by Perrin Briar
“What do you say?” Bryan said.
Cassie looked from Aaron to her father.
“You’re not serious!” she said. “I’m not thanking him for kissing me!”
Bryan’s expression hadn’t changed.
“Fine,” Cassie said. She turned to Aaron with folded arms and a pinched expression. “Thank you. I hope you don’t have cooties.”
“Any time,” Aaron said, his smirk fastened firmly to his face.
Cassie wanted to deck him.
“Bryan, you’ve been stung!” Zoe said.
A large protrusion, like a boil, stuck out from his neck.
“Don’t touch it!” Bryan said.
“I’m not going to,” Zoe said. “Get back in the water. The cold will help bring the swelling down.”
Bryan sighed and lay back in the water.
“Why is it always me?” he said. “The more mosquito spray I use the more mosquitos attack me.”
“Unless you’re not using enough,” Zoe said. “Mine seems to work fine.”
“You should be using this stuff,” Aaron said, reaching into his bag and coming out with his own mosquito spray.
“It’s the same stuff,” Bryan said.
“No,” Aaron said. “It’s not.”
“What do you mean?” Bryan said.
Aaron looked at Cassie, who glared at him and shook her head.
“What’s going on?” Zoe said.
“We may have swapped your mosquito spray for our own concoction,” Aaron said.
“What?” Bryan said, sitting up, before flinching and sitting back down in the cool water again. “What for?”
“To put a spanner in the works,” Aaron said. “Your spray attracted mosquitos, not repelled them.”
“And you’ve been letting me use it this whole time?” Bryan said.
Zoe hid her mouth behind her hand.
“What are you sniggering about?” Bryan said.
“You’ve got to admit,” Zoe said. “It is pretty funny.”
“Funny?” Bryan said. “Including the part where they almost stabbed us all to death?”
“You wouldn’t be laughing either if you knew the rest of it…” Aaron said to his mother.
“What rest of it?” Zoe said.
“Remember when you had diarrhea…?” Aaron said.
Zoe’s smile curdled.
“We may have had something to do with that too,” Aaron said.
Now it was Bryan’s turn to laugh. He made no effort to hide it.
“Is there anything else you want to tell us about?” Zoe said, glaring at the kids.
“We may have put rocks in your bags while you weren’t looking,” Aaron said.
Zoe unzipped the top of her bag and sorted through her belongings.
“What the?” she said, reaching inside.
She pulled out a series of large rocks.
“You’re collecting mementos of this place?” Zoe said.
“We can explain,” Cassie said.
“You’d better,” Bryan said. “Why have we been carrying our own weight in rocks this whole time? Since when?”
“Since we stopped for water,” Cassie said.
“An hour ago?” Bryan said.
“No,” Cassie said, looking at her feet.
“When?” Zoe said.
“Two days ago,” Cassie said.
Bryan grunted.
“Why?” he said. “You thought I needed weight training?”
“No,” Cassie said. “Well, yes. But we just thought… We thought…”
“It was just a prank,” Aaron said.
“What about when the birds and mice attacked us?” Bryan said. “Was that the result of a prank too?”
“We wanted you to argue, so we could go home,” Cassie said, looking at her feet.
“In separate cars,” Bryan said. “Is there anything else? Nuts, maybe?”
“We didn’t mean to hurt anyone,” Cassie said.
“You almost killed me,” Bryan said.
“And… there are these,” Cassie said, pulling the fireworks from her backpack.
“You were going to try blowing us up?” Bryan said.
“If you didn’t want us together, why didn’t you just say so?” Zoe said.
“You both had your heart set on bringing us on this trip and making us like each other,” Cassie said. “You weren’t going to listen to us. No matter what we said.”
“You’re wrong,” Zoe said. She sounded hurt.
Aaron and Cassie shrugged their shoulders. They were full of difficult, competing emotions that pulled them one way, and then another.
“Let’s talk about this more later,” Zoe said. “Is there anything else you want to tell us about before we continue?”
Aaron and Cassie shook their heads.
“What should we do with them, Bryan?” Zoe said.
“I’m not sure,” Bryan said. “But I regret saving them from that crocodile now.”
He sat up and took the rocks out of his backpack.
“Why do I have so many?” Bryan said.
Cassie shrugged.
“You kept going for toilet breaks,” she said.
“Why didn’t you tell us about these rocks after we got down here?” Zoe said.
“We forgot,” Cassie said. “We’ve been a bit distracted.”
“You’re grounded!” Bryan said, still unloading the rocks. “Forever and a day!”
“I’m already grounded,” Cassie said.
“You mean, ‘undergrounded,’ don’t you?” Aaron said with a broad grin.
No one laughed.
“We’ll talk more about this in the morning,” Zoe said. “But I’m very disappointed in you. Both of you. Our trip was meant to bring us all together. But you were determined to doom it from the start.”
Something snapped in the undergrowth. They all tensed, picking up sticks. A small fuzzy animal hopped from the shrubbery.
“It’s just a rabbit,” Bryan said. “Shoo. Go on. Go away.”
The rabbit leaned back, opened its mouth wide, revealing a mouth full of sharp teeth, and then scampered across the woodland floor.
“We can’t sleep on the ground,” Bryan said. “We’ll be dead ten times over before we drop off.”
“Then where do you suggest we sleep?” Zoe said.
Bryan’s eyes drifted up to the canopy.
“If the land’s not safe, where else is there?” he said.
44
ROSETTA POURED OVER the map, taking in the large forest, the mountains and multiple rivers. Needle and haystack came to mind. She wasn’t even certain which direction they had gone after leaving the fracking site. Neither were they, she realized. They were just heading out into the wild, letting their feet take them where they would. How was she going to find them? All she knew was their starting point as she had waved them off. Which direction would they go from there?
A stream cut through the forest from the northeast to the southwest. Rosetta ran her eyes over the terrain and visualized herself there, smelling the pine cones and the fresh air on her cheeks, and thinking about which direction she would head in next if she were in their shoes.
There was a knock on the door of the portacabin. It opened, admitting the foreman and a pair of men in hunting gear. One of the hunters took off his flat cap and wrung it between his hands. The other one saw this and did the same.
“These guys have something they’d like to tell you about,” the site foreman said.
“Who are they?” Rosetta said.
“They’re a couple of hunters from Lakota,” the foreman said. He gestured to each man. “Rob and Roy. They were out hunting when they saw something.”
The foreman nodded to the hunters, but they didn’t speak. They looked nervous.
“What did you notice?” Rosetta said.
“We was hunting elk when there was this big disturbance,” Rob said.
He had trouble speaking. His teeth were too big for his mouth.
“You see, animals have got this kind of extra sense,” he said. “They know when something bad is about to happen, and that’s when they took off into the woodland.”
“That’s right,” Roy said, solemnly nodding his head.
“The birds took flight an’ all,” Rob said.
“That’s right,” Roy said.
“And then the ground shook and the trees fell over, and I thought it was going to be the end,” Rob said. “No matter where we went, there was noise and there was no way of getting away from it.”
“That’s right,” Roy said.
“And when it finally stopped, we was half-scared out of our wits,” Rob said.
Rosetta waited for more. None came.
“That’s it?” she said. “There’s nothing else?”
Rob blinked, surprised at the response. Rosetta calmed herself.
“What do you think caused it?” she said.
“Ain’t it obvious?” Rob said.
“Not to me,” Rosetta said.
“The frightened animals, the crashing trees…” Rob said, as if giving Rosetta all the information she needed. “They was abducted by aliens!”
“Uh-huh,” Rosetta said.
“I’ve heard of it happening in these parts before, folks disappearing without a trace, but I never thought I’d see it for myself, no sir,” Rob said.
“That’s right,” Roy said.
“Yes,” Rosetta said. “Right.”
She extended her hand.
“Well, thank you for coming to us with this information,” she said.
Rob shook her hand.
“You’re very welcome,” he said. “Always happy to be of service.”
Rosetta extended her hand to Roy. He looked at it, and then up at her eyes. The two hunters turned and left.
Rosetta shook her head.
“Only in the country,” she said.
“Sorry about that,” the foreman said. “They said they had important information. They wouldn’t tell me what it was till they got here.”
“It’s all right,” Rosetta said. “You weren’t to know.”
“Looks like your helicopter’s here,” the foreman said.
The blades kicked up a dust storm, spitting against the thin Perspex windows of the port-a-cabin. Rosetta put on her jacket and headed outside. She climbed into the cockpit and put on her headphones. The helicopter began to rise.
“Where do you want to head first?” the pilot said.
“Toward the river,” Rosetta said. “North.”
She had no idea what she was even really looking for, but she was certain it wasn’t aliens.
45
AS THE GLOW BUG SUN passed across the roof of the dome, more and more of the glow bugs broke away from the main body, spreading across the roof, forming a starry sky. On the opposite side of the roof to where the bugs had set, other bugs were already beginning to converge again, forming a new sun for the next day.
“Incredible,” Bryan said.
“It really is,” Zoe said. “There are so many things we have to learn about nature. A whole ecosystem beneath our feet we didn’t even know about.”
From their vantage on the tree branch they had an unobstructed view of the sky.
“Why do you think they do that?” Bryan said.
“I don’t know,” Zoe said. “Maybe they can sense the sun up in the sky on the surface, and they follow it. Maybe they’ve evolved to do it over millions of years, creating a symbiotic relationship with the other creatures down here.”
“They’re bugs,” Bryan said. “How do they know to do that?”
“It’s natural selection,” Zoe said. “They don’t know they’re doing it. They just do it. It’s a behavior they’ve learnt, passed on through the generations, or through their genes. The same way plants follow the sun across the sky without eyes, the way creatures know the right nuts to pick and store for winter. It’s instinctive.”
Bryan shifted position on the tree limb he lay on.
“At least we know the answer to some mysteries now,” Bryan said. “From the mouths of the beasts themselves. It’s not really our fault we argued during the whole camping trip after all.”
“You don’t honestly believe that, do you?” Zoe said.
“They confessed, didn’t they?” Bryan said.
“But they’re kids,” Zoe said. “They might have pushed us-”
“I think it was more than just a push,” Bryan said.
“-but we made our own decisions,” Zoe said. “We were the ones who said we should take a break.”
“So what are you saying?” Bryan said. “We should still take a break?”
“I don’t know what I’m saying,” Zoe said. “All I know is that when we argued it was because of us, not them.”
“Not sure I totally agree with you there,” Bryan said. “We might have been less irritable with fewer mosquito bites, lighter backpacks and delicious food. We might have tried to resolve our issues rather than just giving up the way we did.”
“Maybe I wasn’t ready for something serious,” Zoe said. “Maybe I never will be.”
“Don’t say that,” Bryan said.
“I thought if I found someone like me,” Zoe said, “a single parent who’s had to make sacrifices…” She shook her head. “Things just aren’t simple any more.”
“Just make me one promise,” Bryan said. “Let’s get out of this place and then decide what we’re going to do next. How about that? Let’s not make any rash decisions.”
Zoe thought about it for a while.
“Okay,” she said, though she didn’t smile.
They look back up at the ‘stars’.
“Do you think these bugs make formations?” Bryan said.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Zoe said.
46
“THIS IS OUR FAULT,” Aaron said. “They wouldn’t be like this if it wasn’t for us.”
“You give us too much credit,” Cassie said. “They’re adults. They can make their own decisions. Maybe they’re already married. They argue like it. I thought we were supposed to be the children?”
“I thought we were doing the best for them,” Aaron said. “But we can’t let them be miserable like this.”
“It will be better for them in the long run, you’ll see,” Cassie said.
Aaron shook his head, not convinced. He lay back on his bedding, a pile of dirty clothes from his backpack. He held the snow globe in his hands and kissed it, studying the thousands of tiny flakes inside.
“Your dad’s been gone seven years, hasn’t he?” Cassie said.
“How did you know that?” Aaron said.
“I overheard our parents talking about it,” Cassie said.
“Oh,” Aaron said. “I didn’t know Mom talked about it with anyone. Except me, I mean.”
“Maybe she didn’t,” Cassie said. “But now she has someone to talk about it with. It’s unlikely he’ll come back after all these years, you know.”
“You’re starting to sound like Mom,” Aaron said.
“I’m just saying,” Cassie said. “Maybe it’s time for you to move on.”
“Dad’s still alive out there somewhere, I know it,” Aaron said.
“Don’t you think he would have let you know if he was still alive?” Cassie said.
“He would try,” Aaron said. “Maybe he got detained or something. Or he’s a prisoner of war.”
“A prisoner?” Cassie said. “I wasn’t aware of a war in Alaska.”
“That doesn’t mean there can’t be one,” Aaron said. “A secret one, between tribes, or something. Dad could have been a spy. It could have all been a cover-up. He promised me he was going to come home. He never breaks his promises. Ever. Anyway, what do you know about it?”
Aaron said this in an aggressive tone.
“I know something about parents promising one thing and then doing another,” Cassie said. “I lied to you before. About my mother. She didn’t just disappea
r. She ran away. She left us.”
“What do you mean?” Aaron said.
“I mean, she took off,” Cassie said. “She was always doing it. ‘My own little adventures’ she called them. She wrote adventure books. To go find adventure, something exciting. She was a novelist and was always travelling around the world looking for inspiration. She would be gone for weeks – sometimes months – at a time. I used to like the idea of coming home from school to see if my mom would be there or not, and when she wasn’t, I would dream up fantasies about where she’d gone. She used to send me postcards telling me where she was.
“She was creative, my dad always said. Their brains are wired differently to the rest of us. Maybe she finally found what she was looking for and decided not to come back.”
Aaron shook his head.
“She had you and your dad to come back to,” he said. “I’m sure she would have come back to you if she could.”
“I’m not so sure,” Cassie said. “I used to think it was something I’d done, that I’d forced her to leave. The day before she ran away I broke a vase she bought in Japan. I glued it back together, but she noticed and went crazy at me. The next thing, she was gone.
“I thought if I got a new one she would come back. I saved up my allowance for ages. I even sold all my games, and asked just for money for my birthday and Christmas presents, and finally I had enough money and bought her a new one. I put it on the little stand and waited at the bottom of the stairs, watching the door. I waited and waited and waited, but she never came. I decided to do nothing. I wasn’t going to try to bring her back again, because she wasn’t going to come back.”
“Your dad wasn’t there for you?” Aaron said.
“He lost himself in his work,” Cassie said.
She shrugged.
“It was okay,” she said.
It clearly wasn’t okay, but Aaron didn’t push the issue.
“I can understand all that,” Aaron said, “but why do you hang out with Clint? He’s an asshole.”
“You’re right,” Cassie said with a smile. “He is.”
The admonition surprised Aaron.
“Then why hang out with him?” he said.
“Because sometimes knowing the right people can get you places,” Cassie said.