Chapter Five Making Plans

The kids begin to plan for the coming winter. A new romance blossoms.

Chapter Five

 

Making Plans

 

"Are you crazy?"

"Did the boys tell you to say that?"

"I'm not letting those girls see me in my underwear."

"I think that only the girls should strip, especially Big Tits Erin."

"You shut up, Pencil Dick!"

"All right, all right!" Desi shouted.  Everyone subsided into low mumbling and grumbling.  Then Desi turned to Mike.  She crossed her arms under her chest and in a demanding tone asked, "Why?"

Mike looked around helplessly.  "Uh...um....well, it's going to be cold this winter, even in the Lodge.  We'll probably be wearing our clothes most of the time.  I just think it would be a good idea if we save them for when we really need them.  If we wore just our underwear part of the time, our clothes will last a lot longer."  There was a low murmur from the group.

"See," said Desi, talking to the crowd of kids.  "He always has a good reason for his ideas, even his dumb ideas."  She looked back at Mike and glared.

Erin stood up.  "Chief, even if I didn't like the idea of taking my clothes off in front of everyone, it wouldn't work.  We can't go without wearing our clothes because of the elevation."

"It's warm enough some days," Mike insisted.

"It's not that, Chief.  It's because there's not enough atmosphere at this elevation.  We would all get severe sun burn."Mike was thunderstruck.  He had not thought of that at all.  He felt like an idiot for not remembering about sun burn.

"Oh," he said.  "I guess that was a dumb idea."  His statement was followed by hoots from the audience.

"Quiet!" yelled Desi, and when they calmed down she continued.  "Look, the Chief had an idea.  It won't work.  But if we give everyone a hard time who thinks up a dumb idea, everyone is going to stop telling us their ideas.  They'll be too afraid that we'll laugh at them.  And then someone is going to have a really crazy good idea that they won't bother to tell.  Maybe it will be an idea that will save someone’s life.  So when someone suggests something, even if it sounds crazy, we have to listen.  Okay?"  There was more mumbling after that, but generally they agreed with Desi.

“We have a related problem,” said Yuie.  “Some of us are growing out of our clothes.”  There was a murmur of agreement from some of the kids.

“The bigger kids are going to have to share some of their clothes with the younger kids,” Erin stated.  This brought a protest from some of the older kids.

“What happens when we grow out of our clothes?” an older boy asked.

“If you are a boy then you can wear some of the clothes that we took from those men, or else you can wear some of the clothes that we found in the RV,” Erin answered.  “We girls might have to make some new clothes, although we have some of Jackie’s things, some of the other counselor’s things, and we found some ladies clothing in the RV.”

“Where are we going to find more material to make dresses?” Makayla asked.

“We could use the tablecloths,” Desi suggested.  The boys began to get restless and bored, so the girls agreed to discuss this later.

"I have a new rule," said Mike when their attention turned to him again.  The whole group groaned.

"What now?" Kevin moaned.

"From now on, no one can piss in the Porta Potties."

There was a chorus of outrage.

"Listen," Mike said.  "We don't have any way to empty them.  And they are almost filled up.  You know they stink.  You have to use the bathrooms behind the dining hall to piss, or else you have to go in the forest.  And try to use the bathrooms behind the dining hall for number two, too.  In other words, don't use the Porta Potties unless you absolutely have to.  Hector said that he would use his truck to empty them in a few days.  He's got to find a place, and when he does, he'll need help."

"Oh, and another thing," he added to another chorus of groans.  "The paper towels are off limits.  You will have to use a real towel to dry your hands."

"Why is that?" a camper demanded to know.

"We need to save the paper towels for toilet paper," he explained.  There was dead silence and not a single protest.

One day, some of the kids approached Mike, and they asked him why they didn't have any church services on Sunday.  Mike was non-committal about the idea, but he announced that on Sunday there would be a service in the dining hall for anyone who wanted to attend.  There was a lot of argument about the idea of a church service.  Some argued that it was a good idea.  Some argued that it was a bad idea.  Some liked the idea, but they did not like how it was arranged.

On Sunday, late in the morning, Mike waited at the podium for the kids to come to the service.  John, Desi, and Yuie were in the dining hall waiting.  The time for the service came and went.  No one appeared.

"Where is everyone?" Mike asked, mystified at the lack of attendance.

"They're probably not coming," Yuie told him.

"Why?"

"Some of them didn't want to do this anyway," said Desi.  "And most of them are holding their own service down in the meadow, across the river from where we buried Jackie and Pete.  Luis is saying the words."

"Ahmad did a thing on Friday," said John.  "He got his blanket, and he put it on the floor of his cabin.  He was trying to figure out how to point it to...um..."

"Mecca," Yuie finished.

"Yeah, Mecca," John agreed.  "And Jacob did his thing yesterday."

"And Rasul shares my little shrine I built next to the cave," said Yuie.  "He prays to his Gods, and I pray to Buddha.  I wish I had a little statue of Buddha.  I take my picture of my parents and my sister there, and I lean it against a rock while I pray.  And I'm trying to make prayer beads."

"I don't think anyone is going to come to your service, Chief," John said.  "Remember these were American kids.  Still are."

"What's that got to do with it?" Mike asked.

"They are Americans, Mike.  They aren't going to a government church."

"What?"

"True. Here, you are the government, Chief," Yuie explained.

"Yeah, he's the Government Chief," joked John.  The others rolled their eyes and groaned.

"Well, what do you want to do?" Mike asked, as the strains of 'Amazing Grace' came wafting up from the meadow.

"Let's play cards," Desi suggested.

"All right," agreed Yuie.  "What about Spades?"

"What about Hearts?" John said.

"How about Strip Poker?" Mike joked.

"You wish!" Yuie answered, as she shuffled a deck.  "With your rules, it'll be a long time before you get to see a girl naked."

Mike glanced furtively at Desi who gave him a small smile.  Mike blushed, and he looked down at his cards.

The work of building the Lodge continued.  By the middle of August, the log wall was almost complete.  In the last rays of the sun, many of the kids would sit on the grass below the unfinished wall and enjoy the breeze and their free time.

Erin and three of her friends could often be found there, enjoying the late afternoon sun.  They talked about many things, and one of their favorite subjects was boys.  They compared this one and that one, and they discussed their few good points and their many bad points.

"What about Hector?" one of the girls remarked.

"He's cute," said another.  "But he's a little old."

"And Mexican," added a third.

"What's that got to do with anything?  Are you prejudiced?"

"No!  But what if he's illegal?"

The other girls laughed.  "I don't think that matters anymore," Erin said.

"Well, I think Hector's really cute in a Latino sort of way.  Maybe I'll make a play for him."

"Oh, yeah?  Maybe he would rather be my boyfriend."

"I think Latino's prefer girls with bigger breasts," Erin said with a grin.

"Ha! Just because you are such a Moo Cow."

"I am not," exclaimed Erin.  "I'm just right."  The girls continued to jibe at each other, except for Kathy.  She remained quiet and thoughtful.

The next day, she found Hector working on the wall as usual.  She was one of his regular crew.  Their task was to carry buckets of thick mud from a low wet spot in the meadow up to the wall, and then they would pour the mud onto the highest log, so that when Hector put the next log on the wall there were no air spaces between the logs.

Kathy approached Hector at the end of the work period.  The other kids were hurrying away, glad to be free at last.  She handed Hector a bottle of water and waited as he used a bandanna from his rear pocket to wipe his face.

"Thanks," he said, and he took a big swig from the bottle.  "Ah...you wouldn't think that you could get so hot at this altitude."  He was breathing hard.  "You're...?"

"Kathy. I'm Kathy.  I work on your crew.  I'm fourteen.  And a half."

"Kathy.  Well, thanks for the water, Kathy."

"Um...I was wondering if I could talk to you."

"Sure, Sweetie. Talk."  Hector leaned back and poured part of the bottle on his face.

"Um...I was wonder if I could work with you.  Not just carrying mud I mean.  I don't mind that.  But I was wondering if I could help you.  I mean, I want to learn to work with the wood."

Hector used his bandanna to wipe his face again.  He gave her a good look.  She's a pretty girl, he thought.  Kathy was blond and blue eyed.  Her body was just now developing, but it was clear that, one day soon, she would be a lovely young lady.  She wasn't tall so, since Hector was not a tall man himself, she stood just below his shoulder.

"You want to work with the wood?  You mean you want to learn carpentry," Hector said.

"Yes," replied Kathy.  "I used to help my Dad a lot.  He wasn't a regular carpenter, but he worked with wood a lot.  Mostly he built bird houses and things like coat racks, but he built the fence around our house, and he built our garage.  I helped him with that.  Once, I helped him build a big tree house for one of our neighbors."

"That's more experience than most of these kids have," Hector agreed.

"And I have an idea."

"Yeah?" he said skeptically.  "What is it?"

"I was thinking about these braces," she said, motioning to the heavy iron straps that Hector had retrieved from the logging camp.  "You’re going to make wooden pegs to hold them to the logs, right?  But you can't get the pegs perfectly round, right?  So there's bound to be gaps, right?"

"Right so far," Hector responded, humoring the girl.

"I was thinking that, since we don't have any wood glue, we might be able to use the sap from trees to fill the gaps," she said.

"Now that's an idea, uh...Kathy," Hector answered slowly.  He thought about it.  "That is an idea."

"And since the sap is sticky, it might make the braces stronger.  That would make the wall stronger, right?"

"Si," Hector answered.  "That's not a bad idea at all, Kathy."

"I was thinking that if we heated up the sap and then rolled the pegs in the stuff, it might be easier to cover the whole peg."

"Damn, that is a good idea," Hector exclaimed enthusiastically.  "Uh...sorry."

Kathy gave him a sweet smile.  As if I don't hear the 'F' word every day, she thought.

"So can I work with you?" she asked.

"Uh...sure.  Why not?" he answered.  "Tomorrow I'll explain what I'm planning to do here.  But you might have to carry mud some times," he cautioned.

"I don't mind," she answered happily.  She walked with him down to the dining hall.

The next day, Hector sent her exploring for tree sap.  Kathy spent most of the day gathering samples, but at the end of the work period, she was at the wall with a bottle of water for Hector.  That evening, she and Hector whittled pegs and melted sap trying to find a combination that would be as effective as glue.

For the next week, they worked closely together.  They finished building the wall, and they discovered that the sap covered pegs worked.  Now that the wall was completed, it was time to dismantle the remaining cabins on the other side of the river, and move them over to the work site where they would be reassembled on top of the wall and the rock ledge.

But before they began to reassemble the cabins, Hector took the bus up to the logging camp, and he filled it with old branches, scrap timber, and the ends of logs.  He drove the bus back to the camp, and the kids stacked this wood into the space between the wall and the ledge.  They would use this lumber for firewood during the winter.

Hector was impressed with Kathy's intelligence and her knowledge of wood.  And she was a fast learner.  He could show her something once, and she would quickly understand.  He showed her how to place braces under the floors of the cabins using log posts.  She found some string, and she used it to measure the distances for the rest of the posts, thereby speeding up the work.

He found himself spending a lot of time in her company discussing the construction of the Lodge.  Once, when she was scrambling along some scaffolding that he had built, he told her that she looked like a cat.  They laughed together, and after that he started calling her, Kat.

He liked spending time with Kathy, he realized.  He wasn't that much older than some of the kids, but he didn't feel that he had much in common with them.  Sometimes he felt lonely.  With Kathy, he had someone to talk to about something that he enjoyed.

And she was nice.  It seemed like she always had a bottle of water for him after work.  And when he was exceptionally busy and was reluctant to pause for lunch, she always had a sandwich handy.  It was usually peanut butter and jelly, his favorite.

"Where are you from?" Kathy asked one afternoon, as they shared their dinner.

"I was born in Zacatecas,” replied Hector.  “In Mexico.  I worked with my father who is a carpenter.  But there wasn't enough work, and my parents have five other children.  So, when I was twenty one I rode the bus to Ciudad Juarez, and I snuck across the border.  From there I made my way to California.  I got a job on this logging crew.  They work all over the west.  They needed workers, and they didn't ask questions.  They usually paid us in cash.  What about you, Kat?  Where do you come from?"

"I was born in Concord, California,” she replied.  “I lived in a small place called Clayton Valley.  My Dad told me that it used to be a quiet country area, but now there are houses everywhere.  There's a mountain nearby.  Mount Diablo.  It's not that high, and you can drive all the way to the top.  I used to go there with my family, and we would have picnics."

He thought about that one evening after he had retired to his cabin.  It was the last one standing on that side of the river.  The others had been disassembled and reassembled on the wall.  He was thinking that Kathy was unlike the other girls.

The other girls were much sillier, he thought.  She wasn't athletic like Yuie, but she was strong.  She could carry those buckets of mud tirelessly.  She wasn't bossy like Desi could be, but if he needed her to supervise other kids, she could get the job done.

She wasn't like Erin, of course.  Erin had those magnificent breasts.  Kathy was still developing.  But she was perfectly formed. And she did have a really cute face.  He liked her lovely blue eyes.  He loved the way those beautiful blond bangs fell down sometimes and covered her face.  She really needed a haircut.  And once, he had seen her in a towel coming out of the showers.  Her legs were exceptional.  She certainly had a cute butt.  He could tell from those tight designer jeans that she was always wearing.  He wondered how it would feel to caress that cute butt.  He wondered how it would feel...

He was jolted back to reality.  What was he thinking?  She was only fourteen.  And a half.  He was twenty three.  He couldn't be thinking of her that way.  He sternly told his body to settle down.  Way down.

Unfortunately, in the following days, it seemed as if he was more aware of her physical presence than ever.  And she was always inadvertently touching him, putting her hand on his shoulder or chest or back, or leaning back against him when he helped her lift a section of wall.

It started to drive him crazy.  Once, when her denim covered bottom backed against his groin, he had to take off his cap and hold it over himself while pretending to be deep in thought.  He began to think that he would either have to grab her and hold on for dear life, or else flee back to the logging camp.  At night, in the privacy of his bed, he futilely tried to think of someone else.  He tried being less familiar and more formal with her.  Then, for some reason, she stopped wearing those tight jeans, and she switched to her skirts; her short skirts.

One day she was standing on a plank laid across a pair of rough sawhorses.  She asked him to help her while she bolted a section of the wall.  Obligingly, he stood behind her, and he gripped the plank firmly to steady it.  He felt a sudden gust of wind, and suddenly the rear of her little short skirt flew up to her waist.  During the day, her panties had worked themselves up between her cheeks.  There, before him, was presented the most wonderful twin moons that it had ever been his privilege to behold.  Apparently she did not know what had happened.  She continued to concentrate on the bolt.  Startled, he almost pulled the plank out from under her.

As soon as she finished, he excused himself and went to Chief’s Headquarters to see Mike.  John and Desi happened to be there.  Hector told Mike that Kathy might be better off working in some other capacity.

"She's not doing her work?" Mike asked.

"No, no, her work is just fine.  Better than fine.  She's good at everything she tries."

"Is she causing a problem on the crew?"

"Uh, no, not exactly.”

"So, it's because she has the hots for you," Mike guessed.

Hectors jaw dropped.  "What did you say?"

"Gee, Hector," said Mike in an exasperated tone of voice.  "I'm about the most clueless guy here when it comes to the girls, and even I knew that Kathy wants to be your girlfriend."  John and Desi broke into laughter.

"Oh," Hector said, feeling very foolish and somewhat disgruntled.

"Talk to her, Hector," Desi suggested.

"Yeah, dude," said John.  "Women are hard enough to figure out when they do talk to you.  When they don't, well, guys can't figure out s**t."

"No kidding," agreed Mike.  Desi just laughed.

Hector started to leave.

"Hector, it's okay to be her boyfriend, but don't forget the rules," Mike warned him.

"She's a kid, Chief," Hector growled.  "I wouldn't touch her."

Hector went back to the job site.  He didn't know what to say to Kathy.  The other kids left.  He and Kathy were alone.

Abruptly he said, "I'm too old for you, Kat."

Kathy stopped what she was doing.  She turned to look at Hector.  She had a serious look on her face, and she didn't pretend to misunderstand what he was speaking about.

"I know that would be true in the old world, Hector,” said Kathy.  “But I don't think that's true in this world."

"But..." He tried to think of something to say, but it seemed like his brain had ceased to function.

"I'm sorry if I make you feel bad, Hector," she said mournfully.

"Jeez." He put one arm around her neck, and he drew her close to him.  "Kat, I just worry that it would be better for you to have someone closer to your own age."

She put her arms around him, and she leaned her head against his chest.  For a minute they stood there, and then Kathy said, "Hector?"

"Yes, Kat?"

"Can I wear your cap?" she asked softly.

She held her breath.  After a moment, Hector sighed, took his cap off, and placed it on Kathy's head.  Grinning, she stepped back and reversed the brim.

"Can I tell the other girls that you're my boyfriend?  Please! Please!" she begged. "They'll be so jealous."

He smiled an exasperated smile.  "Okay, go ahead."

"Yes!" she squealed, and she threw herself back into his arms.  They stood like that for a few minutes enjoying the feel of each other, and then, linking their arms, they started walking down to the dining hall.

"So, do you prefer me in jeans or in skirts?" Kathy asked mischievously.

"If I see you working in that skirt again, I'm gonna smack your butt," Hector warned her.

"Yes, sir," Kathy responded demurely.

"And don't think we're going to do anything more than hold hands," Hector grumbled.

"I know the rules," responded Kathy.  I can't wait to get a taste of your tongue, she thought mischievously.  I hope you like mine.

For the most part, the kids took the news of Hector and Kathy good naturedly.  Of course, being teenagers they had to razz them.  Late the next day, Erin and her friends were sitting in their favorite spot under the wall.

"That Kathy," a girl grumbled.  "I said I wanted him first."

"No, you didn't," another girl reminded her.  "You just said that he was cute.  I'm the one who said that I wanted him for my boyfriend."

"No, you said 'maybe' you wanted him for your boyfriend."

“Erin, why do you think that Kathy wants Hector for her boyfriend?” a girl asked.  “He doesn’t seem like he would be her type.  She always seemed to be afraid of all guys, and Hector is a lot older.”

Erin thought about it.  “Maybe fear is the reason,” she answered.  “It’s hard not to be scared when we stop and think about our situation.”  The other girls nodded.  “Maybe she feels safer when he’s around.”

"That Kathy," grumbled the first girl again.

Erin smiled.  "Don't blame Kathy because she took a chance.  We know what a chicken she used to be.  She decided to be brave for once."  Way to go, Kathy, she said to herself.

When the first row of rooms was finished, Hector used the forklift to move the next group of floors up to the second level.  This meant that both boys and girls were sleeping in the dining hall.  It was very crowded, and they had very little privacy.  Most of the girls had pajamas that covered them, but some had to borrow heavy shirts from the boys to be decent.  Mike kicked the girls out of Chief’s Headquarters, and he reclaimed his space for the first time in weeks.

Once the second group of floors was installed, Mike allowed the girls to occupy the first floor.  There was still very little privacy, but at least there were no boys around, except for John who was living with Desi in the alcove cave.  The one safety rule that Mike required was that anyone not working on the lodge had to stay out of the construction area during the day.

By the end of the first week of September, the rooms were completed.  Hector had built a parapet with rails along the edge of the upper rooms, and he built a ladder that the kids would use to access the second floor.  Hector used the cabin canvas tops to screen the individual rooms.  Now they had to build a roof.

Hector had already vetoed the idea of laying the logs from the front of the rooms to the ground above the cave.  Instead he used a scissors machine to raise four combinations of three logs tied together to be columns that ran from the floor of the cave to the ceiling of the cave.  The middle log was a little shorter than the others, so that a space was created between the outer logs.  Then a log was run between the spaces, so that it became a beam.  Once Hector was satisfied that the columns and beams were stable, he used a block and tackle to position logs from the top of the rooms to the top of the beam.  He covered these logs with black plastic, and then he laid a layer of smaller logs over it.  It was certainly not airtight, and there was a large gap between the beams and the ceiling of the cave so that smoke could escape, but it was close enough to retain most of the heat from a central fire.  Hector was worried that there would be too much smoke in the lodge, but by using only old wood they kept it manageable.  Hector used the rest of the black plastic roll to insulate the outer walls of the cabins as best he could.

"Will it leak?" Mike asked, as he dubiously studied the roof.

"Hell, yes, it will leak," answered Hector.  "But it will get us by for the winter.  Next year I'll make wood shingles.  That should stop most of the leaks."

Jacob had gone hunting, and he killed a deer at the beginning of September.  Mike found a jig saw in his tool chest, and they used it to cut the deer into pieces that they could store in the freezer.  Some of the kids were reluctant to eat the venison, but most of them were glad to have the meat once they had a taste of it.

Mike wanted to save the canned food for as long as possible, so he sent out parties to hunt for rabbits, to catch birds, and to look for eggs in their nests.  He allowed them to use the bows and arrows and their spears but not the firearms.  He usually sent them in teams of four.  In late September, Mike sent Howard on a hunting trip.  With Howard were Ahmad, and the twins, Kevin and Nathan.

"Go east along the river for a day and a half," ordered Mike.  “Then spend the rest of the day, and until noon of the next day, hunting.  Then start back.  Look around.  See what the area is like."

Mike was not hoping for a lot of success.  His real purpose was for the members of the hunting party to get acclimated to the wild.  He believed that they needed kids other than Jacob to be comfortable in the mountains and in the forest.  Once the hunting party had left, Mike went to talk to Hector.

"I told Jacob that I would check on Mrs. Brown.  Take Eric and Jacob and go see how she's doing."

Hector and the boys rode the pickup to the farm, stopping a safe distance away.  Mary met them with her shotgun.

"Hello, Mrs. Brown," Jacob called.

"Hello, again, Jacob," she replied.  "Who's that with you?"

"This is Eric from my camp, and this is Hector,” Jacob explained.  “He's from the logging camp.  Our Chief sent us to see if you needed any help or maybe some food.  We can share some."

She hesitated.  The boys were okay, but the man worried her.  "Well, come on in, then."

The trio from the camp spent the morning looking over her place.  They discussed swapping rice and dry cereal for potatoes and milk.  The farm lady milked her cow every day, and her cow produced more than she and her children needed.

"I've got two big freezers so I could freeze the milk.  It's not as good frozen as it is fresh, and it's good for only a few weeks, but it will do in a pinch.  I can send some butter, too.  I've got a lot of that."

"Wow," said Eric. "You can make butter?  Real butter, not margarine?"  Mary nodded.  "Do you have, like, a churn that you use to make the butter?  Do you have to pump it up and down?" Eric asked eagerly.

Mary laughed.  "’Fraid not, Eric.  I use a blender and ice to make butter.  I wish I could offer you more, but my husband was supposed to pick up our supplies for the summer.  Except for milk and butter, the freezers are pretty empty."

Eric was especially interested in the solar room which could only be accessed from the barn.  Mary had filled buckets with dirt, and she was growing cucumbers and tomatoes on trellises.

"Why do you have all these barrels of water in here?" Eric asked.

"I wondered about that too, when my husband, Davis, put these fifty five gallon drums in here.  He said that water loses heat slowly.  He was right.  It can be zero degrees outside, and if we have a sunny day; it will be too warm to stay in here without opening the door to the barn.  And if we shut the door before the sun goes down, these barrels will warm this room for a long time."

Eric had a sudden idea.  "Hector, could we move the solar panels from the dining hall to the roof of the Lodge?"

"Yes, I could do that.  But why?  The roof of the Lodge is too high to use gravity to supply the water.  We would need a strong pump to get the water to the top of the roof."

Eric was thinking.  "What about making a closed system?  What if we used the solar water pump from Chief’s Headquarters to circulate hot water to barrels inside the Lodge?  Wouldn't that keep the Lodge warmer?"

Hector was struck by the thought.  "You're right, Eric.  It would help a lot.  And at night the solar pump will automatically shut down.  The hot water in the barrels will stay there.  We wouldn't have to burn so much wood.  We could save wood, and it would not be as smoky.  But, I don't think there are any usable barrels at the logging camp.  I know there's a few in the storage room that we have for our recycles, but they don't have tops like these barrels."

 Mary was listening.  "I could lend you four barrels," she said.  "That would help a little.  My problem is going to be wading out here in the snow to milk our cow.  We have a solar milking machine, but it still requires someone to attach it to the cow.  My husband always did that in the winter.  And when the sun doesn't shine, I have to milk the cow by hand."

"I wish I could come up and help you, Mary," said Hector.  "But we have to save the gasoline.  I don't think that we are going to get anymore."

"There'll be lots of times when the snow will be so deep that you couldn't even make it through, Hector," Mary reminded him.  The trio returned to the camp after eating lunch at the farm.

"Sounds like you had a successful visit," Mike said, after they reported.  "I hope Howard's group does as well."

Meanwhile, Howard led his party up the small river.  It was much smaller now.  In some places it could be waded through, even along the section by the camp.  They had to be careful though.  When it rained hard, it was not uncommon for the small river to become a raging torrent.

It started raining that afternoon.  Everyone who attended the camp had been required to bring a poncho, and Mike had insisted that they take them on this trip.  Now, they were glad he had done so.

"I guess that's why he's the Chief," Kevin said grumpily, as he stumbled along the path.

"I wish I was back at the Lodge," Nathan complained.

"You begged Mike to let you come with us," Ahmad reminded him.

"Yeah, but I didn't know it was going to rain."

It rained lightly off and on that afternoon, and then it stopped just as they were making camp.   Once they were in their makeshift tent it began raining again, only now it rained much harder.  They were thankful that there was no lightning.  They passed the night cramped but dry.

Early the next morning, the knocking sounds of a white headed wood pecker woke them.  They continued their journey into the dark green forest.  At noon they stopped to eat, and then they spread out to look for game.  Jacob had taught them how to make snares.  By the end of the day, they had caught four rabbits and five grouse.  They placed their catch in doubled plastic bags and built a fire.  They roasted two of the rabbits for dinner to save the food they had brought with them.

Although the wet conditions made them uncomfortable, it was fun to sit around the camp fire and talk.  It was the usual boy talk, about animes and games they liked, and about the various attributes, mostly physical, of girls that they liked.  Sometimes they talked about their lost homes and families, but this tended to depress them.  They stayed up later than they should have, and then they crawled into their sleeping bags when it began to rain again.

The next morning it was still raining, and no one was much inclined to hunt.  Still, the cramped conditions in the tent forced the restless boys to get out and look around.  It was almost noon, and Howard was striking the tent, when Nathan came running into the area calling, "Howard! Howard!"

"What is it?" Howard asked.

"There's a lady back there," Nathan said, pointing to where he had been.  "I think she's dead."