AllFreeNovel
Share Us
PROLOGUE
November 19, 2018
5:25 p.m.
Marble Lake Wilderness, California
Spencer Matheson hops the creek skirting the edge of the meadow, then jets up the Lakes Loop trail, his Nikes churning up dust in their wake.
“Wait up!” Cameron calls, from somewhere down-trail. “Spenc-er! Wait for me!”
He slows, partly because he knows to be a good big brother, but also because it’s steeper than he remembers, the trail strewn with rocks he has to keep dodging.
Cameron catches up, face totally red, jeans all dirty. Maybe he already fell, trying to keep up, and Spencer feels a little tug in his tummy, the kind that reminds him to be nicer. Cameron is only five, too little to do things on his own, like lead the hike. He’s not already a first grader like Spencer, seven years and three-fourths.
“You’re going too fast,” Cameron says. Only a little bit whiny. “Plus, I don’t know if this is the way, Spence.”
“It’s the way. We hiked this hill last week, remember? All the way up to the ridge.”
“With Dad,” Cameron points out.
Spencer huffs out a hot breath of air, watching it disappear like smoke. “We don’t need Dad.” This doesn’t sound very true, not even to Spencer, but he doesn’t take it back. They’ve already waited forever for Dad to be done working tonight. Cameron probably just wants a piggyback ride on the uphill parts.
He offers the next best thing: the last gummy bear in his pocket. Red, Cameron’s favorite. When he accepts it, they carry on up the rest of the slope, stopping only once more when it doesn’t seem like there’s enough air for their lungs. Spencer reminds himself that when Dad was a kid, he hiked all over these mountains, knew every turn on the trail. It’s enough to get him trudging uphill again.
Only once the trail finally flattens out does he let himself rest, hands braced on his knees. He doesn’t even poke fun when Cameron flops down on a boulder instead, acting all worn out. Once he’s caught his breath, he straightens, taking stock. Spencer can see all the way down to where they started at Marble Lake Lodge, where the metal snow roofs of the guest cabins wink at them like tiny jewels. The wind is crazy, though, rushing through the trees so fast it sounds like a river, all rumbly and loud.
“It’s cold up here,” Cameron says.
Spencer feels cold, too, but sweaty at the same time, which makes the wind kind of sting when it hits his face. He stretches his arms out wide, his sweatshirt billowing like a kite. Now that the hard part is over, he decides he likes it up here, where he’s taller than the trees. Down in the forest, it’s different. There, Spencer is just a little ant of a person weaving this way and that through towering pines, sage, and manzanita, no landmarks to go by. Not at all like in the parks back in Portland, even the big ones, where he knows every secret trail through every grove of green, leafy trees. Dad calls this placethe real deal, but sometimes, Spencer wants to saybig dealinstead, with a little kick at the dirt besides, even though that’s talking back. Even though he wants to prove that he can hack it here in the Sierra, just like Dad.
He straightens his shoulders. He made it this far tonight, didn’t he? And practically on his own, because Cameron only counts a little. And now that they’ve made the ridge, they might as well explore. Spencer hops from rock to rock along the trail.
“The ground is hot lava!” he tells Cameron, right before his next big leap. He sticks the landing onto a big fallen log as Cameron gets up and joins in, and they jump from rock to log to rock, all the way down the other side of the ridge, through forest they haven’t hiked before. Cameron trips once, landing in the lava, but Spencer pretends he didn’t see. It’s not Cameron’s fault his legs are shorter.
By the time they reach the bottom of the hill, it’s gotten all shadowy, maybe because the sun doesn’t reach down into this wash. Spencer decides they should go back up, to where they can see better, but maybe they should hike it kind of sideways, like Dad showed them to do, in a zigzag pattern instead of straight up. Switchbacks, he’d called them. Spencer could do the climb no problem, but the switchback trick will make it easier for Cameron.
It feels like it takes ages, going sideways back up the hill, and by the time they reach the ridge again, it’s getting hard to see anything at all, even though they’re back above the trees. Even more worrisome: the trail doesn’t seem to be there anymore, and even though he looks really hard, Spencer no longer sees the lodge below.
“How come we’re not in the same place as before?” Cameron says.
“Shush. Yes we are.” Where else could they be? They went down the wash, and then they went back up. So what if they zigzagged? Starting points don’t just change. The ground doesn’t just move on its own.
“I don’t like that it’s getting so dark.”
Neither does Spencer, but what good would it do to say so?
“Let’s just go back, Spence. I want to go home.”
Home.That twisty feeling in Spencer’s tummy returns, tightening itself into a knot. He misses Portland, even though nothing of his is there anymore ... not their house, not his things, not even theirmom.Marble Lake Lodge will be home now,Dad had said with a firm nod, as they’d left the city behind. Usually, that tone works—confidence is key,Dad always says—only nothing about this wilderness feels like home yet, no matter how hard Spencer tries. No matter how bravely he explores. And now he can’t even find the lodge, which should be right down there, next to the creek and the meadow, which have also disappeared.
“This way,” he tells Cameron, trying to copycat Dad’s confident voice. He points them downhill in the opposite direction from which they just climbed. This has to be right. It’s just too dark to see the trail, is all.
But they walk downhill for a long time, and the meadow doesn’t appear. There’s no creek to hop. Instead, it’s just endless trees in every direction. He’s an ant again, dwarfed by the woods. They’re both shivering now, and Cameron is starting to cry. So is Spencer, but he pretends to himself that he isn’t. They keep walking, tripping on roots and stones and maybe other things. Spencer can’t see in the dark. He doesn’t like to think about what all is out here, in these woods.
“Are we lost, Spence?” Cameron asks over and over, every time they turn a corner just to find more darkness. More trees.
“No,” Spencer whispers. “Course not.” But the knot in his gut is like lead now, reaching all the way up to his throat. It hurts to swallow, and his voice comes out all shaky, not fooling anyone. Not even fooling Cameron. Because of course they need Dad. Just like they need familiar, friendly trees and a home Spencer can find his way back to in the dark. Instead, all they have is each other.
