pm on Friday afternoon. There were no bunk houses, only the cover of the forest canopy or what makeshift shelters the children provided for themselves. Most of them were content to find a soft patch of grass or cozy hole in the ground and make do. After their weekly instructions they could go home for the rest of Friday and Saturday if they wished, but should be ripe and ready to resume their worship upon the forthcoming sabbath.

“Rebekah ran her lessons much like a finishing school, but included rendering fat for soap, dressing rabbits, gutting fish and splitting logs with an ax as integral to her curriculum. Her main mottos were, “salt has many uses,” and “do right, to do right for him.” One unique, rather progressive aspect, was that girls and boys were both given the same lessons and expected to learn the exact same tasks, be it fishing, maths, sewing, pot scrubbing, or public speaking.

“Jeremiah, on the other hand, handled, what he referred to often as soul-scrubbing and replenishing activities. He had the children bury themselves in anthills and carry hornet’s nests in their arms. He had them climb trees and feed, through regurgitation, chicks in nests belonging to raptors. He had them slither, without the use of their limbs, into pits of snakes and lay, unblinking, for hours on end as the snakes sought the prone children’s body heat. He came up with endless ways to, in his words, ‘build the fortitude of the beast.’

“It was speculated Jeremiah’s good book was not like that of those in most homes at the time. His book was bound in leather, but surely not cow’s leather. From appearances it was rough and bumpy like reptile skin and glistened like moonlight off the back of midnight. Jeremiah spent hours invested in the studying and memorization of the texts in his book and many hours more preaching the inner workings to his rapt and devote pupils. He would sit in the fields surrounded by the children. The passages he recited were riveting to the kids. Although, the children didn’t normally recognize the prose from their own bibles, Jeremiah’s sermons were familiar in tone and held a certain visceral intrigue, which registered more accurately to their own experiences of daily and family life.

“The few verses they were familiar with, Jeremiah used often. They wormed their way into the children's minds, giving his entire repertoire an authentic and empowering effect:

“The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest. - Isaiah 11:5-8

“From the beginning, there was no timber and nails church at the Keeper's School of Natural Divinty. Jeremiah always claimed the forest was his chapel, and all god’s creatures his congregation. And that’s all he needed. The forest. The solitude. His good book and a congregation. Oh, and lots of worshipping. Every day, every hour was worship. Worship to the snail and worship to the wolves. Worship to the insects and the hawks and the trout in their streams. Worship to the hemlocks and the douglas firs and all the maples and worship to the hills, the hovels and the denizens of the dank, dark swamps.

“On the compound were over a hundred mangy cats, two dozen dogs of suspicious pedigree, three alpacas and one llama, a camel with- not one- but two extra humps (one depicting the face of Abraham), ten of the cleanest pigs you have ever seen, four gentle cows and one Brahmin bull, thirteen crows, two parakeets, a toucan that would eat your fingers if given the chance, a scrawny bald eagle kept in an undersized cage, a pond full of grossly disproportionate carp, an iguana that sat all day in a rocking chair on the cabin’s front porch, an incomprehensible amount of free-ranging rodents with subsequent snakes in predatory pursuit, and a chicken coop full of motley hens and a skittish rooster named Quackenbush who only sired albino chicks. Elk herds roamed the grounds freely, unperterbued by predators. Foxes, raccoons, marmots, weasels, groundhogs and every other imaginable woodland critter mingled on the peripheries of this salubrious menagerie and the occasional black bear or lone wolf would join them, only, it seemed, on a Sunday, when Jeremiah was in the deepest throes of his devotions.

“Jeremiah did not stick exclusively to his natural theologies, no, he wove an intricate hybrid of many disciplines of scientific thought in with his surprisingly, comprehensive dogma. He never shied away from the opportunity to display how the sciences were part of the grand design. Botany, chemistry, anatomy, astronomy; they all had their part to play in his dance of the cosmos. He was particularly fascinated with the theory of evolution. Wallace and Darwin verged on being cult heroes of his. He recognized the exemplary puzzleworking of their thoughts and often mused upon the true meaning of natural selection. But of course, he didn’t think they saw the whole picture or had opened up their minds to the full potential of what they espoused.

“When they weren’t taking in lessons the children played games, such as shell seekers or knots and crosses, and were free to roam the property, but were advised not to go past the North creek. They happily skirted the boundary, as the grounds were large and there was no reason to stir up the ire of their gracious hosts and tutors. The more curious-minded of the kids had to have wondered why they weren’t allowed in that certain direction. And on occasion one or two would trespass beyond the creek, but inevitably they would get hopelessly lost and meekly trudge back to camp with thorns in their hair and embarrassingly muddied calves.

“There were nights when Jeremiah would disappear for hours into the woods with a recently butchered pig or calf. Sometimes he would take one of the children and they would circle the property, leaving a trail of viscera in their wake. Jeremiah told his charges that there was always a price for devotion, ‘we protect this land and it protects us. We say thank you and it provides everything we need. There is always that which will be collected and this is that toll. This creature’s life was not taken lightly. It was taken with conviction and a clear conscience. I stared into its eyes and it thanked me.’

“It was little wonder that eventually, some of the parents started taking note of the change in their children’s behavior. Now, let it be known that much of the change was positive. They were more obedient, well-behaved and scrupulously devout, but where their attentions may have previously been on doing their parent’s bidding, the children now seemed to think that their parents should be doing the bidding of nature and all it encompassed. It was charming at first, but over time it became incessant and ultimately intrusive on what the parents thought of as right and proper Christian comportment.

“The outcome of this irritation was that a group of fathers marched down the dirt road and caught Jeremiah early one morning tending to a crow caught in a snarl of blackberry thorns. They respectfully waited until he eased the crow out of the thorns and watched as he checked the bird for any less obvious wounds. Their patience eventually wore out, as what they at first admired for thoroughness, grew into something more like perceived disrespect. But if they had known Jeremiah at all, they would have known he treated all his charges with the same level of attentive care. In the end, Jeremiah concluded the bird was sufficiently healthy, but for some reason only known to him, he did not let the bird go.

“This is all hearsay and conjecture, for the men never spoke of what transpired between Jeremiah and them that day, and any child that may have witnessed the convocation was surely out of ear shot. What is known is that the men, through body language alone, conveyed displeasure at his response and two of them laid their hands roughly upon his shoulders. As Jeremiah was still holding the crow he couldn’t much defend himself without tossing the poor bird aside, so instead he let the men jostle him to and fro. Another of the men pointed a finger in his face and spewed off a litany of spittle-laden cusses, then, and it seems this surprised the other men as much as the recipient, he sucker punched Jeremiah Keeps straight in the gut. Jeremiah keeled over and let out a howl or a groan, but not one of pain, no this was a sound of a different sort, almost as if he was trying to communicate. There was a hush over the property. It was foggy that morning, which again probably left less witnesses than might have been on a more clear day. In response to Jeremiah’s call came a low, huffing sound no grown man, woman or child ever wants to hear in such close proximity. There was a shuffling and out of the fog ambled, not urgently, but plenty menacingly, a grizzly bear with shoulders reaching five feet tall. The men backed away from Jeremiah as the bear approached and yawned its coal mine of a mouth, letting out, not a huff, but a roar. They took an about face and hightailed it out of there.

“It wasn’t much more than a week later that the man who had landed that punch was found dead in his field. Thousands of shallow puncture wounds covered his body. Just before he was found by a stable hand, the boy swears he saw a black cloud in the sky swarming toward the field. ‘It was a murder of crows done the murdering,’ he said.

“The town of Calumny was in turmoil. What had they done to their children? Who was this man they had given them over to? He could control birds and beasts, what was next? The summoning of demons?

"They were in an uproar. Some of them forced their children to tell them the whole truth of what was going on. When the children told them, ‘we are the apples chosen from the one great tree to be eaten by the beast,’ they were horrified. The more perceptive of them noticed the one thing the children did not know. What was beyond the North Creek boundary? And so they decided to find out.

"They gathered a posse of men, and women, this time. For cooler heads shall prevail. They wasted no time and brought with them an arsenal. Revolvers, shotguns, machetes, pitch forks, a can of gasoline and a tinderbox. They even acquired a vial of holy water from the church a parish over. They wanted to be prepared for anything.

“What they didn’t expect was a path of no resistance. They came to the gates and it was covered in crows. But the crows let them through, watching them the whole way with beady, red-glinting eyes . They came to the main property where the small schoolhouse had been erected and Jeremiah and Rebekah’s cabin was a short walk away up a small hill. They interrupted Rebekah’s lesson, escorted her outside and ushered all the children out as well. Using the tinderbox and a splash of gasoline they set fire to the schoolhouse and watched the flames lick up the books and papers inside. As the schoolhouse burned, rats and mice fled from underneath and the rancid smell of skunk filled their nostrils. The acrid burning of fur and flesh came not long after. One mother calmly walked up to the cabin, broke in the one window and tossed in the flaming carcass of a fox by the tail.

“They asked Rebekah where Jeremiah was and without hesitation she pointed North across the creek. They approached the creek, where the livestock-pigs, cattle, goats, hens, even Quackenbush the rooster- had assembled. Not so much to prevent the crossing, as just get in the way and be somewhat of a nuisance. When one of the parents stabbed a sow’s flank with a pitchfork, it let out a rather death-defying squeal and the rest of the animals broke into a swirling stampede. Some parents were knocked over, but most broke through and crossed the creek unscathed. The man with the pitchfork seemed vindicated, although everyone else felt he’d done more harm than good.

“They continued past the creek into the unknown. The forest closed in around them and the air grew dark. The trees tightened and leaned in to surround them with their emaciated reach. They saw eyes in the foliage around them. They heard grunts and snuffles in the underbrush. Something with wings and claws dove from the treetops and snatched a woman’s bonnet and screamed away into the distance.

“There was light ahead, so they stopped to gather their resources and their nerves. Some of them had misgivings. Doubt had set in. What was this all for? But they decided to continue and broke free of the trees into a wide clearing, but not a vacant one. At the center of the clearing was, of all things, a hedge maze. But not the sort of hedge maze they’d seen in brochures from the British Isles. This hedge maze was made of holly, the insufferably, intransigent tree with leaves with needle-point edges. And here was a confounding, labyrinthine fortress of the stuff. Perfectly squared off and manicured in the middle of nowhere.

“They wound their way through the maze, not daring to split up. The passage so narrow at times the holly poked and scraped and drew blood in every which way it could. The tension was insurmountable. They expected something nefarious to attack them at any turn. They shuddered with the thought of being lost in the maze forever. At last they broke though again. Into a smaller clearing, and thankfully there was not another maze at its center. Only something, someone, much more terrifying.

“Jeremiah Keeps stood there. He was wearing what, quite simply, could be described as a cloak, but upon closer inspection was an atrocious testament to everything he believed in. It was a patchwork of animal furs stitched together with catgut. There was a hood of some indeterminate pelt with vermin teeth affixed so they pointed downward near his hairline. Big, curling horns were mounted on the crown of the hood, but Jeremiah didn’t seem strained by the top heavy weight. The cloak itself was intricately decorated with a mosaic of paws and hoofs and claws intertwined to leave no surface untrammeled.

“Jeremiah laughed and twirled. He spun and the back of the cloak lifted with the centrifugal force of a dozen long, fleshy tails twirling in unison. There was even a beaver’s broad, paddled tail and maybe a kangaroos thick, muscular one. Condor wings stretched wide between his shoulder blades. He clapped his hands and beside him rose a large, sloping form. A mountain lion.

“He looked pained. ‘Apples,’ he said. ‘Almost ripe, certainly delicious. We could have fed the world.’ The parents gathered around nervously. Weapons pointed forward. ‘Oh, please,’ Jeremiah cringed. ‘No need for that.’ Snarls grew louder outside the maze. ‘You lot have got nothing against the beast.’ He smiled.

"‘We’ve come to take you back,’ one of the mother’s said.

"‘Back?’ Jeremiah tilted his head down and for a second they didn’t see a man, but truly a devil. ‘I’m not going back. Only forward. A mosquito’s eternity is merely the childhood of a mountain. And what about a man’s?’

"It wasn’t quite night yet, but the sun had begun to set and the shadows crept around this terrified, confused group of parents. Jeremiah shifted and they could see he was obstructing their view of something, an opening in the ground, like a well, or a sink hole.

"‘I don’t know what you want me to say. If I’d had it my way they would have joined me, all of them, and some of you, perhaps.’

"He jumped back but did not fall. The wings on his back flapped back and forth with slow, audacious power. The mountain lion raised its head, but held back. ‘I will return,’ Jeremiah said. And with that he dropped into the hole in the earth.

"The Keeper’s School of Natural Divinity burned. Many of the animals perished in the flames. The remaining few fled into the forest and the mountains beyond. Rebekah was put on trial for any number of charges, but was given a lenient sentence and spent the rest of her life no where near children.

"The parents attempted to fill the hole, but no amount of dirt and debris was enough. The hole was endless. In the end they resigned to covering it with a block of cement and posting danger signs to ward off anyone who got too near.

"As for the rest of the Keepers. I told you, they're out there. If not the original children, then their children, or their children’s children may have been brought into the fold. And the candle? It’s significance? Of course, one can forget many things during such a long tale. Do you remember the cloak Jeremiah was wearing? The Cloak of Tails is what we call it. After he disappeared in that hole the parents found one piece of that cloak laying in the dust. A rat tail. And do you know what that candle burning in that cabin is? The cabin that the Keepers rebuilt in the 80’s to establish a summer camp in the image of their founder. That candle is a rat tail. A rat tail burning in wait for the return of Jeremiah Keeps. I think I’ll go for a visit, bask in its glow. Care to join me?