Tread Softly

them, she stared. She began to whimper.

'The two figures wore the clothes of Doreen and Audrey, but the arms and legs were made of sticks. They were scarecrows with heads of bloody fur.''

'Yuck,' Rose muttered.

'Somehow, Sandy found her way back to the camp.

She sat by the dead fire. The wind moaned around her. She stared into the darkness. She waited and waited. Audrey and Doreen never returned.'

'Never?' Benny asked.

'Never. Some hikers wandered into camp a couple of days later and found Sandy still sitting there, her wide eyes gazing into the woods as if looking for her lost friends.'

'What did happen?' Nick asked. 'To Audrey and Doreen?'

'Search parties looked everywhere for them. They were never found. Nobody will ever know what became of them after they ran out into the woods that night. Maybe it's best that way.'

There was silence. Heather peered over her shoulder. Rose leaned closer to the fire.

'On that cheerful note,' Flash said, 'I think it's about time to call it a night.'

Chapter Nine

Hey,' Nick said. 'I'm gonna sleep under the stars tonight. You want to?' 'That'd be neat. I'll have to ask Dad first.' Turning around, Julie spotted him with Karen and Benny. The three were heading away from the campsite, apparently on their way to the stream. 'Wait up!' she called, and ran after them. She quickly caught up with her father. 'Can I sleep outside tonight?' she asked.

'Do you have a choice?'

'I mean by the fire. Instead of in the tent. Nick's gonna sleep out, too.'

'Just the two of you?'

'I don't know.' She sighed. 'Jeez, Dad, we're not gonna do anything. I hardly even know the guy.'

'I wasn't thinking about that. Now that you mention it, though…'

'Dad.'

He laughed softly. 'No, it's fine with me.'

'Great!' She whirled away and rushed to tell Nick. She found him crouching over his backpack, pulling out his sleeping bag. 'It's okay,' she told him.

'Fantastic.'

'Meet you by the fire.'

Well away from the campsite, in the woods beyond her tent, she brushed her teeth and washed her face using water from her plastic bottle. As she capped the bottle, she heard a quiet crunching sound. Not far away. A footstep?

Holding her breath, she stared through the trees. She saw only black trunks, bushes, a few dim clusters of stone.

Nobody's there, she told herself.

Still, she felt exposed standing in a bright patch of moonlight. With a sidestep, she moved into the dark. She listened. She heard only the breeze in the treetops, the quiet lapping sound of the lake, a few indistinct voices from the camp.

'Damn story,' she muttered. Karen's story, and nothing more, was responsible for her jitters. 'Wasn't even scary,' she said.

But as she lowered her pants and squatted, she scanned the darkness. Ridiculous. Dumb story. She was a jerk to let it bother her.

Here I am, a jerk. Staring into the woods like a fool, half expecting Audrey and Doreen to dash by. Dumb.

She stared and shivered. This was taking forever. Why the hell had she drunk so much coffee?

Finally, she finished. She hurried back to camp. Nick, in his sleeping bag near the fire, waved at her. 'Right with you,' she called.

In the darkness of her tent, she changed into the hooded warm-up suit she'd brought along for sleepwear. She put on clean wool socks, then slipped into her sneakers. She rolled her mummy bag into a loose bundle, grabbed her foam-rubber mat, and crawled outside.

Nick watched her approach. She felt self-conscious, naked under her snug jacket and pants. He can't tell, she thought. Besides, she was holding the bulky bag in front of herself.

'You ought to put down a ground cloth,' he suggested.

'Yeah. I'll get my poncho.' She spread out the rubber mat, piled her bag on it, and walked back across the clearing. Let him look, she thought. Nothing to see. For all he knows, she could be wearing long johns under her suit. Her uneasiness, however, was mixed with a tingle of excitement at the idea that he might be watching and wondering.

She crouched over her pack. The pants drew taut against her rump and slipped down a bit. She felt a strip of cold above the elastic band. Nick can't see. It's dark.

She took out her poncho, water bottle, and flashlight, and fastened down the cover flap for the night. Standing, she hiked up her pants. Then she returned to the fire.

'Can you use a hand?' Nick asked.

'That's okay. I'll just be a minute.' She spread her poncho over a fairly smooth patch of ground several feet away from Nick's bag. He was wearing a T-shirt. 'Aren't you cold?' she asked.

'Just what you can see. I'm toasty warm from there down.'

'Toasty warm?'

'Snug as a bug in a rug.'

'Good grief,' she muttered.

Nick laughed.

Knees on the poncho, Julie straightened out her rubber pad. It was just wider than her shoulders, just long enough to cushion her from head to rump. She spread her sleeping bag over it. Sitting on the puffy surface, she pulled off her shoes. She placed them near the head of the bag, propped her water bottle between them, and slipped her flashlight inside one. Then she lowered the zipper of her bag halfway. She drew back the top as far as she could and struggled to get in, rolling onto her back and drawing up her knees nearly to her chin before she could work her feet under the edge. 'Graceful, huh?'

'Yeah.'

She used the inside tab to pull the zipper up. Then, nestled in warmth, she sighed.

'Okay.' It was her father's voice, a short distance away. 'See you in the morning.'

'Bright and early,' Karen answered.

' 'Night,' Benny said.

'Go on ahead, I'll be right with you.'

Raising her head, Julie saw Benny turn away from the adults. They walked toward Karen's tent, the one she would've been sharing with Julie. In the darkness near its front, they embraced. They kissed. Julie turned her face away.

' 'Night,' Benny said as he walked by.

'Yeah,' she muttered.

'Good-night,' Nick said.

Dad came along a while later. At least he didn't go in the tent with her. 'Sleep tight, you two,' he said as he passed.

' 'Night, Dad.'

'Good-night, Mr. O'Toole.'

'From here on, it's Scott. Okay?'