fire watch - episode 003 - The Delilah fire mystery

part 18 The hike

A few days later, it was day 47.
Delilah woke up first and decided she wanted to do something that day. She went below into the basement grabbing 2 tins of sliced pineapples and a bottle of orange juice from her supplies. She went back upstairs packing up her bag with stuff to go on a hike she then put in the food, a bowl, a spoon, a cup and a tin opener. Delilah then grabbed all her pencils and paper. Delilah put her bag on then went over to Tom's area, who was still asleep. She woke him up "hey dad?" he opened his eyes rolling over facing her "morning Monkey, everything alright?" "Yeah, I just thought you should know I'm going out for a hike and I might not be back until dark, so don't freak out if I don't come back" "what will you be doing?" "I'll just be drawing near the lake and possibly at the start of the river and waterfall, that would be cool to draw" "alright monkey, have fun and be careful" "I will" "and remember, that it could be dangerous, take the radio and if anything dangerous like bears and wolves come radio, and I'll help" "thanks dad" she kissed him on the forehead grabbed the radio off the desk which would be able to radio the main radio console. She then slung her bag over her shoulder leaving.
She walked for about an hour.
Eventually she got to a cash box entering the code 1-2-3-4 finding some rope, map details and an old comic which she planned to read because it seemed pretty cool. She continued walking through the forest until she arrived at the beautiful waterfall which of course caused the river going down to the lake, or in Delilah's eyes the perfect place to draw a picture and be with nature for a while. Delilah sat down beginning to draw. She decided to draw in some birds which weren't actually there because it turned out that drawing birds in midair was really difficult they just kept moving around. She got out her phone and her ear buds listening too her favourite songs she only had one ear bud in because she had to listen for bears, wolves or any other animal around her.
After a few hours of drawing.
Her art was about half way done, and she started hearing movement above her, but she thought it was just deer or raccoons so didn't think much of it. Suddenly she started hearing footsteps and even more concerning whistling coming from above her, she thought it could have been that man again. Delilah turned, she put her paper and pencils on the log she was sitting on and looked around, she heard the whistling from above her on the cliff. Rocks fell down on her from the person walking on the edge of the cliff "err, hello, who is there?" yelled Delilah "are you friend or foe? I'm really hoping on friend on this one" she heard the whistling stop and footsteps move closer to the edge of the cliff. Oswin poked her head over the edge of the rocks looking down at Delilah allowing her hair to fall past her face Delilah shouted out to her "hey, Oswin?" she waved down at her "hey Delilah, what's up? Hold on I'll come down!" she walked down the cliff getting to her about 5 minutes later "hey, what are you doing out here?" "Nothing much, I'm just drawing, want to sit down?" Oswin sat down next to her "thanks, I've just been hiking around and decided to go to my tower for some food and drink" Delilah grabbed her bag "no need I have some stuff" "wait, what?" "I have some food and drink in here" "you don't have to do that" "it's no trouble" "thank you" Delilah got the 2 tins from her bag giving Oswin the bowl "you can have the bowl I'll just eat it out the tin" "thanks you're a life savour" "thank you" they sat eating together discussing how beautiful the lake and river were to draw.
After a few minutes of talking.
Delilah asked "you want some orange juice?" "Yes, please" Delilah got out the orange juice "you can have the cup, I'll just drink it out the bottle" Oswin nodded smiled "thank you. How long have you been out here for?" Delilah took a sip of her juice "about 5 hours, I've just been drawing and thinking of book ideas, it's easier in nature" "Can I see?" Delilah grabbed her drawing showing Oswin "whoa, that's amazing, have you ever thought of being an artist" "well kind of, I've always wanted to do comic strips, like I'd write it out then draw it, putting two talents I guess or skills together" "yeah you would be great at it, you should join a university the forest service can help you with that" "yeah, well I have signed up for evening school again, and if I do well I'll be going to university which is pretty exciting" Oswin smiled "good, have you been in evening school before?" "Yeah, but then my mum got... she got sick, and I had to leave because it was just" Oswin cut her off "it's alright I understand, you don't have to explain yourself, everyone would understand" they then sat talking for a while about what Delilah wanted to do in the future and Oswin said she wanted to help "have you ever written and published a book before?" "Well I once slammed my head down on my keyboard and wrote the whole twilight series other than that no" Oswin laughed "that's fair" she stood up "alright I've got to go, but this has been really nice" "thanks" "I am a little worried about something... when I go to university my dad is going to be alone, and that scares me a little" Oswin smiled "don't worry Delilah, your dad is coming out here next year, I'll take care of him, I promise you that" she smiled "thanks, that actually makes me feel better" "good, glad I would help" Oswin then left towards her tower.
Delilah finished her drawing.
It took her a few hours however she did it. She packed up all her pencils and placed the drawing in a sleeve, so it wouldn't be damaged on the way back. Delilah then started hiking back to the tower seeing it was getting dark, so she thought she might see the guy again however she didn't. After an hour she got back to the tower seeing Tom reading a book. He turned to her as she entered putting her bags down and stretching after a long day "hey how was it?" she smiled sitting on the bed "it went really well, I sat at the most perfect place, genuinely couldn't be a better if nature tried" she removed the drawing from her bag taking off the protective sleeve. Tom went over to it "whoa, that is really cool, well done" "thank you. I've been considering doing a weird type of art with coffee recently" "what do you mean?" "Basically what I'm going to do is get a piece of paper and splash coffee in the middle to make the middle brown then start drawing trees and mountains around it, so in the end it kind of makes what looks like a sunset, but the sun setting is actually just a coffee stain" "that is so awesome. I remember when you were in high-school, and you did that art project that I thought was just so cool" Delilah smiled nodding "yeah the judges didn't, but hey, what you gonna do?" "They were cool though, you used the frame and the glass in the art, I think one of them was a man digging out the drawing, and you got a hammer and nail and literally broke the frame like he was digging out the picture" Delilah nodded "I think my favourite was the shoes, with actual shoe laces going out the frame which is pretty interesting" "I still think the judgers were stupid because it was so cool to me" "yeah, maybe I was just ahead of trends like other artists" "no, in my mind being an artist is creating something original and something that stands out from everyone else which was what you did" "yeah, that's true, I do hope to do that when I'm in university just to see what they say"
Delilah started making their dinner.
As she did, she said "oh I met Oswin while I was out, she was pretty cool" Tom nodded "cool, what did you guys talk about?" "Me going to university next year, I feel a lot better about it now" "why is that?" "I said I was worried about leaving you all alone however like she said she is here, and you can talk to her and not be alone" Tom nodded "yeah, also you shouldn't be worried about me, I can take care of myself" "I know, I just wanted to make sure that you would be okay" "even if I were alone out here, I wouldn't allow you to put your future on hold for me, you have to think about what's most important and that's your future" "thanks dad, it's just I already lost mum... I can't lose you as well, I want to spend time with you" "that makes sense, the stuff you learn in school is permanent I am not, one day I will pass, and when I do, I want to make sure that you will be okay, if you go to university, and you learn and find what you want to do, I'll know that when I'm gone you'll be okay" Delilah nodded "don't worry when you eventually pass, you don't need to worry I know what I'm doing, and I'll be okay" they ate their dinner then went to sleep. Delilah felt weird like someone was watching her.