Perhaps I had first turned into the curious neighbor that late afternoon.

Joshua Kane reminded me of Collin McCowan: big in size, burly with a ginger-colored beard, and the same green eyes. I didn't in the slightest find Kane attractive, but he did make me younger, filled with adventurous life.

Truth said, I couldn't get Kane out of my head, inquisitive regarding his nature, where he had come from over the woodsy knoll and narrow pathway. What exactly did the Kane house, cabin, or compound look like over the steep rise in the woods? Where had Joshua Kane resided as my neighbor, and how exactly far away was his property to my uncle's? If, in fact, the two men were lovers, which I highly doubted according to my trio of sisters, how long was Kane's walk to meet his boyfriend at my Uncle Michael's cabin?

More truth said, I became quite curious to learn such answers to the list of questions in my mind, determined to have a fresh insight of the next door neighbor, whom I thought interesting, a puzzle of sorts for me to learn and figure out, and quite strange.

* * * *

Approximately five o'clock that afternoon with forty-seven minutes until the sun set, I dressed in my North Face jacket, gloves, a hat, and comfortable snow boots. Thereafter, I exited my uncle's cabin, entered the narrow pathway to the far right side of the property, and started to climb the steep knoll.

Mere seconds into my travels and a chilly wind raked against my face, burning its skin. A howling around me occurred, keeping me aware. My feet slipped over ice and snow. The pathway couldn't have been any wider than two feet, stretching and zigzagging into the distance, along the lake. Frozen earth, fallen branches, and cold sandstone comprised the pathway. Carefully I moved forward, one step after the next, keeping my balance and preventing an untimely fall.

The climb felt as if it would never end for me. Granted, it wasn't a very long trek, but due to the weather (icy strings of wind and nonstop flurries), it seemed much longer than what I had originally guessed. As the sunlight fell in the eastern horizon the clouds and sky filled with a purple-blue-red shade of eerie and ominous confusion. I thought it a warning of sorts, telling me to turn around and make my way back to my uncle's cabin. Danger obviously lurked in in the planned actions of my future and I was far too foolish to end my travels on the steep crest. Instead, I continued forward, executing the act of being the curious neighbor, and feeling that I would see something important, unexpected, and not law-abiding.

* * * *

What did I see from atop that icy crest, positioned on my belly, wide-eyed and staring through the semi-illuminated afternoon as the winter sun continued to set, becoming slumberous in the beautiful and enchanting distance?

I lay on my stomach hidden on the mountain-like knoll like a military sniper in battle, scoping out a foreign army and preparing for war and blood bath. A log cabin similar to my uncle's stood next to the lake. Spirals of gray-black smoke rose into the heavens from a single chimney, coating the sky with pollution. The narrow trail arched over the knoll and downwards into the surrounding woods, which led to the main building.

Parked beside the cabin sat Kane's automobile, a 1998 Chevy cargo van, blinding white in color, without any windows. The thing looked as if it had been through a recent war, dented in one side and rusted in numerous places. How it had passed a Pennsylvania inspection was news to me; probably a favor done for Kane. Who knew? Noah Rexington had told me that Joshua Kane had created trouble for himself, and I supposed that a false inspection done on his vehicle wasn't supposed to be a surprise to me.

Behind the cabin sat what I believed was a tool shed, which was large enough to house and protect an ATV, or quad as I had called the vehicle. A snowmobile could have also fit inside the shed, handy tools, and other whatnots that Joshua Kane wanted to store there, away from one's eye, and mind.