Lost and Found.6 (c2009)

Mariah met Sam for lunch in the drab, concrete cafeteria. Mariah rolled up 4 strips of tape and placed the photo in her sketchbook. Sam wrote a little poem underneath the picture.

Roses are red, violets are blue
Our friendship will always be true.
Stay sweet, stay kind, keep me in mind,
When you want something fun to do.
Thanks for being such a good friend. Next time you will get the lead in the play and I'll be cheering you on!
Samantha

The girls parted company, jubilant. Mariah hiked up to the second floor for her sixth period science and Sam went gliding down the south hallway to dance class. After eighth period, the girls met at their lockers, which happened to be a few paces away from each other on opposite sides of the hall. Sam showed Mariah where she had posted the duplicate of the photo of them at the pizzaria. It was prominently taped above Sam's treasured photo of Rob Pattinson on the inside of the locker door.

"Wow, " Mariah breathed in awe, "You taped it above Rob? You must think highly of me!" she cooed.

"Of course, my darling! You are my best friend and when Robbie and I are finally married he will have to respect that sacred relationship. Do notice however, that there are eight pictures of him and only one of you. He is divine!" swooned Samantha.

"You poor girl, " Mariah said. " You are never going to marry Rob Pattinson! He is a movie star and you are a featherhead!"

"He doesn't know it yet but someday he will make me his Hollywood diva." Samantha stared at Mariah very seriously. "I will have him, or no one will!"

The girls broke out in raucous laughter. Mariah glanced at her watch. "I have to check the Lost and Found for my water bottle before Mr. Crane shows up. Come with me, okay?" She and Sam waded through a sea of people towards the adjacent building. When they arrived at the Lost and Found corner they found a mountain of hoodies, shoes, water bottles, and lunch bags. None of the water bottles was hers. "Dang, I don't see it."

"Where did you leave it, you think?" asked Sam.

"I thought I left it in the Library this morning. I forgot to check during lunch. Double dang, my ride is probably here," sighed Mariah looking at her watch again "Call me tonight, Sam!" hollered Mariah as she rushed away to the carpool line. Mr. Crane, Gareth's dad, was driving them home today and he hated dilly-dallying. Sam waved to her friend and gave her the thumbs up sign, then signaled the number 9. "I'll call at nine! Is that okay?"

Mariah held up two thumbs. She then hurried to the carpool line and climbed into the backseat of Mr. Crane's Ford Explorer.

"Good afternoon, Mariah." Said Mr. Crane.

"Hello, Mr. Crane." Mariah replied.

"Have you seen Gareth and Aaron? They are late today. Rob was picked up early by his mother so we're just waiting on those two."

"No, I haven't seen them, sir. We don't really hang out, you know."

"Well, I have to get home early tonight to pack for a very important business trip and those boys know I'm in a hurry today," he grumbled. Suddenly the boys came crashing around the corner, book bags flying in all directions.

"Sorry dad! Coach Twill wanted to let me know that I would be starting tomorrow in the scrimmage and he was giving me a couple of pointers. We told him we were in a hurry but he was really focused on this game tomorrow." Gareth stood straight and serious in front of his father.

"Gareth, I thought summer ball didn't start till mid-June?"

"This is only a scrimmage. Coach wants to see us run a few more plays before the last day of school. He's really serious about football!"

"Well, hop in then. I've got a lot to do tonight to get ready for this trip to Cincinnati tomorrow."

The boys clumsily piled in, jostling Mariah and making her drop her pen. A soft sigh slipped from her lips as she retrieved the pen from the floor. As the boys settled, Mariah began a to-do list and then she watched the scenery stream by.

1. 9pm Sam/phone call.
2. Letter to Nick?
3. Write in dream journal.
4. Jeopardy at 5:30
5. ?

After dinner that evening Mariah decided to first reread the most recent letter from Nick. She smiled at the scrawled address on the envelope. Nick had always had terrible handwriting. Mercifully, he always typed his letters. He was studying biology at the university. Mariah had no trouble envisioning him in the field, the cargo pockets of his khaki shorts filled with stones, bones, or soil. She hoped that he planned on being a wildlife biologist, some profession that would feed his need to connect with the outdoors.

Mariah and Nick had only had one fight in their childhood. Perhaps that is because by the time Mariah was old enough to really fight with him, he was already preoccupied with adolescence, and all the baggage it brings along. Nick turned out to be a very unassumingly protective sibling. He didn't fight her battles for her, but she knew he was always ready to if she asked. Mariah never asked. She came to enjoy the feeling of confidence and self-sufficiency that grew out of their relationship.

When Mariah was nine, the family enjoyed their last camping trip together. They drove 4 hours to one of their favorite spots, a seldom - visited trail near the Tarryalls. A two-mile hike brought them to a broad, meandering meadow ringed by fluttering aspens and blanketed in spots by tall grasses where passing herds of deer would bed down at night when no people were around. Mariah and Nick raced to see who could get out their hammock the quickest. The early afternoon sun threw crisp shadows on the valley as cottony high country clouds drifted through the runaway blue sky. The day was perfect for lazing in a hammock, listening to the winds play through the pines and over the granite boulders. Renee and Tony dumped their packs and meandered towards the beckoning stream on the far edge of the meadow. Nick unearthed his hammock first and stuck his tongue out at Mariah, who was still struggling with the badly packed layers to locate her hammock. Nick was whistling as he strung the second tree and as he plopped into his sky-bed, Mariah yelped, her hand still immersed in her pack.

"Stupid fork! Where the snap is my hammock?" She angrily started pulling every item out and throwing it on the ground.

"Quiet down there, Sparky. I'm trying to take a nap. Go disturb nature somewhere else." Nick playfully pulled his cap down over his eyes and pretended to snore. Mariah was beside herself as she reached the bottom of the last compartment and her hammock was nowhere in sight.

"I had to have packed it! This is ridiculous. You brought it out to the tarp as we were getting everything together and I packed it."

"I didn't bring yours to the tarp. You can get your own equipment. I'm not your slave." Nick didn't even bother to look at her. Mariah started to feel a ball of hot anger well up in her bellybutton. She asked him to do her a favor and he blew her off. She would have no hammock for the next three days thanks to him. She was stuck sitting on rocks and sleeping on uneven ground. She looked at her dirt-covered clothes that were strewn around the campsite and she hated her brother in that instant. As he lay unsuspecting in his suspended bed, she calmly walked over and grabbed hold of one side of the hammock and sunk all of her weight into it. Then, springing up, she spun Nick right out of the hammock on to the grasses below. It was not a gentle landing but the thick grasses cushioned his fall. He yelled and lurched for a nearby pile of dirt, grabbing a handful and flinging it in Mariah's direction.

She swiveled and covered her face, but not before a few grains ended up in her eye. She crumpled to the ground, weeping with frustration and pain. She heard her parents hollering from across the meadow, the sounds of their voices getting louder as they approached. When she could finally open her eyes, her mother was at her side, holding a cold wet washcloth. Mariah felt the sting recede as she pressed the cloth to her face. She sat back and laid her head in her mother's lap. Renee began to hum softly and she stroked Mariah's windblown hair. After a few calm minutes, Mariah sat up. She looked around the meadow but there was no sign of Nick or her father.

"Where did they go?"

"They took a walk up to the waterfall " said Renee.

"Without us? He's always doing that! Leaving me in the dust!" Mariah grabbed the nearest rock she could reach and lobbed it at the empty hammock, missing it by several feet.

"Mariah," reprimanded Renee, " your brother is not deliberately trying to leave you behind. It's just that, well, he's a grumpy teenager. He's growing up and that means he needs space and needs..."

Mariah cut her off, "He needs to abuse people and make them feel inferior." She sprang to her feet and took long strides away from Renee towards the stream. Renee sighed heavily but did not try and stop her. "I hope the whole weekend isn't like this," thought Renee wistfully.

Mariah sat by the stream for an hour or so. By then she had sufficiently cooled off enough to help Renee set up the rest of camp, though they worked in silence. At dusk, Tony sauntered into camp using a strong aspen bough as a walking stick. Mariah waited for her brother to appear. He didn't emerge from the thicket.

Renee and Tony talked in hushed tones, too low for Mariah to hear. Renee went about boiling water for dinner and Tony climbed inside the tent to retrieve his camp shoes. Mariah could hear him unlacing his boots and the sound of them thudding to the ground was amplified by the quiet in the valley. Mariah correctly figured that Nick must have been still angry and decided to not come back to camp right away. She felt herself blush with a renewed anger and she marched over to his hammock and climbed right in.

Mariah ate her soup in silence while Renee and Tony told each other stories that they had heard a hundred times before but somehow they sounded fresh and brightened the darkening evening. As the sky turned amber, then deep blue, then a purplish black, millions of stars gradually appeared. Mariah took great pleasure in keeping her eyes focused on one spot in space and counting the stars as they magically appeared. That moment when a star became visible gave a little thrill to Mariah and she never lost her wonder for it. Even in the harder times as she got older, when she didn't feel like looking into the sky, Mariah gained an ounce of courage and comfort from knowing that the Milky Way was right there, just beyond her capacity to see it, all the time.

Later, Mariah woke up, still in the hammock, cold from the chill air. Her sleeping bag had been loosely draped over her. She realized that her brother was on the ground about a yard away, nestled in his bag. She gently whispered his name, half hoping that he was awake and half hoping that he slept soundly.

"Nick?" Mariah suddenly felt very guilty about hurling her brother and then stealing his hammock.

"I'm awake." Nick's voice was soft and serene.

"Are you still mad at me? I'm sorry about dumping you. You're not responsible for double checking my pack." After a moment of silence Mariah added, "You can have your hammock back. Thanks for letting me catnap."

"S'okay. I was kind of shocked that you stood up for yourself so boldly. Makes a big brother proud. Hope I didn't hurt your eyes."

"No, I'm all right. You're proud that I rolled you to the ground?"

"Sure," Nick mused. Mariah could hear the smile in his voice. "When I go to college I have to know that you know how to take care of yourself when it comes to guys. Guys are pigs, you know."

Mariah giggled. "You don't have to tell me."

They lay in silence for another three minutes, watching the radiant sky. Mariah was very comfortable in the hammock but asked Nick once more if he wanted his spot. "We can share," he said. "You can sleep on the ground tomorrow night and I get it promptly at breakfast in the morning."

"Sure. Deal." All at once several shooting stars streaked through the sky, heading towards the highest point in the valley before they disappeared into the fabric of space. Mariah sucked in her air with surprise and let it out with awe.

"Sweet. We can both make a wish." Nick's smiling voice floated easily through the crisp darkness.

Mariah held that memory so fondly within her that she could smell the mountain air, as if she were still nine in that valley. She fingered Nick's letter and then pulled the letter out of the envelope. There was a small oil stain on one corner, like Nick had written the letter while eating in the dining hall.

Dear Mariah,

Got your last letter and had to think about how to answer your questions. First off, don't be fooled. High school boys are mutants. Stay away from any of the football players unless it's someone really cool. If you end up in Mrs. Helmstead's class, she's a great teacher. Mr. Wicken will make you read a lot of Shakespeare, which I hated, but I think you'll love. He'll also make you read a lot of Greek plays and we had to read The Fountainhead but he's known to alternate that with Atlas Shrugged, which is like, three times as long. So if you get him for 10^th grade Lit. I hope you get to read The Fountainhead. It's about architecture and I think you'd dig it. In fact, I think my copy is still on the bookshelf, next to mom's collection of Frank Lloyd Wright books.

The last thing to remember about high school is that there is an open campus and you can walk all over the place to get lunch. Primo! Pizzaro's pizza is pretty good, greasy. Subway is right down the block and if you know someone who drives, or you're on your bike, there is a great sandwich shop on 15^th and Lofton, near downtown, called Fatty Mikes. Awesome subs! Take a lunch if you're broke but do NOT eat in the cafeteria.

So, I can't wait to see you, Squirt. I'm bummed that I'm going to miss your graduation but I can't miss this last Chem. Test. Whoever heard of a Saturday lab exam? I'm dreading it! See you Sunday! Congratulations. Nick

Lost and Found INTRODUCTION
Lost and Found CHAPTER ONE: FISH
Lost and Found CHAPTER TWO: DREAMS
Lost and Found CHAPTER THREE: PARTY
Lost and Found CHAPTER FOUR: SCRAPS
Lost and Found CHAPTER FIVE: CIRCLE
Lost and Found CHAPTER SIX: STARS
Lost and Found CHAPTER SEVEN: AVENGER