On each side of the boat stood a sea of trees, sometimes the bank would rise up to a little cliff, the sides of the cliffs peppered with little holes that small birds few in and out of, and the river lay quiet, barely a ripple, except the wake from the boat.  Toby kept absorbing his surrounding and realized he wasn’t sure what time it was, the sun was up, still, but even though they had begun to get a little sunset each night, the sun would dip and then hover, the clouds would turn their shades of pink and red and whatever else they would do, depending on humidity and all the science he didn’t understand, but he still found it hard to tell time, without a watch.  Since they had been heading to the swimming hole, he had left his behind, it was on his little bedside table, which was really only a milk crate turned on it’s side.

        They pulled up near someone’s fishing wheel, a large Ferris wheel looking thing that would scoop fish out of the water and deposit them in a fenced off reservoir.  Lazy but effective fishing, Toby had called it the first time he’d seen one.  They both jumped out and dragged the boat a little up the bank and then Toby followed Eric’s “Follow me.”

        Having been in Alaska for a while now, Toby had gained a resistance to the mosquitoes but nothing prepared him for heading off into the bush.  Even though they hadn’t gone far, it was a different world in there, clouds, like bad thoughts, hovered above the ground and swarmed their bodies.  Eric seemed to just walk through, a life time of mosquito bites had made him immune, but to Toby it was claustrophobic.  It wasn’t until then that Toby realized that he had never really veered away from the moving water, the little town was on the river, the hotel was just up the road from the town and they were always surrounded by somewhat cleared and open spaces.  Now, in the thick of it, Toby was a pin cushion of blood for these swarming clouds.

        “Dude, it better be soon, I don’t know if I can take much more of…fuck, I just ate one, and another one, shit, fuck, they’re all up in my mouth.”  Toby was swatting at his face and trying to wipe his tongue.  “What if they’ve bit someone, I just ate somebodies blood, fuck, that can’t be good.”

        “Shut your mouth then.”  Eric stopped.  “We’re about to enter a sacred spot, so no swearing or acting stupid or being you for the next few minutes.  Try to picture yourself as mature and intelligent or something.”  He smiled.  “But serious, have respect while we’re here.”

        Eric never gave Toby lessons on manners or how to act, except when he introduced Toby to Upa and Uma. “Always use those names, they’ve earned it, it’s insulting to use anything else.”

        “Yeah, I can pull that off.”  Toby mumbled, unwilling to part his lips fully.

        Next they were in a world of strangeness, Toby tried to wrap his head around what he was seeing.  Little houses, peppered the woods around him, each decorated and obviously cared for by someone.  He wanted to ask and felt the words almost cough their way up and out into the world, worlds biggest doll house collection?  As if sensing Toby’s uncertainty Eric began explaining.

        “These are spirit houses, I’m going to show you my dads, he’s with his family, we decided that we’ll all make it into the house by the time we’re done here, in this life.  We get cremated so we can all fit into the one.  This one.”  His hand had come to rest on top of a house that was painted blue and white and had a cross on it’s roof, like a little church.  “I’m not too religious but I still want to be near him, you know?”

        Eric didn’t talk much about his dad, so Toby knew that not only was this ground sacred but so was the conversation.  “I get it.  It’s why I came up here, to be with him.”

        “But your dad is different.  Mine wouldn’t have left me like yours did.”  Eric must have realized how this sounded and looked alarmed and then tried to back track.  “I mean, he just…”

        “I get it.”  Don’t worry, Toby said with his hands, fanning them at the ground.  “You don’t say much about your old man but he sounds a world away from who my dad is.”  Toby squatted and was about to look in one of the little windows.

        “They’re just painted black, nothing to see there, but look.”  Eric had swung out the front panel and you could see right in.

        Toby could make out a few boxes, ashes, he thought, and then a lot of other things too.

        “My dad liked candy, I have to replace it all the time, I know it’s the ants or whatever eating it but I think it’s him.  It’s why we put things they loved in this life into the house with them, so they’re at home, at peace, happy.”

        “That’s really kinda…” Toby was surprised by the word that came to mind.  “…beautiful.”  He could probably count on his fingers how many times he’d said that word and it had meant something.  “Our system sucks, compared to this, we drop you off in a field of cement or granite squares and then leave, sometimes we stop by with flowers but we hope the grounds people take care of the site so we don’t have to.”

        “We visit, take care of the house, drop off some stuff if we want to and, I dunno, I always feel at peace here.  Even the bugs have left you alone.”

        Toby hadn’t realized that this was true, he stood up and looked at his arms, as if that was proof they were gone, then looked around for the black clouds of mosquitoes.  Nothing, all gone.  Just that kid sitting on the stump looking at them, probably came to visit someone too.  “For a small town, it’s strange when you see someone else out here, miles down the river.”  He waved, the kid didn’t wave back.

        “Who are you talking to.”  Eric asked.

        Toby looked at Eric, smiled and turned to point at the kid, who was gone.  “The kid over….”

        “You saw him?”  Eric looked slightly incredulous.  “You saw him.”

        “I’m sorry, I don’t know what you mean, he probably ran off into the woods or something.”

        “No, you saw him, he hangs out here, with his elders and everyone.  His name is Manoah, his parent’s were very religious, but everyone called him Mano.”  Eric walked over to the stump.  “This wasn’t always here, before there was a stump there was a tree and after they buried him here, people began to see him, every so often but then it was often enough that someone cut this stump out so he could have a place to sit.  Because nobody ever sees him anywhere else.  He’s here, he’s happy, and he shows himself to only good people, or so it’s said.”

        “You haven’t seen him.”

        “I’m still working on being good.”

        “I’m far from good.”

        “Being good is just being on your path, walking your road and getting closer to the heart of you, but doing it without tearing other people down along your way.  You can be a bad good person, if you’re only bad to yourself but still on your path.”

        Toby looked around, like he would see the boy again, off in the woods, peering around a tree and still looking at him.  “It’s weird, I’ve never seen a ghost before.”

        “I like the term spirit.  Ghost has a horror movie kinda feeling to it.”  Eric said and then turned and began walking back to the boat.