«CHAPTER FOUR»

The rays of the sun crept into our tent’s four corners as I waited all morning for dawn to make an entrance. It wasn’t too bright to wake the adults but enough to see the fields. Dad loudly snored, and Gary was tucked deep into his sleeping bag wheezing as well. I checked my watch, and it read 6:30AM.

 I rolled over to a goofy grin and two white eyeballs with crust between each corner staring back at me.

“You ready?” Wheatly whispered.

“Shush,” I said, as I quietly stood up, stretched, and motioned for him to tap Aaron gently who snored. Aaron peeled open his eyes as I stood towering over him. I secretly motioned for them both to meet me, quietly, outside of the tent. I took Dad’s belt and made a sling for my arm and wrapped my hand in a fatigue bandana. I grabbed my khaki pants, a white T-shirt, and quietly tiptoed out of the tent.

I cradled my hand against my body as the cold air soothed the pain that tickled all around it. The smell of last night’s fire and the Dead Sea still roamed the atmosphere. I slipped on my pants and my shirt, and I opened my book bag and made sure that my Back to the Future exploring kit lay inside. It came with a mini flashlight, a compass, a plastic pocketknife, and small plastic jars for samples. Finally, Wheatly and Aaron joined me wearing thermal underwear underneath their sweat pants and shirt.

“Where are we going?” Aaron whispered as he focused on the empty plains under the rising sun. As the sun grew brighter, the shadows slowly disappeared off the beautiful red rock.

“And what are you wearing?” Wheatly giggled at my sling.

“Shut up.” I shoved him and approached Aaron and exclaimed, “There.” I pointed to caves in the distance.

“Caves? Wellington, why not explore the dirt over there . . .  much closer? The caves are super far. We will never make it.”

I juggled Aaron’s suggestion against my desire.

“No. Since we only have an hour or so, let’s explore the hill in the middle. Right there!” I pointed to the left of the mountain. My imagination went wild, and I started running towards it when a voice yelled, “Wait for me.” We turned to see Gary running towards us.

“I thought you were sleeping?” I mumbled and wondered how he knew about our plan.

“I was, but I had to take a leak and saw you guys running away. What you gonna do over there?”

“Exploring and we don’t have room for another person.” Wheatly stepped forward protecting his spot in the pack.

“What Wheatly is trying to say is exploring might not be your style.”

“Sure it is.” His finger tapped his head. “Detective, remember?” Then Gary patted my shoulder and headed towards the hill. “If you find something, I want to find it too.”

“Okay.” I took a deep breath, hoping that no one from the camp saw us heading to the hill. “Let’s hurry up.”