Alone On The Mountain Top

Archie sat alone in the back of his Aunt Matty’s car, not really saying anything. He was staring out the window at pretty much nothing, the boring landscape and highway not really giving him anything to look at. Very few cars traveled this way, so he couldn’t do the common pastime of looking at license plates.

“Hey, we should really talk about what’s going to happen over the next couple of days,” Aunt Matty said, interrupting Archie’s space staring. “It’s going to be a big change for you.”

Archie sighed. If he was going to be honest, he knew it would be a big change already. Down here already didn’t even compare to what he used to stroll through every day.

“I’m at work from about six in the morning to five at night, so I won’t have the time to homeschool you.” Aunt Matty looked into the rearview mirror back at Archie. “I wish I didn’t have to, but you’re going to have to go to school.”

Archie squeezed his hands together in his lap, his gaze not departing from some point far off in the distance. The idea of public school frightened him greatly. The thought of hundreds of other kids moving around him in the hallway… Archie scrunched up his face, determined not to think about it right now. Instead, his thoughts drifted back to before this car ride. They drifted back to before this car ride, and before…

Archie knew he had a peculiar childhood. For how isolated they were from the rest of the world, he was taught well about the ways of society. On cold, snowy winter days they would huddle together next to the fire, and his mother would tell him stories from her childhood. Archie would sit with her for hours like that, listening in wonder of her descriptions of her small town and her friends.

He and his mother lived a simple life together, on top of that mountain. For as long as Archie could remember, they had lived in that quaint little cabin on the mountain. On the warmer days during the spring and summer, he would go on walks through the woods that surrounded them while his mother worked. Even from a very young age, simply basking in the beauty of the world around him was simply enough. When it wasn’t, he would invent little games for himself, or sit and watch birds for hours at a time.

Many other days, he would sit inside and read the books his mother had bought for him from the village lower on the mountain. Archie would read for hours about history and science, or he would sit at the makeshift desk his mom had made for him and learn some new math concepts. Archie especially enjoyed the novels she would pick out for him, sometimes doing nothing but read them all day. And after his mother was done with her work, they would sit down at the table for an hour or two and learn Spanish together.

Archie’s life had been perfect. It was simple, and that was okay. All he needed was his mother, and everything would be okay. Subtle tears began to stream down Archie’s face. It wasn’t okay. It wasn’t perfect anymore.

 

It had been only a couple days ago, after a large snowstorm. Archie and his mom had spent the entire day outside together, playing in the snow and generally goofing off. They had built a snowman and made snow angels. They had a snow sculpture competition, just between the two of them. His mom built a campfire, and read her favorite stories to him from the old book of fairy tales she had since she was younger.

When they were tired out, and the sun began to set, they went inside. Archie sat by the fireplace, sipping on some hot chocolate while his mother made dinner. It was then a sudden crash echoed from the small kitchen, followed by a fit of coughing. Archie stood up suddenly, almost spilling some of his drink.

“Mom, are you okay?” Archie called lightly.

“I’m… I’m fine. Just a little tired from earlier today.” his mom replied.

Archie slowly sat down again, deciding to take her word for it. A little coughing was really nothing to worry about. He trusted his mother regardless, even still. She was the purest soul on the planet, he was sure of it. Archie couldn’t even remember a time when she had ever raised her voice at him. What reason would she have to lie to him?

After the darkness settled in, and supper had been eaten, she had tucked him into bed. It was late, and Archie was tired. He sat there for a while, listening for the distinct sounds of nature outside his window. Especially this time of year though, the nights were silent. Unlike where his mom had grown up, there were no cars or pedestrians to make the night noise in the winter. Slowly, however, his eyes closed, and he drifted off to sleep.

 

The feeling of cold air rustled his covers. Archie jolted awake, shivering from the coldness of the room. It was never this cold in the house. Something was… wrong. Archie apprehensively got out of bed, throwing on his wool coat to protect himself from the cold. He slowly crept out of his bedroom and through the house to his mother’s room. Archie opened the door a crack to see inside, and his eyes widened. His mom wasn’t there.  His hair began to stand on end. Something was definitely wrong.

He raced to the living room, and saw the front door hanging wide open. A cold wind fluttered through it, seeming to freeze Archie’s very soul. He frantically ran through the door and out into the cold snowy wasteland. Fresh falling snow began sticking to him as his hooves crunched against the older snow beneath him. His heart raced as he ran toward the direction of where his mother was last working.

Then Archie saw her. His mother, laying down next to her axe, coughing violently.

“Mom!” Archie yelled as he rushed toward her. Red-stained snow lay before her, and her breaths were labored and husky. As she coughed, more blood came from her mouth.

“Archie…” his mother spoke with much difficulty. “I’m sorry…”

Archie grabbed her hand in his, staring at her face with tears in his eyes.

“Sorry?” he said with a sad smile. “What do you need to be sorry for?”

“I… should have told you…” she said, her words weak and slurred. “I should have…”

“Mom?” Archie’s mom said nothing else.

“Mom!” He grabbed her shoulders, and shook her as if she were only sleeping.

Archie collapsed over his mother’s lifeless body, and wept.

 

According to the doctors and EMTs, she had been dealing with untreated tuberculosis. At least, that's what they told him and his aunt. The police and doctors had given his aunt the opportunity to become his legal guardian, and that was that. That’s how he had ended up here, in a car driving far, far away from his home.

“Archie?” his aunt said, turning to look at him. “Are you okay?”

He had been crying silently. Things weren’t perfect anymore, and it hurt like nothing else had ever hurt. He slowly turned around to face her, pure anguish on his face.

“No, I’m… not okay.” Archie finally admitted.

It was scary, moving out into this big complicated world, but what he hated most was that his mother wouldn’t be here with him. His mother wouldn’t be here to guide him the way she did. She wouldn’t be here to laugh the way she did. She wouldn’t be here to help him when things were tough.

Archie was going to miss that perfect life, alone on the mountain top. He would never forget the perfect life his mother built for him. And even now, he had a feeling she would want him to continue on without her.

Archie resolved then and there that no matter how tough things got, he would continue on. For her. For his dear mother.