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SUMMARY: The third 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.

Part III- "Getting to Know You"

"So what brings you out here to the middle of the mountains?" Ryan Webb asked Dottie after about an hour of walking quietly through the placid wilderness of the Rockies. Pine trees lined the path and the carpet of fallen needles provided for easy walking.
"Well, we have 3 kids and the final one left for college so here we are- trying to forget about the empty rooms in our house." Dottie replied, clearly trying to put a happy face on their adventure. "And how about you?"
Ryan cast a glance in the direction of Logan, who was trailing a good 50 yards behind the rest of the group. He spoke quietly. "Well, my son Logan and I have only recently been reunited as Father and son and so far its been... difficult. Carole, his mother, fought a long battle against drug abuse, and finally she managed to lose it so badly the court took him away from her- so now, at age 15, he's really living with a parent for the first time in a long time. He thinks I abandoned him, which sucks because I actually spent years trying to find him and his mother, but she lived so far off the grid I could never find them, until I got the call from the judge. It turns out they were living in Puerto Rico- and yet somehow, my son blames me for not looking off-continent for him."
"It's hard with teenagers." Dottie said with an air of authority on the subject. "They're so immature and so grown-up at the same time. Well, all you can do is love him and be there for him- we ended up with three great kids, but believe me, I have good friends who I know for a fact we're great parents- and their kids still ended up being little monsters. Maybe your boy will come around. If he shows it or not, your Logan knows you're trying to do something here by taking him on this trip. Give him some time and maybe he'll come around."
"I really hope you're right." Ryan said. He didn't look too hopeful though.
Logan was doing his best to hike and play his PSP at the same time. He kept one eye on the battery meter, once it ran out, there would be no way to recharge it. Logan resented everything about the trip, about his Dad; he even resented the mountains for being so majestic the sight of them occasionally pushed the angst out of his mind. He knew his Dad was trying to reach out to him, to bring a fresh spark to their relationship, but he was honor bound to reject his Dad's attempts at reconciliation- his mother had filled Logan's head with a whole lot of lies for a whole lot of years- it would take time before the reality of Ryan's actions would be able to outstrip the potency of Carole's vision of him.
"So how does a man get involved in being a guide for Outdoor Adventures?" Cliff asked John when it became clear the guide wasn't going to be the one to initiate any conversation. The squat man, built like Rick James' preverbial "brick house," made Cliff feel a little bit nervous and he hoped talking to him would set him at ease.
"Well, I've lived around here for the past 10 years or so. I've always liked the woods, the wilderness. I've spent a lot of time in this particular area."
"Really? What is it about this place that you find so interesting?" Cliff asked.
"It's just a really special place is all. Most of the Rockies are developed- not heavily populated- but populated. And if not populated, regulated. Well, this area, the 300 square miles here- they're still pretty much untapped. People walk through here, and sometimes fly in for helicopter skiing and other such nonsense. But this is one of the places on the earth where nature is free to be itself. It's possible there are people living in here somewhere, but if they are, they must be totally self-sufficient for us to not know about them."
"Like the lost world or something?" Cliff asked.
"I suppose something like that, yeah."
"Far out." Cliff said, revealing his hippy roots.
"Far out indeed." John agreed, with a disconcerting smile on his face.