The Travelers of the Tree

Epilogue

One week later, Tommy set out on another mission, this one in some ways more dangerous than the one that he had recently undertaken. After several days of agonizing indecision, he decided to go to Katy's house and tell her how he felt about her. He didn't care that she had forgotten who he was. He hoped that if he could share his feelings with her, and tell her stories about things that they had done, maybe some of her memory would come back.

It had been a long week. The news of Katy's return had turned the town inside out. Of course, the mystery behind it only made it a bigger story. It went national. Even the tabloids had each run their front page stories of how she had been abducted by aliens, or had belonged to a secret cult.

Tommy's grandmother had spoiled him, because she considered him a hero.

"Imagine the coincidence of finding her on your first camping trip," she had said. Tommy had tried to shrug it off, but he couldn't resist the French toast that she made for him every day.

Katy's parents had offered the three boys the reward that they had posted for her safe return. They had each refused. When Mitch found out that Matt hadn't taken the money, he almost threw him out of the house. Mitch hadn't even called the police when Matt was gone for five days. He had just assumed that Matt was sleeping over a friend's house. Or he really hadn't cared.

Tommy had wanted to talk to Katy the entire week, but something always stopped him from calling her. He hadn't known what to say, and he was afraid that he would say the wrong thing. When he had worked up the nerve to go to her house, he had practiced what he would say about a hundred times in front of his bathroom mirror.

As he walked into the park, he got an eerie feeling. He hadn't been there since he had walked out of it with the others one week before. He half expected to run into a Grunt with every turn that he made. He started walking up the path that had the big tree. When he came around the turn that led to the tree, he saw someone walking ahead of him. He recognized him immediately as Matt.

Tommy started to call out to Matt, but stopped himself when he realized that someone was walking next to him. He peeked around a bush to get a better view. It was Katy. She was holding Matt's hand. A small burning sensation started in Tommy's stomach. He stayed where he was as he watched them reach the opening where the big tree was.

Matt stopped, and Katy, still holding his hand, took the other one. From where they were standing, Katy's face was now turned towards Tommy, but she couldn't see him because he was hidden by the bush. Her face was more beautiful than Tommy had ever remembered.

Katy laughed. Then Matt put his hand around the back of her neck and pulled his face to his. They kissed.

The burning sensation in Tommy's gut grew until it threatened to make him yell out. Instead, he turned around and started running the other way. Warm tears started to fall down his cheeks. Just when he had found his precious Katy, he had lost her again. He tried to put the image of Matt and Katy kissing out of his mind, but he couldn't. He ran home, and opened the front door. He ran upstairs to his room, and sat down on his bed, with his head in his hands. His grandma came to the foot of the stairs.

"Tommy, why did you run off like that, without answering me?" Tommy composed himself.

"What do you mean, Grandma?"

"You were leaving through the back door, and I called to you, but you just ran away. Just because you're a hero doesn't mean you're to cool to talk to your grandma." Tommy heard her go back to her seat in the living room.

Tommy was confused. He had walked out his front door, and he hadn't heard his grandma calling him. Then he noticed the yellowish paper that was on his pillow. He picked it up. It was a note.

Tommy,

Did you really think that you could betray me and return to your little life without me? No one does what you did and gets away with it. I offered you the world, and you spit in my face. You will regret that Tommy. I will make you pay.

The note wasn't signed, but Tommy didn't need it to be to know that it was Ramsey. Tommy sat back on the bed and sighed.

It seemed as if both of the worlds that he now knew of were crashing down on top of him. He lay back on the bed and closed his eyes. He knew that whatever he dreamed, it couldn't compare with what had become his reality.