Following their gaze, Arthur saw brown hair. “Are any of these suitcases yours?” he asked, pointing at the pile shoved in the back. The boys dove in and Arthur saw he would’ve been able to pick their cases out, seeing superhero emblems on each one.
When each had a suitcase, they reached back in and pulled out backpacks with the same emblems as each one’s suitcase. “That it for in here?” Arthur asked and they nodded. “Anything in the cabin?”
“Our camping backpacks,” Jim said in a low voice.
“I want you three to wait here while I look in the van to make sure,” Arthur told them gently and they nodded. He moved around to the driver’s side and saw a woman in the passenger seat that was starting to bloat. Taking a deep breath, he opened the door and saw a purse in the floorboard. Yanking it out, he stepped back letting out the breath that he’d been holding and dug around inside, pulling out a pocketbook.
Opening it up, he found pictures and put it back. Closing the door, he moved back and handed the purse to Kirk. “So you’ll have pictures and I’ll know where you came from,” Arthur told him as Kirk took the purse. “Guys, when we get to the cabin, stay on the porch. I’ll get your packs.”
“Thank you,” Pat said with a weak smile.
“That’s what family does, Pat,” Arthur said, walking toward the cabin. Seeing the cabin door was cracked open, Arthur gave a thankful sigh. The boys stopped outside as Arthur walked in, trying not to breathe. Feeling Nicole moving from the smell, he scanned around and saw three small hiking packs and moved over to grab them quickly.
Arthur stopped, seeing a man on a bed. In his arms were a young teen girl and another girl that couldn’t have been older than five. Not being in a hot car, their skin was only gray. Turning away from the sight, he saw a wallet on a bedside table and grabbed it.
As he headed for the door, Nicole gave a grunt as she wiggled in the sling. Stepping out into the clean air, Arthur looked down and saw Nicole relaxing and settling back down, drifting back to sleep. “Put this in the purse,” Arthur said, handing the wallet to Kirk.
He watched Jim trying to lug his Superman suitcase. Moving all three of the backpacks to his left hand, Arthur picked up Jim’s suitcase. “Guys, let’s go,” he said and the boys took off running to the Blazer.
With only his small Superman backpack on, Jim quickly pulled out in the lead as his brothers struggled with their suitcases. When Jim touched the Blazer, he turned around and raised his arms high, “I finally won!” he cheered out and then started jumping up and down.
“You weren’t carrying your suitcase,” Pat popped off.
Opening the passenger side, “Boys, don’t worry about the dogs,” Arthur chuckled at them and the boys looked in and saw the huge Rottweilers in the backseat. “Donald, Daisy, get in the back, right now,” Arthur commanded and the dogs let out groans as they climbed over the seat to get in the cargo area.
Tossing the boys’ stuff into the backseat, Arthur was very glad he had seat covers. “Boys, all of you need to sit up front because you’re muddy and the backseat doesn’t have a cover,” Arthur told them and they just smiled at him.
Helping the boys in, Arthur closed the door and walked around to the driver’s side and climbed in. “Boys, am I the first person you’ve seen since you got here?” he asked, starting the engine.
“No, sir,” Kirk answered as Arthur turned around. “We saw a sick man the day after we got here and another man yesterday.”
“Did you talk to either of them?”
“No, sir. The man yesterday saw us playing in the creek and stopped,” Kirk told him. “He tried chasing us, but we hid in the woods. He drove away but came walking back later, but we were still hiding.”
“Why didn’t you talk to him?” Arthur asked, glancing over at the three.
All three turned to look at him as Kirk spoke. “He was scary.”
“Guys, don’t you think I’m scary?” Arthur chuckled, glancing at the road and then back to the boys who were all shaking their heads.
“No, sir,” Kirk answered. “You look nice and then we saw you had a baby.”
“Would you have talked to me if Nicole hadn’t been with me?”
“Yes sir,” Kirk said and then turned to look out the window. “The other man gave us scary feelings. Even if he’d had Nicole, we wouldn’t have talked to him.”
“And never talk to sick people,” Jim pipped in.
“Why?” Arthur asked.
“Dad told us they sometimes act crazy from the fever,” Pat told him.
Very impressed, Arthur turned to the road. “Guys, you’re very smart but from now on, you see someone, you come get me. You’re right about trusting bad feelings, but I don’t want a bad man hiding his bad feelings from you. I’ll talk to them and if they’re bad, you won’t have to worry anymore.”
Sitting next to Arthur on the bench seat, Jim leaned his head over to rest it on Arthur’s side. “Thank you, Arthur,” Jim said in a tired voice.
Glancing back at the boys, Arthur saw Kirk’s head resting on the window, sound asleep. Pat was leaned over asleep, laying on Kirk. He looked down and saw Jim’s eyes closed and his mouth hanging open.
Looking up at the road, Arthur gave a sigh, “Three little boys terrified out of their minds for three days. I’m willing to bet none ever slept more than an hour.”
When he reached the gate, Arthur slowed and hit the
