It's Monday and that means it's story time! The final installment of The Lumberjack's tale is here!Last time we left off with the Lumberjack spending some time on a commune, you can read about it here. As his memory returned and he stopped drinking the tea, he knew it was time to move on. He said his goodbyes to the plant lovers and walked off in the early morning haze. He walked down the road a piece and formed a plan in his mind. He decided his best bet was to get to the coast. He hitched a ride with a big-rig truck driver and found himself in a small sea side town at the edge of the Pacific. Having worked a commercial fishing vessel a few years ago in Alaska, he looked for work as a deck hand down at the docks. He found work on a ship named The Dizzy Dame that was headed North, getting him closer to home.
The second day at sea near dusk, a terrible storm hit. Lightening struck, waves crashed and the ship was tossed about like a toy. LJ's foot was caught in some rigging and he fell on the slippery deck...all went dark.
He awoke just as the sun was rising, only to find himself barely hanging on to a bit of wreckage from the ship, adrift in an endless ocean. But wait! Was that land on the horizon? With his last bit of strength he paddled towards the tiny speck of an island. By sunset he crawled ashore and collapsed in exhaustion.
Moments later, he was surrounded by indigenous islanders who carried him off into the jungle.
The tribesmen hauled him up into the trees and imprisoned him in the branches above the jungle floor. All efforts to communicate with the tribe were ignored. After a while The Lumberjack found himself alone in the night. He fell asleep for a few hours, waking up with a start at the cry of some exotic jungle bird in the distance. He dug in his pocket, yes it was still there, his bit of string! LJ carefully worked at the knots of the trap until he could slip out. Using his string as a lasso, he made a crude zip-line and was able to slide down to the ground.
As his boots hit the earth a loud din of shouting broke out, and he saw that the tribesmen had been camouflaged in the brush. He wondered if there was any way he could out run them. It was too late, they had grabbed hold of him and were raising him above their heads. LJ was confused, were they smiling and laughing, what could this mean, what would come next?
They brought him to the village, placed a crown of feathers on his head and began singing and dancing near the fire. They smiled and cheered the Lumberjack, giving him a place of honor among the festivities. LJ wasn't sure what had happened, but he decided the best thing was to go along with it. Someone handed him a goblet of fermented drink that tasted like nothing he had ever had before.
The party kept on, LJ felt fantastic, things were getting a little weird, but that was ok. He began to tell his story to one of the tribe, how he desperately wanted to get home. The man just smiled and nodded and laughed. And then...LJ remembers very little after this point. He recalls trekking through the jungle, climbing an ancient ruin, and paddling out to sea in a canoe.
He also says he has a vivid picture in his mind of riding a Unicorn, but he is fairly certain that was some kind of hallucination brought on by the fermented drink.Two days later, his canoe was spotted by a passing yacht. He was brought aboard and given safe passage to a port on the Northern Oregon coast, where he was able to catch a ride from a friendly hippie all the way to our front door!
Phew! Amazing isn't it? We are so glad he's back home. He has no plans for further adventures at the moment. LJ says he is just gonna take it easy for a bit, settle in for the winter and maybe write a book about his journey.
And the moral of this story is, always carry string!
