Tread Softly

Nick pointed up the slope, stirring Karen from her thoughts. He spoke to Julie. The girl nodded. Sitting on a boulder, she twisted around to watch him climb. Karen followed Benny across the rocks, and joined her.

'Where's he going?' Karen asked.

Julie pointed. Some distance above Nick was a dark crevice in the rocks. 'He wants to check that out. We're supposed to wait here.'

They watched Nick make his way higher, leaping from rock to rock, striding up an angled slab, finally reaching the shadowed gap. He shined his flashlight inside, then turned around and shook his head and started down.

Karen lowered herself onto a rock. It felt cool and lumpy through the seat of her jeans, and the pistol dug into her until she leaned back. She braced herself up on her elbows.

The water below, gray in the dim light, was ruffled by the wind. Directly across the lake was the clearing where they'd left their packs. The fireplace, a distance to the left, was intact and surrounded by the stumps and rocks they'd used for seats. Even a pile of firewood remained — wood they had gathered after swimming. She remembered the good, cold feel of the water. Flash whistling at her before she went in. Had the madwoman and her son been watching, spying on them from up here someplace? Maybe if they hadn't gone swimming, if the man hadn't seen her and Julie in their suits. Those ifs again. It was pointless to think that way. You can't go back and change anything, so why worry about it?

If they'd just listened to Benny that night and gone after the woman and taken her pouch.

Nick leaped down and joined them. 'Just a crack in the rocks,' he said. 'It didn't go anywhere.'

They started walking again. Soon, the last of the evening light faded out. Under the half-moon, the rocks ahead looked gray and bleak, like a dirty snowfield. A snowfield f gouged with black shadows. The shadows, all around, made Karen uneasy. She reached under her sweatshirt and pulled out the automatic.

Benny looked back at her. 'What's wrong?'

'Nothing much.'

'Did you see something?'

'It's what I don't see that's got me worried.'

'I wish Dad was here.'

'So do I.'.

'Do you think he'll be mad when he finds out?'

'No. I think he'll be very proud. Especially if we do what we came for.'

With a nod, Benny looked forward again. He switched on his flashlight, shined it on Julie's back, then down to the rocks in front of his feet.

Karen turned her own flashlight on, but its brightness seemed to deepen the dark around her. Following close behind Benny, she shot its beam up the slope, swept it over the rocks, probed the black crevices. Her back felt exposed. She twisted around, but the tunnel of light showed only rocks and fluttering shadows behind her. Nobody there, she thought. Nobody creeping up.

'Yeeeh!' The sharp outcry came from Benny. She sprang forward as the boy ducked and covered his head and a coyote leaping from above slammed him over. He tumbled toward the edge. Karen lunged across the boulder. Her jarring beam showed Benny's legs kicking high, flipping backward. She flung the flashlight and pistol from her hands. She stretched for him. Her fingertips brushed a cuff of his jeans, and then he was falling. Karen staggered, her momentum thrusting her toward the edge. She teetered there. Her sweatshirt went taut across her chest, and she was tugged to a stop.

Benny dropped to the rocks ten feet below. He cried out as he hit. With a yelp, the coyote raced away.

Julie let go of Karen's sweatshirt and stepped beside her. 'Benny!'

They boy raised his head.

A crouched figure with a hatchet scurried toward him over the moonlit rocks.

'Look out!' Karen yelled.

'It's just Nick,' Julie said.

As they climbed down, Karen heard Benny whimper, 'My arm, my arm.'

Karen knelt beside him. He was gasping, holding his right forearm.

'I think it might be broken,' Nick said.

Karen stroked the boy's sweaty forehead. 'Where else do you hurt?' she asked.

'Everywhere.'

'You took a pretty good fall.'

'I tried to duck, but it — '

Julie said, 'Is anything else broken or sprained?'

'I don't know,' he said. 'I don't think so.'

He flinched and sobbed as they sat him up. They carefully removed his parka. Julie shined a light on his arm while Nick rolled his right sleeve up above the elbow. The forearm was swollen and discolored, but the skin wasn't broken. 'We need something to splint it,' Nick said.

'Knives?' Karen suggested.

'Let's give it a try.'

Julie opened her belt and took off her leather-cased knife. From hilt to tip, it was nearly a foot long.

'That'll do for one,' Nick said.

Benny had a similar knife.

Karen held them in place, one on each side of the arm, while Nick strapped them tight with Benny's belt. 'I guess that'll have to do until we find something better.'

'Hope we don't need those things,' Julie said.

Nick ruffled Benny's hair. 'Now you're better armed than any of us.'

'My gun,' Karen muttered.

She and Julie climbed up the rocks to look for it. With Nick's flashlight, she searched the area where she'd let it fall. Her beam swept the gray surfaces, sought out dark corners, dug into fissures. Julie located the lost flashlight. It was broken. They kept on looking.

'It has to be here someplace,' Julie said.

'You'd think so.'

They went over the same area time and again.

'Maybe it's down there,' Julie said, stepping close to the edge.

'Any luck?' Nick called to her.

'No.'

They climbed down and searched the base of the rock cluster.

Julie glanced at her brother. 'You're not sitting on it, are you?'

'No,' he said.

'I'll try looking,' Nick said.

Julie handed over her flashlight. She stayed below, while Karen led Nick back up the broken rocks to the place where she had dropped the gun. 'Right about here,' she said, standing a yard from the edge.

'Did you throw it, or just let it fall?'

'I just opened my hand so I could grab for Benny.'

'Maybe you kicked it.'

'I might've. If I did, it didn't register.'

She showed him where Julie had found the flashlight. They searched there. They crisscrossed the craggy mound of granite, walking shoulder to shoulder.

'It might've gone down one of these cracks,' Nick finally said.

'Wherever it is,' Karen told him, 'I don't think we're gonna find it. Not tonight anyway. Why don't we come back in the morning when we've got some light on the subject?'

'Morning will be too late,' Nick said.

They climbed down, and spent some time searching the area around Benny and Julie.

'Might as well forget it,' Julie said.

Karen took off her belt and made a sling for Benny's arm. Then they helped the boy to his feet.

'What now?' Julie asked.