Baby Face Monster's Arc

Chapter 4 of 5

Ellie closed her notebook. She looked at the cane in his hands, then up at his face. "Take me there," she said. "To the camp. I need to see it." He had known she would ask. He had dreaded it since the first day. He nodded once and started walking. He kept the cane in front of him and matched his steps to its tap on the ground. It slowed him down. That was the point. A grown man did not run ahead of a woman through the trees. The ridge trail took an hour. He did not talk much. He named a fork her father had liked. He pointed out a stump where the man had eaten lunch. He used the cane to point, not his finger. Ellie walked behind him and wrote things down. They came through a stand of thin pines and the camp was there. He stopped at the edge. The tent still stood, but it was wrong. The canvas was torn in long strips down one side. Patches hung loose. Papers lay scattered in the dirt, curled and stained by rain. A shirt hung from a branch, bleached grey by years of sun. A tin cup lay on its side by a black ring of old fire stones. Animals had been through everything. Small bones and scat marked the ground. Ellie stopped beside him. She did not speak. "He never came back for it," Baby Face Monster said. He kept his voice low and even. He kept both hands on the cane. "I told you he left. I thought he left." Ellie walked forward. She knelt by the papers. She picked one up, then another. Her hand started to shake. She set them down. She went to the tent. She pulled back the torn flap. He watched her shoulders. He watched them lock. She stayed inside a long time. When she came out, her face was wet and her mouth was closed hard. She walked past him to the fire ring and sat down in the dirt. "How long," she said. "Years," he said. "I don't know how many. I never came up here after that first week. I thought he had gone home to you." "You said he left." "He said he was leaving. He packed in the morning. I went back to the cave." He tightened his grip on the wood. "I should have checked. I'm sorry." Ellie put her hands over her face. She cried without sound. He did not go to her. He did not know if she wanted him near. He stood where he was and held the cane straight and waited, the way her father used to wait when someone needed a minute. After a while she lowered her hands. She looked at him across the dead fire. "Help me bury him," she said. "Yes," he said.