Chapter 2

I don't know if I had a memory of the forest in the first place strong enough to not be forgotten. But, walking among all the scarlet, orange, yellow, and shifty green made my head fill with rainbows. I remembered my elementary school calendar depicting Spring as the rainbow season. For the first time, I thought our cultural impressions to be mislead.

The hike was leisurely enough that I could invest my attention to my surroundings rather than to not tripping or panting up a storm…or sweating through the hand Naru held.

"How did I miss all this during the day?" I asked. "It isn't like the city has no trees or anything."

"Religions around the world regard mountains to have, not just physically cleaner air, but spiritually as well. Taoist and Buddhist monks build their monasteries on mountains, usually, and in the Bible there are several passages referring to 'the mountain of the Lord' as God's temple."

"...So spiritually clean air can help you see colors better?"

"I suppose it depends on how you're seeing everything right now." He looked about him idly, more serene than I had ever seen him. "Are you just seeing with your physical eyes right now, you think?"

I snatched at yet another especially bright leaf, like a child catching at something shiny. "How do you even know if you're looking at things spiritually?"

"You're closer to being a spiritualist than I am. Make a guess."

I fingered the scarlet leaf, smiling as I realized that, even though it had caught my eye, it really wasn't brighter than those around it. That didn't make the fire red any less beautiful. I considered it for my journal, then let fall to the ground. I couldn't be so greedy as to try and page-press the entire forest. But though each leaf was gorgeous, I had yet to settle with the one that would capture this memory—as best as a leaf could catch a memory.

"I guess my spiritual eyes would be whatever is recognizing the beauty right now." I scanned the canopy above me, envisioning the conversation that might ensue if I asked Naru to climb up and get me an especially pretty one. Suddenly, the idea of seeing Naru all manly and tall pulling down a leaf appealed to me.

"The beauty?" he asked.

"Well, um…from a scientific view, we're descended from, like, monkeys and stuff, right? Survival of the fittest and all that. So what does being able to see beauty do to help us survive in the jungle? If anything seeing all this would make me get eaten by the tiger all the more sooner, you know?"

His eyebrows went high. "That was very…astute of you. You may not be as dumb as you look."

"Hey! I have the keys to the dog house now, you know. Watch your step, hubby!"

He gave yet another loud laugh. "Hubby? Please no!"

"Oh my gosh, what's with you and names? First the Naru and Oliver thing last night—"

"It's endearments, Mai. You don't see anyone going around calling each other sardines, right? A certain level of taste is involved."

I grinned. Sardine? Now there was an idea. He caught on immediately to what I was thinking and laughed once more. It was in that perfect picture, Naru tipping his head back in mirth, dressed in a light blue sweater rather than the dreary black, that I saw the leaf I wanted, framed by a lock of his hair and lashes. I trotted about him and reached up, just to find it out of my reach. Without needing to be asked, he reached over me to pluck it down. Two dreams accomplished at once!

It was a beautiful, five fingered oak leaf, marbled with red, orange, gold, and green. Even the stem was a cinnamon brown, and it almost matched the size of my hand.

I squealed. "Perfect!"

"Going to make that into a bookmark?"

"Something like that. Come now, my little sardine—"

"Excuse me?"

"—we must return and preserve it, forthwith!"

"If anyone is going to be the little sardine, it's you, lovely anchovy."

"Is that a fish?"

"Yes."

"Fine. You can be a tuna—wait, that doesn't work."

"What?" He flashed me one of his…illegal smirks, of which I had only seen glimpses of before we were married, and now he seemed to find every excuse to give me. "Not tasty enough?"

And it was my game not to melt. "Oh my gosh, if Gene were here he'd be so proud. Now come on, already, I want hot chocolate!"

Careful to not twirl my leaf in my giddiness, I skipped about, pulling him along. The trail had been lightly covered with bark chips and lined with rocks here and there, so it wasn't difficult to see among all the glory. I had been so distracted with finding the right leaf, however, that I hadn't noticed when it had started to look more like a well used game trail. Couldn't expect those poor folk to bark and border the entire trail by hand, right? They'd have to carry up the bark chips by hand, the path was so narrow. That, or risk slicing through the forest.

We discussed fish endearments and what we would have for our late lunch when we returned to the hot springs. The dinner the night before had been nothing short of heavenly, and I couldn't wait to taste what they could have waiting for lunch.

"And maybe we could take a bath," said Naru, flashing his game smirk again.

He managed to make me blush, which also made me feel like I had lost, so I shoved him and called him black eel and he laughed.

It wasn't until my stomach gave a particularly nasty cramp and my feet started to ache that I really started wondering how far we had to go. The trail had yet to turn back to the well cared for path I remembered.

"If my legs give out from exhaustion, will you give me a piggyback?"

Naru snorted. "In all my acquaintance with you—"

"Of course you will. And it will be adorable!"

"Did you even want me to answer?"

"Posh, my fat Hunchback. I would never ignore the sound of your voice."

"Hunchback whales are a mammal, not a fish. Disqualified, puffer fish."

"Hey! I am nothing like a puffer fish!"

"I beg to differ. You become positively apoplectic with fury at times, it's quite amusing."

"You're the only one who finds it that way."

"And thus, here we are, which I'm starting to wonder just where that is exactly."

We both stopped at this, frowning to each other. We agreed on a break and found a fallen tree nearby to sit. I found a particularly fine stick which I took to poking at a nearby mushroom with.

"They said it was only a half mile hike, there and back," said Naru, his expression actually falling back into something like his usual taciturn. "We didn't even reach the end of the trail and yet it doesn't feel like a half mile. I'm sure we didn't take a wrong turn."

"When did the trail start looking like this?"

He glanced over at my mushroom assault. "Like what?"

"Well, when we started out it was all pretty and cared for, like, bark chips laid out and stones lining it and such. I figured they couldn't do the same this far because the trail got too narrow for ATVs to, you know, carry the wood chips and such." My mushroom finally snapped and fell over, gray gills flushed to the sky. "Crap, you don't think we took a wrong turn, do you? Without knowing?"

"They didn't say there were any turns. Just an easy up and down."

"Huh." I poked at the mushroom's gills.

But he shrugged and stood. "No use worrying about it. We can't be lost as long as we're on a trail of some sorts. Let's going."

"You call that a break?"

He rolled his head around, as though to ask, 'oh really?' "What's your idea of a break? Tea and crumpets?"

"Oh, ha ha. Give me a piggyback ride."

"What? Now? Why?"

"Because my feet hurt and I want a piggyback ride!"

Naru sighed. I fully expected him to refuse and start walking. I mean, just because I had married the guy didn't mean he wasn't still Naru. Besides, it kind of amused me when he acted like that.

He turned away and started walking, all right. Rather than refusing me, though, he crouched down in front of me, giving me his back. I gave a happy chirp and launched on him, nearly pitching him face first into the trail. He did much protesting and glaring, but the point was I got ride on Naru's back! And the best part about it was I got to bury my nose in his hair. The forest smell made you feel like you were breathing deep for the first time, but it was just so one could clear more room for Naru aroma.

"Jeeze, maybe you're the whale."

"What was that, plankton sweet?"

"Nice. Call me weak if I call you heavy. You are a full grown, healthy adult, right?"

"And you're a full grown man, so show me some muscle and find a different fish. Something pretty."

It wasn't long after we exhausted our list of known fish that we started to realize something was wrong. The path had yet to show any signs of civilization. In fact, it had even grown smaller. I asked Naru to put me down as a general sense of unease came over me and I thought about the man we had almost ran over the night before. Being lost was one thing. What if we ran in to him?

"It's just one man," said Naru, who had a hand above his eyes as he reconfirmed the position of the sun. "Nothing to be afraid of. If he does anything weird, I can handle him."

"Oh yes, genius and black belt in kung fu."

"Kick boxing and qigong, thank you. Here's our problem. Somehow we've ended up going south. The hotel's back west." He frowned. "I find it unlikely that I would have gone off the path without knowing it. I like to think I'm more aware of my surroundings than most."

I shrugged, not mentioning that he had been rather enjoying himself, so he couldn't be all that aware of where he was going. I couldn't become too cocky in my ability to distract him now, could I?

"So…what, do you think we should go off the path?"

He looked off into the west, where the hotel must be, right into the forest. He didn't answer right away, his shoulders straight. His mouth had gone thin, laugh lines forgotten.

"Naru?"

"Give me a moment."

Wondering if he could hear something, I perked up my ears. All I could pick up was the rustle of autumn leaves, the twitter of birds, and the distant hush of a stream or river. Maybe he was listening for cars. If we could hear cars, that meant the highway was close and tramping into the forest wouldn't be so blind. But if he knew it was west, wouldn't we step onto the highway anyways?

He folded his arms. "Never been lost before."

"I highly doubt that. Everyone has gotten lost before."

"Everyone isn't me."

"Yes yes, you're special. Care to let me in on your thoughts?"

"Wherever this path leads to is sure to get us somewhere, but how far away that somewhere is could be a problem. We were heading west not too long ago, so we should be close to the highway. Perhaps, if we wait, we can hear a car to verify that. Otherwise I don't think it would be very safe to trounce off into the woods. I'm not much of a woodsman."

There was something off about how he had said all that. I couldn't tell if it was his voice, his wording, or just the way he said it, but he kept looking off to the west, head cocked to the side as though to listen. Could it be that his shoulders were just a bit too stiff? Was he just worried?

I thought of the man again and shook it off. Naru had already assured me he wouldn't be a danger, even if he was totally bonkers enough to jump out in front of a moving car at night.

"Is there…something else?" I asked.

He looked over at me. "Hmm? What haven't I told you?"

"You tell me, I just feel like something is off about you." Then it hit me. "Um, d-d-doesn't getting mysteriously lost in the woods sound like a common ghost story to you?"

There it was. His eyes didn't so much as twitch. He was too still. He thought so too. He was probably remembering how I had said I had that instinct of unease last night, and how I said it was of the supernatural kind. Even as my view began to blur up with racing thoughts, I could see the man again, the flash of him in the headlights: thin, hunched, not someone one would expect to be able to dodge a car inhumanly quick.

Unless they were a ghost.

"DAMN IT!"

A few birds launched up from the trees in fright. Even Naru jumped.

"I didn't say anything—" he started.

"No freaking way is some ghost going to ruin my honeymoon! No way no way no way! That's just too much—I mean, come on, we deal with ghosts all the time for our job, what's the likelihood they'll be on our honeymoon?"

"Slim to nothing," said Naru, growing irritable for the first time today. "And making theories before you have any sound evidence can be even worse than a real haunting, that's why I didn't say anything. Honestly, Mai, even you should know that. You've done this for, what, three years now?"

"Well jee, I'm sorry, but I'm sort of lost, hungry, and sort of freaking out here. It's not like you're helping with your arrogant 'I never get lost.' How else would we have gotten lost?"

"Maybe you're right. Maybe everyone gets lost and it's just my turn. But you need to stop thinking it's a ghost. Last thing we need is to start seeing stuff because of your over-active imagination."

"My over-active imagination? You were the one to think of it first! Why else would you even say 'I don't get lost' or start getting suspicious of why we hadn't got back yet?"

"Mai, you're starting to act ridiculous."

"Why, because I have feelings? Try to be in my shoes for once, the last ghost experience I just had got me raped—"

"—I am fully aware of that." And he said every word like a hammered in block of ice. "Don't you think for one second that I have forgotten that. This is exactly why I didn't say anything."

"Why? Because you thought I'd start 'imagining' ghosts?"

"No, because I knew it would scare you!"

He had actually raised his voice that time, but it wasn't that which got me to shut up. Usually when people were angry or arguing, their faces would flush, but his had gone pale, and he had pulled his crossed arms even tighter to his chest, as though to curl in, though he stayed as straight and tall as ever. I knew my Naru, though, and I remembered all the other times he had yelled at me. I also remembered all the other times he was angry with me. Naru never yelled when angry. He was cold, precise, and an expert at the silent treatment.

My anger deflated like loosed balloon. "Naru, what's wrong?"

He gave a louder than necessary huff and all but threw his head, as though to move his bangs out of his eyes. "Nothing. Can we be quiet now so we can listen for cars?"

And since I had the distinct impression that I had just popped open a blister I hadn't known was there and made it worst, I quieted and found somewhere to sit where ants wouldn't crawl down my pants or leaves tickle my neck. Naru remained standing, face turned from me, arms still crossed.

Some time passed in cool silence between us. Some beauty around us had gotten lost somehow, and my leaf that I twisted in my fingers started to look a little worse for wear.

Because it didn't take much thinking for me to realize that Naru probably had more reason to be afraid than me. While I still had my clairvoyance, or 'animal instinct for danger' as he had put it so lightly, Naru was facing a possible ghost lost in the woods with no tech, no spiritualists to call on, no Lin, and with a new wife to protect. I thought back to the last time he had had to face a ghost alone and remembered his cool front. When he had a curse set on him, the malicious spirit that came to bring said curse came to him in his apartment, and eventually to both of us when we were stuck in the sewer, but he had simply faced it down till it left. In fact, now that I got thinking about it, he had always been fearless, even reckless, in the face of ghosts…until they started threatening me.

Of course he would at least try to protect me from the fear of a ghost. Of course he'd try to just keep it to himself. Of course.

"I'm sorry," Naru said.

I looked up at him, surprised, and went to cut him off, but he beat me to it.

"I may have not handled the situation appropriately. I should have just let you…get it out without trying to fix it or stop it. You would have been fine if I had. You always are. I let my own…apprehensions get in the way. For that, I'm sorry."

At least his arms weren't crossed as tight anymore. He even moved them down to his sides as he met my eye and saw my smile.

"Dang it, that's what I was going to say," I said. "Why do you have to keep all the good moments to yourself?"

Slowly, he returned my smile. It was the same one he had given me the last time I had said those words, back in the school yard, right after we had wrapped up the same case that he had gotten said curse on. What had I called it in my files again? 'The After School Hexer?'

I heard a familiar 'whoosh' of a distant car. Naru must have heard it too, for he perked up.

"And there we have it," he said, his shoulders relaxing.

"Yes! Food!"

"Yes," he said.

And as we took our first steps off the trail, Naru took up my hand once more.

If you happened to get a copy of 'Erase Me' or have read it before, please help me by leaving a review for it on Amazon. That way other people can find it as well! :D If not, I'll just, you know, fester in cysts and boils till I die in a pool of puss and my own body fluids...