by Bob Bannon
He peeled back the top of the can of beans and emptied the can into the pot. Fortunately, all the cans he found were pull-tops, so that made opening them easy. He forgot he would need something to stir the beans, much less eat them with, so he put the pot right down on top of the fire and walked back to the footlocker.
He found the plastic bag they stored the silverware in. There were two spoons, two forks and a hunting knife. He looked at the hunting knife. A weapon. He’d need a weapon if the ‘dangerous men’ came, wouldn’t he? He put the knife in his back pocket, took out a spoon and went back to the fire.
What he found was a bubbling mess. The place where he had put the pot down had crumbled, leaning the pot sideways, and the beans were bubbling over that edge. He instinctively reached for the pot to correct it. Burning his hand, he cried out, and dropped it into the fire, which almost immediately smothered the small flames.
He looked at his hand. The burn wasn’t bad, but it would sting for a few days. Then he looked at the mess. He’d have to let it cool and then clean it up if was going to try again, but he was too hungry for that. He went back to the footlocker, took out another can of beans and ate them just as they were.
There were two large empty water bottles in the footlocker as well. He dropped the empty can of beans and picked up one of the water bottles. At the mouth of the cave, he made a quick scan of the area. Still no one around. That was good.
He walked to the pool of water and dipped his burnt hand in. It was cold, but not freezing. During the summer months it warmed up considerably and was really refreshing to swim around in. The water stung the burn, but there was some relief of it as well.
As he took the bottle of water to the waterfall, he tried to fill it without getting very wet, just as his father had shown him. When the bottle was full, he took a long sip and then capped the bottle. The water didn’t taste as good as the water at home, but his father said the waterfall acted as a natural filtration system, so it was safe enough to drink.
He walked back to the cave, removed the hunting knife from his back pocket and put it just under the hammock, within arm’s reach. He wrapped himself up in a blanket and lay down on the hammock, staring out at the gently swaying long grass.
He decided he needed some kind of plan. Was he going to live here? Just like this? He didn’t think so. He felt sure his father would have planned something different after this. Having this as a meeting place, or a hiding place, was one thing. To actually live in a cave would suck.
As the sun went down on that first night, he took a backpack from the footlocker, the larger pack that was obviously meant for his dad. He tried to think of what he might need, and didn’t have a clue. He spent most of the remaining daylight hours sorting through the footlocker. Since he had nothing better to do, he made a wide circle of the items, grouping them appropriately - these were clothes, these were cans of food, these were items with which to cook and eat.
In the end, he packed a change of clothes, the large water bottle, a flashlight, two cans of baked beans, one of the spoons and the hunting knife. He decided he would hike to the other two caves tomorrow where his father had also planted things ‘for safe keeping’ and see if the supplies there were any different.
The next morning he had a breakfast of canned peaches, which he had never tasted before and, as it turns out, he really hated, but he didn’t have it in him to go hunting for more wood and wasn’t the least bit interested in trying another fire just yet.
His hand was still tender from the burn, but thank goodness it wasn’t any worse than that. He left the empty can of peaches next to the empty can of beans from the night before, put on his coat and boots, and began to pack the items he selected into the large backpack. The last thing he did before he left the cave was put the silver chain around his neck and drop the green gem inside his sweater. He shook it to see if it would glow again. He only now realized it had gone out just after the explosion. Now it was the same stupid bauble with sharp edges that did nothing but make the world look green when you looked through it.
The pack turned out to be heavy, but not an impossible burden, as he slung it over both shoulders and set out for the other two caves, each of which, he knew, were almost exactly half a mile apart. He remembered his father measuring the distance out with a handheld GPS the first few times they travelled to the other caves. Again, it never registered with him why his father might be measuring the distance. For Jonah, it was about the adventure of exploring and the responsibility of being the leader when his father let him hold the GPS. His father would ask him questions about which compass direction they were going and what the geography was nearby. The GPS changed colors – green, if a dense patch of woods was nearby, a streak of blue if a stream was close, things like that.
After about a year, he and his father could find the other caves easily. His father had chosen the caves because they were higher up than the first, but he was evidently looking for places that had both a water source and a thicket of trees within walking distance.
Jonah walked into the second cave and checked the footlocker there. It was situated next to a camping hammock, the same as the first. Here was only more of the same, though, so Jonah only added a can of beans and two cans of peaches to the pack. He didn’t like peaches, but they were food, and that seemed important. He also decided he’d take the brown sweater he found here as well. The backpack was definitely getting too full.
Cave number three proved the same, except he liked the blue sweater he found more than the one he was wearing, so he traded it out and left the red one here in the locker. There were sneakers here, instead of boots, but he liked the warmth and traction the boots provided. He did find a bar of soap. For some reason, that just sounded like a practical thing to have, so he put that in the pack as well.
He was just about to leave when he spotted something that the other caves didn’t offer. Between two blankets, he found an electronic tablet and its power cord. When he pressed the power button, he found that it held enough juice to turn it on. It was loaded with everything, e-mail, a word processor, a web browser. The internet connection didn’t work out here, of course, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t find somewhere to connect eventually.
It suddenly occurred to him that there might be some kind of evidence somewhere in this tablet. Maybe something about the ‘dangerous men’ and who they were or what they might want. Or maybe a note from his father, explaining what had happened and what he should do now. Jonah frantically searched everywhere he could think of within the tablet, but it seemed to be brand new. There was no e-mail address installed, there were no documents saved. There was no evidence or anything to tell him what to do.
Jonah swallowed hard. He had been unaware how deeply the thought had gripped him that this might be some kind of break-through. He took out the water bottle and took more than a few sips to make the clutching feeling in his throat go down. Then he thought he was pretty stupid. As if some hologram of his father was going to pop out of this machine and explain just what exactly was happening and where he should go and maybe that the explosion was just a cover–up, like in the movies, and he should come meet him at their designated secret base. That was just dumb. Wasn’t it?
He turned the tablet off and shoved it and its power cord into the now bulging backpack. It was heavy, and lumpy, but he didn’t find it very difficult to walk while it was on his back. He left the cave. One side of his brain was completely unsure about where he was going to go. The other side was completely sure he had made up his whole mind that he was going to walk to the town down the road. So, outside of the cave, he turned right and made his way out to the narrow highway.
There wasn’t much traffic to speak of coming up the road towards the bluff, but he took to the trees when he saw a car approaching from either direction. People would almost certainly stop if they saw a boy his age walking down the highway with a giant pack on his back. And then there would certainly be questions. Questions he couldn’t an
swer.
It was dusk by the time he made it to the first signs of the town. The first stop light on the outskirts was the first crossroad he’d seen. Far down one side he could see a farm house with the lights blazing inside. Down the other, he could see nothing but trees.
It was growing colder, but the winter coat his father had packed away was quite warm and had a hood, so he pulled that up and zipped the coat further, stuffing his hands in the pockets.
A few more blocks and he came to the second stoplight. There were more obvious signs of civilization now, a row of shops and restaurants, but few people came and went. Most of the shops seemed to be closed, and the restaurants seemed to be full. Fortunately, it seemed that the town was small, but not small enough where a stranger his age would immediately get stopped and questioned on the street. There was an occasional sideways glance from a couple going into a restaurant. And one old woman who had taken a coffee break from sweeping her storefront actually seemed to stare.
He decided to get off this street, so he turned left and walked a few more blocks. The buildings became larger and more industrial looking. There was still an office building or a storefront here or there but most of the buildings looked like warehouses. A few more blocks up, a residential neighborhood loomed. Jonah was sure he didn’t want to attempt that. Someone was bound to notice a boy out of place in their neighborhood.
He decided to take a right and walk down another street. The sun had gone down and now he was quite cold even through the coat. He had to find somewhere to get away from the chilling night air that he knew would only grow colder by the hour.
Between a large building made of aluminum siding and a weathered, brick office building he came upon a storefront bordering an alley. The store had a ‘For Lease’ sign hanging in the window. He looked in the window and it seemed empty. There was a bare shelf or two, here and there, but it seemed like no one had been inside in quite a while.
He looked around to see if anyone was nearby. No one was. So he darted into the alley to see if there was a way in from the back. There was a back door, with bars across the window. He tried the handle, but it was locked tight. He couldn’t reach the back windows. Even if he could, they had bars on them as well. He went to one of the windows, grabbed two of the bars, and stood on his toes to look in. It still looked deserted.
His foot knocked into something, something that gave way when his foot hit it. He looked down and saw that there was a row of windows close to the ground. Two of them had bars across them. The one his foot had tapped did not. He knelt down and put his hand on the window and, sure enough, it was open. It was on a hinge and moved up and down easily. He noticed that there must have been bars on this window at some point, but it looked like they had been pried away some time ago. So someone must have gone in this way at one time or another.
He opened the window, leaned down near it and called “Hello?” There was no response. “Hello?” He called again. He listened intently but didn’t hear even a movement from inside.
Jonah dug his flashlight out of his pack along with some batteries. He put the batteries in and pushed the button. He pointed the light into the dark basement back and forth, sure it was going to fall upon some maniacal face in the darkness that would grab him and pull him under the building or shout at him to leave.
But there was nothing. Nothing moved. There was still no sound. He swept the light back and forth a few more times. Maybe someone had pried the bars away a long time ago in order to rob the store. He hoped that was the case. He saw no other option for him to get out of the cold tonight.
He looked around again, to make sure he was alone, and then stuffed his backpack, with some effort, through the window. It fell with a soft thump to the floor. He then dropped the flashlight, still turned on, down through the window. He hoped to hit the backpack, which he did, but then the flashlight hit the floor with a loud clank.
Seeing no one, as he looked around a final time, he turned around on his belly, squeezing through the window feet-first. He was expecting to drop through the window to the floor, but his feet found purchase on a sturdy shelving unit that was built into the wall. He slid the rest of the way in easily and, from a crouched position, whispered loudly “Hello?” Still nothing.
Jonah dropped off the low shelf as quietly as he could and grabbed at the flashlight quickly. He swung it around back and forth, searching every corner. Nothing but litter and storage boxes. He picked up his backpack and put it on his shoulders.
He crept slowly to the stairs, still expecting someone to pop out somewhere. He put his foot on the first stair and there was a loud creak when he put his weight on it. He spun his flashlight back and forth in a panic, but nothing jumped at him.
The window he had crawled through was still hanging open. He went back, got up on the low shelf, and locked it. If this was someone else’s hiding spot, it wouldn’t be tonight.
The stairs made a series of creaks as he went up them and when he tried the basement door, it opened.
He turned off his flashlight, sure that it would be noticed by someone passing on the street, and emerged into the back of the store. “Hello?” Jonah called quietly.
He could see the whole of the store from back here and there was certainly nowhere someone could hide. He turned around and closed the basement door. He was relieved to find it had a lock on the handle, and he clicked that for good measure.
There was a spiral staircase leading up to a second floor. He decided to check there. He put his foot on the first stair, and found that the staircase was sturdy. He made his way up and came into a one-room apartment. Thank goodness no one was up here either, and it didn’t look like anyone had been for a while. There was an over-turned book shelf along one wall, and other pieces of furniture that were half-covered by blue plastic tarps around the room, the kind his father had used when he painted their living room last year. There was a bed which had been pulled into the center of the room.
He spotted a small bathroom in the corner and realized he hadn’t used the bathroom all day, but now that he saw it, he realized he had to go quite badly.
Jonah crept to the bathroom and pushed the door open slowly. It was lined with white tiles, that didn’t look very white anymore, even in the thin light coming from a window behind the shower curtain. He grabbed the shower curtain and swung it open, hoping no one was sleeping in the tub. It was empty.
He used the bathroom and rinsed his hands in the sink. The water was freezing, even from the hot water tap. Even letting it run didn’t warm it up. He shut the water off and dried his hands on his jeans.
He crept silently back into the apartment and looked around. Dropping his pack on the floor, he set his flashlight down next to it and sat on the bed, which brought up a cloud of dust. He was now confident that no one had been here for a good while. He brought out a can of beans and a spoon from his pack and ate the beans cold. He went into the bathroom and drank down some cold water from the tap. The water from the tap tasted different from the water he got from the pond, a cleaner taste, like the water from home. Water from inside versus water from outside had to be cleaner, right?
Retrieving the large water bottle of pond water from his pack, he emptied it into the sink and then refilled it with water from the tap. He also noticed that there was a wastebasket in the corner with some cans marked ‘primer’ and ‘wood varnish’, so he dropped his empty can of beans there. He went to the dusty bed and shook out the one dusty, flat pillow. His hood, which had fallen off his head climbing into the basement, he now pulled up again, before laying his head on the pillow. He curled up in a ball and blew on his hands to warm them, but he was still cold.
He got up and pulled one of the blue plastic tarps, revealing a large wooden coffee table. He pulled the tarp to the bed, lay down, and pulled the entire thing over his head. And then close to his body. It didn’t feel like it quite made any difference at first, but then he found he was slightly warmer in his blue plastic tent.
He kept his hands close to his face, breathing warm air on them and thought about the day. He had managed two feed himself two meals today. Not amazing dinners like his father cooked, but at least it was food. He also managed to make it into town, all on his own. And he found this place, with an actual bed and a real bathroom. All in all, he was really proud of himself that he’d made it this far. He wondered if his father would be too.
III
He woke up to the sound of bells. The bells chimed and then chimed again and he heard the distinctive sound of a door close somewhere downstairs. Someone was in the building!
Throwing the tarp off of him, his eyes spun wildly around the room. He could hear muffled voices now. If someone was downstairs, they were sure to come up. His eyes flew around the room for hiding places. There weren’t many options. He could hide in the tub, but felt sure he’d be found. Under the bed was the only logical choice.
He fell from the bed onto his knees, then onto his belly. He shoved the pack under the bed then squirmed under and pulled at the tarp, just enough that no one would see him. His flashlight, which was off now, rolled to the corner of the room and there was no time to retrieve it. Whoever was downstairs was on their way up.
Shoes clanged on the spiral metal staircase. He didn’t get a good look at who the people were but from the shoes he knew it was a man and two women. Both women wore high heels that made a lot of noise on the wood floor. The woman who moved around the room the most spoke in a high-pitched, nasally voice about square-footage, and color schemes and other things Jonah couldn’t understand and at the moment had little interest in.
