And Then I Was Alone

And Then I Was Alone

John W. Gilmore

“Who are you?” I asked through narrowed lids. I couldn’t believe it. I had climbed to the mountain top step by step, slowly one step after the other, and was exhausted. On the top of Mt. Washington it was cold. Forty mile per hour winds were blowing around me, threatening to sweep me off into a horrible death. It was 20 below zero, and here she was. A strange looking woman just standing there, at the peak, in a tee-shirt and jeans, with her hands on her hips. Her hair was hardly blowing.

She reached a hand down to help pull me up. “Who do you think I am?” she asked. “You said this was a pilgrimage for you right? Well who do you find at the end of a pilgrimage?”

“You can’t tell me that you are...God!” I said. She smiled.

“I’m the closest thing to it that you’ll ever see.”

“You look kind of, like a white person.”

“I am not a white person,” she said mockingly. “I used to be a Roman Goddess, if you must know. My name is Juno.”

“Juno.” I echoed back. “Well Juno. You better get your ass off of here dressed like that, or you are going to freeze to death! How’d you get up here?” I headed across the mountain to a flat rock creating an alcove that at least provided a modicum of shelter. I reached into my pack and began to pull out a heavy duty tent and sleeping bag. “I’m sorry. This is all I have. Maybe you can wrap this around you until I can put the tent up.” She just stood there and smiled. I extended it to her. “Here. Come on. Are you afraid of me?” She stepped forward and snatched the sleeping bag. “I should be afraid of you, you seem kind of crazy,” I said. I smiled at my own wit. “You are out there, Sister. I hope you aren’t here alone.”

“Why are you asking me that?” She opened the sleeping back and wrapped it around herself like a cape. She sat in the little enclave and huddled in one of the corners. “You wanna take advantage of me or something if I’m here alone? I assure you that I am here alone and can take care of myself.”

“I don’t want to take advantage of you. I just thought it was like, kinda illegal to come up here dressed like that.”

“Well, nothing is illegal to me, Little Man.”

“Hm! Okay.” I said. “I’ll set the tent up while you sit there and get warm.” She tossed down the sleeping bag.

“I assure you I am OK. Give me the tent and I’ll set it up while you keep warm.” I thought about it. Sure. If that old crazy thing wanted to set up the tent in the cold, freezing wind while I cuddled into a corner somewhere fine. She was a good looking woman. She looked strong and stood straight. She was sort of a classical Roman beauty, but with a bad attitude. I guess people who looked like that often had bad attitudes. They could get away with it. Despite that, I wasn’t going to let the dummy freeze. But, I was going to relax while she put up that tent.

She did it rather quickly while I searched through my back pack for several flairs, cans of sternum and a very small heater I could use my propane canisters with. She was very adept at putting up the tent, especially in the howling wind without my help, but it seemed...it actually seemed that the wind would stop blowing every time she needed it to. It would gust and then when she was about to spread it out it would stop. She got ready to put the rods through and it would stop and then gust when she was finished. She pulled out the fly to attach it, and it would stop. Was I seeing things? No. The wind stopped again as she began to stake it down and then a horrific wind picked up when she was finished.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“What does it look like?” She walked over and stood in front of me. “Get up and get in your tent! You are starting to bother me. You shouldn’t have come here on a pilgrimage if you didn’t intend to see anything!”

“Oh. You still think you are a Goddess? Well thank you for coming to visit me, Mother of the Gods.” I shook my head. She was livid. “You look angry,” I said. “Please don’t strike me down with lightning.” The wind whipped up and the rain began to pour in buckets, which turned to the largest hailstones I had ever seen. I tried to rush into the tent with my backpack and it was as if one of those stones timed me perfectly and hit me right in the forehead with a loud clunk just when I was about to duck in. I scrambled into the tent, reached up and could feel a large hickey growing on my head. I was dazed. That thing hurt. I could hear the hail turning to sleet. I opened the flap.

“OK, Juno. If that’s your name. You can come on in,” I said, holding my head. No answer. I looked out. She was gone. What happened to her? The sleet turned to soft snowflakes that began to fall gently, and then the wind picked up changing quickly to blizzard conditions. I was the only one on the mountain. I stepped out and looked around and saw no one. I called her a couple of times. No answer. I was the only one there ready to begin my vision quest there, alone on the mountain. I looked again. She was gone. I wondered if I had started my vision quest early. Could I have really seen a goddess. I stepped inside and zipped the flap down. What the Hell was going on?

I flattened out my sleeping bag, pulled out a small can of sternum and lit it as I pondered what happened, and as I wondered what I was in store for as I would sit there 4 days and night without any food or water. I felt like a madman, and I felt that I had missed what I had come for because it hadn’t resembled anything that I had expected. That was a revelation in itself. How many times had I done that during my lifetime. I would just have to sit, wait, and see if this strange woman, who was really pissed off, would come to me to explain what was happening.

The End

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