Three Spirits- Part 2

The room was filled with light. Jack sat up in bed and rubbed his eyes. A hiker with long braided ponytails and a headband stood at the foot. She wore trail runners and shorts, a t-shirt and wore a very heavy pack. She smiled, but Jack could not see her eyes. She was wearing a pair of those mirror sunglasses.

“Who are you spirit?” Jack asked.

“My trail name is Apple” she said. She reached into her pack and tossed an object to him. Jack caught it one handed, not a bad feat for someone just roused from sleep. It was a Cosmic Crisp apple. One of his favorites. A nice ripe one too. He took a bite, and suddenly he was on a trail in the warm summer sun.

“Oh, I know where I am spirit”, said Jack. He wiped some apple juice from his chin. “This is the section of the Long Trail I’ve been hiking this summer. It was good to be in the summer sun, but he’d have preferred some socks and shorts instead of his pajamas, perhaps a little bug dope too.

“The Long Trail is the oldest long-distance trail in the United States”, He said. “It runs along the AT, and then heads to the Canadian border. It was constructed between 1910 and 1930 by the Green Mountain Club in Vermont”

“Yes, said the spirit.” She waved at a hungry mosquito” I hiked it end to end in my mortal days.”

“Nice job” said Jack. “I wish I could get the time out of work to do that. I’m section hiking it.”

A few hikers passed them on the trail. Jack felt a bit self conscious in his pj’s, but then remembered they could not see him.

“You must make the time, Jack” said the spirit. “We travel the earth but once, and time is fleeting.”

Jack looked down at the apple core. He’d need a bag to put it in to pack this out. Even now he wanted to follow “leave no trace” principles.

“Spirit, he said, you wouldn’t happen to have a sandwich bag I could put this in?”

He turned to her, but she was gone, and he was suddenly back in his bed. Even the apple core was gone.