Free Lost at Running Brook Trail by Sheryl A. Keen Page B

into the impending darkness, but do you have to be so willful and hurtful? Do you feel good about the things you say?”
    “It’s only the truth.”
    “Ha!” Miriam cried. “Treating her like the average person who can be reasoned with will only make matters worse because she will not listen. Here, Susan, this sweater is yours.”
    She grabbed Kimberly’s sweater with a forlorn look. Kimberly was right. She was fat, but Susan knew that, and although this information was a known fact, it still stung. Kimberly had that ability to make whatever she said so raw that it became abrasive and poisonous.
    “So, Susan,” Elaine said, “you don’t have to sleep at the end, but since we only have two sweaters, it would be better if someone with a lot of heat sleeps at the end. But maybe you can give the sweater back to Kimberly and she can sleep at the end.”
    Miriam grunted. If Kimberly somehow got that sweater back, Miriam would be fuming. Miriam would rather see that sweater destroyed than in Kimberly’s hand. She felt like taking Elaine’s lighter and setting the thing on fire.
    “I’ll sleep at the end, but something must be at the door to keep animals out.” Susan decided that if they wanted her body heat, they would have to give her some protection.
    “There is no door,” Kimberly said.
    “Shut your face!” Miriam said. “We all know what she means.”
    “We’ll be all caved in,” Elaine said. “Let’s see what we can use; it’s getting dark.”
    “What about one of those rocks over there?” Miriam pointed a little ways off.
    “Too small,” Susan pointed out.
    “We could use more than one,” Elaine said. “The mouth of the cave doesn’t have to be covered all the way up, just as much as possible. Let’s just pick some stones that we can manage to roll over there.”
    They chose two stones. Both had a flattish side and had been chosen because of this. It looked like they could be stacked one on top of the other. Elaine and Kimberly got behind one, Miriam and Susan behind the other. Together they rolled and pushed the stones with the strength of fifteen-year-old girls. Their breathing became ragged with each push, but they managed to get the stones to the cave’s entrance. They put their bags inside the cave, knowing that once the stones were in place, they would be blocked in. One stone was rolled into the cave and the other placed directly in the entrance. They took turns climbing and clambering over this rock to get inside the cave. Once inside the semi-darkness of the cave, they had the task of getting the other stone on top of the one already at the mouth. This was harder than rolling the stones at intervals toward the cave and took all their concerted efforts to pull off. Where they found the energy they didn’t know, but after much heaving, they managed to build a suitable blockade. They had taken turns going into the bushes again with Elaine’s tissue because they knew it would be very difficult to get back out once the stones were put in place.
    A little more than half the entrance was blocked.
    “What about the top part?” Susan asked.
    “We can’t do anything about that and we can’t get back out, and even if we could, we wouldn’t be able to put another stone up there.” Elaine spun the wheel on the lighter and the water-formed stalagmites, barely visible drawings and their makeshift bed came into clearer view. The bed pulled them in, since there was nowhere else to go. And there they sat, trying to find comfort among branches with only their bags and themselves.
    “What now?” Susan asked.
    “I suggest we sit or lie in the position we’ll be sleeping in, so that if someone falls asleep, we’re all where we’re supposed to be. I’m already at my end.”
    They shuffled around in position, Susan now at her end and Miriam and Kimberly in the middle. Although the temperature had fallen outside, it wasn’t as cold inside as they had expected.
    “Now what?” Susan asked