After the End - Chap. 1, 2, 3 & 4

Chapter 1

As Randy drove the old, dying tractor toward town he thought of all the things he needed to pick up. Paige had requested some more large pans and a stock pot or two, if he could find them. He would also get her more of those kitchen gadgets he kept borrowing and ruining on her. Aragon wanted a couple more axes, a sledgehammer and a maul, along with all the chalk Randy could find. Skye, as always, left her list to ‘books, paper and pencils; please’. And Meg. She hadn’t asked for anything at all, but Randy intended to find her all the baby care items he could carry; crib, blankets, diapers, bottles - and whatever else he saw with a baby on it. There were more requests from the others, but they were so commonly asked for that Randy had begun to grab them automatically.
With the list rolling through his mind, and the herky-jerky motions of the tractor nearly lulling the giant man to sleep he was nearly startled out of his skin when a boy stumbled out of the field and up onto the highway, dragging a heavy backpack behind him.
Randy slammed the brakes, down shifted quickly, and curses thundered out of him as he tried to avoid hitting the boy.
“Hey, you! Watch out!” the man bellowed as he swerved the rusted tractor to the right, while the boy meandered obliviously across the road.
Once Randy had managed to stop the tractor from going into the ditch, he stepped down to the road and watched the boy from over the top of the engine, still walking slowly away. The child hadn’t even flinched when the tractor made violent noises. Randy was almost sure the child was deaf, if not blind, also.
“Hello? Can you hear me?” Randy called out, as his long strides caught him up to the boy quickly. Randy didn’t normally yell, muchless curse, but he decided to try more loudly to get the boy’s attention. “Hey! You got ears?”
The slow moving boy didn’t appear to have heard the thunder erupting right behind him. He kept plodding forward, dragging the pack through the grass of the median and up onto the north bound lanes. Randy could hear something metal scraping against the pavement as he closed the gap and stepped infront of the boy.
Randy set a hand on the boys’ shoulder to stop him from walking directly into the tall man’s legs. No sooner had he touched the boy, the child dropped to ground, clutching the pack and rocking slightly, moaning quietly.
“You okay, kid? I didn’t hurt ya did I?” Randy asked as he knelt down infront of the boy. “Are you with anyone? Got family?”
The boy said nothing, only kept rocking and moaning quietly. When Randy reached toward him a second time, the boy jerked himself back a little, but never looked up at Randy.
Slowly the man stood up. He looked up and down the highway and across the fields, swaying in a gentle breeze. There were no other people in sight, only ravens sitting on the wires overhead, watching curiously.
He looked back down at the child at his feet and noticed the child wore clothes several sizes too small. Thin, bony ankles stuck out of khaki pants and disappeared into sagging navy blue socks. The boy’s old tennis shoes wearing thin, toes peeking out. The windbreaker he wore only came to mid forearm and exposed thin arms that looked like they would snap if you grabbed them too tightly.
Randy didn’t have much experience with children, but it was clear this boy wouldn’t survive much longer left alone. If he brought the boy back to camp, then Aragon and Skye would know what to do. The first need was obviously food.
“I can’t leave you here, but you can come back to camp with me and get somethin’ to eat. Okay?” Randy said as he knelt down again. “Come on now, stand up.”
The boy kept rocking, but did stop moaning.
“Alright. Tired, huh? I’ll carry ya then.” Randy almost whispered, aware he might scare the child. “I’m going to pick you up now.”
Randy gently scooped the boy into one massive arm, and stood up. The child weighed almost nothing, but when Randy attempted to take the pack from him, it slipped, and he caught the pack that outweighed the child. The boy’s long, thin hands reached out for the pack.
“It’s okay, I’ll carry it for you, it’s pretty heavy, huh?” Randy said as he walked back to tractor.
When the pair neared the tractor, Randy veered toward the old hay wagon hitched to the back.
“We’ll put your pack here, until we reach camp.” Randy said as he set the pack down, then turned to the tractor. The boy began to struggle reaching for the pack, and Randy had to use both hands to keep him from falling. “Okay, okay, you’ll hold it up front.”
Randy moved the boy in his arm so the child could hold the pack. He walked to the tractor, then stepped up. Once Randy sat down on the old metal seat, he set the small boy on his leg, feet dangling near the wheel’s fender. The heavy pack resting on Randy’s other knee.
For once, the old tractor started without Randy having to give the starter several solid raps. The machine rumbled and groaned loudly as Randy took a slow wide turn and headed back toward home, one arm wrapped protectively around the quiet boy and his pack.



Chapter 2

Randy’s tractor could be heard coming toward camp, long before anyone saw it.
“Someone go get Aragon, Randy’s coming back already - something must be wrong!” Jack called out to a group of people tending a garden nearby. He threw down the axe he had been using to notch logs for the newest cabin. Jack ran across the open field that connected the camp in the valley to the highway almost a half mile away. The tractor ruts were rough, but Jack ran across them gracefully, thankful for the training his cross country running coach had given him, ‘feet high, plan your next step.’
Aragon had heard the tractor, also, and soon caught up to Jack. He scanned the road ahead and saw the grey smoke rising from the exhaust pipe.
“Slow down, I see him. He isn’t coming fast. He probably forgot what to get, again and decided to check first before going all the way to town.” Aragon said as the slowed down his pace in the rut alongside Jack.
“Yeah, you’re probably right. Wait ...” Jack said as he narrowed his eyes, focusing on the figure in the driver’s seat. “Is something on Randy’s lap?”
“Looks it. But why not toss it on the wagon?”
As Randy turned off of the highway, down into the field, he spotted his friends and waved. The tractor bumped along the trail and he slowed down as he approached the pair staring at him in disbelief.
“It’s a kid!” Jack muttered.
“It is, I wonder where he came from? We haven’t had anyone new since last fall.” Aragon said, he and Jack stepping into the low, dried field of hay as Randy stopped next to them.
“Found a friend, huh, Randy?” Jack asked the giant man.
“Nah, he found me. Nearly run ‘im over, walkin’ out front of the tractor.” Randy replied, shifting the tractor into neutral and quieting the engine just the slightest bit. “Ain’t said ‘boo’. And ain’t lettin’ go of that heavy pack, neither.”
“He looks half starved, better get him to Paige, she’ll fix that. We’ll ride the wagon back.” Aragon said, shaking Jack out of a stare and motioning to the wagon.
The two men hopped up onto the wagon, feet dangling off the back and Randy put the tractor back into gear and drove on toward camp.
A crowd had gathered by the shed, Randy had built for his rusting mode of transportation. They watched as the men entered camp, and then began to whisper to each other when they spotted the boy. Once the old machine had stopped spewing smoke and was quieted, they began to ask questions.
“Who is he?”
“Are there others?”
“Calm down.” Aragon said, raising his voice to get their attention, “We don’t know anything other than this boy is hungry. He seems pretty scared, too, so give him some room.”
“Oh, great, another mouth to feed!” snarled a heavy-set girl in the back of the crowd. “He’d better earn it.”
“He couldn’t eat half of what you do, Sam, so give it up.” Randy said, his voice becoming louder as he spoke. The two had never seen eye to eye, but Randy still intimidated her enough to shut her up.
The boy in Randy’s lap had cgingeded when the man raised his voice, and now Randy turned to him, and said in a gentler tone, “It’s okay, she’d bitch about being hung with a new rope. Never mind her.”
“Save the color, Randy.” Aragon said, “Let’s get him something to eat.”
The group began to return to their tasks as the trio of men walked past the spring garden and over to the kitchen, where the aromas of another great meal were beginning to fill the air.
The ‘kitchen’ was a wood shingled roof, twenty feet wide and some thirty feet long, built on rough hewed log poles. The short side in back was walled in, a stone fireplace in the center, and two shorter walls ran about ten feet along each long side. A plank top counter separated the cooking area from the open air section where mismatched tables and chairs were scattered. A second fire place stood empty in the center of the front short side.
“Who is this?” a sweet voice chimed, as a woman with dark, shoulder length hair covering half of her face stepped out from the cooking area. She walked to the table the men were settling. She ruffled Randy’s hair as she said, “I told you a stock pot, but a dish washer will do for now.”
Randy, as always, couldn’t think straight around the beautiful woman, “Uh, yeah, sorry ... I’ll, ah, get it later today.”
Aragon and Jack stifled their laughs as much as they could. Aragon found the woman attractive, but he loved Skye. Jack liked Paige, too, but wouldn’t step on Randy’s toes for her; though he thought the giant of a man should make a move soon before someone else did.
“That’s fine,” turning her one visible deep brown eye toward the boy in Randy’s lap, she asked, “And, what is your name, friend?”
The boy said nothing. He stared at the woman’s face, moving just a little to see past the hair covering half of it.
Paige had gotten this look for half her life, and it had stopped bothering her long ago. “I’ll tell you what, I’ll show what you want to see, if you tell me what to call you. Deal?”
“Riley.” the boy said in a whisper so low that only Paige, with her face close to his, could hear him.
“What, kid? I...” Randy started, but Paige stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.
“Well, Riley, I am Paige and welcome to our camp.” Slowly she tucked the hair behind her ear, revealing a face so scared that one eye was nearly closed. She smiled kindly, one side of her mouth tightening as she did. “Can I get you something to eat? You look hungry and I cook pretty good, if I do say so myself.”
Riley seemed to study the scars a moment. Then he looked at the others at the table. Finally, he looked down at his feet, hanging between Randy’s massive legs. When his shoulders slumped, Paige said,
“Don’t worry about my scars, they don’t hurt. Can I get you something to eat?”
“Yes, please, Ms. Paige,” the boy said in voice only a little louder this time, smiling faintly at the woman.
“Manners, I like that in a young man. You have yourself a seat here,” she said patting the back of the chair next to Randy, “and I’ll bring you out some stew. Do you want milk, or water?”
“Milk, please.”
“Anything for the rest of you?”
“Nah, I should get back to work, cabins don’t build themselves.” Jack said, standing up and pushing his chair in. “See you at lunch though, save me a steak?”
“I might.”
“I’m all set, Paige, but thanks.” Aragon said.
“I’ll take a big bowl of stew and some milk, too.” Randy said, giving Paige a sheepish smile.
“I figured as much, Randy.”
As Paige returned to the back, Randy helped Riley settle into his chair.
“Let’s put that pack down here next to the chair.”
The boy only tightened his grip on the heavy backpack, looking at each of the men unsurely, then over toward Paige, shaking his head very slightly.
“I think Riley wants to keep his things close to him,” Aragon said
Paige returned to the table, a tray in her hands. She set a steaming bowl of stew, a spoon, and milk in a cartoon glass in front of Riley. When Randy saw the glass he looked at Paige, but said nothing when she wagged a finger at him. Randy began to scoop hot stew into his mouth as soon as the bowl was in front of him. Riley only stared.
A basket of light brown rolls was placed between the three men and Paige set a cool glass of water infront of Aragon.
“Thanks, Paige.” Aragon said as he eyed the rolls, then picked one up and bit into the warm bread.
“Thank you, Ms. Paige.” Riley said, his voice slowly becoming more sure. Then he bowed his head for a quick moment, and picked up his spoon.
“You are welcome Riley. There’s more if you want it.”
“I’ll ...” Randy began.
“I know you’ll eat it all if I let you, Randy. Why don’t you take a roll or two and see if you can get me those things I need. I’ll save you the two biggest steaks, though.” She smiled warmly, and Randy nearly tripped over himself getting up to go. “That okay with you?” she asked turning to Aragon.
“That’s fine. I need some things too. Can you keep Riley company while I talk to Randy?”
“No problem. Right, Riley?”
“No, madam.”
“I don’t mind the ‘Ms.’, but let’s not say ‘madam’ - it makes me look over my shoulder for my mom, God rest her soul.” Paige said to the young boy.
“I am sorry,” he said quietly.
“That’s alright.” Turning to Aragon, she said, “He can stay with me, I know you’re busy.”
“Sound good to you, Riley?”
The boy nodded and smiled, then continued eating his stew and bread.
“I’ll be back later. Thanks, Paige.” Aragon turned, motioned to Randy, and the two walked back to the tractor talking quietly.
“You eat all you want, then join me in the kitchen. You can put your pack under the counter in there,” Paige told the boy. When he eyed her, she added “It’ll be safe, I promise. Okay?”
Riley nodded and spooned up more stew, smiling faintly at Paige.
“Back to work I go, then.”
The boy finished two bowls of stew and most of the rolls. Then he brought his bowl to the counter, dragging his pack behind him. Paige showed him what he could do to help once the pack was safely stashed. The two didn’t talk much, even though Paige had asked a few friendly questions. She gave up when it was obvious the boy wanted to help more than talk.
The lunch crowd came and went, most smiling and saying hello to Paige and her young helper. Sam, the heavy set woman, said nothing, only giving Riley a nasty look. He stood his ground silently, looking straight back at her and handing her two bowls of stew, instead of the usual one he handed to everyone else.
“He knows you already, huh, Sam?” said a boy about Riley’s age had.
Sam stomped away with both bowls and Paige nudged Riley’s arm, saying,
“Good call, she’ll bully anyone she can.”
Once the lunch was cleaned up and dinner was set to start roasting, Paige told Riley to grab his pack.
“You can stay at my cabin, until we figure out where you’re most comfortable.” She led him across the camp, past the large firepit in the center, and to a small log cabin. A plaque by the crude plank door read ‘Home is where friends gather’.
The two got the boy settled in. Paige kept an extra cot in her cabin and she set it up for the boy as he looked at a small collection of books on her table. Most were cookbooks, but he found an old, tattered copy of ‘Fahrenheit 451'.
“Why don’t you get some rest,” Paige said, patting the cot, “You’re welcome to read that if you’d like.”
“Yes. Thank you,” Riley said as he settled down on top of the blankets covering the old army cot.
“I’ll leave you to read or sleep. If you need anything, I’ll be at the kitchen. You okay with that?”
“Yes,” he replied, already falling into the story, not really noticing as the woman left.
Once the woman was gone, Riley opened his pack, and pulled out a file labeled ‘Test Subjects.’ He scanned the list until he came across the name, Paige Two Bears.
A tear slipped from the corner of his eye and he closed the file, muttering to himself “Why dad?”


Chapter 3

Aragon hopped off the back of the wagon, as Randy shut down the old rumbling beast.
The two men stood at the side of the field where the boy had emerged, earlier that morning. Dry, honey-colored hay lay bent and broken in a narrow path, zig zagging back into the field. The tall men could see to where the trail disappeared over a small knoll.
“Do you know what’s on the other side of this field?”
“The south corner is just up the road from that farm house, where we got the water tank a couple weeks ago,” Randy replied, nervously looking up and down the highway. He couldn’t explain it, but he felt eyes watching him.
“There are a lot of fields out that way. It should make it easier to see where Riley was coming from.” Noticing the edgy look of his friend, Aragon, too, began to scan the road and woods on the other side.
“Somethin’ out here,” Randy said, his usual thunder gone from his voice.
“Yeah, I feel it, too. What do you want to do? Go around on the roads to the other side, cut through the field, or go back to camp?”
“I ain’t runnin’ home scared. Never have.”
“I say we follow Riley’s trail.”
“Let’s go.”
Any other time Aragon would have laughed to see his mountain of a friend nearly running for the tractor. Not this time though. Somewhere, someone was watching them.
As Randy guided the tractor along the trail of broken, twisted hay, while Aragon stood on the wood side racks of the wagon, looking out over the field. Occasionally he would turn to look back toward the woods, almost expecting to see someone there.
Soon they reached the top of the knoll. A new trail appeared, beaten down in the grasses, only a few feet to the side of Riley’s trail. This one stopped there on the top, then cut straight back to the distant road, crossing Riley’s winding path several times.
“I ain’t a tracker like James, but it looks to me like Riley was followed.”
Aragon nodded, looking at the way everything was trampled flat in a small area.
“My bet is that you were watched when you found the boy.” Aragon guessed out loud. “We better go back to camp, make sure everything is okay. Then decide what to do.”
“Trouble you thinkin’?” Randy asked, as he turned the tractor and wagon around, avoiding going over either of the trails.
“I don’t know, but that kid kept going for a reason. You said he didn’t seem to notice you when you almost run him over, right?”
“Yeah, deaf as a rock.”
“I’d say he was in shock, or plain scared silly. Either will stop a person dead in their tracks or keep them moving until they drop.”
Randy and Aragon rode back to camp in silence.
Aragon faced the back of the wagon, feeling like a child again, scared from the trickster legends his grandfather would tell, warning him about life’s’ dangers. In those stories, when the coyote hid, watching someone, you knew they were likely to lose something if they weren’t careful.
Less than two hours after the men had left camp, they returned.
“You go find James, and have him meet us at the kitchen; Paige and Riley should be there,” Aragon told Randy.
“We’ll be right there, I know he’s fixin’ traps today at his cabin,” Randy replied over his shoulder, as he walked quickly toward the cabin at the edge of the woods along the north side of camp.
When Aragon arrived, he saw Paige tending to a half dozen roasts, just behind the kitchen. The aromatic meat turned slowly on a spit over an outdoor fire. He looked around as he passed the tables and chairs.
“Paige, where’s Riley?”
“He’s at my cabin, reading or napping ... “ but as she faced Aragon she could see something was wrong. “What’s going on?”
“I’m not sure, but I think Riley was followed, at least to where Randy found him.”
“Oh. Maybe he has family looking for him,” Paige said, watching the tall man closely.
“I don’t think it’s that. Good, here come Randy and James.”
“Hey, boss. Randy says you got a job for me? Trackin’ that new kid?” James asked, while he wiped rust and oil from his tough, leathery hands. He, like the other older members of camp, was in his early twenties, but his work outdoors had weathered him, making his short, thin build look much older.
“Yeah, I just might if you quit calling me boss,” Aragon said.
“Sure, boss,” James said, laughing at the long running joke.
“Why don’t you both follow me,” he said motioning to Randy and James, “and we’ll go find out what Riley has to say. Maybe he just ran away and it’s his family trying to find him.”
“I’ll join you guys in a minute. Meg can watch the meat for me,” Paige told the men.
“Okay, good, we’ll meet you at your cabin.”
The men discussed the trails as they walked to the cabin, filling James in as they went.
“Did the second trail zig zag like Riley’s?” James asked.
“At first it did, most of the way.”
“In some spots it goes straighter than Riley’s.”
“Then it stops in a beat down area, and goes straight back the way Riley came from,” Aragon finished, after Randy had added what he’d noticed.
“What does the trail going back look like?” the trapper asked.
“Hard tellin’, it doesn’t show up as well,” Randy answered.
“Okay, I’d say whoever followed Riley, could see him, part of the time. That’s why there’s straight parts in the second trail.” James stopped, thought a moment, “Where on the highway did you say you found the kid, Randy?”
“‘Bout two miles from the town south of us.”
“I see. It’s wide open there. The guy following probably heard your tractor and stopped on the hill top. That would explain the grass being matted down. Then, when you and Riley left, he ran, leaving a lighter trail.”
“Damn, think you could find a sheep I lost a couple summers ago?” Randy asked, amazed James could tell so much just hearing about the trails.
“Sure, Randy, it probably walked in front of you when you were hungry, you saw rack of lamb and ate it!” James teased, slapping his friend on the back, reaching only mid back up the taller man.
“Here we are,” Aragon said as they neared Paige’s cabin.
He knocked on the crude door, waited a moment, then knocked again. No one answered.
“Kid’s probably sleepin’, hard,” Randy suggested.
“Probably. Let’s check.” Slowly Aragon lifted the latch and the hinges creaked as he pushed the door open.
Light filtered through an old stained glass window in the back wall. Paige’s bed, neatly made and covered with pillows made of scraps, was empty. The cot tucked into the far corner held a small lump under a thin blanket.
“Riley? Wake up, we need your help, buddy,” Aragon said quietly as he walked toward the cot.
Paige stepped into the cabin as Aragon reached down to rustle Riley out of his sleep. Then quickly, Aragon pulled back the blanket, revealing a row of pillows.
“He’s gone! I told him to join me at the kitchen when he got up,” Paige said, her heart tripping in her chest.
“Uh, guys...” Randy said in a strange voice, turning away from the table with a piece of paper in his hands.
“What is it?” Aragon asked.
“A note. From Riley.”
“What’s it say?” Paige asked, looking like a mother missing her child.
“Uh, maybe he should,” Randy said handing the note to Aragon.
“Okay. It reads; Dear Paige and others, I am sorry. You, Paige Two Bears-” Aragon read then looked up at his friend questioningly, she shook her head. Aragon went back to the letter.
“And Aragon Spotted Eagle’s scars are my father’s fault. He is dead. The other native americans in camp were hurt by him also. I am sorry, I have to go so I don’t bring you any trouble. Thank you for the food. Sincerely, Riley Gallinger. P.S. I took your book and left you mine. I hope it’s okay.”
As Aragon finished reading the letter, Randy handed Paige the book that was under the letter. James stood in the doorway, looking out toward the woods.
“What does he mean my scars are his father’s fault?” Paige asked slowly, then suddenly asked Aragon, “Did you show him your scars?”
“No.”
“Didn’t show him mine either, didn’t have to.” James said quietly, his back to the others.
“What are you talking about?” Paige asked.
“Remember when my parents tried to sue the Bureau of Indian Affairs?” James asked Aragon.
“Yeah, all your parents money, and it got nowhere against the government.”
“True, but it’s starting to make some sense.” James said, “Riley’s last name is Gallinger, right?”
“That’s what he wrote here,” Aragon answered, holding up the note.
“Well, Riley Gallinger was in charge of the vaccine department that my parents tried to sue.”
“The kid?” Randy asked, baffled.
“No,” Paige replied,”he’s probably a junior.”
“Oh.”
“And if this kid is blaming his father for the scars on all of us indians, my guess is it wasn’t an accident. Which would also explain why my parents didn’t get anywhere.” James continued. “How else would he know we all have them?”
“Okay, I see what you’re saying, but right now, that kid is being tracked,” Aragon said.
“We need to find him. I’m worried about him. And he isn’t to blamed for his father’s actions,” Paige said, holding the boy’s book close.
“I agree. He ran off into the woods. Randy and I can go find him easily enough.” James said, looking back out the door toward the woods.
“Alright, you two go find him, and watch out for what ever ‘trouble’ it is he didn’t want to bring here,” Aragon said.
“I’ll go ask one of the girls to help Meg with dinner. Then we can figure out what to do,” Paige added.
“I’ll go fill in Skye. If you can meet us at our cabin, we’ll decide what to do next,” Aragon said as the group left the cabin.



Chapter 4

Randy followed James into his cabin, holding various items while the trapper put together a hasty pack. Randy hadn’t been in the cabin before, and was amazed to see homey touches. A hand carved plaque, made from a cross-section of log, showed a river winding thru a wide rolling landscape. Teepees dotted the horizon, in the detailed carving, smoking wisping into the air. Before Randy could look further James was ready to go.
As James stepped out of his cabin he reached for his intricately carved walking stick. In the first weeks at the camp, he had found the stick seemingly calling to him. It was almost six feet long with a knot in the wood at one end, twisting gently from one end to the other, yet remaining straight. At night, by the light of a small fire, he carved into the twists of wood, figures from the legends his grandparents had told. Near where his hand would grip he put symbols of power; a Zuni health bear, a sun and moon, an eagle and others. Everyone in camp agreed it was beautiful, yet only a handful understood the meaning of the carvings. A few people asked that he make them walking sticks, but he declined, offering to teach them how to make their own. Only Jack decided to carve one for himself, under James’ instruction.
With his own walking stick in hand, James selected a hefty pole, over two inches thick and over seven feet long, and handed it to Randy.
“I can walk fine without this,” Randy replied, holding the pole horizontally in his large hands.
“It’s for more than walking, Randy. Bring it anyway. Hold it like this,” James said holding his own in his right hand, slightly in front of himself, “ Is it comfortable?”
“Sure. It’ll work, I guess.”
“Let’s go then. Riley entered here,” James said. He lead Randy into the woods, past a single, broken branch which bent in toward the heart of the forest.
“You sure?”
James looked at Randy plainly, then continued walking, watching the ground and foliage as he went, occasionally touching the dirt or a twig that had been snapped.
They continued this way in silence, for a couple miles, as the mid-afternoon sun spilled shadows around them.
* * *
Paige returned to the kitchen and talked with Meg, checking to see that she wasn’t tiring too quickly. The pregnant girl had greeted her with a smile and assured Paige she was fine to keep working on dinner.
“I’d feel better if you had help as I’ll be busy for awhile. Anyone you’d like to work with?”
“Sam,” Meg said quietly, knowing the reputation of the heavyset girl wasn’t friendly.
“Sam?”
“I know, I know. She can be rude and mean, but we’ve talked a lot lately and I kinda like her. She can cook, too,” Meg replied.
“Okay, I’ll go ask her to join you. I’ll be at Skye and Aragon’s if you need me.”
“Paige?”
“Yeah, Meg?”
“Thanks for letting me help out, everyone thinks I’m useless right now.” the young mother said, rubbing her swollen belly.
“No problem, just don’t over do it.”
* * *
When James and Randy reached the wide, shallow river flowing down the center of the wide valley, they stopped.
“We lost him, huh?” Randy asked, his booming voice cracking from being silent for so long.
“No,” James said, “The kid is smart, he didn’t go straight across the water.”
Randy had been out hunting with the man enough to know when to be quiet and let him do his thing. While he waited he pulled a piece of venison jerky from his pocket and began to chew. It was the only food Randy could make with any success and he made as much as he could, with trimmings from Paige’s kitchen and scraps James gave him.
Without turning around, James put his hand out, open, behind his back, “I can smell it, good batch?”
“Yup.” Randy said dropping a long strip in the out-reached hand.
“We’ll cross to the other bank, you go down stream, I’ll go up. Look for broken ...”
“I’m learnin’. Broken twigs, flat reeds and grass, wet rocks,” Randy finished for him.
James simply smiled to his friend and pointed down stream, then walked up stream, eyeing the bank closely.
The two went slowly, carefully over the wet, slippery rocks on the river bed. They also kept an eye on the forest behind them, just incase.
After they had gone some twenty yards in their own directions, Randy let out a deep, long whistle and signaled James to come look. The trapper picked up his stick and seemed to glide down the river, over rocks that had tripped the giant man.
“I think I got him,” Randy said, pointing at some reeds. A few had been snapped, angling back up stream as the trail led in to dry land and up a small mud bank.
“Good. It’s him.”
“How do you know? For sure?”
“Size seven sneakers, most animals are size two,” James said, looking at footprints in the muddy bank and giving one of his rare laughs.
“Oh. Yeah. I knew that,” Randy blushed, then scooped up a handful of water from the reeds, drank deeply and followed James into the woods.
Soon the trees began to climb up the side of a hill, slowly growing into a mountain. Riley’s trail headed north, angling up the hill. For James it was easy to follow and so they continued on.
* * *
“Hello.” Paige called out as she neared the cabin.
“Come on in,” Skye replied.
Opening the door, Paige found Aragon and Skye looking at a map. On the map a large red circle marked the camps’ location, at a break in the hills surrounding a long valley. The two were tracing fingers over the map, making pencil marks where they or others had been in the area. A blue ‘x’ marked where Riley had been found, and a dotted line marked his trail over the field. A red dotted line marked the other trail.
“What’s the plan so far?” Paige asked, looking over their shoulders.
“Nothing yet, I thought we should look at the map- try to get an idea where the other person or persons went,” Skye answered.
“This map is only roads and towns, but we know most of the close by woods and fields.” Aragon continued studying the map as the women got glasses of water and sat down at opposite sides of the table where the map was spread out.
“Does James have any other maps? Topo-something?” Paige asked.
“Topographical. Maybe, but I think his maps are in his head, he has a knack for that,” Aragon said “We’ll ask when they get back.”
“Soon, I hope. I haven’t even met Riley, yet, but I’m worried about him,” Skye said, turning the clear blue glass in her hands.
“Me, too,” Paige agreed. “He is very polite and would be awful cute, with a little more meat on his bones.”
“Paige, he left you a book, right?” Aragon asked, finally looking up from the map.
“Yes, right here,” she replied, handing him the book she had been holding since they all read Riley’s note. The book somehow comforted her.
“Hmm,” Aragon mumbled, looking at the dirty, smeared cover of the small hardcover, “Ironic choice.”
“Why?” Skye asked, looking puzzled at the other two.
“Us Indians never used to write books, instead we had a tradition of orally passing along stories, history, and even even recipes,” he said “So he ‘borrowed Paige’s copy of ‘Fahrenheit 451,’ about burning books, and he left a copy of ‘Wisdom of the Native Americans’.”
“What does it mean?” Skye asked.
“My guess? He felt sorry for whatever his father did and read this-” Paife said, taking the book back from Aragon, “trying to learn something about us. Something beside his father’s view.”
“My thought, too,” Aragon said, pulling up a chair to the table. “Now, we need to decide how to protect this boy, and ourselves.”
* * *
As James neared a ridge on the hillside, following the boy’s trail, he held up a hand to stop Randy, a few paces behind him.
“Be careful here, it’s all loose rocks. Some have slid recently,” James said, scanning the rocks, then deciding on a safe path to follow.
The steep hillside was covered with rocks, most the size of soccer balls, others as big as steel garbage cans.
Looking closely, Randy could see dark colored earth on rocks that had recently slid down the hill. As the large man stepped onto rocks, crossing to the side some fifty feet away, more would shift and threaten to trip him. Suddenly the stick that James had given him was making a lot of sense. Randy balanced himself with it, as he followed the trapper.
“Stop. Don’t move,” James snapped, he himself freezing in place and looking down the hill.
Below, almost hidden by a larger rock, James pointed out a patch of blue and khaki colored cloth. Randy wanted to run down the hill to the boy. He knew it was his new little friend, in trouble.
“Stay still. You could send more rocks down on him,” James said quickly, seeing the concern on his friend’s face.
“Okay, but hurry up.”
“Hurrying won’t help him,” James said. Then he called out “Riley ! Riley are you okay?”
“It’s me buddy, it’s Randy, you okay?” the big man thundered, becoming more scared when the boy hadn’t answered James.
“I’m stuck,” replied a small trembling voice.
“We’re going to come get you. Stay there!” Randy yelled, feeling a bit better.
James signaled the big man to go back the way he had come, and go down the hill. The two hung onto trees as they descended the steep hill side.
When they were directly across from the boy, James began to walk carefully to him, telling Randy to wait a moment.
Reaching the other side of the big stone trapping the boy, he asked, “How bad are you hurt?”
“It hurt a lot at first, but now I can’t feel anything.” Riley said, a scared look in his eyes, as he pointed to his legs. They were twisted as they disappeared under the rock. Blood had dried on some of the rocks below.
“Okay. That’s okay. We can get you out. Hang in there a minute more, I have to go get Randy. Okay?”
“Hurry, please,” the boy pleaded. Then rested his head on the rocks behind him.
“No problem, kiddo,” James said, giving the boy a confident smile, which disappeared as soon as he turned back to Randy.
James carefully traced his steps over the rocks back to Randy, thinking of a way to free the boy as he went.