The Ascension of Man Part One

Arden was delighted to be in the Park again. Away from all of the business and bustle of his professional life, here was a place where he could relax, where he could experience the same nature that his ancestors had experienced when they landed on the pristine shores of the New World.

The Park was several hundred acres of virgin forests far out in the middle of nowhere and connected to the nearest highway by a ten mile dirt road. It was also an exclusive 'resort', catering to the nature-lovers that were thought to dwell deep within the soul of the millionaire. But unlike many enterprises of a similar nature, this was the real thing. There was not special catering, no watering down of nature to create something that was more to the liking of the comfortable and well-to-do. Several rangers patrolled the edges of the forest, mostly to keep out trespassers, but aside from these the only sign of permanent human occupation was the little shack that stood at the entrance of the Park where a ranger dutifully signed in the guests and drove their cars (Mercedes, BMW's, the occasional Rolls Royce) to the car park down the road built for that purpose (but far enough away so that it would not blot the view of the pristine woods).

Within her oaken gate the Park was wild. There were no trails hacked through the shrubbery and what paths there were were unmarked and constantly disappearing. The older customer knew that if he became utterly lost he could follow the stream which meandered through the heart of the Park, but a long walk awaited the the unfortunate soul who relied on this last resort, even if he came out of the forest on the right side. In the meanwhile, the creators of the Park had 'staffed' its twilight acres with a variety of animals and plants that one would find in a primeval forest, but with greater frequency. The intrepid and frequent visitor could expect to see wild boar, woodpeckers, foxes, poison oak and ivy, and the occasional fire ant colony. No one had yet seen the bears that were rumored to dwell in the heart of the Park.

Not yet, though Arden, who had pushed the tip of his walking stick into the soft soil of the park. This was Arden's special ceremony, the way he greeted the forest after a long hiatus. The last separation had been nearly four months and Arden breathed in the fresh forest air for a while to celebrate his return and savor a smell that he had forgotten and now remembered. His cell phone was tucked safely in the glove compartment of his car. He usually brought it, turned off, with him, in case of emergencies, but this time he was especially tired of the whole beeping world and wanted only the sounds of the birds (or other forest creatures) to wake him in the morning.

This time would be different. Sure, he hadn't really cheated in the past. He'd slept in a very small tent and cooked all his food over a fire built of brush and lit with flint. He'd drank from the stream (which the rangers assured him was cleaned with more modern methods at a point outside of the Park) and only used a compass or the moss on the trees to get around. But this time would be different. In the first place he would be here for a week instead of a weekend. It had taken a lot of work arranging it with the firm and a lot of re-scheduling and impossible promises, but he'd managed to get off from Saturday to the next Monday. And this week he would not be bringing his own hot dogs to roast or chocolate to snack on.