Page 17 of No More Words

They followed Mr.Whitman past the cabin, with Mrs.Whitman and Lily waving from the deck and across the street. He took themon a narrow, overgrown trail. Every few hundred yards he instructed them to stack rocks, explaining they’d use them as guides on their way back. Mr.Whitman would stack his rocks, then start walking. Olivia quickly stacked hers before she’d lose sight of him, then take off after him. Once, before she could run off, she saw Lucas swing a stick like a baseball bat. He knocked over Mr.Whitman’s rock pile.

“Knock it off, moron.” Blaze yanked the stick from Lucas and threatened to punch him. Lucas ducked and ran ahead, chasing after Tyler and Mr.Whitman. Blaze tossed the stick aside. “I know this forest better than my asshole. Let’s ditch them and take the canoe out.”

Olivia shook her head. “Your dad will ground us for a week.” Exactly what Mr.Whitman threatened when he announced their expedition and explained what would happen if they didn’t cooperate. She didn’t want to be stuck on the deck while everyone else played in the lake. Blaze impatiently tolerated his dad’s adventures, but Olivia secretly loved them. Her parents never took time to interact with them on the level Mr.Whitman did. His activities were never dull in her mind.

Olivia ran ahead. Blaze groaned and jogged after her.

After twenty minutes of hiking, they reached a meadow with a creek. Mr.Whitman shared his trail mix and showed them how to filter the creek water so they could drink it. Using their pocketknives, they cut off a strip of material from their shirts. They placed one end of the shirt in the cup with dirty water elevated on a stone and the other end at the bottom of an empty cup.

“Give it one hour and you’ll have a cup of fresh water.”

“No way.” Lucas looked disbelievingly at the contraption.

“Yes way.” Mr.Whitman grinned and unzipped his backpack. “Who wants to learn how to build a fire?”

Four hands shot up.

For the next hour, Mr.Whitman taught them how to survive overnight in the woods, tips Olivia had learned in her guide but didn’t fully understand. When their filtered waters were ready, much to Lucas’s amazement, they boiled the water with the fire they’d made from an egg carton and twigs.

When it was time to return to the cabin, Mr.Whitman announced they were hiking back on their own, one at a time. And they had to keep at least one hundred yards between them, and they couldn’t help each other.

“What if we get lost?” Lucas asked.

“Fill up your cups and use your compass.”

“Bet you wish you didn’t give Ty your needle,” Blaze mocked.

“Shut up.” Lucas folded his arms and scowled at the ground.

“You’ll be fine,” Olivia reassured.

Lucas looked at her like he didn’t believe her.

“Olivia, you go first.” Mr.Whitman pointed toward the trailhead. “Wait two minutes, then you go, Blaze.”

Her eyes widened. She nervously looked at the trees edging the meadow. She’d truly be on her own.

“See you back at the lake.” Blaze clapped her back, not at all acting afraid. She could do this. She grabbed her cup, filled it with water, and took off at a fast walk. The hike seemed longer returning, but Mr.Whitman had left stone markers at each fork. They helped her until she reached the markers Lucas knocked over, leaving a pile of stones. She had to use her compass. By the time she magnetized her needle, she could hear someone tromping through the brush behind her. She looked over her shoulder. Blaze was closing in.

He cupped his mouth and hollered, “You’re slacking, Carson.”

“You can’t catch me. You’re not allowed to.”

“Rules, shmules,” he yelled, gaining on her. “Dad won’t know if you don’t tell him.” He started running.

Suddenly their hike was a race, because rules or not, Olivia was not going to let him pass her. She took off. Ten minutes later they burst from the trees, gasping and sweating. Her boots and calves were muddy, arms dusty and speckled with mosquito bites. But she won and couldn’t help grinning and poking at him.

Blaze playfully smacked away her hands and pulled her into a stinky, sweaty hug. “Good job, Liv.”

Tyler crashed out of the trees with a holler of delight. Several minutes later, Mr.Whitman arrived. His gaze skimmed over them and he looked back toward the woods. “Where’s Lucas?”

Olivia and Blaze looked at each other and shrugged.

“Didn’t see him, Dad.”

It took another five minutes for Mr.Whitman to get seriously worried. He dropped his pack on the drive and went inside to see if Lucas had somehow reached the cabin before them.

Olivia chewed her thumbnail, unable to take her eyes off the trailhead.

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