Behind the Curtain 9 – An Idyllic Life, An Ambiguous Death
“Nice time,” Travis thought, as he made his way up Highway 36, past Hydesville. “Jake’s cool.”
Talking out loud to himself had become commonplace since making the move away from town.
“Living off the grid isn’t that bad. It’s quiet, beautiful,” he thought, slowing his motorcycle around a sharp turn.
“Don’t fail me now!” he shouted to the night as his bike bounced off a rock protruding from the narrow dirt road.
“I only had three beers,” he thought to himself. “No, four. Definitely, four.”
He often rode his bike into town, and knew the dips and peaks of the road.
His little cabin was tucked purposefully away. Away from the road, people, curiosity, and everything else that made it increasingly impossible to make a living with an indoor grow in town.
His family called it his “country-boy phase.” Maybe it was. “I bet there are hundreds of people living like me out here,” he thought, his mind wandering.
A neighbor confided to him early on, “I have a well and a pump if you ever need to put a fire out,” he remembered him saying with a wink.
No one wanted the county, state or anyone else in a uniform up here. He’d heard it more than once. Keep to yourself. Rely on your neighbors. Trust no one.
He liked living off the land. Growing his own food. Waking and sleeping to the wild noises outside. He didn’t even mind constantly having to chop wood in order to eat a hot meal.
“Life is good.” he thought.
Everyone lived simply up here. Some didn’t even have houses, but stayed in tents through the season. No one watched television. They didn’t have phones or electricity. It was chill.
His bike made a sudden leap. He went down hard.
An unnecessary death
In a case similar to this one, a young man was found dead by a friend when he didn’t respond to friend’s repeated calls to his cell phone. He was found lying in his front yard, dead from internal injuries.
Authorities concluded injuries came from an accident on his motorcycle, found nearby with recent damage.
Friends surmised that due to his grow operation, he did not use his cell phone to call for help.
