* * * * *
Claudia was glad when church was over that Sunday. She was still tired from lack of sleep Friday night, though thankfully there had been no sign of the ghost of Emma Campbell in their house. Her heavy cotton dress felt hot and itchy, and on top of that, she could see Alex and Andrew Davenport coming toward her in the hall with their parents. Mrs. Davenport and Mrs. Campbell had become a bit too chummy to Claudia's liking in the past couple weeks as they organized and made arrangements together to help Mrs. Johnson.
"The heater must be working in overdrive," Claudia decided when on better inspection of the Davenport party of four, she saw Alex and Andrew sweating in identical gray suits.
Almost immediately Mrs. Campbell and Mrs. Davenport pulled together like magnets of opposite force and began conversing, ignoring their husbands and children who were helplessly trying to get a grasp of the situation. There was an uncomfortable silence between the children, who knew they couldn't very well insult each other in church or in the presence of their parents, while Mr. Davenport and Mr. Campbell stood there, fidgeting. Finally, Caera's father said,
"Would you like a cup of coffee?" and the two men swaggered over to the lunch table. The church was hosting a biannual Fellowship lunch, so all four parents entered the Fellowship Hall, leaving their children amongst a crowd of thirty or forty people shoving and trying to get in to eat before all the best food was gone. Of course, they were much too polite to actually push, but they were smiling with gritted teeth as they edged their way in front of their neighbors. Claudia could see both mothers busily chatting as they sat down at a dining table.
In the next moment, much to Caera and Claudia's delight and surprise, Ana appeared from behind a large elderly man, interrupting before Andrew could verbalize any of his daily put-downs. Alex shoved past his brother and marched up to Claudia, genuinely smiling.
"Mrs. Johnson told me to thank you for donating so much stuff for the survival trip," he began, actually quite decently. "She said she knew you didn't have to, and that it was really very nice of you to help her out like this." Caera wondered why he was almost singularly addressing Claudia. After all, she had done most of the work while Claudia was "sick". She might as well not exist as far as Alex was concerned.
Andrew was silently gagging behind his back.
"We're having a meeting this Thursday afternoon in the science department, and we need you and Caera to be there. Mrs. Johnson's calling a meeting to organize everyone into groups, and she wants to hear your ideas." For a moment, Claudia thought that he might not be such a bad guy after all. Apparently Caera was thinking the same thing, too, because she nudged Ana's shoulder with her elbow and raised her eyebrows. At least Claudia hoped that was what she was thinking.
Ana sighed. She knew people who fought and hated each other when they were young usually wound up getting married or something like that. Either that or they actually did end up killing one another.
"Sure, O.K." Claudia smiled. "We'll be there." As Alex turned to leave, Andrew caught his arm and whispered,
"What's the matter with you? Do you have some wires loose or something?" Actually, Andrew was angry with himself for not having the courage to talk and be friendly himself. He was just as excited as everyone else about the survival trip.
Alex yanked his arm back away and said, "Of course not. I'm fine. All I wanted to do was to relay Mrs. Johnson's message." He could see that Andrew didn't believe him. But then again, he wasn't sure if he believed himself, either.
Rained Out
Thursday morning came, cold and rainy, and the meeting in Mrs. Johnson's science room after school went well, without a hiccup, except when Marie Summit, there to document the meeting, began to fidget and make noise with her pocket tape recorder that had gotten wet and refused to work. Marie was near tears when she asked Mrs. Johnson to examine it, saying how much she would need it that week-end. After a few minutes of tinkering, Mrs. Johnson managed to get the thing working again, much to Marie's relief.
All the equipment had been organized and loaded into Mrs. Stuart's van for the next morning, except for the few things that would be collected at the Campbell's house before the great expedition could begin. Everyone was to meet at school at 6:00 (those that needed transportation, anyway) and those who were not riding in the Stuart's van, which actually turned out to be nearly everyone considering the amount of stuff she was taking, came in Mrs. Johnson's van or the school bus.
It was six thirty Friday morning when hordes of students began arriving at the Campbell house to begin the survival trip. The young sixth grade science teacher, Mr. Gordon was the overall group leader and guide, but there were also five group captains who had been or were junior or senior nature scouts: Caera, Claudia, Jason Robinson, David Stuart, and Christopher Summit.
Caera strode forward like a Native American guide leading a group of European explorers and she paused dramatically to breathe in the misty morning air. The day was warm and seemed to threaten nothing but sunshine.
"Boy, there is just nothing like the good old outdoors!" Caera thought as she climbed up a slope in the pathway and stopped at the summit of a small hill. Caera had a walking stick to aid her, and she leaned against it while she waited for the others to come.
The narrow pathway was only wide enough for two people to walk side-by-side. Tall oak and other deciduous trees lined it, and jagged rocks jutted from the black soil. It was dark and cool, mossy, with lots of undergrowth the insects probably just loved, Caera thought. Occasionally, the path rose as it met small hills and rises on the forest floor, yet much of the land was flat and easy to cover.
Caera tried to ignore the fact that Emily Miles and the Davenports were in her group, and she distanced herself from them as much as possible. She didn't know who to pity more--herself or Claudia, who had Marie Summit following her around. Honestly, it seemed as though Mrs. Johnson had a pretty warped sense of humor. Worst of all, Ana was stuck near the back of the party in Jason Robinson's group.
Everything had been O.K. until Andrew had tugged onto Caera's backpack, adding at least twenty pounds onto her load. Caera was so excited to finally be going that she hadn't noticed until five minutes later, when she heard snickering and heavy breathing coming from directly behind her. When Caera stopped abruptly, Andrew slammed into her.
"Hey, watch it!" she cried, turning around.
Andrew just shrugged and snickered again when she turned back around. Caera shook herself off and then pointed to several bushes lining the clearing. She had her guide of edible plants and berries book open.
"Hey, wow! Blackberries!" Alex shouted before she could say anything, and he and Andrew began pulling the choicest fruit from each bush, hardly glancing at each as they shoved one after another into their greedy mouths. Nearly everyone took a moment to enjoy the berries.
Emily Miles was the only person standing far away from all the others.
Apparently, she considered herself far too delicate to go grubbing about in the bushes, until her stomach, unused to all the exercise, began to growl. After that, it was only a matter of time before Emily began complaining that Alex and Andrew were eating all of the berries and how unfair the whole situation was and shouldn't they wash them off before they ate them and why wasn't anyone listening to her?
Meannwhile, Caera was more annoyed with Alex and Andrew for being so selfish.
A half an hour later, Andrew developed a slight stomach ache, which Caera put down to too many unripe berries, and this made her irritable around the Davenports. Andrew complained of how difficult it was to walk for at least an hour.
Several hours later, both boys were feeling better, and Alex secretly decided to scout ahead a few hundred feet, even though Mr. Gordon had told everyone not to wander too far off.
Alex walked ahead briskly, hoping in particular to find some beetles to put down Caera's or Emily's backpack. Before him, the trail turned sharply to the right around the botto
m of the slope of a rocky hill, but in a minute of following the path, he could see that further along it straightened out again. Instead of continuing along, he stopped.
In an instant, the hill had captured his interest. It seemed as though it were watching him. He wondered how many people throughout the years it had seen pass beneath it. After a moment, he felt drawn toward it to take a closer look.
The hill was blanketed with fallen leaves--a carpet of bright reds, yellows, and oranges with tufts of dead grass poking through that would make it too slippery. Fifteen minutes later, he had come several hundred yards nearer. Something or someone seemed to be leading him farther and farther away from where he had left the path and where he knew that the group must have reached already, yet just as he considered turning back, he came upon a cave. Its mouth reminded him of a trap door, and an eerie wind whistled a sound close to a welcome in his ears. More curious than afraid, he crept forward silently into the darkness… and fell.
What Emma Left Behind Page 25