"I'd give anything and everything I have just to be with you . . ." I sang along with the music. I really loved that song, it just kind of got right to me, and anyway, it seemed that the green depths of the forest enjoyed my singing. When I sang the air seemed to lighten with the words my favorite band Hanson wrote long ago. Even though the singing didn't help my already short breath, I enjoyed it and it also seemed to lighten my spirits even more, not just that of the forest.

"Oops!" I exclaimed to no-one in particular, "Other side!" I switched over the tape, which had ended after "More Than Anything" finished.

It was a beautiful day, the sky blue, the air warm, and the forest a jewel green. As I stopped singing the forest noticeable got darker, and I laughed quietly to myself. It seemed to me almost as if the forest really DID enjoy my singing, and missed it. So, for the sake of the forest, and just for the heck of it, I again started to sing. To my dismay, the forest didn't lighten, if anything, it got much darker and if I wasn't mistaken, began to mist over and cool. By this time I was a few miles deep into the forest and I saw no point in turning back, but I thought the mist strange as it was mid afternoon, with the sun high in the sky.

I continued on my way, still singing my heart out and walking rhythmically, but my spirits had been slightly dampened. The mist got thicker and thicker until I could barely see my hand in front of my face. Periodically the air got cooler and cooler until I was nearly shivering. I had progressively slowed down and my singing stopped. I was afraid that I would stray too far from the trails and get lost or trip and do some real damage.

Suddenly a huge tree loomed up in front of me, I stopped myself just before I rammed into it. A close call. I had never seen the likes of the tree before, it's bark and leaf shape was strange and yet in a way beautiful as I viewed it through the thick mists. Of course at the time I could barely see anything at all, so I disregarded it's strangeness and settled down at it roots to try and wait out the mist. I slipped off my pack and used it as a backrest, huddled up for warmth. For a great while I just sat and listened to my music, humming along, trying to keep my former cheer.

"Hello?" I heard tentatively called by a male voice out of the thick white mist. I stopped my tape which was on the first few bars of "Incredible".

"Is someone there?" I replied with another question.

"Yes! Where are you?" The voice, I realized, was directly on the other side of the very tree I was sitting at the base of.

"Hey! Right on the other side of the big tree. Try feeling your way around. Don't trip!" I called out getting to my feet a bit stiffly from sitting too long after my long hike. My muscles had been warmed up and the cold and still had stiffened them up uncomfortably. Suddenly a large form knocked right into me and I let of a small "Oof!" and fell right on my pack. It broke my fall, but it was not a very comfortable breaking.

"Oh! Sorry, I didn't see you." The male voice said. A small part of my brain registered something familiar about the voice, but I dismissed it, being my usual dismissive stupid self.

"That's okay" I replied stiffly getting to my feet once more, "It's kind of hard to see in this fog." It was impossible to be mad at anyone for something I myself probably would have done. I felt for where he was, and met a warm, very muscular seeming chest. I blushed under cover of the fog and continued, grabbing his arm, which was also very muscular, to help and make sure he didn't knock me down again, "Here, sit. Carefully now, my pack's right there . . ."

"Oof!" This time the pack was the cause, and the guy served to break my fall instead of the pack. Though the pack did break HIS fall.

I couldn't help myself and I just started laughing, wishing I could see the look on his face, whatever his face looked like, no to mention the look on mine.

"Hey! What are you laughing at?" he didn't manage to put any menace in the statement though. He too, started to laugh.

"You okay?" I rolled off him.

"Yeah. Just a bit embarrassed" I knew there was a smile on the face of the large form of a person beside me. I smiled and sat down next to him in a more comfortable position.

"Well . . . do you want a drink of water? You must have had quite a walk to get so far in. Not many people get this far unless looking for a serious workout" I tried to make conversation, or do SOMETHING besides just sit there in the mist practically blind.

"Sure" I handed him my water bottle, "What do you mean 'so far in'?" he continued after a swig or two of water. I gave him a puzzled look I knew he couldn't see.

"Well, we're about 5 miles into the reserve, more in other directions."

"What do you mean the reserve? This is my backyard" he stated convinced. I had no doubt he believed what he said.

"Well then you must have a VERY large backyard that happens to be owned by Illinois state."

"Huh? I live in Oklahoma!" Now he was getting kind of pissed. For him, confusion and some anger seemed to correspond at that point.

"Okay. Now I'm very very confused . . ." I looked down at my hands. I realized I could actually see them! I was also a bit warmer, though damp.

"Yeah, me too." I looked up at him again as he spoke. I squinted my eyes and leaned closer trying to get a better look. He was tall and wide and appeared to have relatively long hair at a length somewhere between his chin and shoulders. I knew most people around the reserve and he wasn't anyone I knew. Of course the reserve was open to anyone at any time, within regulations of course.

Then my eyes shot open and I gasped as recognition dawned with the force of a sledgehammer. He still hadn't realized the fog had begun to clear and luckily was facing slightly away from me.

"Oh my god" I said under my breath, he heard me and turned. "Zac . . . ."

"Aw Geez!" he exclaimed standing up, "Not you too! So are you one of those teenies tracking me through my own backyard? You're even set to wait for days! It figures . . . ." he then started muttering to himself more than me, " . . . just when you think you got away from that all by going for a nice walk in your backyard and you finally get a chance to forget and briefly talk to someone who doesn't know who you are and then you find out that they were deceiving you and knew the whole time and . . ."

"Whoa whoa whoa. No one was deceiving anybody. Anyway, what are you talking about?" I tried to say that as nicely as I could. He seemed pretty upset that I had recognized him. Yeah, I recognized him, and yeah I liked his group and his music, but I had NO IDEA what he was blabbing about. I wasn't in his backyard! I was no where near his backyard! For Pete's sake I wasn't even in the same state his supposed backyard was in! Plus, I was definitely NOT an obsessed teenie, that was just a blow to my pride as was the assumption that I was deceiving him. . . but I was going to try and be nice anyway. Not because I loved him, his music or because he was famous, but because he seemed very distressed, and I wanted to know what the heck was going on.

"Huh? . . . You know exactly what I'm talking about!"

"Uh . . . no I don't"

At that point he just clammed up and looked at me suspiciously and very confused. By this time the mist had nearly totally gone. I stood and looked up at the sky searching for the sun and gasped when I finally found it peeking through the trees.

"Uh Zac? Wha . . . what time was it before the mist?"

"Don't you mean what time is it now?" he said rather rudely, glancing at his watch.

"No, I mean before . . ."

"Well, now it's around four in the afternoon."

"No . . . it's not. Look." I pointed to the sun, which was just rising and beginning to shine through the trees. "It's . . . It's . . . morning."

"Oh my god . . . . No. No, this is not happening. This is too weird. All that and now this." He closed his eyes tight and scrunched up his face. Then he covered his face with his hands. "this . . . this is too much" he murmured. It looked almost as if he was going to cry.

I ignored my own feeling of unease and foreboding. There was something definitely wrong with Zac, and it was not just this very very weird circumstance. He wasn't being the Zany Zac everyone thought they knew . . .

"Zac?" I said softly. I walked over to him and kneeled in front of him. "Zac, what's wrong?" I put my hand on his knee. That was a big mistake.

"Nothing!" he jerked up and away from me. "Except for the fact that you are stalking me in my backyard and the time has just flown right by . . . or back, and something very weird has happened and I'm very confused and you are . . . ." I guessed in his present state Zac liked run on sentences.

"I don't think we are in your backyard anymore. Or in the Reserve for that matter." I said trying not to show my hurt too much. I had just wanted to help him like I would have helped any of my friends or anyone else for that matter. I hated to see people upset or hurting. I always had an overwhelming feeling to try and make everything better. Sometimes that urge to make things better just totally sucked. "Sorry" I murmured at a level he couldn't hear.

But my observation was very true. There was no forest anymore as I knew it, no hiking trails. The trees were huge and graceful and of a kind I was not familiar with. I was not familiar with any of the vegetation, but it all had a mysterious air because of that. Basically the area was beautiful, with a high green canopy overhead. I glanced around taking in all the beauty. The birds were singing and the forest teeming with life. I loved it.

"This is definitely not anywhere that I know of . . .not Illinois, not Oklahoma, not . . .anywhere."

"I guess not. . ." Zac grudgingly admitted as he too took in our surroundings.

I went over to my backpack and swung it onto my back, readjusting the straps and the placement of assorted things. I hung the headphones to my walk-man on my hip. I glanced around looking for the best way to travel, for some reason I knew we had to continue on and not stay. The whole time I felt Zac's eyes on me as if they were boring holes in my back or something.

"I think we best go this way" I started off toward what I thought looked like a fairly well traveled trail or road. There were many horseshoe prints in it and I decided to follow the way the most of them were pointing. It looked to be north. Anyway, north was usually a good direction, plus, it just felt right.

"Why should I go with you? I'm going back home!" Zac stated rather angrily, and yet I forgave him, I didn't know precisely what was wrong, and yet I understood. Strange. I stopped and turned around to face him.

"Zac. Where is home? Do you know where you are? Or when you are? How often is it afternoon then directly morning? How often do one person from Oklahoma and one person from Illinois spontaneously end up in the same place? How often do you see a forest like this? Are there any horses anywhere near where you live? and if there are, are they this frequently used? With no signs of a tire anywhere on such an obviously public road? Come see." Overcome by my, in his opinion, horrible common sense, he came over with a slightly crushed look on his face. I thought he covered it rather well.

Zac didn't say anything, just looked at the tracks. I once again trudged off following the path. After what seemed like a million year pause I heard Zac follow me. I relaxed muscles at that point I hadn't realized had been tense. I was worried and confused about the situation and I was annoyed at Zac, even though I really wasn't. I realized that if he hadn't come with me, I would have followed him wherever he had led. I had supplies and was a bit prepared. He had nothing. Why I knew I would need my supplies I didn't know, I just knew I would need them. I also knew that Zac and I HAD to stay together, it was the only thing that seemed logical to me at that moment. I was starting to get sick of "just knowing" things.

I had fallen into the rhythmic motion of my walking and was still a ways ahead of Zac. After some time a thought occurred to me and I slowed my pace down to let Zac catch up.

"Oh Zac?" I spoke quietly to him looking down at my booted feet "By the way, my name is Melli. I just thought you might want to know that." his silence continued so I once again increased my pace. In defiance of his silence I put my headphones on, pressed play, turned up the volume, and listened to Zac and Taylor's long ago singing of "Incredible".