Kim shook her mom off. “Don’t say that!”
“Your father’s not coming back,” Haiwee said. “He left us. It was his choice. And you need to make your peace with that.”
Jake sat up and stared. He hadn’t realized Kim’s dad had walked out too.
“He left you!” Kim yelled. “You and this stupid, boring, dead-end life! He didn’t leave me. He still wants to see me again. He wants—”
“Honey, he hasn’t been in touch for three years,” Haiwee said, and the sadness in her voice was hard for Jake to bear. “He has a new family in Denver. I know you’re angry, Kim. I was too, for a long time. But I had to let go. And you need to do the same.”
“But why would he just up and leave like that?” Kim demanded. “He didn’t even leave a note!”
“Sometimes people do selfish things,” Haiwee said. “They do things because they want to, and that’s all the reason they need.”
Jake glanced over at his brother. Taylor was glaring at him, his face pale, his lips pressed together.
Haiwee’s words sank slowly into Jake’s heart, and he understood. We ran out on our dad. What we did to him was no better than what he did to us.
We left Mom when she needed us most. Now we’ve done the same to Dad, and it’s all my fault.
Jake crossed the room and knelt down by Taylor, who flinched away from him.
“Taylor, listen,” he whispered. “I know what you’re thinking. We’ll make it up to Dad.”
“You better,” he replied.
“I promise. But we have to get Mom first. We have to make sure she’s safe. Then we can make things right with Dad. Okay?”
Taylor bumped Jake’s offered fist.
“So when do we leave?”
13 Jake woke his brother before dawn the next morning. Taylor grunted once but didn’t complain, and the boys silently dressed and packed their gear, taking care to make as little noise as possible.
“Can’t we say good-bye to Kim and Haiwee?” Taylor whispered.
“No. Let them sleep. I wrote them a note.”
Taylor weighted the note down with the little bear that he’d carved. “I hope they like it,” he said.
The boys hoisted their packs and carried their snowshoes outside, closing the door softly behind them.
Above them the clouds had cleared, exposing a waxing moon that cast a dazzling light over the entire valley.
“Wow!” Taylor exclaimed. “It’s like daytime out here.”
“Shh,” Jake hissed. “It’s about twenty degrees colder than yesterday too. My toes hurt.”
They strapped on the snowshoes they’d repaired and took their first steps on the snow.
Suddenly the door opened behind them. Jake twisted around, heart fluttering, expecting to see Haiwee standing there. Instead it was Kim.
“Wow. Sneaking out before daylight. That’s low.”
Cody pranced up to her, wagging his tail.
“Uh, we didn’t want to wake you,” Taylor lied.
“Yeah, right,” said Kim. “You know the deal. I told you I was coming with you. Just give me five minutes to grab some stuff.”
Jake took a breath. “Kim, that’s a bad idea.”
“Oh really?” She cocked her head. “So maybe a better idea is for me to go tell my mom we’ve got two runaways in the house? She’ll be mad that I lied to her, I guess, but I could always say you threatened me.”
“You wouldn’t do that.”
“Try me.”
Kim shivered in the cold, and a puff of steam left her mouth. Jake had no idea what to do. She had him trapped.
So he told the truth.
“Kim . . . if you leave your mom now, you’ll regret it. I know it seems like the right thing to do. But you’ll just hurt her.”
“Good!” She barked a cold laugh. “Man, you are such a hypocrite, Jake. You left your dad, and you don’t regret it at all!”
“You’re wrong,” Jake said.
“What?”
“I do regret it. I wish we hadn’t done it.” He glanced over to Taylor. “I was stupid and impulsive, and I just wanted to teach him a lesson.”
Jake could see that that was exactly what Taylor had thought.
“But it’s too late for us. We’ve got to keep going. It’s not too late for you.”
Kim’s face sagged, and her eyes were wet. She impatiently rubbed them, then nodded.
“It’s not fair,” she said.
“I know.”
“You’re both on this big adventure, and I’m stuck here. Trapped in the dullest place on earth. I can’t stand it.”
“Believe me,” said Jake, “it’s not an adventure. It’s tough.”
“Yeah,” said Taylor. “And it’s scary. I mean, if you hadn’t been here, I might be dead now.”
Kim didn’t say anything for a moment. Then she said, “Will you send me a postcard at least?”
Taylor grinned. “You bet. I left you a little present inside.”
Kim pulled the carved wooden bear from her pocket and smiled. “I know. I found it. Thank you.” She took a deep shuddering breath and glanced at the sky. “You both better get out of here before my mom wakes up. Do you guys even know where you’re going?”
Jake searched the sky until he found Polaris. He pointed northeast. “I’m thinking that way.”
Kim stifled a giggle. “Well, you could. But you’ll have an easier time if you just walk down the valley here, like we went on the snowmobile yesterday. You can’t see it, but there’s a road there. Follow it down to Thermopolis.”
“Thanks.” Jake grinned. “For everything. We’ll see you again. I promise.”
“Go on, get out of here, you hobbits,” Kim said. She waved. “Good luck, Frodo and Sam.”
Walking in the snowshoes took some getting used to, but they quickly realized that they never would have made it out of the valley without them.
“Man, these things are great,” said Taylor. “There’s got to be three, four feet of snow on the ground, but it’s like we’re just gliding on top of it.”
“I wouldn’t call this gliding. Scooting maybe,” said Jake.
“Whatever. I’m just glad we have them.”
Unfortunately, they didn’t have snowshoes in Cody’s size. The terrier did his best to leap from one giant footstep to the next, but after a quarter mile Jake called a halt.
“What’s up?” Taylor asked, looking back.
Jake picked up Cody and placed him in the main compartment of Taylor’s backpack.
“Hey,” Taylor objected. “Why do I have to carry him?”
Jake grinned. “Consider it payback for almost getting yourself killed in an avalanche.”
“Very funny,” Taylor huffed, but Cody barked happily from the top of Taylor’s pack.
The boys continued moving quickly, trying to keep warm and cover as many miles as possible before Haiwee figured out they’d left. After about an hour they linked up with the road Kim had told them about and, without pausing, pushed east. As they trekked down a larger valley, they passed a few farms, framed by more spectacular mountains rising on either side of them. They heard the haunting hoots of a great horned owl and the frantic yips of a pack of coyotes from up in the mountains. Cody barked back at them.
As the moon began to fade in the dawn sky, the boys finally reached the highway. They walked for another mile before a rancher in a pickup truck stopped and gave them a lift into Thermopolis. As they sat shivering in the open bed of the pickup, Taylor spotted a billboard for a hot spring. Moments later they passed another billboard for a dinosaur museum.
“Hey, Jake, did you know Thermopolis had all this stuff?”
“No,” Jake said, “but the name should have been a clue, I guess.”
Dawn was just creeping over the town when the truck slowed to let the boys and Cody out. Jake asked if there was a diner open anywhere, and the rancher directed them to a café a few blocks away.
So far so good, Jake thought.
/> Sure enough, the café was already doing a brisk business when the boys reached it. When they tried to go in, though, the waitress stopped them.
“Sorry, boys, no dogs allowed.”
Taylor opened his mouth to protest, but the waitress’s hard stare told him it wasn’t going to happen. Reluctantly he studied the street and spotted a sign he could tie Cody to. “Okay, boy,” he whispered as he knelt down beside the terrier. “You stay here, okay? We’ll bring you a nice treat when we’re done.”
Cody whined.
“It’ll be okay,” Jake assured Cody. “We’ll be right back.”
The boys hurried inside and sat down on stools at the counter. Jake’s stomach rumbled as he looked over the menu. He tried to remember the last time either of them had eaten in a real restaurant. It must have been when we were with Sharon and she bought us meatloaf at that diner back in Nebraska.
Jake recalled with a twinge of regret how nice the trucker had been to them and Cody. She’d laugh if she could see them now, trekking all the way back to where they’d come from.
The boys didn’t order every item on the menu, but they got close: Denver omelets, hash browns, bacon, sausage, juice, and toast. Jake made notes in his journal as they stuffed themselves, and even ordered apple pie for dessert. As if on cue, Cody barked excitedly outside. Taylor bundled some food into a napkin for him.
Feeling stuffed to the gills, Jake called the waitress over and paid using some of Bull’s money. The waitress gave them a wry grin. “You’re sure you boys don’t want to order anything else? We still have a little food left back in the kitchen.”
“I’m stuffed,” Taylor said, beaming and wiping away flaky pastry from the side of his mouth.”
“Me too,” Jake said. “But there is one thing . . .”
“What’s that, hon?” the waitress leaned down to ask.
“Do you know if there are any buses to Riverton or Casper from here?”
The waitress frowned and pressed the end of her pencil into her chin. “There’s a Greyhound that stops out at the gas station on the highway,” she said, “but not till two p.m.”
Jake pursed his lips, considering it.
If we can just get to Riverton, he thought, we’ll be able to get a bus halfway across the country. It would sure beat trekking through snowdrifts.
The waitress added, “I know that’s hours until the bus gets here, but you boys could go take a dip in the hot springs while you wait.”
“Sounds good,” Taylor said.
Suddenly the waitress frowned, looking out the window.
“What’s up,” Jake asked.
“That dog of yours,” she started. “Wasn’t he just out there?”
Jake twisted his neck and looked out at the sidewalk, a feeling of dread stabbing his full stomach.
“Oh no . . . ,” Taylor began.
“Cody!”
14 Jake and Taylor grabbed their things and sprinted outside.
“Jake!” Taylor cried, frantically looking in all directions. “Where did he go? Do you see him?”
Jake didn’t reply, but his heart was in his throat. He quickly scanned up and down the street but didn’t see a trace of Cody anywhere.
“Oh, man!” Taylor cried. “We shouldn’t have left him out here alone, Jake! He probably got scared and wriggled his way free!”
Jake knelt down to the base of the sign and saw that the rope Taylor had used to tie up Cody still lay in the snow, intact.
“It looks like he got out of that loop you tied,” Jake said.
“What are we gonna do?” Taylor asked, pacing back and forth in the snow.
“What would Dad say if he was here?”
“He’d tell us not to panic.”
Jake nodded. “Right. So let’s calm down and use our heads.”
Taylor took a deep breath and began scanning the snowy ground. “Look,” he burst out. “Are those tracks?”
Jake and Taylor hurried to a spot a few feet away. The sidewalk hadn’t been cleared yet, and it was still covered by a thick layer of snow. The boys knelt down and, sure enough, found a fresh set of tiny dog tracks heading east—as clear as any deer trail snaking through a forest.
“That’s Cody,” Taylor exclaimed. “Let’s go!”
Hitching their packs as they walked, the boys quickly set off after the terrier. They didn’t bother putting on their snowshoes, as most of the slush had been shoveled away from the streets and sidewalks. Fortunately, enough snow remained for them to follow Cody’s footprints as they headed across a bridge that spanned the Bighorn River, and then turned north. Jogging now, the boys followed the tracks for another couple of blocks, until they passed a sign reading HOT SPRINGS STATE PARK.
Rising more than a hundred feet high to their right, a dramatic ridge of red rock stretched across the horizon. A few gnarled trees clung to the ridge, along with patches of sagebrush, but mostly it seemed barren and desolate, like the mountains around Kim and Haiwee’s place.
“Look at that!” Taylor exclaimed, pointing toward billowing clouds of steam rising up from the ground.
“Must be the hot springs,” said Jake.
The boys hurried over to a twenty-foot-high slimy lump of rock with water streaming down from the top of it.
“What the heck is this thing?” Taylor asked.
“I think the minerals from this hot springs built it up,” said Jake. “It’s all made from calcium or something like that.”
Taylor wrinkled his nose. “It stinks like rotten eggs.”
“Sulfur from the hot springs,” Jake explained. “Still want to swim in it?”
Taylor was about to answer, when instead he shouted, “Hey, Jake! There he is! Over there!”
Jake spun around to see Cody in the middle of a large group of kids gathered outside a building a hundred yards away. A sign next to the building read MUSEUM in giant letters, and two full-size motor coaches stood parked in the parking lot nearby.
“C’mon!” Taylor yelled, rushing toward the building. Jake ran after him.
When they reached the crowd, Taylor pushed his way through to Cody, who was wagging his tail and soaking up attention from a dozen students.
“There you are!” he cried, squatting down to wrap his arms around the dog.
Jake also made his way through the crowd, relief washing through him.
“You had us worried!” Jake good-naturedly scolded Cody, as he knelt down to pet him.
“Is this your dog?” a redheaded boy asked. A second, almost identical redhead stood next to him.
“Yeah,” Taylor said. “He decided to go exploring.”
“He’s cool,” said a girl with short brown hair and pink glasses.
“Yeah, he’s all right,” Jake muttered, rubbing Cody behind his ears.
“What are you guys doing here?” Taylor asked, straightening up while keeping an eye on Cody to make sure he didn’t take off again.
“We’re from Madison Junior High School. I’m Max, and this is my brother Marty,” Max told them.
“Let me guess,” Jake said, reading his Bulls sweatshirt. “Chicago?”
“Yeah,” said Marty. “We came out here to Casper for a band competition, then drove out here to Thermopolis for the dinosaur museum.”
“Did you win?” Taylor asked.
The girl with the pink glasses scrunched her nose. “No. Robby dropped his clarinet during our final number and then knocked his music stand over trying to pick it up.”
“It wasn’t his fault, Tess,” insisted one of the twins. “Lucy poked him in the butt with her trombone slide.”
Jake and Taylor laughed.
“So, what about you guys?” Tess asked.
Fortunately, before they answered, a portly woman with curly black hair stepped out of the museum building. “Okay, everyone, listen up! We’ve paid for all of you, so you can go in, but remember, we only have an hour before lunch, so don’t waste any time.”
Excited murmurs swept through the students,
and they began filing into the building.
“Well, thanks for catching our dog,” said Jake, turning away.
“Hey, do you want to come in with us?” Max asked.
“Yeah, Jake! Let’s do it!” Taylor said. “Our bus doesn’t leave for hours. C’mon, please?”
Jake hesitated. Was it really safe to leave Cody again?
“Please, Jake,” begged Taylor. “It’s a dinosaur museum!”
With Taylor, the twins, and Tess staring at him, Jake couldn’t say no. Besides, hanging out with a group of kids would help them blend in more.
“Just watch out for Mrs. Ratzlaf,” Marty warned him, pointing at the heavyset woman. “She’s a demon.”
Taylor tied Cody outside—more securely this time—and gave him the bundle of food from the diner. The two boys left their backpacks and snowshoes behind the ticket counter and did their best to blend in with the schoolkids pouring into the museum.
All around them stood incredible fossils and replicas of some of the most amazing animals ever to walk the earth. As the boys joined the class on the museum’s “Walk through Time” tour, Taylor started calling off names left and right, from allosaurs to T. rexes, velociraptors to Microraptors.
After hearing Taylor spit out another half dozen dinosaur species, Max and Marty grinned. “I guess you must be a superbrainiac,” Max said.
Taylor blushed. “Me, a brainiac? No way.”
“He’s just got a special thing about dinosaurs,” Jake explained to the twins.
Later, they paused at a special exhibit of Stone Age tools, and Max let out a whistle. “Man, I’m glad we don’t have to live like cavemen did.”
“Yeah,” Marty said. “It would have been a nightmare. Hunting for your food. No computers. No video games!”
Max laughed. “No breakfast cereal. Imagine getting up in the morning and you’ve got to go pull the guts out of a deer, or whatever.”
I don’t have to imagine it, Jake thought.
“You know, some people still live like that now,” Jake said.
“Really,” Marty said, confused. “That must suck.”
The Journey Home Page 8
