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“Yeah, we could be reaching there,” I said, “but I think we should still consider the possibility. It just doesn’t add up. How did he get away with it when he seems so stupid? Was he still being stupid, we just aren’t looking in the right places? Where the hell was he and how did he get there? He kept offering to take Jamie to his hometown, and that’s where it feels like he would have gone, but where in that little town? The cops claim they didn’t see him there. And even if they weren’t looking that hard, it feels like someone there would have noticed a near-stranger showing up with a battered younger guy.”
Caitlin suddenly looked up at me from the articles, wide-eyed. “Whoa,” was all she said.
“What?” I nearly cried, already moving toward her.
“I just found out what happened to Wally’s dad,” she replied in a near-whisper, “It was in the Crystal Shores newspaper. Wally would have been ten.”
All of us were gathered around her. In front of her was an article with the headline, Local Family Survives Bear Attack During Camping Trip.
“Jesus,” Jeff breathed out from beside me.
Well, it suddenly became clear that the guy had some serious trauma in his past.
A local family on a camping trip in the woods narrowly avoided tragedy when several bears attacked their camp. Officials believe the family, consisting of both parents and their ten-year-old son, left some food out near their tent which prompted the black bears to investigate. The father was gravely injured trying to scare away the bears while allowing his wife and child to exit the camp safely. Upon reaching park rangers, the child was rightly traumatized but uninjured, and the mother sustained minor injuries from one of the bears as she passed by with the child, and from a fall she took as they were running.
The father, Christopher Givens, was found near the camp, unable to walk. He is currently hospitalized, and authorities have let his family know that his back was broken in a fall down a hill as he attempted to outrun one of the bears near a steep drop. He reported that he lost his footing and fell, and that the bear fell down the hill behind him. The tumble is what he believes scared the bear away, and Mr. Givens was far enough from the camp at that point for the other bears to lose interest in him and instead forage in the tent and camping gear.
While doctors say he’ll survive the attack, there is a high probability that Mr. Givens won’t be able to walk again. His wife Mary is already recovering from her injuries and told us that their son is doing fine. The bears were already gone by the time authorities arrived, and camping in the area is currently prohibited.
Authorities have also put out a reminder that when camping, food should be kept away from the tent in airtight containers. Trash should be sealed up tightly and removed from the campsite daily. It is also a good idea to carry personal protection such as mace or bear whistles any time you are in the woods.
We all straightened at about the same time, but I wasn’t quite sure what to do with the new information. We had a traumatic event that could be part of the reason Wally’s head wasn’t in the same place as everyone else, but that was no excuse for kidnapping. And bear attacks had nothing to do with being obsessed with a dancer eighteen years younger than yourself. Still, it felt like something that was important, I just wasn’t sure why.
“Well, I think we can safely assume Wally didn’t have Jamie in a tent in the woods, at least,” Jesse said.
Jeff snickered but Amber said, “I mean…” she looked up at us, “Wally’s hometown is literally on the border of the largest forest in Florida.”
“So you think, what?” Caitlin said, “He decided to overcome his fear at the same time he kidnapped the object of his obsession? The forest may very well have been where the family was camping back then, but it doesn’t say. Either way, why would he go back in the woods? Something that traumatic would surely give you an aversion to them, right?”
“But,” I pointed out, “If he grew up around there, if he hiked and camped there, he knew the woods. ‘Lots of hidden spots,’ remember?” I had their attention, at least. “I think we’ve been underestimating both of them.” I refused to bow to the line of thought that it was the end. “Wally was obviously smarter than we ever gave him credit for, because he somehow pulled this off and made Jamie disappear. But Jamie is smart, too. Much smarter than people ever assume. He’s going to be a scientist, for fuck’s sake. He’s at the top of his class right now. And the will he has to live, to experience life, is like none I’ve ever seen.”
They were looking at me sympathetically, like maybe my optimism had finally caused me to go off the deep end. Before I lost them completely, I went on, “In the scenario I mentioned before, the one where Jamie got away and Wally doesn’t actually know what happened, well, if they were close to the woods…you guys, Jamie lived in the woods.”
They all stared at me, confused. Even Amber. “When he was a young teenager,” I went on, “Just a kid, he ran away from a foster home and hid in the woods. He knew what to eat and what not to eat. He knew to stay close to water, and he survived in the damn woods on purpose until some hikers stumbled upon him. He knows how to survive off the grid. If he managed to hide from Wally…”
“Caden,” Caitlin said with a slight harshness, and I knew she was getting ready to try to talk some sense into me. I knew she didn’t want me harboring false hope, but I already knew all the things she was getting ready to say. “You have no idea what condition Jamie was in by that time. They said he was injured in the motorcycle accident, and that the injuries probably weren’t minor, because he was going fast. Even if he denies all of it now, Wally seemed to say that he took Jamie’s clothes, sexually assaulted him, and hit him when he tried to fight back. We don’t know how badly Jamie was beaten after already being injured from the crash. I know you want to believe this, but I need you to be realistic, too. If someone was disoriented and naked, possibly concussed, bleeding and likely with broken bones, it would be really hard for them to not only get away from an abductor but also outrun them, manage to hide, and then survive in the elements of Florida for weeks in that condition. Think of everything he’d have to overcome besides Wally. Bears, big cats, venomous snakes, insects, alligators. There’s water in the woods but that attracts bad things, too, and when you aren’t in a condition to run or climb…Caden, it would be a stretch to think that even if he did manage to somehow escape that he’d still be alive.” She looked heartbroken at having to say it out loud, but I knew she felt like she had to.
They didn’t truly know his will to live, but I did hear her. “I know,” I said softly, “but I need to find him. Either way. I have to have closure, and I have to give him a proper goodbye if that’s what it comes to. I can’t leave him out there alone, no matter what happened to him. He was alone in his life for too long. I won’t let him be alone in death, too.”
Amber had tears in her eyes, and the others were still looking at me with sympathy, but kind of like they thought they might need to have an intervention, after all. “They didn’t comb the woods up there,” I added. “They just kept an eye out for Wally or Jamie. Just because they didn’t see them pass through doesn’t mean they didn’t. We don’t even know how he got up there if he was there. What car were they looking for? His? He didn’t take his car up there; we know it was here the whole time. Wherever he went, he used a mode of transportation none of us knew about and no one was looking for. I know I could be way off, and he could have stayed around here, but it seems like he must have had a vehicle. There’s no way he fixed the damage on his own car after hitting Jamie’s bike. Let’s be real. The cops said there would have been damage.”
To my surprise, it was Jeff, the most skeptical of the group, who spoke up. “Well. Looks like we’re headed to Crystal Shores then, huh?”
To my even bigger surprise, the others agreed, one by one. I had no idea what we’d find, or if we’d find anything at all, but I’d never be able to live with myself if I didn’t try. I had to turn over every stone I came across, because I had so little to go on. The fact that I didn’t have to do it alone meant more to me than they’d ever know. I’d never been more grateful for the people around me, and I’d make it my mission in life to repay every single one of them someday.
Chapter 15
November
“I’m nervous.” I thought it was probably ok to admit that out loud. It was the first time I’d ever met a partner’s family. I’d never gotten close enough to any of the girls I’d been with to do so, and even though Renee had suggested it on more than one occasion, it just wasn’t going to happen. And I had known Gavin’s family, but when his immediate family member found out we were dating, well, that certainly hadn’t gone well.
Jamie smiled at me as we set our helmets on his bike. I looked up at the house he’d parked in front of. It was a modest, white, two-story house, but it was peppered with love, visible in the window planters full of flowers, the old swing in the oak tree on the side, the little flower garden near it. It was only about a thirty-minute ride from campus with Jamie, so probably about forty-five minutes for the average driver. The town was small, but it was close to Orlando. It still seemed separate, its own little world. There were people walking dogs and pushing strollers down the sidewalks, and we’d driven through a little downtown area that was bustling. I felt like I’d stepped into a cheesy Christmas movie, but it seemed like the perfect place for a kid who’d always longed for nothing more than love and stability to end up, and I was glad it was where Jamie got to call home.
He reached out and took my hand, still with that little smile. “Relax. They’re going to love you.” I followed him up the porch steps, our hands still entwined. There were rocking chairs on the porch and a little table, and I imagined his mother sat out there a lot, people-watching and enjoying the mild weather.
Jamie opened the door and called out, “Mom! Tara! We’re here.” It warmed my heart a little to know that after he’d gone sixteen years without knowing what love or family was like, he’d finally found someone to call Mom. I’d maybe lost hope sometime in the past that there were actually still people with that much love in their hearts, but I was slowly getting it back.
An older woman popped out of what must have been the kitchen. “Jamie!” Her graying brown hair was tied back in a loose bun, and she was wearing an apron over a long green dress that she could have worn to a hippie music festival. She rushed forward and caught him in a tight hug. He was a head taller than her and looked absolutely nothing like her, but you could tell they were family in every sense of the word, and he hugged her back just as tightly.
