Portals

Prologue

It was a beautiful sun drenched day bursting with late summer warmth. A man in his mid-thirties stood before a portable grill the couple had brought with them to Stillman’s Lake. It was their sixth anniversary. The aroma of sizzling burgers was working its magic on the salivary glands of a large German Shepherd standing nearby, the animal’s keen nose savoring the scent-laden air as a human might an appetizer.

Satisfied with his progress the man raised his head, his searching eyes locking on their target. His wife had grabbed their raft and paddled out onto the lake to sunbathe. She was hard to miss as she sat swathed in the bright yellow inflatable, lazily bobbing in harmony with the gentle swells rippling across the water’s surface.

They met when she was a junior and he a graduate student in his final year. She had captivated him instantly with her long brown hair and high-set cheekbones. He loved her smile—especially when tossed in his direction. Her soft brown eyes promised a lifetime of alluring mystery. A promise well kept.

Memories of their early days together rose in his mind. His love for her encompassed all that she was. He laughingly referred to it as pretzel love; an intertwining of physical, mental and spiritual into a single delectable treat. She was his best friend. It didn’t matter if they were camping in their beloved Adirondacks or grocery shopping at the local supermarket, she was the woman he wanted to be with.

The sound of sizzling meat jumped up a notch as if competing with his memories for attention. The man turned back to the grill, deftly flipping the burgers. Tiny eruptions, caused by dripping fat striking hot coals, sent up tantalizing, aroma-laden smoke. Just about done he thought. Time to get his wife heading back to shore.

Once again, his eyes sought out the yellow raft. He waved, and the lovely form waved back. He motioned for her to come in. He saw her grin and rub her stomach in anticipation. She reached for the oars, in her haste knocking one of them overboard. He could hear her laughing as she leaned over the side, stretching her lithe body its full length, outstretched fingers straining to grasp the wayward paddle.

Smiling at her antics, her husband watched. With a little lunge she closed the gap and grabbed the paddle. In the next instant, he realized she had miscalculated and couldn’t help chuckling as she tumbled clumsily into the water.

He was unconcerned. She was an excellent swimmer, keeping herself in shape with daily workouts in the pool. She had a fierce dedication he envied. Once she set her mind to something she was unstoppable. She was also somewhat of a prankster. And as he waited for her to pop up to the surface he pictured her swimming towards him underwater. Baiting him. Trying to work up enough worry with her delayed appearance to goad him into diving in to save her. He knew her well enough to know that as soon as he did, she’d likely grab him from behind as he swam by and scare the daylights out of him! Still, she’d been under now for over a minute. If she was trying to make him nervous she was succeeding.

The woman held her breath for what she thought must be coming up on her second minute. It was foolish, really, to have lost her balance. She could well imagine her husband’s laughter at her expense. She’d be in for a good teasing, she could be sure of it! That’s why she had decided, almost the instant she hit the water, she would lure him into the lake.

She was weaving her way in between rocks littering the lake bottom, some nearly as big as a car. They were custom made for the ambush she had in mind.

Her body moved with effortless ease through the sun-diffused water. Given the growing discomfort in her lungs, she knew it was getting time to head for the surface. She’d glide through the opening between those two rocks just ahead and push off the bigger one to propel herself upwards.

She split the gap between the rocks. The opening was a tighter squeeze than she had supposed and she could feel the hard surfaces pressing against her torso. No matter. One strong kick and she would be shooting her way into the sunlit realm above.

As her right leg contracted for the final kick she felt a jolt ripple through her body. Startled, she nearly expelled the remaining oxygen in her lungs. Her left leg seemed to be caught on something. She twisted around, fighting a growing sense of alarm. Her ankle had wedged itself in a cranny between the two rocks. Her hands moved down her thigh, following the contour of her leg.

She struggled to free herself, to escape the vice grip of the granite monster holding her fast. Her lungs ached for air. Her body began writhing in a wild series of panicked contortions while her mind screamed its fear…

1

Jesse could hear the truck laboring as it neared the crest of the hill. Another few minutes and the behemoth would be upon them, its wide metallic girth commandeering the narrow dirt road, churning up clouds of dust and, worst of all, shattering the peacefulness of his private sanctuary just as the three trucks that had rumbled by before this one had. Not that he could do anything about it. His sense of personal invasion was at odds with the fact it was public land. State owned land he had walked on since boyhood. The growing pressure to find new sources of energy had led to renewed exploration in the area and, as luck would have it, his favorite getaway seemed to be a promising source of natural gas. Some outfit out of Texas had hauled their gear and drilling experience all the way to upstate New York and were in the process of punching holes in the earth’s crust to get at the colorless, odorless vapors pooled in scattered reservoirs somewhere beneath his feet.

He looked up, spotting Kai some thirty yards away. As usual, the dog was more interested in exploring the grassy strips of meadow between the road and the woods than any mechanical sounds the light breeze bore in their direction.

Kai!

Jesse stepped off the road and dropped to one knee, feeling a strong sense of affection and satisfaction as the dog abandoned his pursuits to return to his master.

Good boy, Kai, Jesse murmured, draping an arm over the animal’s shoulders. He pressed him gently to his side, concerned the dog might get it in his head to take a closer look at the noisy machine rolling past. The driver stuck his bearded face out the window and waved.

You two are walkin’ fools! he hollered, the lump in his cheek ample proof of a serious infatuation with tobacco. Leaning out the window, he launched a slug of dark brown liquid at nothing in particular. I bet you two got more miles on this road than I do. And that’s sayin’ somethin’!

Jesse returned the wave with a nod of his head. Try and leave some dirt on the road for us to walk on, Lester! he shouted, as billows of dust formed in the big rig’s wake. He stood, releasing the dog. Good boy, Kai. Go play!

The animal bounded off into one of the many meadows that lay between the road and the tree-line of the nearby woods. Jesse caught sight of a blue jay feeding in some sumac. The shrub was everywhere and all sorts of birds feasted on the fuzzy red fruits that grew in abundance within the bluish-green leaves of the dense spreading plant. The jay erupted with a harsh jeering sound as he caught sight of Jesse then winged his way into the woods, his echoing cries growing increasingly faint as he penetrated deeper into its midst. Good riddance, Jesse thought. The jays were pretty to look at but they could be a nuisance and bring a quiet walk to an abrupt end with their raucous clamor.

He and Kai had been going on these walks two or three times a week for over three years. Jesse looked down the sloping landscape to his right. There it was about a half-mile off. He could see sparkling patches of light here and there between the trees as sunlight danced on the lake’s surface. Stillman’s Lake. The lake. The last place he had seen Ellen alive.

Ever since Ellen had drowned in the lake he and Kai had taken long walks here. He was thankful for the dog’s company. Kai was the perfect companion. In the days immediately following the tragedy Jesse would sob almost uncontrollably, wondering if there were enough buckets in the world to catch the torrent of tears. Kai would sit beside him, perfectly still but pressing close, as if wanting to give Jesse some of his strength; his love unconditional and unwavering. At length, when Jesse’s body began to slow its tortured wracking, Kai would lick away the tracks salty tears had left behind.

He and Ellen had picked out Kai together shortly after marrying. Ellen had doted over Kai as a puppy, even going so far as to paint his toenails the same color as her own until Jesse made such a fuss about it she’d finally relented, and in the end limited herself to painting only the dew claw of a foreleg claiming it was the source of Kai’s strength. Like Sampson’s hair.

Most of his friends said he shouldn’t come here anymore. That the walks only served to keep the wound festering and Ellen would have wanted him to move on, to go on living—even if it meant eventually finding someone else. After all, they reminded him, he wasn’t even forty yet. Sure it hurt and they knew he and Ellen had loved each other deeply. But life had to go on and he had too much to give to isolate himself.

After the first year he had taken their advice and given it a try, staying away for an entire summer. He’d even gone to a couple of cookouts the gang had organized, although he suspected they were plotting ways to help him ‘heal’ as they called it. They were good friends and well intentioned, he knew. But he was quick to recognize that some of the introductions to members of the opposite sex were a not-so-subtle attempt to get his mind thinking in new directions. Directions he wasn’t ready for and, frankly, wasn’t sure if he ever would be.

About the only dissenter from the prevailing chorus was his brother, James. Not too surprising, Jesse mused as he turned down the trail leading to the lake’s eastern shore. Although they were twins, he and James hadn’t seen much of each other after Ellen’s death.

He whistled, and watched as Kai looked up. It was part of their routine, a signal that Jesse was about to change course. Even without the whistle Kai would likely have made the turn. After all, it was a pattern they never deviated from.

Their approach to the lake differed from that taken by the general public. It was different from the way he and Ellen had come, too. Usually, folks came by way of a turn-off from Highway 8. There was a parking area along the west side of the lake. Or, if you were adventurous and didn’t mind the potholes, you could continue past the parking lot, taking the dirt road around the lake to the east shore where you were pretty sure of finding a spot you could have all to yourself.

Jesse thought back to when he and James were boys. They had grown up less than two miles from here, often walking over the hills and down to the lake to spend the day fishing. There were plenty of bass and perch. The two had discovered the route that Jesse and Kai now used for their walks. It was more private and lowered the chances of his running into anyone he knew who might be picnicking in one of the more accessible areas.

A faint smile played across his face. His boyhood memories of the days when he and James were close always made him smile. Unless people knew they were twins they would never have guessed the two were even brothers. Jesse stood nearly four inches taller with brown hair and green eyes whereas James was a blue-eyed blonde. They had been inseparable growing up and the lake had offered them endless enjoyment as they fished, camped, canoed, swam and explored every bit of the surrounding countryside.

He reached the shore and headed north towards the spot where he and Ellen had set up their anniversary picnic. The lake was engulfed by trees; mostly pines, beeches and hemlocks with a smattering of sugar maples. He stepped into a small clearing. There were a few yards of sandy beach with a fire pit and a picnic table worn to a dull, bluish-gray color from years of exposure. He walked over to the table and sat down facing the water, arms stretched out across the rough surface, the fingers of his hands intertwined.

As he looked out over the lake he was struck by the beauty of it all. The rolling surface glistened like a sapphire jewel and a light breeze brought with it the distinct smell of pine resin. A few billowy clouds rose majestically higher and higher in a sky dominated by a brilliant sun. He and Ellen had sat right here at this very picnic table more times than he could count. Side-by-side in their bathing suits with bare shoulders touching they would watch the sun burn an arc into the western sky, fascinating them with the countless transitioning hues of emerging twilight. With the darkness came the symphonic sounds of night creatures and the rhythmic lapping of water. Jesse would light the campfire while Ellen poured wine into metal cups and sliced up an apple and a few chunks of sharp cheese. They’d trade the picnic table for two beach chairs by the fire, drinking wine and munching on cheese with the aroma of wood smoke adding to the flavor. They would talk well into the night, mapping the progress of the moon’s reflection on the mirror stillness of the water.

Jesse felt the familiar collision of opposing emotions as sweet memories of their time together crumbled beneath the weight of her absence. It was as if he were looking at a beautiful painting only to find the canvas suddenly igniting in flames. It left him with a bittersweet taste in his soul. It was just this sort of emotional whip-saw that made his friends plead with him to stop coming here. Sometimes he thought maybe they were right. After all, there wasn’t anything he could do to change the outcome of that awful day and bring Ellen back to life. But that was just the point. He couldn’t bring her back and here, right here, was the closest he could get to her. To stop coming was to let her go. He’d tried and found he either wasn’t able or wasn’t willing. He wasn’t sure which. All he knew was this was the last place they had been together and it drew him like a magnet.

He looked out across the lake. It was truly picturesque. But loveliness alone couldn’t make a person happy. You could bring to mind all the beautiful scenes you could conjure up and if they didn’t include meaningful relationships with living things they could only take you so far. Every happy memory he could think of involved people he loved. Surround a guy with all the boy-toys he could dream of and he would tire of them in short order without someone to share life with. Jesse shut his eyes and exhaled slowly. The lake with Ellen, even on the worst of days, had been a source of joy. Without her it was a beautiful but sterile emptiness.

The years had taken some of the edge off the pain he felt as he thought back to their last day together, although he could still touch the panic that had shot through his whole being when Ellen hadn’t surfaced after what he knew was too long. Looking back, he saw himself racing down to the water, plunging in and swimming furiously out to where the raft continued to bob up and down in the gentle swells. Time after time he’d dove into the water, desperate to see more than a few feet in any direction. Reaching. Straining. Willing his groping fingers to find her before it was too late. Screaming her name when he broke the surface for the last time, his lungs beyond their ability to hold air anymore.

But it had been too late.

It had taken the sheriff’s department’s divers twenty minutes to find her. And with each passing minute he’d felt hope drain out of him until his heart had become as lifeless as a dead branch on a tree. Still attached but useless.

Then there was the funeral. He was a shadow walking among the living, playing a part in some awful dream. Waking up in the morning with only an instant of blissful ignorance before reality kicked in, sending a tidal wave of sorrow crashing down, dashing him senseless.

Their network of friends and family were wonderful with everyone trying to be supportive. But in the end it was Kai who helped him the most. Maybe even saved him. Jesse was Kai’s one-man flock and the big Shepherd was determined not to lose him.

Jesse fought back tears, willing himself back to the present. I miss you Ellen, he murmured softly.

He bent down and picked up a stick. Kai loved it when he threw a stick into the lake. He would plunge right in, strong muscles powering through the water. He would always find the stick and bring it back, shaking water everywhere, eager to repeat the performance until Jesse finally called it quits.

Jesse turned and looked but didn’t see Kai anywhere. He called but there was no response. He walked down to the shore and looked as far as he could in both directions, shouting Kai’s name. His cries were met with silence, the animal nowhere in sight.

Jesse sat down at the picnic table to collect his thoughts. This had never happened before and he was pretty sure Kai wouldn’t just wander off.

Movement in the bushes along the edge of the site caught his eye.

Kai!

The dog came to him immediately. Jesse bent down and cupped the large, intelligent head in his hands.

Where the heck have you been, boy?

Kai wagged his tail in response and lifted a foreleg, offering to shake. Laughing, Jesse took the paw in his own hand then stopped short, letting his breath out in a long, slow exhale as he stared at the single painted nail.

2

It took several minutes before Jesse’s mind could begin to rationally process the visual cue his eyes had sent to his brain. Seeing the painted nail on Kai unleashed an onslaught of emotions running riot through his nervous system. It was overwhelming, and it took a while for his breathing to return to normal.

He looked again. There was no doubt about it. A dew claw had been freshly painted. A color he knew, a color he’d seen a hundred times. Iced Mauve. Ellen’s favorite.

He felt as though the outside of his skin was made of some sort of tingly material. He shut his eyes, inhaling slowly, struggling to calm himself. There had to be some rational explanation. Something that made sense. Maybe his mind was playing tricks on him. Perhaps it was just sunlight reflecting off the nail, passing through the prism of his memories and picking up some of Ellen’s nail polish on its way to his brain. He’d just settle himself before opening his eyes again. A full return to his senses would undo the trick his subconscious had played on him.

Jesse kept his eyes shut, taking five slow deliberate breaths before opening them. When he did, he found Kai looking at him intently, his face betraying the canine signs of concern Jesse had come to appreciate.

Shake.

Kai lifted his paw and placed it in Jesse’s waiting hand, the rough texture of the pad contrasting with the softness of the surrounding fur.

No, he hadn’t been mistaken. His mind had played no tricks on him. The dew claw had been painted Ellen’s favorite color. That much was certain.

His mind reached for a plausible explanation. They had been there for maybe an hour. Was it possible there was someone nearby who had painted Kai’s nail while Jesse was absorbed in his memories? He didn’t think so. It would be quite a feat and require a series of unlikely coincidences. Still, what other explanation could there possibly be?

He looked at Kai. You meet somebody new around here while you were rambling about? Kai cocked his head as if to say, you figure it out.

Jesse got to his feet. Come on. Let’s take a look around.

He began exploring the area, carefully looking for any sign that someone else may have been around, all the while keeping a watchful eye on Kai and keeping him close. He wasn’t going to take any chance of the dog wandering off only to return with some new surprise. He searched by ever expanding circles with the campsite serving as the epicenter. They were about twenty yards out when Jesse sensed he was alone. He’d checked on Kai just moments earlier, spotting the dog sniffing at the base of a large, moss covered boulder in the midst of a stand of hemlocks.

Kai! he shouted. Kai, come! Nothing. He called again and still there was no response. He turned and took a few steps toward where he’d last spotted him.

It was Jesse’s ears that first detected a presence. He stared in the direction of the sound, a soft rustling of something moving. A shape was taking form, only a faint glimmering at first but becoming increasingly more solid, like an artist’s sketch being filled in after the outline boundaries were defined. The shape came to life and was walking towards him. A moment later, he felt Kai’s warm breath as the dog nuzzled his hand.

He was dumbfounded. What’s going on? The first time Kai disappears he returns with nail polish on him. He vanishes again practically under my nose and suddenly reappears as if he’s been transported by aliens!

Jesse had always chuckled at the UFO tales his friend, Ben, liked to tell. Ben was an Area 51 conspiracy fanatic, convinced the military was concealing both aliens and their advanced gadgetry. Right now, renegade aliens made as much sense as anything else Jesse could come up with.

Come on, Kai, he muttered, we’re getting out of here. This isn’t making any sense.

On the way, Jesse kept trying to find some logical explanation for what had happened. For starters, there was the nail polish. It didn’t make sense that some stranger had done it. After all, how many people could there be in the world who made it a habit to carry around Iced Mauve nail polish just so they could paint the dew claw of strange dogs? Not to mention the fact that Kai, although friendly by nature, didn’t allow strangers to approach unless he got an approving nod from Jesse. The Shepherd’s size was imposing and his dark face conveyed intelligence—along with a clear message to strangers that he wasn’t your average house pet and they would be well-advised to proceed with caution. Clearly, even if some nut were wandering about with a nail polish obsession, they would never get close enough to Kai to paint him. They would have lost a hand trying.

Then there was the matter of Kai’s disappearing and reappearing. On the surface, just as baffling as the painted nail. But he was willing to concede that the nail polish incident might have unnerved him enough to where, given the late afternoon’s fading light filtering through a canopy of trees and fueled by his earlier shock, his mind might have been playing tricks on him.

He arranged the facts. First, Kai’s nail had been painted. And painted with what looked to Jesse like Ellen’s favorite color. Second, it couldn’t have been a stranger. Not only hadn’t he seen anyone around or found any traces of someone else in the area but Kai wouldn’t have allowed it. So where did that leave him? The only conclusion he could come to was that someone who wasn’t a stranger had done it. But who? Sure, lots of his friends knew he visited the lake. A few even loved a good practical joke. But none of them would have ever thought to cross such a sacred line as fooling with his memories of Ellen and their tragic last day together. He was sure of it. He could write off Kai’s disappearing act but the painted dew claw was too stubborn to be so handily dismissed. But for now, he was too mentally fatigued to keep turning over the pieces of this bizarre puzzle. He’d push it to the back of his mind and pull it out again after dinner and a cold beer.

He reached the dirt road just in time to see one of Luther’s pals toiling along in another dust belching rig. It was a constant cycle with these guys and Jesse wondered how they kept from being bored to death. There seemed to be no end to the drilling rig apparatus and pipe they hauled into the hills. The driver leaned out his window and spat a slug of tobacco juice, prompting Jesse to wonder if maybe tobacco was the antidote to a truck driver’s boredom. If it was, he was glad he’d chosen a different occupation. He lived in a digital age and was thankful for it. If you had an entrepreneurial spirit and the right background you could do pretty well for yourself. He’d worked hard to get his MBA from Cornell and his consulting firm, Orange Risings, was doing great with clients scattered around the country.

His mind flashed back to Saturday mornings in Ithaca where he and Ellen, a music major at nearby Ithaca College, had often shared coffee and bagels at the Ithaca Bakery or played with their scrambled eggs and sausage while they surveyed the curious assortment of patrons frequenting the State Street Diner. Good old Ithaca. Ten square miles surrounded by reality. He smiled weakly at the bittersweet memories.

His Honda Element was parked at the bottom of the road. He opened the rear hatch and Kai piled in. He had a second car, another Honda, but even though Kai loved to ride in the passenger seat of the flashy S2000, with the top down and wind full in his black face, Jesse preferred the more casual comfort of the Element for outings like today. It was easy to clean and afforded them both plenty of room. They could go anywhere they liked and do whatever they wanted without having to worry about tracking dirt, mud or anything else into the vehicle with them. Kai had been sprayed by a skunk once and, although the odor wasn’t a pleasant addition to any vehicle’s interior, Jesse had been grateful they had driven the Element and not the sports car. Besides, the S2000 was a classic. He’d bought it for Ellen a couple of years before they stopped making them. She’d been ogling the thing for months. It was Spa Yellow with a black interior and boasted two hundred and thirty-seven horsepower coupled to a six-speed manual transmission. There was nothing tame about Ellen, even in the cars she liked. The thought of selling it after her death hadn’t crossed his mind. She’d loved the thing and he kept it in the same immaculate condition she had. He chuckled to himself remembering how she’d zoom