WayFinder (The Fool's Journey)

Chapter 11: Falling Together

As I walked back through the forest, I realized that I had gone way farther than I initially thought. I moved quickly since the rain had begun coming down much harder. My combat boots sloshed and slid over the gravel and pine covered trail. When I finally rounded the corner of the path I saw that everyone had run to their cars in an effort to escape the downpour. A little bit of guilt creeped into my consciousness but I allowed it to be transmuted by the everpresent vibrations. I had needed that time to adjust to the energetic shift, but now that I was back within the physical experience, I would move quickly to make sure we were all comfortable in our new home before nightfall. With a plan mapped out in my head, I dashed over and unlocked my trailer so I could begin pulling out needed bins and bags of necessities. 

“Need any help?”

I turned to find Daniel leaning against the trailer door; water poured through his brown curls causing him to squint. I hadn’t even heard his approach over the movement of plastic bins.

“Those bins and bags under the pine tree there,” I indicated with a point of my index finger, “Can you put all of those in the first room to the left of the tunnel?”

“Done,” Daniel nodded. 

He said nothing else as he worked to carry stacked bins into the cave. I was grateful. I still hadn’t quite worked out what I would say to them. As I moved to the left of the trailer to grab the rest of the bags of blankets, I heard car doors slam next to my trailer.

“Where do these need to go?” 

I turned back around to see that Jace, and everyone else, was getting outside of their cars to assist with bringing things in. Even Evelyn and Andrea had on their coats, ready to work in the rain. Before long I was tossing things out to waiting hands and directing them on where to put what. The afternoon went by in a blur as we all worked together.

When I had gotten at least half the trailer emptied, I took a breath. Most of what was left could wait until the next day. Especially the heavier fridges and freezers. I really wanted to go back in the caves and familiarize myself with the space. I already had an idea of where most of it would go, but some of the pieces of furniture were larger than I remembered. After I locked up the trailer I made my way back to the cave entrance and ran into Jessie on the way.

“Is that it?” she asked, relief evident in her tone.

I laughed, “For today. I feel like we’ve done enough work and so the rest can wait.”

Jessie groaned playfully as she walked by my side towards the main tunnel, “It is absolutely packed in there. I figured you had quite a bit in that trailer of yours but I never guessed it would be of these proportions.”

“Oh that’s only half the trailer,” I winked.

At first she laughed, but then her eyes went wide when she realized I wasn't kidding.

“I really wanna know how you managed to pack so much in so little time,” Jessie frowned.

I barely heard her question as I stepped through Daniel’s well hung door into the main tunnel. 

“Oh wow!” I breathed.

“I kinda wanted to surprise you. I mean, I know they were yours anyway and you already knew what the caves looked like before any of us but-” I stopped Jessie with a silencing hand.

The caves had been transformed while I spent most of the afternoon in the trailer. Jessie had already set up many of the stick-on L.E.D lights I'd looted weeks prior. They lit the caverns and main tunnel with a warm welcoming glow that reminded me of Portland's grotto at night, and they had great battery life.