Lauren--Part Thirty-Three

Splog # 110

Thirty-Three

   There was still no response from the camel. Lauren glanced behind her at the oddly-shaped schoolhouse. It would have been fun, she thought, to stay and spend time with Jane and Bart and the other children. They seemed pleasant and she had enjoyed the short time she'd spent among them, even though they were younger than she was. With a sigh she turned back to the distant mountains, only to find that the camel had already started out towards them, leaving her behind.

   "King!" she called. "King! Wait for me!"

   She gave a little jump and started running to catch up with the animal. He hadn't gone very far and yet it was farther than Lauren had thought he could get in the short time she'd been turned away from him. Though he travelled with an easy, rocking gait, reminding her of waves at the beach, it seemed that his sinuous stride could cover a lot of distance in a short time.

   Lauren soon caught up to the camel and walked beside it, letting her breathing calm itself. She remained quiet for this purpose but held the remaining carrot sticks on her palm near the beast's face and they disappeared almost instantly. In exchange for the carrots, her palm had received a layer of moisture and she regretted having to leave all the table linen behind. She didn't want to wipe her hand on her shorts but wasn't especially keen on the idea of leaving her hand in its present state. There was only one thing she could think of so she crouched down and quickly rubbed her hand back and forth through the grass. In only a few moments she  was again walking beside the camel. She rubbed her thumb over her palm and fingers. Still a little damp. So she took another quick dive, this time pulling up grass with both her hands as she rose, to use as a makeshift napkin. When she dropped the grass, her hand was fairly dry and hardly sticky at all so she gave it a few finishing swipes on the seat of her shorts and then concentrated on the journey.

   The way wasn't steep but she could definitely feel that she was walking uphill. She wasn't just strolling anymore but there was a lifting sensation as each foot set down on a slightly higher level than the previous one. And even though her respiration had relaxed from her first spurt of running after the camel, it was no longer the easy breathing of sitting around or even taking a ramble. There was a harshness, a heaviness to her breathing that almost discouraged her from talking. Almost, but not quite.

   "I hope you're King, even if you didn't wait for me when I called. Of course, I guess it wasn't necessary to actually wait. I caught right up. Anyway, I'll call you King until I find out otherwise. You don't seem to mind."

   She looked at King sideways as they both climbed the grassy slope. He didn't seem to be minding much of anything. His mouth was making the chewing motion that seemed perpetual to him and she wondered if he was still eating the carrots. They had seemed like such a small bite when she'd offered them. She wondered if he liked carrots or had just eaten them because he ate anything that was offered to him. What did camels usually eat? She had no idea. Grass, like horses and cows? That seemed likely, plus fruits and vegetables when they could get them. Then she looked at the grass all around her. She still couldn't say why but this grass didn't really look good to eat. She looked back at King, steadily plodding along. Whenever she had taken notice of him before, he had always been gazing into the distance. She'd never seen him lower his head to crop the grass. If camels eat grass, she thought again.

   As she looked ahead, it seemed as if they would soon be coming to the top of a another rise.

   "What'll we find over this one, besides grass and another slope to climb? I wonder if the bell or the pump or the chair will be there...? Or maybe the inn. But some of them come before the inn. Or do they all come after? Bart said...or Jane said..."