“We won’t have to go back there again, Grampa, will we?”
To Australia? To Darlene’s farm? “Where?”
“To the basement.”
Never. Not for all the tea in China! “We won’t honey, don’t worry. We can be outside now.”
Ruby seemed just as pleased as I was. Her cheeks were stuffed like a hamster’s and before she even managed to swallow that gargantuan portion of fruit, she took another bite.
“What are we going to do?”
Did all the chosen ones really survive like The Collective had planned? It was hard to believe, since there was no other living soul anywhere in sight. What if Ruby and I were left completely alone here? I stopped myself. We managed to wait it out. Why would it be any different for the others?
“We’ll go find some children for you to play with.”
She looked around as if she expected there to be a group of them waiting for her behind the nearest tree.
“It won’t be that fast. We’ll have to go on a hike first…” I told her. “A few hours I think. We’ll stop by the river on the way.” The idea of a stream full of fish made my mouth water. “But I’m sure that we’ll have some new friends by the end of the day.”
She believed me straight away, and I was hoping it was justified. That it wasn’t one of those promises I couldn’t keep. I was still angry with The Collective but now I thought to myself: I hope you did your damn job!
It only took us about half an hour to reach the river crossing our path, but even if it had been five times that long, I wouldn’t have minded. Looking into greenery was incredibly soothing and I couldn’t get enough of it. Ruby was running around me happily, collecting various stones and flowers and chattering away.
We found a spot on the shore where in the shade of a tree two big boulders lay conveniently close together, forming a bench. All it took was to cast a hook with a thick worm, the line twitched as soon as the worm touched the water. I pulled back sharply and soon there was a fish next to me on the ground. Was it even possible to catch something this quickly? Fishing was supposed to be about patience!
“Why are you laughing?” Ruby wondered.
For a moment I was spiralling back to that moment she asked me in this same curious tone: Why are you crying Grampa? But I shook the memory away.
“Because I’d been looking forward to a fish for God knows how long, and this one basically jumped right onto the pan!”
“And where do you have it?” she frowned. “The pan?”
That made me laugh even more.
“That’s just what people say, you know?” I poked her. “What I meant to say was that it was really easy to catch it. Shall we try for more?”
Before I knew it, I had four more fish. One by one I killed, cleaned and deboned them. I gave Ruby the task of collecting twigs and small branches and together we built a small fire by the river bank. I grandiosely called it a bonfire, to make it sound like a bigger adventure than it really was. But I think that she was having too much fun being outside to wonder about the relative excitement of filling one’s stomach compared to other activities.
I carefully put the fillets on a skewer made out of a sharpened branch and turned them around over the flames. I let Ruby get down to her underwear and t-shirt and splash about in a shallow part of the river while the fish were being grilled. In the course of her games she managed to get herself completely drenched, but who could blame her? After six months in a basement, everyone would want to have a little fun.
We put the grilled fillets into our bowls and let them cool a little so as to not burn our tongues. I helped Ruby lay out all her wet clothes on the boulders around us and then chased her to the fire. I couldn’t wait a second longer for this meal.
I put the first bite into my mouth and it was like a wild party for my taste buds. I’d been dreaming of this moment ever since my last trip on the Rotorua lake.
Ignoring the stench of rotting bodies which wasn’t going away, being in nature was like entering paradise. One by one I was finally tending to all the needs that had to be pushed aside. A walk, fresh food. And now for the company…
It took us another hour and a half to get from the river to the blue tree. It was clearly a challenging hike for a child, Ruby and I took a lot of breaks and she could only be persuaded to keep going by the promises of new friends. My mind was finally receiving proper stimulation, breathing fresh air, but even so, I was beginning to feel tired as well. There isn’t much hiking one can do in a five by ten meter room, my body wasn’t used to intense physical activities anymore.
Despite our untrained bodies and weakened muscles, I realised how much we were slowed down by Connie’s illness the last time we hiked this trail; it had taken us twice as long. My daughter claimed that she didn’t feel that bad, and yet she had to lean against a tree every time she coughed, or if there wasn’t a tree around, she leant on me. Her breathing had been shallow and she had requested breaks “for Ruby” much more often than necessary.
I couldn’t help but wish Connie
