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SUMMARY: The first in a 14 part serial short story- a new one every week. I wrote this to be recorded as an audio story- you can hear it at www.williamhrdina.com- but I think it holds up as a regular short story as well, and its finished so it won't disappear.

Croucher Part I- "A Grand Adventure"

"But it sounds so boring." Logan said- rolling his eyes with the total derision and dismissal only a teenager can truly express.
Ryan Webb didn't take the bait. Even though his fathering experience was limited, he'd already discovered nothing good could possibly come from poking the bull with a stick. In lieu of a response, Ryan turned up the radio- and it took a lot for him to turn up the cacophonous noise his child defined as music.
A half an hour of silence later, father and son pulled into the gravel parking area of "Outdoor Adventures LLC." Defying his own best advice, Ryan said, "Let's just try to have a good time okay?"
His olive branch earned him a look from Logan, but mercifully, no sarcasm.

Dottie and Cliff Angell were holding hands for what seemed like the first time in eighteen years- it was a bright sunny day and the Beatles were playing on the stereo. In the backseat of their rental car sat two large backpacks, both stuffed to the gills with the myriad equipment they would need for their 10 day trek into the deep wilderness of the Rocky Mountains. Dottie checked the printed out Mapquest directions for the tenth time- they were getting close and she didn't want to miss the turnoff- Dottie always got a little OCD when she got excited.
They felt good- a bit sad, but good. The last of their three children left for college (Dartmouth) two weeks earlier, and, as all couples must do, Dottie and Cliff were in the process of once again getting to know each other not just as parents, but as people. In many ways it was weird to have a spouse, someone so familiar, suddenly become so alien. The defining role in their relationship- that of parent- was suddenly missing.
The trip was Dottie's idea. She was following a suggestion she heard on Oprah to get out of the empty nest. As the nice psychologist (who also happened to plan such trips as a side business) explained, a get away after the last child leaves accomplishes two purposes- it gets the couple out of their suddenly empty and too-large house- and it gives them an opportunity for husband and wife to work together as a team- a dyad.

Inside the office of Outdoor Adventure LLC, John Legasse watched the teenage boy climb out of the car and stretch. He was about 15, not quite properly grown into his new body yet. A glance at his watch showed John they were on time, something he appreciated. But then, the fast food wrapper fell out of the car on the boy's side. It landed on the gravel and was ignored, even though John was sure the boy saw the wrapper fall.
For the briefest of seconds, rage flared up in John Legasse's eyes. He hated when these tourists came into his environment and immediately started treating the place like some kind of toilet... he stopped himself. Took a deep breath.
"This is a teaching moment." John said aloud to the empty room. It was something his court-ordered shrink taught him to do- to take the frustration he felt at people for their disregard for the environment and turn it into an "opportunity for positivity." The shrink told him to see such degradation of sacred mother earth as an opportunity to teach people, in a friendly manner, about the importance of not doing such blindingly obvious things as dumping their garbage on the ground.
In another technique he learned from the doctor, John sat quietly and counted to 10 before getting up and heading out to meet the new clients. He needed this job. He had to keep it together. One or two more expeditions and he was sure he'd find the place he'd been seeking for over five years.
He was close- he felt it in his bones.