camping

“I got it from Greta’s bag.  She’ll never notice it's missing, she had like forty in there.”  

“Noelia!!  No!  We can’t.”  Caro spoke in a hushed tone even though everyone was far enough away they wouldn’t hear us anyway.

“Ceci, don’t go off too far,” Noelia said, to which Ceci waved her off.

“Did you get a lighter?” I asked.

Noelia grinned, digging into her other pocket.  “Of course I did.”

“Lexi, stop being a bad influence.  Noelia, we can’t.  Ramon would kill us!  And Mateo!  We’d be toast.”

“Dude, Caro, you actually need the weed, because what the fuck.  Chill out.” 

 

I looked between the two of them, and glanced over at Ceci who was going off trail again, following some insect into the brush.  I coaxed her out, then looked at the cousins again.  “I’m down.  It’s just one joint.  Will barely impact us at all.”

And I was right… I’m not sure how high any of us actually got from that joint.  We probably wasted it a little.  Oops.  Sorry Greta. 

I mean, we still had fun, still giggled, still felt high.  Until we realized… it had been a minute since any of us had reminded Ceci to stay on the path.  And then we realized… Ceci was gone.

“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!”  That was Caro, of course.

“Relax, we’ll find her,” Noelia assured, seemingly calmer than any of us.  She called out for her sister, then we branched out, staying close enough to hear each other, but far enough to cover more area of the dense brush.  

My heart thudded in my chest, heat pulsing through my face but body cold with fear.  All of Mateo’s warnings rang through my head as we searched.  The wildlife warnings.  The lack of water during dry season.  The possibility that no one would ever find you because… no one comes here.

The thought made me pick up the pace a little more, putting all of my focus into my surroundings, looking for any signs of a human.  Then finally…

“I see her!!!”  That was Noelia.  “Ceci!!!  I’m coming!!!”  

I followed Noelia’s voice, meeting Caro as we watched Noelia take off.  We jogged behind her, but it was hot and I ran out of breath and gave up.  Noelia brought her sister back safe and sound.  

And then we had to figure out where the trail was.  Noelia had a good sense of direction and Caro was an outdoorsy person, so I trusted them to get us back safely while I had an arm around Ceci, reminding her of how much fun we had been having.  I tried to push away the guilty feelings and the nervousness because we were definitely later than we were supposed to be.  

“Remember the monkey?” I asked Ceci.

“Yeah!  Monkey!” she said, pointing at my camera screen and clapping.

“Was the monkey your favorite?”

“I wanna see jaguar.”

Yep, Ceci was back to normal.  No need for her to remember how scary it was to be lost and alone.  Truthfully, the guilt was eating me alive.

I huddled up with Caro and Noelia before we got back.  “So we just say we lost track of time and that’s it.  Minimal details.”

Caro shook her head.  “Ramon will know!  He’ll get the truth out of us.  We should just admit that we wandered off trail even though we weren’t supposed to and pray that he doesn’t question that further.”

Noelia rolled her eyes.  “You’re such a scaredy cat.  It’ll be fine to just tell him we lost track of time.”

“He won’t believe us!”

“I think Caro’s right… I mean… I think if we’re already admitting that we did something wrong, he’s less likely to question it.”

Now it was my turn to feel Noelia’s disagreement, but she backed down anyway.  “But don’t either of you dare tell him about the weed!”

We pinky promised.

After we got back to the campsite, everyone knew we were in trouble… mostly because it was almost night already and we were supposed to be back probably like an hour ago.  

“Where the hell have you been?” Ramon wanted to know.

“Mat!  Monkey!” Ceci said, immediately going to her brother and describing the epic photo I’d taken of a howler monkey and how it was up in the tree and looking at us.  My mission had been accomplished – getting her to think about something other than being lost.

“Don’t let her distract you.  Answer me.”

He was talking to us all, but I decided to answer.  “I kind of wandered off trail… wanted to get a good shot… they all followed me… and just ended up staying longer than planned…”

Ramon raised his eyebrows, unsure if he believed me, then looked at Caro and Noelia.  “You wandered off trail and stayed longer than planned.”

“Yeah that’s literally what I just said.”

He turned towards me with narrowed eyes that made my stomach drop to the ground.  I muttered a weak apology and glanced at my friends to let them help me out.

Noelia piped up first.  “We didn’t realize how far off trail we’d gone.  It was farther… and… yeah.”

Sigh.  Sometimes her bark is worse than her bite.

Unlike Ramon, who now calmly turned to Caro.  “Is that your story, too?”

She nodded carefully, knowing he expected a verbal confirmation that she didn’t want to give.  “It was hard to find our way back to the trail.”

“Mmm.”  That was it.  Just a 3 letter sound.