Child Z

Chapter 9

“He should be back by now.” said Kyle tossing a rock violently into the stream.

They had been sitting by the river at the entrance of the outlet for about a couple hours. The others had set up a mini camp a couple yards away where they had made a crackling fire to dry their shoes and some of their wet clothes. “Maybe they’re having trouble.” said Tinsley walking along the shore looking for strange objects; she had already collected a rock that was shaped like Texas and a Quarter with “help” written on the back in permanent black marker.

“Yea, maybe.” said Kyle picking up another rock.

Tinsley glanced at him “Why are you so angry?” she said picking up a rock that was shaped like a tree.

Kyle was silent for a wile. Tinsley looked down at him and cocked her head, she smiled. Kyle sighed and threw another rock into the stream. “He’s my cousin.” he said.

Tinsley put her items in her backpack and frowned. “Who?”

“David.” he said.

Tinsley went up to him and patted his head. Flattening his spikes. “Don’t worry I’m sure he’ll be fine, He has a gun anyway and he knows what he’s doing.”

Kyle shook his head. “You don’t understand, he was like a brother to me, we’ve been together since we were kids.”

Tinsley sat next to him and grinned and looked up at the sky. “You still are a kid.”

Kyle looked at her his eyes filling with tears “Don’t you get it!? He could be dead!”

Tinsley just stared at the trees “I love fall don’t you?”

Kyle wiped away his tears furiously and propped his elbows up on his knees then cupped his chin between his hands frowning.

Tinsley leaned back and placing her hands back behind her burying her palms in the dirt and tilted her head to look at him sideways. “Sheesh, calm down, I’m sure he’s fine ok? You just gotta, you know, stay positive.”

Kyle stared ahead. “How can I stay positive when my last living relative that I know of might be dead?”

Tinsley looked ahead again and shrugged “hmmm I don’t really know.” She then sat back up and grabbed her backpack that was sitting beside her, opened it and took out a rubix cube. “You know I’ve never been able to finish one of these.”

Kyle wiped away a tear and ignored her.

Tinsley looked at him, expressionless and put the cube on his head flattening his spikes. “I had an aunt once whose husband was very sick and in the hospital.”

Kyle stared straight ahead but Tinsley could tell he was listening. When the rubix cube fell off Tinsley picked it up and put it on his head again then continued “She was so worried that he wouldn’t get better and that he would die, she became depressed, and refused to see anyone about it and her life continued to be miserable.”

Kyle stared ahead. This time Tinsley took the cube off his head and looked at it and sighed “So then one day the husband went into a sudden coma and my aunt was so depressed that she though he had died and decided to kill herself so they could be together again.”

Kyle looked at her and frowned “I’m not going to kill myself just because I think my cousin might be dead.”

Tinsley ginned “I knooow” she said then looked ahead at the stream “The point is that, you shouldn’t be worried all the time, cause then you might be miserable your whole life because you spent it worrying.”

Kyle looked ahead again expressionless. Tinsley sighed and was silent then put the rubix cube in to her backpack. They were both silent for awhile then Kyle broke the silence. “Was that true?”