The Hike

"We're going to go on a long hike today!" said Christy enthusiastically, a ball cap on her head and khaki shorts coming down to the knees of her pale, unshaved legs. She was the ideal camp counselor. "We're going to get to see lots of amazing things, which I'll point out along the way! Just remember our number one rule: stay with the group!"

But Violet wasn't listening. She loved camp, sure, not because of the games and crafts and silly songs around the campfire (well, she did love the campfire itself, its beauty, its power, its warmth), but because she lived in the city with a stressed-out single mother and this was the only time she got to breathe clean air and see things like trees and wildlife and stars. It was all so different and wonderful! This was a place to escape--forget who she had to be at her low-budget school, at her apartment that always smelled like cigarette smoke and sounded like people fighting, on the street where she wasn't allowed to walk alone past dark. Here, she was a bird or an elf or a deer...

"Violet! Are you coming?" From a distance, Christy was trying to hide her annoyance that Violet hadn't been listening again. She clearly had some attention issues, and Christy felt like she was constantly trying to keep Violet involved. She was quiet, not loud and disruptive, but Christy's job was to keep all the kids safe, happy, and active, and Violet rarely wanted to participate in any activities and still hadn't made any friends in the three days she'd been at camp. Christy was trying to keep an eye out for signs of abuse, just in case, but she had seven other girls in her cabin to worry about too, and Violet couldn't always be her number one priority. Why did kids always need so much individual attention?

Violet said nothing but ran to catch up with the group, staying at the back of the group. Passing through the tree line, she found herself immediately in a wonderland of trees, miscellaneous smaller plants, bugs, dead leaves, sticks. Every now and then she would see animal tracks; or cross a stream; or hear an animal through the trees, but it was usually just a squirrel.

***
Violet's mother, Shannon, rubbed her eyes. She was taking a fifteen-minute smoke break, then it was back to the cash register. How was Violet liking camp? Shannon should write her a letter. Let her know she was thinking of her, let her know that she was missing absolutely nothing fantastic here at home. But even if she could find an envelope and a stamp, or even a piece of paper, that was no guarantee she'd have the time or energy to sit down and do it with Violet's three other siblings at home. Well, it was a blessing that Violet was able to go to camp at all. Between the money Shannon had saved and the scholarship they'd been offered, Violet had been able to go for her second year this year. She'd absolutely loved it last year, so Shannon could only assume she was having a good time again.

Four hours later, Shannon was thinking about how it was a good thing her shift would end in ten minutes because her stomach had just growled. She felt her phone buzz in her pocket, but of course she didn't answer it; she was checking people out, scanning item after item. But her phone rang again and again, and eventually she decided to just leave a few minutes early, so she turned off her register light and put the "NEXT CHECKOUT LANE PLEASE" sign on her conveyer belt.

Unknown number. "Hello?"
"Hi- uh, Shannon? Violet's mother?"
"Yes. Who is this."
"Hi, uh, well, this is the director of the camp where you're daughter's staying. We're afraid, um, Violet's lost in the woods somewhere. We're sending in a squad. I'm sure she's perfectly safe. We're doing everything we can to find her. Anyway, I just wanted to inform you. You can come down here if you want."
Shannon stood there for a moment, stunned, then rapidly hung up and dialed the babysitter's number.

***
Violet was bending over an inchworm on a leaf when she realized she was all alone. First she panicked--this was against the rules! She was supposed to stay with her group! Then she felt relief. Well, more of a sense of freedom. Yes, freedom was definitely the right word. She giggled, stood up straight, and danced in the dead leaves--then giggled some more at the sound they made under her feet. She could live here! She could eat berries and sleep on tree branches and be like the female version of Tarzan! She started to run. It was the most wonderful run ever--she wasn't running in gym class, she wasn't running home. She was running through the woods, with nowhere to go and no one to answer to!

In her glee, Violet started singing nonsensically, some cross between how she heard birds sing and how she thought Tarzan probably sings as he swings through the forest on vines. She stopped to take a breath when she heard voices. Male voices. They were yelling in the distant, and they sounded serious. Violet suddenly realized that they were looking for her.

Violet wouldn't run or hide. She would let them find her. She would go back to the city and live with her mother and siblings. She would breathe in smoke and smog and see very few living things, which didn't include the lifeless, dull, tired people she saw on the street every day.

But she had discovered, at only nine years of age, a connection to the wilderness that she could not ignore. She would come back... someday. She would be free.


God bless.