A Ghost of the Eriehonan

By Chuck Semenuk

John and his grandson Tommy had just finished a great day of fishing and were getting ready to go home.

“Let’s take a little breather before we start the long hike back to the house,” said John.

It was a long walk up the old logging trail and John’s knees weren’t as good as they used to be. Taking a seat on an old log, John took a plastic bag of cookies from his shirt pocket and shared them with Tommy.

“It sure is nice down here, Grandpa. I really like it,” said Tommy.

“Yes, it sure is. It’s one of my favorite places. This river valley and the surrounding woods probably look pretty much the same today as it did when the Indians lived here.”

Tommy’s eyes widened. “Gosh, grandpa. Were there really Indians around here?”

“There sure were. Archeologists believe that the first Indians in recorded history living in this area belonged to the Erie tribe. They were called Eriehonan by the Iroquois which lived further east. Eriehonan meant “long tail” which referred to the bob cat or cougar which was very plentiful in this area. Often referred to as the “cat people”, the Eries were fierce warriors and were known to use poison tipped arrows on their enemies. Over time, they fought many battles with the Iroquois, the Huron, and a number of other tribes before they were pretty well scattered and pushed out of the area. There were inhabitants here before the Eriehonan but little is known about them other than that they were ‘mound builders’ and are considered to be ‘pre-historic’.”

“Wow,” said Tommy. “I bet you know a lot of stories about this place, Grandpa.”

“Yep. I can think of a few good ones,” laughed John.

Tommy could hardly control his excitement.

“Tell me one. Please?”

John made himself comfortable by sitting on the ground and resting his back on the log.

“Well, long before you were born, I used to fish this river every chance I got. I got so I knew it like the back of my hand. Every once in a while I thought that I saw an old man in the woods, or sometimes along the river. But then, he would disappear. I used to work with an old guy who knew a lot about this place and one day I told him about the man I thought I saw.

He started to laugh and then told me that I had probably seen the ghost of old Tocho. Tocho was thought to be a descendant of the original Erie tribe that lived in the area. Tocho hunted and fished this river valley back when the area was being settled by the white man. He generally got along quite well with the settlers and developed a love for the fresh apple pies made by one of the local women. His taste for the white man’s apple pie turned out to be his undoing.

One day, he happened to catch the fragrance of a fresh pie cooling on a window sill. Had he knocked on the door and asked for a slice, the woman would have likely given it to him but for some reason, he snatched the whole pie and ran off with it.

Seeing Tocho disappear into the woods with the whole pie, the woman thought she’d teach him a lesson. Pretending to be upset when her husband returned from town, she told him that Tocho had stopped for pie but had gotten fresh with her and she had to fight for her honor. Before she could explain further, her husband grabbed his rifle and ran from the house. By dark, the man and some of his neighbors had tracked down old Tocho and hanged him from a large tree in the woods at the top of this very logging trail. When he returned home, his wife told him that she just made up the story to have some fun with Tocho. She thought they would all have a good laugh. Unfortunately, poor Tocho wasn’t laughing. The next morning, the men cut Tocho down and buried him beneath the old tree.”

“That was terrible, grandpa.”

“Yes, it was. You know, when you tell a lie, even if it’s just a little fib, you never know how someone might be hurt by it.”

“Did you see Tocho’s ghost anymore?”

A Rule Against Love

By Chuck Semenuk

Agency Director Mike Graber looked up from his paperwork as agent Jeff Walker entered the office.

“Jeff, is there any word regarding agent Quatro?”

“Not so much as a whisper, Mike. He’s gone off the radar. Just when we think we have a lead on him, it goes dead. He’s a ghost.”

“That’s not like Andy Quatro. He’s always been a good agent, one of the best.”

“I’ve noticed changes in his behavior recently, Mike. Ever since we re-assigned his partner agent Diez, he’s been secretive about his activities.”

Mike sat back in his chair. “I don’t understand why. He can function fine without her. We’ve put a lot of time and effort into his training. He’s very good at his job, one of our best assassins. He normally shows no emotion and has nerves of steel.”

“Well, even though Doctor Rommel thought he’d purged all memory of her, I think he’s still looking for her.”

“I don’t know. We’ve got to get him to come in,” said Mike. “Keep me updated. If he’s going rogue on us, we can’t have an out-of-control agent running around loose. He can cause us a lot of problems.”

######

Andy Quatro sat looking out the window of his seedy hotel room. He could hear the garbled voices of the couple in the next room through the thin dirty walls. He anxiously searched the faces of passers-by, hoping for a glimpse of his partner’s beautiful face.

Alexis Diez had been his partner since she started with the agency. They worked on many assignments together and he would trust her with his life. It was frowned upon by the agency but he was starting to fall in love with her. One day out of the blue, Director Graber told him that she had been re-assigned. He would not tell Andy why or where. Andy utilized every resource he had to find her but she had vanished.

Andy’s head began to throb again. He never had that problem before. Ever since that bastard Doctor Rommel at the agency messed with his mind, the headaches started and they seemed to be getting worse.

“Rommel knows where she is,” thought Andy. “I don’t trust him. I can’t trust anyone at the agency. Especially Director Graber.”

The throbbing in his head finally subsiding, Andy strapped on his shoulder holster and fastened his backup weapon to his ankle. He had to get to Doctor Rommel but trying to see him at the agency would be an unnecessary risk. Reaching the street, he hailed a taxi.

“I’ll get Doctor Rommel to talk,” thought Andy. He smiled grimly. “If there’s one thing the agency taught me, it’s how to make someone talk.”

He had the taxi driver drop him off a couple of blocks from Doctor Rommel’s apartment and proceeded on foot. His instincts were sharp as he sensed that something was wrong. He laughed to himself as he noticed movement in a car parked near the Doctor’s apartment. Apparently the agency was trying to second guess him. In the darkness, he recognized the features of a fellow agent. In a doorway across the street, he detected another agent.

“I guess my thoughts about Doctor Rommel were right. They don’t want me to get to him.”

He was sure that there was probably another agent or two in one of the darkened windows across the street. A delivery truck began making a turn into an alley next to the building. Using the truck as a shield, he quickly slipped into the alley alongside of it. Satisfied that there were no agency “eyes,” he found an unlocked maintenance door at the rear of the apartment building. Staying in the darkened stairwell, Andy made his way up to Doctor Rommel’s apartment. Reaching the back door which lead to the apartment’s kitchen, he quietly tried the door. It was not locked and it was apparent that the security chain had not been fastened.

“This is too easy,” thought Andy. “They’re setting me up.”

He thought for a moment, and then decided to go in anyway, locking the door behind him and fastening the security chain. Moving quietly through the kitchen to the living room door, he could see the back of Doctor Rommel’s head as he sat in his large easy chair watching TV. He drew his gun and walked around the chair. He was startled as Agent Jeff Walker looked up at him and smiled.

“Hi, Andy. It’s about time you got here. We thought you’d try to get to Rommel.”

“Where is he?”

“Nowhere that you can get to him. This place will be crawling with agents in a minute or two.”

Andy pointed the gun at Jeff’s head. “Looks as if I don’t have anything to lose; I should just blow you away and take my chances shooting it out with your friends.”

“It doesn’t have to end like this, Andy. Let me take you in. We can fix this. Director Graber doesn’t want to lose you. You’re too valuable to the agency.”

Andy laughed. “Sure. I let you take me in and I’ll just disappear like agent Diez did.”

“She’s fine, Andy. As a matter of fact, Director Graber is considering teaming the two of you up again.”

“Are you sure?”

Jeff pulled a piece of paper from his shirt pocket and handed it to Andy. “Here’s a phone number where you can contact her. She can confirm what I just told you.”

Andy stared at the piece of paper. “I’d like to believe this but I have trouble trusting the agency and its people.”

“Before you do something we’ll all regret, why don’t you get out of here and talk to her first?”

Suddenly, the kitchen door slammed against the security chain as agents in the hall tried to enter.

Jeff motioned toward a window. “Quick, take the fire escape to the roof.”

Andy bolted for the window and climbed to the roof. Once on the roof, he jumped a narrow gap to an adjacent building and went quickly down a fire escape. Andy took a number of round-about routes back to his hotel. Satisfied that he hadn’t been followed, he went up to his room and locked the door.

Andy looked at the piece of paper that Jeff had given him and thought about the recent events. Was the director really going to assign Alexis as his partner again? Why did Jeff let him escape through the window? With agents all around, he wondered why there was no one covering the fire escape and roof. How could he trust anyone?