Chapter 3 - Someone Was Watching
Morning brought no relief.
Noah was hungry.
I split the granola bar.
He noticed my half was smaller.
“Take more.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“Dad.”
I smiled.
“Eat.”
We searched the clearing again.
That was when I found something I’d missed.
Fresh boot prints.
They hadn’t been there when we returned from the hike.
Someone had approached during the night.
Near the pine tree where the note had been nailed, I found a cigarette butt.
Still relatively fresh.
Neither of my parents smoked.
Neither did Melissa.
Troy did.
My stomach tightened.
Had he returned?
Had those headlights been his?
I followed the prints.
They disappeared near the road.
Then Noah called me.
“Dad!”
He was crouching near the flattened dirt where one cabin had stood.
He held something silver.
A small key.
I recognized it.
Troy’s trailer key.
Maybe accidentally dropped during the removal.
Maybe not.
Then Noah said:
“Uncle Troy was mad yesterday.”
“About what?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you hear something?”
He hesitated.
“Grandpa said Mom ruined everything.”
Claire.
“What exactly did he say?”
Noah concentrated.
“He said, ‘If Claire had kept her mouth shut, none of this would be happening.’”
My skin went cold.
Claire had been dead eighteen months.
Why were they discussing her?
“What else?”
“Aunt Melissa told him not to say her name around you.”
I sat down.
The weekend suddenly looked different.
The cabins.
The isolated location.
The missing supplies.
The note.
This wasn’t about teaching me independence.
Something had happened involving Claire.
May you like
Something my family believed I knew.
And perhaps they had abandoned Noah and me because they were frightened of what I might discover.
