Moon Light Memories

Chapter 22

     It first started with the birds. Then slowly the monkey’s and other animals came into the picture.

     I was lying on my side. My injured shoulder tucked tightly underneath my body. My entire body was buzzing. My head throbbed, and my arm was still numb. I opened one eye a crack. The sun was just getting ready to rise. I looked at Tristan. Sound asleep.

     I rolled onto my stomach; nudging Tristan while doing so. He stirred in his sleep but never woke up, and with my good arm, I pushed myself into a sitting position. Everyone was still asleep. As quietly as I could I stood up and walked away from the group. A was a few steps away when I turned and looked down at everyone. Sleep was when people were at their calmest, when they couldn’t pretend to be someone their not. I think that you learn more about a person if you watch how they sleep.

     My brother slept on his back, ready for anything that came his way. Carter slept on her side, in the fettle position, which made me thing of how scared she must be. Toby and Kyle slept like Tristan did, ready for anything. My gaze lowered onto Alyssa. She acted like she was never scared of anything, but from the way she was sleeping, it made me think that she wanted to disappear and not be seen. Be invisible.

     My stomach started to growl, and not one of those small quiet ones, it was loud and sounded like a bear. I turned away from everyone and made my way from camp, looking for something to eat.

     I stopped walking. The silence of the forest wrapped around me. But in the silence of the forest, there was also a small echo. I had a feeling someone was up and looking for me, so I turned back.

     When I reached camp, I saw Kyle looking in the opposite direction of me.

“Hey.” it rolled off of my tongue before I could stop it. He turned around and smiled.

     “I was looking for you.” He walked over to me and stopped a few feet from me. “Want to sit and talk?”

     I nodded and followed him. He was walking fast, I had trouble keeping pace with him, when he noticed, and he slowed down slightly, keeping pace with me, staying at my side the entire time.

     I stopped in front of a huge pine tree. The trunk was the size of a house and the top went straight up into the air where it didn’t seem to end. I leaned my back against the massive trunk and slide down to the ground. Kyle stood at my feet looking down at me.

     I motioned for him to sit but he declined. “How’ve you been?” he said after a long period of silence.

     “As good as good can be when we’re in a situation like this.”

     He nodded in understanding, shifting his weight from foot to foot his gaze sliding all over the place.

     “Do you have some place to be?” I asked jokingly.

     He shook his head. At last he sighed and spoke, “The last few days I have been driving myself insane going over in my head what happened; talking to Tristan and Alyssa, just trying to sort everything out. I was sure you were dead when I woke up and you weren’t there. When the house collapsed right before me and I told you to stay inside. I-I-I thought I killed you.” He leaned against the tree and sat down beside me, his big hand folding around my small hand. “Then you showed up here and I have never felt so relieved. I could look at Tristan without shame; I could look at Alyssa without knowing I killed her friend.”

     We were quiet, listening to the trees moving in the wind. The sun was coming up slowly, colouring the sky a warm pink.

     “You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself. Tristan would have understood. Ah hell, Tristan would have taken the blame for killing me. He’d say something like, ‘I owed it to Josh to watch out for her and I failed. Boo-hoo.’” We both started to laugh.