23 February 2026, Freewriters Community Daily Writing Prompt Day 3023: no electronics here
“So, Auntie Jubilee, tell me a little bit more about this – there's a place where we can do forest bathing right close by?”
“I can do better than that, Vertran – your cousins have already been up to Abaray's Hollow many times – wanna see?”
“Absolutely!”
So, Mrs. Gladys Jubilee Trent piled her great-nephew Vertran Stepforth (9) and her grandchildren Velma (11), Milton (9), and Gracie Trent (8) into her car for a drive and hike into the Blue Ridge.
“Remember that you gotta take a notebook,” Velma had said to Vertran as they also got their hiking poles. “I'm serious – modern cameras don't even work.”
“Yeah, Melvin and I tried to make a music video there and it was a whole fail – if you didn't see it live, that's just too bad,” Milton said.
“Yeah, we had to beat box and ham bone and sing,” Gracie said. “It was fun, though – got the modern beats and the ancient Jubilee-of-the-mountain body drumming making beautiful music together.”
Abaray's Hollow was a beautiful place in the mountains with tall trees, black and red rocks visible in the bottom of the creek and little pool there, great views, and a strange story.
“So, in the late 1600s, this hollow was named for the man who discovered it, Jules Abaray,” Grandma Jubilee said, “but it was soon held to be cursed by the European settlers coming into this region, because if you passed through here, there was a good chance you would never find your way back to where you were going. Mr. Abaray himself died in the mountains after getting lost. He had no heirs, so, it went back to being public property. Meanwhile, Native and escaping African peoples had never stopped making use of the property – the chinquapins by the creek were brought up by the Native peoples and the pawpaws by the African. None of them needed a compass to find their way around.
“It turns out that these black rocks are a form of iron ore called magnetite, and it is now known that about 70 percent of the iron in this area has been fully magnetized. That is, 70 percent of rocks here are all lodestones, naturally occurring magnets, and the percentage increases all the time – so, true north doesn't work here, and compasses and electronics don't work here.”
“No electronics here,” Vertran said, “because just moving around is going to need your device to orient again to the field and it's going to spazz out.”
“So,” Grandma Jubilee said, “Abaray's Hollow has never been mined, and is now a part of the Blue Ridge park system, so it's protected. People come here to do what you learned that the Japanese do, Vertran: immerse themselves in the forest and rest from all the pressure of the world, including the digital world.”
“It's a good thing my brother Tom has taught me to take notes by hand,” Vertran said. “But I don't think I'm going to put this on my channel because it kinda defeats the purpose. If the digital world can't be here, maybe the digital world doesn't need to know all about it.”
“Yeah, because you know those influencers are going to come running and end up breaking their phones and be all crying and who needs the drama?” Gracie said.
“It's a great place to paint, though,” Velma said as she set up her portable canvas and got out her quick paint set.
“And maybe journal,” Vertran said. “I think I'm going to make this a journal entry.”
“And stick your feet in the pool and be happy,” Milton said as he bent down to get his shoes off.
“Ain't it all the truth,” Grandma Jubilee said. “Those pawpaws and chinquapins are just about ready, too – God is serving lunch for us, right here!”
Meanwhile, back at home, the Trent parents were getting some much needed rest, and the Stepforth grandparents went on home to their house around the corner to do the same, while the household cat Goldie and the household dog Goody napped in a sunbeam, also enjoying the quiet.
Author's Note: Chinquapins are cousins to chestnuts!
