Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Mountain Encounters
    Mountain Encounters
    Mountain Encounters
    Ebook69 pages59 minutes

    Mountain Encounters

    By Iris Forester

    3.5/5

    ()

    Switch to audiobook
    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Callie has spent weeks planning a romantic weekend for Neil in the Olympic Mountains. She has no idea that Neil has completely different plans. This camping trip is his chance to tell her the secret he’s been keeping from her for all these months … that is, if he has the courage to come clean.
    Things come to a head during their camping trip, as the secret starts to get out of hand. While trying to help an injured camper, Neil has to make a painful choice without knowing the outcome. As the lives of five people converge in a quiet campground in springtime, each brings their own hopes, prejudices, and needs — and in the end, each life is changed.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBryant Street Shorts
    Release dateJul 23, 2020
    ISBN9781094412177
    Author

    Iris Forester

    Iris Forester is never happier than when she’s tossed everything aside to follow one of the story threads that cross her path. She shares her home place with eagles, ravens and owls — but also makes time every year to spend in New York City. When she’s not writing, Iris works with paint, clay, and various difficult creatures.

    Read more from Iris Forester

    Related to Mountain Encounters

    Related ebooks

    YA Romance For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Sinnner And The Saint

      Jan 23, 2020

      When Philip Grandine handed his pregnant wife Karissa a fruit smoothie, it would have seemed like a rather touching gesture. Philip certainly had a lot of making up to do. He’d been caught cheating, and as a pastor at the local church, it was scandal

      5 min read

    • Article

      Star

      Aug 18, 2021

      Star
      13 min read

    • Article

      A Bestseller At Four!

      Jun 4, 2020

      A Bestseller At Four!
      3 min read

    • Article

      First Date

      Jul 9, 2020

      First Date
      5 min read

    • Article

      AN EXCERPT FROM The First Line of Dante’s ‘Inferno’

      Dec 1, 2020

      Early forties, tall, self-possessed. Hiking in the woods in search of her missing sister. A young park ranger, late twenties. Pretty. Slim. Strong. The play is formatted like prose; however, it is intended for performance. If actors simply perform th

      15 min read

    • Article

      Welcome to Reliance

      Dec 1, 2021

      Welcome to Reliance
      11 min read

    • Article

      READER Reviews

      Dec 4, 2019

      You might not have read the Rabbit and Bear books before. If you haven’t, you need to know that in the first book Rabbit makes friends with Bear, and in the second book Rabbit is very clever and Bear is not. The third book, A Bite in the Night, which

      4 min read

    • Article

      Better Left To CHANCE

      Feb 13, 2024

      Better Left To CHANCE
      6 min read

    • Article

      Meg Of The DUMP

      Jan 9, 2024

      Meg Of The DUMP
      6 min read

    • Article

      Cheryl Strayed Is Here For You

      Apr 1, 2023

      Cheryl Strayed Is Here For You
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Air You Breathe

      Aug 20, 2018

      The Air You Breathe
      23 min read

    • Article

      Intelligent Creatures

      Jul 6, 2023

      Intelligent Creatures
      19 min read

    • Article

      O Fortuna, Velut Luna

      Sep 15, 2018

      What is Miss Treece’s trouble, according to a popular notion? The man A has failed to show up. Arousing herself at the restaurant, she fixes her lipstick when her solo supper concludes and takes herself down the stairs situated behind the bar. There,

      3 min read

    • Article

      Orange You Glad

      Jun 1, 2021

      Orange You Glad
      13 min read

    • Article

      Better Left To CHANCE

      Apr 28, 2021

      Better Left To CHANCE
      6 min read

    • Article

      Different Room

      Feb 25, 2022

      Different Room
      3 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Jul 1, 2023

      I The teenaged girl is searching for a placethat goes through, the holeto put the tampon inside. When she finds itshe asks her mother, Is this where the penis would go?Yes, her mother explains.Then I will never have sex. II Sweltering New York City.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Saying Goodbye to Sara

      Nov 10, 2021

      — We never really know when it will be the last time we talk to someone, the last time we see them, the last hug. The time was 2:23pm. Or there about. It’s hard to pinpoint the precise time when you’re in that deep sleep state where time seems not to

      6 min read

    • Article

      Out Of This WORLD

      Apr 20, 2021

      Out Of This WORLD
      6 min read

    • Article

      Lingering EFFECTS

      Jun 2, 2022

      Lingering EFFECTS
      7 min read

    • Article

      Australia Reads At Home

      May 18, 2020

      Australia Reads At Home
      7 min read

    • Article

      South Africa, My Home

      May 20, 2021

      Her company Diana Ferrus Publishers publishes the work of writers from previously disadvantaged communities. In association with the University of the Western Cape, she has published the life stories of former activists and unionists: Liz Nana Abraha

      2 min read

    • Article

      Meg Of The DUMP

      Mar 31, 2021

      Meg Of The DUMP
      6 min read

    • Article

      Speed of Mercy

      Jul 30, 2021

      Speed of Mercy
      10 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Mountain Encounters

    3.5/5

    12 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      this is one  you won't regret investing time in. In fact you'll find yourself thinking about the story long after its ended....If you have some great stories like this one, you can publish it on Novel Star, just submit your story to hardy@novelstar.top or joye@novelstar.top

    Book preview

    Mountain Encounters - Iris Forester

    Part 1: Night Visitors

    Tara guided her car up the narrow, winding road with her bright lights on. She was out much later than she should have been, and twilight fell fast in these dense, Northwestern forests. She’d been determined to equip herself properly for this solo camping trip, but she hadn’t anticipated that locating an affordable sleeping bag and one-person tent would take her half the day. Then, she’d missed the highway turnoff and driven twenty miles in the wrong direction before seeing a road sign that got her back on track. Now, she was arriving at the campground after sunset, and it would be all she could do to get her new tent set up in the darkness.

    She sighed. This is self-sufficiency, she reminded herself. It’s not all a bed of roses.

    The camping trip had been a last-minute decision, made earlier in the week as she approached her last day of work at a job that she just couldn’t take any longer. Until yesterday, Tara had been working at her aunt and uncle’s commercial carpet-cleaning business as webmaster and bookkeeper. It was unfulfilling, tedious office work with no real chance for advancement. With the Seattle rains yielding to soft, flowery spring days, Tara had suddenly come to her senses and realized she couldn’t face a future shut inside the same beige office day after day. And the idea of a solo camping trip came to mind soon after.

    Section Break

    It was indeed almost completely dark by the time Tara pulled into the campground. May temperatures were still formidably cold in the mountains, so luckily, it hadn’t been hard to get a reservation. Tara’s searched for her reservation — space sixteen — but it was hard to find the numbers in the dark. Since most of the spaces were empty, she pulled into a random site and parked her car, realizing she was already hungry.

    It took her a while to hook up the little gas cylinder to her folding camp stove. She hadn’t been camping since college, but she already felt absurdly pleased with her modest stash of gear. While her ramen was heating in the pan she’d brought, Tara pulled the tent out of its bag. Using a flashlight to study the multi-page instruction booklet that came with the tent, it occurred to her that she had no idea where to start. Furthermore, it looked like it was supposed to be anchored down with tent pegs, which she did not have.

    Need some help there? a voice asked from behind.

    Tara whirled around and saw a tall man standing just outside the circle of light from her battery-operated lamp. She braced herself.

    No, thanks. I’m fine.

    But he didn’t seem discouraged; instead, he stepped in closer. Tara stood and spoke more assertively this time.

    I don’t need help. Thank you.

    Apparently catching the warning in her voice, the man stopped. He looked at the dim lamplight, the spread-out instruction sheet, and the collapsed pile of tent poles and bright nylon.

    Do you know how to set this up? That cheapo brand is tricky. They never put enough cable in the poles, so it’s hard to get them to snap together.

    Tara was annoyed now, partly because of his presumptuousness — who did he think he was, barging in on her campsite — and partly because she was embarrassed. It was a cheap brand, but it was the only one she could afford on short notice, and it was her own fault that she hadn’t practiced putting it up. She put the instruction sheet down and took a step toward him.

    I do not want help, she repeated firmly, glaring at this intruding stranger.

    The man merely seemed amused. He was so tall: at least six-four. At five-foot-two, Tara felt vulnerable. But she had promised herself that she wouldn’t let fear stop her from taking this camping trip. She needed it to clear the depressing fog that had set in during the months after the breakup with her hopeless, video game addict boyfriend, Jeremy.

    I don’t want to have to tell you to leave, but…. She left the sentence unfinished.

    The tall man put up his hands in a way that seemed to suggest that he wasn’t going to argue with the little lady. Eyeing the mess of nylon and tent poles, he said, You can let me know if you change your mind. I’m over in campsite twenty.

    Tara didn’t say anything but stood silently, waiting for him to go.

    By the way, he added, tilting his head and looking back at her with a grin. Your dinner is burning.

    Dammit. She rushed over to her stove and pulled the pan off the burner. Her noodles were smoking, stuck to the bottom of the pan. As the man walked away, she thought she could hear him laughing. Tara sank down on the bench of the picnic table, feeling completely discouraged.

    Why did I think this was a good idea? she wondered.

    People like her couldn’t just decide to go camping.

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1