Marti and the Doppelganger - Chapter 6

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Marti and the Doppelganger
Chapter 6

By Portia Bennett

 
Introduction: This is another story in the Cynthia Chronicles series. Other stories in the series are An Incremental Journey, Cynthia and the Reluctant Girlfriend, Cynthia and the Dumpster Diver, Cynthia and the Moment of Truth, Cynthia and the High School Years - Part I, Cynthia and the High School Years - Part II, Charli and the Girl Cave, Bobbie and the Glass Ceiling, Randi and the College Professor, Adam and the Three Wishes, Lisa and the Culinary Quest (aka Howard and the Completed pass), Cynthia and the Solicitous Sisters-in-Law, Cynthia and the Queen of the Knight, and Cynthia and the Dropped Ball. The time frame of this story follows about three to four years after Charli and the Girl Cave. This story takes place a little more than a year after Bobbie Anderson wins the (British) Open and about ten years after Simoné and the Second Time Around.

The girls meet ‘Ricky’, whose actual name is Arnold, and his wife and children. Arnold is a bit of a mystery as he and his family are quite intellectually advanced; especially for raccoons. The girls take a rather long hike to fairly high altitudes and get some more lessons on ecology and geology. They also determine that a member of the group of boys who passed them is transgender. They just don’t know who it is.

 


This work is copyrighted by the author and any publication or distribution without the written consent of the author is strictly prohibited. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of the characters to persons living or dead is coincidental.


 
 
Chapter 6
 

“Okay, everyone needs to be quiet. He usually comes when I call, but I don’t know how he’ll react with so many people around. He lets me scratch his ears and rub his belly, and he’s never come close to biting me. Of course he likes the treats I bring him. Let’s see if he’ll come out.” They were sitting on some logs at the rear of the kitchen. Rhonda had bag full of dog biscuits and a dish of water.

“He’s over by the dumpster and he’s checking us out. See him? He’s in the shadows on the left side.”

“Come on Ricky. It’s okay. These are my friends.”

The large raccoon stood on his hind legs taking everyone in before he dropped to all fours and lumbered over to the group. He stood in front of Rhonda in an obvious begging pose, and Rhonda gave him a dog biscuit which he immediately swished around in the dish of water before devouring what was an appreciated delicacy.

“Well aren’t you the cutest thing,” Lanu exclaimed. She’d never seen a raccoon before, except in pictures.

“Thank you for the compliment; although I’d prefer ‘ruggedly handsome’.”

“You can understand me?”

“Obviously, but I don’t think Rhonda can. I hear you in my head, but I don’t understand much of that noise you make.”

Marti had picked up on this conversation immediately. “Do you understand me?” she asked.

“Perfectly. Just a second, I want to get another of these treats. They certainly beat dumpster diving. I brought the wife and kids. They’re behind the dumpster. They’re not very sure about this, but I told them not to worry.

“Harriet, come on out and bring the kids. It’s perfectly safe.”

“Are you sure, Arnold?”

“Absolutely. These nice humans understand us.”

“Arnold? I thought your name was Ricky,” Marti interjected.

"Goodness sakes, no. That is so prosaic. I just don’t seem to be able to get that across to her. Although of late she seems to be a bit more cognizant of what we’re thinking. We’ll have to work on that.

“Okay, this is Harriet. We’ve been together for a few years. From left to right we have Danny, Arnold, Jr. and Misty.

“Say hello to …. Say, I don’t know your names.”

“I’m Marti. That’s short for Martha. And this is Lanu. We’re cousins. She’ll have to tell you her whole name. I’m still having trouble saying it correctly.”

“Is there anyone else around here that we might converse with?” Arnold asked.

“Not as far as we know. There are many more in California. They’re just not up here at the moment.”

By this time Harriet and the little ones were sitting up and getting treats from the other girls. It wasn’t long after that that the three little ones were curled up in three of the girls laps.

“Would you tell me what’s going on here,” Rhonda whispered in Marti’s ear.

“How about back in the shower in a little while.”

“Okay.”

***

“What’s going on? I’m pretty sure you were conversing with Ricky and the other raccoons.”

“His name is Arnold. He’s not really happy about being called Ricky. He says it’s prosaic. His wife is Harriet and the kids are Arnold, Jr, Danny and Misty from top to bottom.

“Did you see anything unusual about that family?” Marti asked.

“I sure did. Raccoons normally have two to five kits. There are three kits in that family and each one is about a year apart. That is unlike anything I’ve seen before.”

“How long have you known Ricky, er Arnold?”

“I first saw him when I attended the camp four years ago. I saw him the next year when I was attending again, then last year and this year as a counsellor. For some reason we seemed to hit it off. He’s always been friendly, always under control. I felt I could trust him not to act like some raccoons who try to take advantage of things. He’s never caused any problems.

“That is rather strange behavior, isn’t it?”

“From oh so many points of view. I know they are fairly social and have family groups, but not this way. Have you ever heard of raccoons being monogamous? I haven’t,” Marti said.

“I have a feeling His Wisdom is involved in this; however, I don’t have a clue as to why. I guess we’ll just have to wait to find out.”

“We have a big day tomorrow. Let’s get some rest and see what happens."

***

The area around the upper Santa Ana River is filled with cabins and Camps. The little river runs between steep hillsides that in several areas turn into relatively flat benches. Barton flats is one of these areas on the south side of the river. Camp Bear Paw was only one of more than a dozen camps in the area. The Boy and Girl Scouts had their camps. The Pasadena Boys’ Club was another. Several of the Major church groups in Southern California had their special retreats. Some camps were year round and others were for the summer season only. Camp Bear Paw was primarily the latter; though it could be rented out just about any time.

One of the things that attracted Marti to the camp was its secular base. If anyone wanted to attend the church of their choice, at least some of them, they could. The camp van would take them there. There was no synagogue or mosque close to the camp area. Sunday was basically a quiet day with no major activities. They had arrived on a Sunday and it was now Wednesday; the time for their first big hiking adventure.

Not everyone was into hiking; however, there were some who couldn’t be kept down. Those who’d never spent any time much above sea level would soon find out exactly what high altitude meant. Their first venture to higher altitude would be to Dry Lake and the pass beyond. Dry Lake and Dollar Lake had been formed by a terminal moraines; that is soil and rock left at the bottom end of retreating glaciers.

About 10,000 years ago there had been seven small glaciers on the north side of Mt. San Gorgonio. Each one left the telltale signs of glaciation. Unlike the hundreds of glaciers that roamed the Sierra Nevada to the north, none of these glaciers was able to carve a basin in the bedrock that would hold enough water to form a tarn or small lake. Small lakes did form at the end of two of the glaciers; however, the bottoms were permeable. As the climate became drier, Dry Lake seldom held water year round. Dollar Lake did hold water until the recent droughts dried it up. That did not bode well for the trout that had been stocked there. As the drought had eased, it did hold water once again, but it was no longer stocked.

Rhonda and two other counselors herded the group of twenty up the trail towards their objectives. This was to be an educational hike with frequent stops along the way.

They made their first stop at a little alpine meadow that was rather marshy. A small stream flowed across the trail. On the nice side of things were the very attractive plants and flowers. The columbine and lilies were in full bloom and the false hellebore made a nice border plant. At the drier edge a gooseberry plant was in full bloom. On the downside, the marshy area was a breeding ground for mosquitos. No one seemed to notice that neither Marti, Lanu nor Rhonda seemed to be bothered by the little blood suckers.

While Rhonda was explaining the differences between the ponderosa pine and Jeffery pine a group of teenage boys and their counselors passed. A couple of subdued whistles emanated from the group. Marti picked it up immediately. She didn’t have to do any mind reading. There was someone in that group who was very unhappy. Her sisters had helped with identifying transgender, and she was getting very good at it. It wasn’t like mind reading. It was a different aura; almost like a dark cloud emanating from the person.

“When that group passed did you read or feel anything out of kilter?”

“Yes,” Lanu was also nodding the affirmative. “Someone is very unhappy. For a moment, I thought it was a girl, but those are all boys.”

“Yes and no, one of those boys is a girl on the inside, and she’s very depressed.

“Did you see where it was coming from?”

“It was from near the end of the group. I can’t be sure, but I thought it might be the one with the striped T-shirt.”

“Yes, I think you’re right. It’s strongest from that area. I can’t be too sure, though. I have a feeling we’ll see them again when they return. They’re not staying out overnight, and if the map is correct, they’ll have to come back this way. We should be able to pinpoint the source then.”

“Right, we’ll keep an ear out for them.”

By this time they were close to 9,000 feet, one of the other counsellors was discussing the Canadian Life Zone and the obviously quite different pine trees in the area.

“So, what are you two up to now?” Rhonda asked.

“Up to no good as usual, I can assure you,” Lanu said with a smirk.

“All kidding aside, something happened back there when that group from Camp Coyote passed us,”

Marti saw no reason to keep their discovery secret. “We’re pretty sure that someone in that group is transgender and is in a very bad frame of mind. When they returned, we were going to try to pinpoint who it was and see if there was anything we could do.”

“Like get His Wisdom involved,” Rhonda asked with raised eyebrows.

“Did you have anyone else in mind?” Marti laughed.

“Like I said the other day, your family is legend. You were unknown 20 years ago, and now you are discussed everywhere. Quite favorably, I might add. Mom can’t wait to meet your mom at the national meeting this fall. I hope Cindy and Bobbie will be there.”

“They’re planning on it. Randi is too.”

“About this current problem, we won’t see that group again today. They’re bushwhacking across to Dollar Lake before dropping back to our trail. They’ll be doing an orientation exercise. Their camp is several miles from ours; however, there is a get together on Saturday when we have a dance. That might give you a chance to see what can be done.”

“His Wisdom promised not to meddle unless we asked him to, and I think he’ll stick to his promise. I do know for sure that he will be very easy to reach if we have to.”

The three of them quickly caught up to the rest of the group. They had stopped at cleared area a couple of hundred feet wide. It ran up the hill to the timber line and down the hill for a considerable distance. “Does anyone want to venture a guess what happened here?” one of the counselors asked.

A camper from Arkansas offered, “A tornado? However, the edges are too clean.”

A couple of the girls laughed at that suggestion.

“This was definitely not a tornado; however Southern California is good for a couple of tornados a year. The central US does not have a monopoly on them.

“Any other guesses?”

“Could it have been an avalanche?” someone else offered.

“Correctomundo. This happened a number of years ago. Note the small conifers sticking up through the chaotic wood pile. In another couple hundred years it will be difficult to see where this happened. We’ll see where two more happened that same year. That had been a particularly heavy snow year. The avalanches started way up near the top of that ridge. Fortunately, no one was around.

They had lunch at Dry Lake and were very glad that they’d been carrying a lot of water. They hadn’t seen running water since they’d left the mosquito infested marshy area. After a nice lunch they climbed to a gap that was right at 10,000 feet. The Coachella Valley and Palm Springs lay 10,000 feet below them as they looked down the White Water River canyon. That hike was definitely not on their agenda.

***

Saturday night is dance night with the boys from Camp Coyote. Unfortunately, the person who might be transgender does not show up. Lanu deals appropriately with a Lothario.

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Comments

Can't wait for the girls to

Can't wait for the girls to try to help the young girl trapped in her male form, Marti needs this confidence boost as I am concerned about her feeling a little too inferior to her sisters especially as they have a long list of people helped just within the family.

I'm told STFU more times in a day than most people get told in a lifetime

Looking forward to more

gillian1968's picture

I wonder what we like happen with the raccoon family? I have a feeling they have more of a role to play.

I enjoy nature hikes. This area sounds a bit like a church retreat I went to in central Arizona many years ago.

I wonder if there's a music camp around? New Mexico has one up north of Santa Fe.

Gillian Cairns

Area in Story

littlerocksilver's picture

This is a real area in Southern California. Quite special.

Portia