To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Mindful Writers Retreat, we chose “retreat” as our theme for this year’s charity anthology and our members did not disappoint. From the Lehigh Mountains of Pennsylvania, to Rehoboth Beach in Delaware, across the Atlantic to Ireland and Italy, and south of the equator to Belize and Africa, our heroes are in search of the illusive inspiration to create a life of their dreams. The quest leads them through forests and jungles, by carriage and train and plane, into libraries and flower shops, and even a convent and a monastery.
I hope you enjoy the opening scenes from my story, “A Certain Magic” and consider picking up a copy of Retreat. All proceeds benefit House of Ruth Maryland.
A Certain Magic
by Phil Giunta
Why was this place so familiar? Keri Lange had never been to Ligonier, Pennsylvania before yesterday afternoon and yet, she’d been haunted by a relentless feeling of déjà vu from the moment she arrived.
Keri paused along the trail as the first rays of the rising sun highlighted the resplendent autumn colors of the surrounding trees. Her gaze swept across the expansive field of green and brown grass bordered by a narrow, meandering creek on its north side and Macartney Lane to the south. Beyond the far edge of the field, opposite the trail on which she stood, sparse traffic flowed along Route 711.
Macartney Lane was the only road in or out of the Ligonier Camp and Conference Center, her home for the next four days. Nestled in the Laurel Highlands region of the Allegheny Mountains, the five-hundred-acre property was a summer camp for kids, but a group of writers from the nearby Pittsburgh area rented the place for a weeklong retreat every October. It was the perfect location to break away from life and get into the creative flow all while nestled in the bosom of Mother Nature. Although Keri lived several hours away, she’d connected with a few of the local writers at a recent conference and was invited to join them.
One of the first things she’d learned during orientation was that many of the writers took sunrise walks to clear their minds before immersing themselves in their work. For Keri, it was a welcome change of pace from the stress of urban life.
To her right, a path of dirt and stone wound its way up to the distant crest of a hill. Keri was tempted to make the climb but she’d been walking for over an hour and her stomach was grumbling. She made a mental note to tackle the hill tomorrow and continued along the trail until she arrived at Macartney Lane. There, a large wooden sign served as an information marker about the Wilpen train crash that had occurred a few hundred yards away on July 5, 1912. The trail on which she’d been walking had once been a branch of the Ligonier Valley Railroad and the site of a horrific collision between a passenger train headed north to Wilpen and a freight train carrying coal on its way south to Ligonier on the same track. Twenty-seven people were killed and twenty-six injured.
Overcome with inexplicable dread, Keri backed away from the sign and darted up the road to the lodge as if some calamity might befall her if she lingered too long on the trail.
***
The rest of the morning passed without further apprehension. Seated against a window in the first-floor lounge, Keri had become so absorbed in her writing that it was almost lunch time when she glanced up from her laptop. Contemplating the next scene in her story, she stared out at the grassy hill behind the lodge and the tree line beyond—until the blast of a train whistle jolted her. She glanced around the room at the other writers, but none of them appeared disturbed by the sound, even when it happened again.
Maybe they’re used to it, since most of them have been here before. But I thought the railroad was long gone. A brief Google search confirmed that it had been decommissioned in 1952. So where did that whistle come from? It was so close!
Keri was tempted to dash outside and track it down until retreat organizers Carla Poole and Barry Sharpe gathered with two other writers and started toward the back door.
Carla leaned toward her as she sauntered past. “Comin’ to lunch?”
Keri closed the lid on her laptop and joined them as they made their way out of the lodge and up the hill to the cafeteria building. “Did any of you hear a train whistle a few minutes ago?”
“Train whistle?” Carla shook her head. “Nope. I don’t think any trains run through this area.”
“The lodge offices are just down the hall from us,” Barry said. “Maybe one of their computers makes a train whistle sound when an email comes in or an alert pops up.”
Keri shrugged. “I guess that makes sense.”
“How’s your writing going?” Carla asked.
“I’m one scene away from finishing this reincarnation story I started last week. It’s about a woman who travels back to her previous life in order to rescue someone and change history. I was struggling with the ending, but this morning’s walk helped clear my mind.”
“That’s what this retreat’s all about,” Barry said. “There’s a certain magic about this place. The guided meditations we do after lunch should help you stay in the creative flow and knock out that last scene.”
“That’s the plan. Once the story’s done, I can give it a quick edit and send it to my critique partners.”
“You still have three days left,” Carla said. “Got anything else?”
“I could work on a novella I put aside a few months ago,” Keri replied. “Unless I get an idea for something new. I see there was a train crash here back in 1912. Maybe I’ll research that. Might get a story idea out of it.”
“That happened two years before this camp was founded.” Barry opened the door and motioned for the women to precede him into the cafeteria. “We’ve had enough strange occurrences here over the years to wonder if this place is haunted by some of the people who died in that crash.”
Keri recalled her unsettling experience on the trail. “That… would explain a lot.”
To continue reading this story and many other wonderful tales, pick up a copy of Retreat from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, or your favorite independent bookstore. Thank you for supporting small press publishing and a worthy cause!
