Eight years earlier….
April was enjoying high school this year. She had just turned thirteen, she liked most of her classes except maths, but then what normal person liked maths anyway, and she had friends, good friends. They hung out together on weekends by going shopping at the town’s small shopping mall, swimming at the town pool in summer, meeting at their favourite café for milkshakes, or just hanging out at each other’s houses. All the normal things teenagers do.
On a few occasions one of their parents would drive them out to the national park where they would have a picnic lunch and go on a hike on one of the walking trails.
It was called the Northern Wilderness National Park which covered a large area of wild looking mountains and forests. Actually most of the mountains were not very high or formidable looking, more like large hills, but there was one mountain which stood out from the rest. It was higher and more rugged with rocky slopes near the top. Maybe it was the remnant of some ancient volcano. It even had a spooky sounding name. The official maps showed it as Mount Despair, although the townspeople usually just called it ‘The Mountain’ since it was clearly visible on the skyline from the town.
The last time April went to the park she looked at the large information board at the entrance to the park. It showed a map of a number of walking trails, some of them winding up to lookouts with panoramic views over the surrounding countryside, but she had noted with some surprise that there were no trails on ‘The Mountain’.
April’s family lived in a nice single story brick house on the northern edge of the town. Her bedroom looked out over the mountains to the north. She loved that view from her window. When she was supposed to be doing her homework she sometimes just sat at her desk looking out towards the horizon. On some days the mountains looked blue and hazy, probably from fires burning somewhere off in the distance in the forests. On other days they were grey and misty with the upper peaks shrouded in fog and low clouds.
One Friday night in late summer she had arrived home from visiting her friend Sarah who lived only a couple of blocks away. They had shared a pizza while watching movies. April said goodnight to her parents and retired to her bedroom where she sat at her desk checking her Facebook account on her laptop.
It was a warm night so she had the window open, but soon the sound of moths buzzing at the insect screen attracted by her light, were starting to annoy her. She closed her laptop, turned off the light and looked out the window. There were no lights to see, their house was right on the edge of town, so there was only darkness except for a few white pinpricks of stars in the sky.
After a few minutes as her eyes adjusted to the darkness she tried to make out the skyline of the national park. By looking closely at where the stars stopped being visible she thought she could see roughly see where the horizon was. She was even able to make out the shape of ‘The Mountain’. She stared at it for a couple of minutes, wondering what it would be like to try and climb it all the way to the top. The view from up there would be awesome.
Then something strange happened. Just for a brief second she saw it. April rubbed her eyes and watched as it came again. What she saw was two quick flashes of light coming from somewhere on the mountain. Not a very bright light, but then it came again for a third time. Two quick flashes.
Must be hikers or campers up on the mountain with a bright torch she thought, but then as the flashes came again for a fourth time she noticed the light was pale blue, not white as you would expect from a torch. She kept watching for another twenty minutes but the light didn’t come again.
She closed the window and lay on her bed thinking about what she had seen. She knew there were no houses or buildings or radio towers on the mountain that would show any lights at night. It was a wilderness area in a national park. There was nothing up there but trees and rocks.
The next night she saw it again. The lights came at about the same time, eleven o’clock, and it was the same as the previous night. Four sets of double flashes from a pale blue light.
It must be someone with a bright lantern she thought, but why were they flashing it like that? Was it a signal to someone in the town maybe?
Now April was intrigued with the mystery light. She sat at her window on Sunday night at eleven o’clock and the lights came again. April loved mysteries and this one needed to be solved.
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She had to find out more about the mountain. She googled Mt Despair on her laptop but the results were disappointing. It was listed as the highest peak in the Eden Mountain Range with the summit just over four hundred metres higher than the nearby town of EdenVale. It had once been a volcano which last erupted around three million years ago. It had been dormant ever since.
Hmmm, boring stuff. April wanted more information about the mountain. Maybe her geography teacher could help her.
The next day was Monday. Geography was the last class of the day, Good, that would give her time to talk to the teacher at the end of the class.
As she was having lunch sitting on the grass under the shade of a tree with her four best friends she asked if any of them had ever heard of lights being seen on the mountain.
They all gave her a puzzled look and shook their heads.
Thomas turned and looked in the direction of the mountain, although it wasn’t actually visible from the school grounds. “April, have you been staring out your bedroom window into the night and imagining things?” he said with a chuckle.
“No,” she said, throwing a piece of grass at him, “The last three nights at the same time, eleven o’clock, I saw lights flashing from the mountain.”
“Probably campers,” Mia suggested.
“But why would they flash a light three nights in a row at the exactly the same time?” April countered.
Cody frowned, “Maybe someone is camping up there and they’re sending messages to someone in town, and eleven o’clock is the contact time.”
April thought about this for a few seconds before answering. “Maybe, but each time I saw it, it was just two quick flashes. Four sets of two flashes.”
“Could still be a code of some sort.”
“I suppose so. Anyway I am going to ask Mr Johnson this afternoon in geography what he knows about the mountain.”
“That’s a good idea,” Sarah agreed, “He’s lived in this town like forever so he probably knows everything there is to know about old Despair.”
The bell rang and they all dispersed to go to their next classes.
Sarah was also in April’s geography class, and at the end of the lesson they both approached their geography teacher, a tall elderly man with greying hair.
“Mr Johnson, can we ask you something please,” April said.
“Of course girls, what is it?” he replied, sitting back down at the desk.
“It’s about the mountain,” April said pointing in the vague direction of the national park.
“Oh you mean Mount Despair? What do you want to know?”
“Well I googled it but there wasn’t much information except that it’s an extinct volcano. I was just wondering if anything strange or unusual has ever happened there, and can you tell us why there are no walking trails up to the top.”
Mr Johnson paused for a few seconds staring at the two girls. “The reason for no trails is that the upper part of the mountain is too steep and rocky. It’s dangerous for hikers. As for strange or unusual events, well the mountain does have some interesting and rather sad history, but I am not very well up on it. I can give the name of a book in the town library which will give you the information you want.”
“Thank you so much, sir,” April beamed at the teacher as he wrote out the name of the book on a slip of paper and handed it to her.
As she and Sarah turned to go Mr Johnson said, “Just a minute, April. You’re not planning on climbing the mountain are you?”
“Well I hadn’t decided. Maybe we will.”
He looked at her seriously. “Don’t try climbing that mountain, April. It’s dangerous in more ways than you can imagine.”
April stared at him for a few seconds. “All right, sir, we won’t climb it. See you next week.”
She and Sarah scuttled out the door.
“Well that was weird,” Sarah said as they walked out the front door of the school, “Did you see the expression on his face when he told us not to climb the mountain?”
“I sure did,” April replied, “And now I am even more curious to know about the mountain. Let’s go and find that book.”
“What, now? I thought we were going to hang out at the mall.”
“The mall can wait,” April said, “We’re going to the library.”
