Lisa spoke first. Well, she erupted.
“Mom, we don’t even know him!” She was worked up. I tried to think of something to say, but Lisa kept going.
“So we should show him where our camp is? What if he tries something? What if he kills us?”
Mom scowled at Lisa. “You don’t need to be so rude to me. You really think he doesn’t know where we are? He knows that Izzy has two boys. How do you think he knows that?”
Lisa looked at me for a long moment, “He knows, doesn’t he? Is he spying on us? Where did he come from?”
I took a deep breath.
“I don’t know, alright. I didn’t ask him all that stuff because it doesn’t matter. He knows where our camp is, so what good would it do to tell him he can’t bring us food? He probably just wants to be around people. Listen, why don’t we invite him to eat with us? We can ask him some questions, and maybe find out where his camp is. Unless you want me to try and find it myself.”
Lisa turned on her heel and stomped away. I knew she was probably scared, as she should be. My mom looked back at me for a moment.
“I think we should have him eat with us. I would like to meet him.”
I nodded. Fine.
That night, as I was lying in my sleeping bag, the wheels were still turning in my head. I decided it might be a good idea to find out what was going on with him. The next morning, I sat down with my mom and Lisa and we hashed out a plan.
At the next scheduled meeting, my mom would take John the food. She would tell him I was sick and couldn’t make it. I would be hidden in the direction he came from and follow from a distance and find out where his camp was.
The whole next week I was anxious. I was worried something would go wrong, or we would find out something about him we didn’t really want to know. The boys loved their swords, and we had decided that my mom would ask him to come for dinner when she took him the food. I was beginning to worry about my Grandpa. He still hadn’t returned and I honestly wasn’t expecting it to take him this long.
The morning that the meeting with John was scheduled I got up extra early. I dressed and went out to hide in the woods. My adrenaline was pumping and I kept telling myself to calm down. Our camp was to the south east of the garden, and John went northeast when he left. I hid just a few yards away. It wasn’t the easiest thing in the forest. It had seemed dense, but really there was a lot of visibility around me. This was going to be more difficult that I thought.
After about an hour, I saw John in the distance. He was quick and quiet, and made his way to the meeting place. I heard my mom’s voice, then his, and they seemed to be talking for longer than usual. I heard my mom laughing. It was weird. It had been a while since she had laughed. I hoped she wasn’t hitting on him, because that would be embarrassing.
It seemed like forever but finally he started making his way in my direction again. I waited quietly. I decided I needed to stay very far behind him if I wasn’t going to be seen, and when he was just out of view I moved.
After just a few moments, John turned sharply to the right. He was heading straight for our camp, but he would end up a few hundred yards above it if he continued this way. He circled back around and ended up very near our camp. Here I saw that he had a perch of some sort in a nearby tree. I waited and watched, and noticed that he was able to see everything that was going on at our camp.
I realized he could have noticed my absence, but I was supposedly sick, so it would be natural for me to be out of view. I felt unsettled, knowing that he watched our camp. He pulled out binoculars and some sort of food and settled in.
He seemed like he was going to stay a while, so I decided I may as well get comfortable. As quietly as I could I tucked myself behind some bushes. I couldn’t see him when I leaned back, but I knew as soon as he moved I would be able to hear him.
CHAPTER FIVE
I woke up and realized that dusk was settling. The entire afternoon had passed and I quickly looked around, wondering where John was. I searched the horizon and noticed some branches moving, so I hopped up and continued my pursuit. I briefly wondered if he watched us every day or only sometimes.
He continued into the forest until well past dark. I had to get closer to him to keep him in my sights. I tried to still my breathing so he wouldn’t hear me. The moon began to rise and soon I saw light from a fire.
I stopped, dead in my tracks. There shouldn’t be a fire if he was out here alone. I remained still, trying to decide what I should do. I watched the fire and thought about my options. I didn’t think I could get back our camp in the dark. Hell, I didn’t even know what I was going to do when I got here. I shook my head. I was in deep.
Glancing around, I decided I should take my chances heading back. I backed slowly away and suddenly there were arms wrapped around me. A large hand covered my mouth and stifled a scream.
“Don’t move and keep your mouth shut.”
I flailed, knowing that I could be dead in a matter of moments if I didn’t make some noise. I tried to elbow his gut and bite his hand.
He pulled me close to him, engulfing me with his arms. I could hardly move, but still tried to squirm as much as I could. I heard a whisper in my ear.
“Stop that, it’s me, John.”
I continued thrashing and trying to scream. I didn’t trust him.
Then there were voices, coming from by the fire. People talking excitedly and I saw shadows dancing on the forest floor. John started dragging me away and without warning threw me to the ground behind some bushes. He pushed me over by a fallen redwood and used his weight to pin me down.
He kept a hand over my mouth and got his face about three inches away from mine.
“These people aren’t friendly.” He whispered. “You need to keep it down or you are going to get both of us killed.”
I swallowed. I didn’t know if I should believe him but I wasn’t dead yet so I decided to go along with it. After a moment, a group passed. They were filthy; their ragged clothes looked like they didn’t even bother washing them.
Three passed that I counted, each one carrying a gun. After what must have been an hour of lying underneath John I realized my arm was asleep. I started wiggling and he moved away. He sat up, his back turned away from me.
“Why did you lie to me?” He finally asked.
“You’re the one that lied! You were spying on us.” I challenged.
He motioned me to be quiet and a moment later we saw one of the campers return.
“The rest should be back in a minute,” he said, just above a whisper, “and then we can get the hell out of here.”
We sat in the silence for a moment and my stomach growled. I realized I hadn’t eaten anything at all today. I had been too nervous earlier, and I had completely forgotten to pack food. I pulled out my water bottle and took a swig. At least I had remembered that.
I turned back to John and he was holding out a piece of some dried meat. I took it and gnawed on it for a while, hoping we could go soon. I felt awkward and I just wanted to leave.
The other two campers returned, and I could hear them arguing about something, but couldn’t make out the subject matter.
John motioned that we should go, so I quietly got up and followed him, hoping the sound of their arguing covered any noise we made.
As soon as we were clear of the camp I started off on my own. I was mad. John wasn’t being truthful about things and had failed to mention that there was another camp nearby. We could have been helping each other out this whole time. Also, he seemed to be in the business of spying on people and that didn’t sit well with me.