>>2206965“You don’t even have a swimsuit,” Erika observed.
“Like I said, I think I’m ready now.”
Everyone approved of the idea, except for me, but it was soon established that I didn’t have a say in the matter. The group thought we would have to get out to the camp road and then go up the hiking road to arrive; but I told them I had no problem smelling where the water was; I could guide them if their mind was already set on going.
I asked how they found me, since I didn’t remember leaving obvious traces of my presence. They briefed me on the details.
Lisa first panicked when I ran into the forest and called Erika, who was heading to the cafeteria with a friend. As they recounted the story, they avoided telling me what the crowd had to say about what happened.
“Useful idiots have drawn their own conclusions and they serve us well. You will see what I mean soon enough,” was all that Medea allowed me to hear.
Back to their heroic epic, Erika and Lisa kept calling my phone until they found it; they got it down by hurling stones and then pulling my pants with a long branch, tearing it in the process. Erika then called every contact she had in camp to ask if they had seen me; Lisa meanwhile called Medea and Carmen, both of whom decided to join the search.
It was a fairly wide area of nearly a squared mile, but instead of splitting up calling for me and thrusting I would be able to hear them, by Medea’s initiative they stuck together and just followed the signs. The hole I had dug, the tree I had scratched, the strands of black hair I had left when rubbing against a tree – my tree, mine –; the group was very impressed with Medea’s keen perception to notice all of that.
