NorthWest (John Hazard - Book II) Read Free Page B

was about as long as his arm from elbow to fingertips. He took the thing from the display rack. The rubber grip felt uncomfortable in his hand. He could have sworn that it was burning the skin ever so slightly as he held it. At that moment he rather resented his parents for instilling so many fears and foolish beliefs in him. After all, this was simply a tool, a piece of metal designed to cut wood or drive in tent stakes. It would only be a weapon in the hand of a man that intended to use it as such.
    So while he was still convinced that it would be used only for good and practical purposes, he put the hatchet in his cart. After taking a few turns through the racks of sports clothes, he pushed his nearly empty cart to the front of the store and up to the checkout lane where an athletic looking type was working the register.
    As he stood there waiting for the person in front of him to find his credit card, he picked up an Outdoorsman magazine from the rack and flipped through the pages. There was an article on solar powered generators, an ad for shotgun shells, an article about building a shelter with a poncho and some branches and one on how to survive an avalanche in the spring. Flipping past an ad for mountain boots, his worst fears were confirmed. He stared at the article about a person who had accidentally lopped off three fingers while chopping firewood.
    He was stunned and stood staring in horror at the hatchet in his cart while the exasperated cashier repeated, “Next!” He began putting his few items on the conveyor belt and carefully picked up the hatchet, holding the wretched item between his thumb and pointer, and lifted it away from him. He set it on the energy drink display at the top of the counter. With obvious relief, he continued to empty his cart on the belt.
    The cashier rang everything up and announced, “That will be twenty three dollars and eighty-five cents.” After he swiped Rajesh’s card, he pointed at the card reader and said, “Please press the green button.”
    The young cashier tore off the receipt, quickly glanced at it, and smiled. “You saved two dollars today. Thank you for shopping at Sports Mart!”
    Rajesh took his receipt, shoved it in his pocket, and pushed his cart out the door and across the parking lot to his car. On the way home, he was thinking about his feelings about the whole hatchet thing. Was he being ridiculous? Shouldn’t one live by their convictions? “You have to believe in something or your time here on earth will mean nothing,” his father always said. Seeing things from that perspective, he felt proud that he had walked out without it, but somehow deep in his gut he had a feeling he would be sorry he had done so.

 
    Six
     
    Sherri Washington carefully reviewed her stack of documents wondering if she had forgotten anything that Dr. Renner had asked her to do. This had been referred to as a ‘class assignment’. She had made the reservations, procured the maps, and hired the guide to take them up into the forest the first two days.
    For some reason he had refused to travel beyond the Whitmore gap. When she inquired as to his reason, he simply replied, “Weird things going on up there lately. Can’t do it.” Weird things indeed, exactly what her class was going into the woods to investigate. She didn’t even try to argue with him about it.
    It looked like she had taken care of everything, everything except packing her clothes and a small bag for her son, Shandre. His grandmother, his father’s mother, had agreed to keep him for the next two weeks while she was away. For this she was grateful since she needed to go on this trip to get a passing grade in her class.
    Shandre was already six, and quite the little man, but he would always be her baby no matter how old he was. Being a single mother was no easy task and situations like this always pointed a wagging finger at her ability to manage, something she had been dealing with for some time now.
    This