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Born to burn, Da
Next to him, Mikey thought he caught something and in his excitement, tangled the line on a log. They spent a long time disengaging the line and getting him set up again. Da
“I don’t think there are any fish in this stream,” Mikey complained.
“Well, we won’t know if we don’t give it time, will we?” Da
They moved downstream and Mikey started fishing again. Now Da
Callie chose that moment to return, both grubby little hands holding bouquets. “Smell this,” she said, shoving some yellow flowers under Mikey’s nose.
“Coconut,” Mikey said, eyes closed. “Tropical.”
“They look like some primroses Grandma planted,” Callie said. “They aren’t open yet. Maybe they open at night like jasmine?”
“I’m hungry,” Mikey observed.
“You didn’t catch any fish?” asked Callie.
“No problem,” Da
“I thought you said you knew how to fish,” Callie said.
“The fish just don’t know how to get caught,” Da
Callie, sticking the flowers one by one into an empty Gatorade bottle full of stream water, kept up an incessant, nervous chat that had everybody edgy while Da
“What’s for lunch?” Mikey asked.
“You can’t be hungry. We just ate. You had two sandwiches.”
“I am. I have to eat now. What have you got for us?”
“Hey, I’m the scout leader here.” Da
The kids trailed behind him. When he could speak, he said, as calmly as he could manage, “We’ve got ca
Callie looked interested. “What’s a Vie
“Camp food,” Da
“Do we have to stay here all night?” she asked.
“Yeah, but it’ll go fast.”
“I’m not used to sleeping without my blanky.”
“You’re too old for a blanky,” said Mikey disapprovingly.
“I know, but Grandma says whatever gets you through the night,” Callie said.
“If you’ll just shut up for one second,” Da
“I’m go
37
P AUL SHIFTED THE BRONCO INTO FOUR- wheel drive and turned left at the jeep road.
“There’s a gate,” Nina said.
“That’s why I have an assistant.”
She got out, wrestled the gate out of the way, and got back in. They bumped slowly along the mogul-strewn dirt road for a few minutes. Going around the first wide bend, they saw an amazing vista of Lake Tahoe swept with wind like a heavenly vision, as insubstantial as an enormous blue cloud below them. “How far do we go? We don’t want him to hear any engine noise.”
“Not far,” Paul said. “He would get far enough from the highway so that the kids couldn’t easily find their way back, but the road isn’t that long.”
They rode a little farther, until, at a spot offering one of the few level borders beside the road, Paul pulled off the road. He drove the Bronco over small logs and up a slight incline, then down into a gully. He got out and opened the trunk. Nina followed him.
“You insist on coming along?” Paul asked.
Nina didn’t bother to answer.
“In that case, we leave the Bronco behind, instead of having one person drive it out. If he comes back up this road, we don’t want him to see there are any other people around. Don’t want to scare him. People like Da
“But…” Nina said, puzzled, “he sets fires. That’s dangerous. If he’s so scared…”
“Scared he’ll get caught. Scared he’ll get hurt. Scared he won’t be respected. We’re going to do nothing that will set him off. Your pack,” Paul said, handing it to her.
She put it on her back.
“Hope we don’t have to go too far,” he said, handing her a jacket, which she tied around her waist. They sat on the bumper lacing their hiking boots. “Prisons are full of Da
“We have got to find him,” Nina said. “Paul, we have to be so careful. Those kids…”
“Right. So we sneak. We’ve got to be very quiet, and we have to travel pretty slowly because we’re going to be listening. And he is too. If he’s here, which is a long shot.”
Nina nodded.
They locked up the car and hiked back to the road. The road narrowed and switched back and forth. Before every curve, they held back until they were certain they weren’t going to run into any nasty surprise around the bend. Progress was very, very slow, because they wanted to travel in silence, and afternoon faded into dusk.
Callie would not allow them to toss the trash or even bury it. “We have to hike it out. I saw this show at school.”
The kids had eaten very little. They weren’t really hungry. They just needed their routines.
“Go ahead and bag it,” Da
“It’ll do the job,” Da
“To Grandma?” asked Callie skeptically.
“Yep.”
Mikey looked even less sure. “What do I say?”
“Say, hey, Mom, Dad, I’m here, all’s cool. That kind of thing.”
“I thought they’re coming tomorrow,” Mikey asked. “Why can’t I talk to my dad?”
“This stupid phone is almost out of juice is why. Just say you can’t wait,” Da
“I do miss them,” Callie said stoutly.
“Well, then say so.”
“Why didn’t you charge it on the car charger?” Mikey said suddenly.
“My friend’s charger won’t fit my phone.” He glared at Mikey.
Callie was first to take hold of the microphone. “Grandma,” she said formally, “it’s awful pretty up here in the mountains today and camping’s great but I miss you.”