Count Me In (11 page)

“We're all going mental,” he said.

“Yup.” Tabitha laughed harder. Cedar started too. It felt so good to laugh that Tabitha didn't even try to stop. Before long they were both crouched on the floor, holding their stomachs, unable to control themselves.

“This is crazy.” The words squeaked out of Cedar's mouth.

“I know,” Tabitha gasped.

They both collapsed in another fit of laughing. Tabitha never wanted it to stop, no matter how much her stomach hurt.

“Cedar!” Ashley called from upstairs.

Abruptly, Cedar's face fell serious again. He leaped to his feet, leaving Tabitha in a stunned puddle on the floor.

He ran to the ladder. “Yeah?”

“Water,” Ashley croaked.

Cedar ran up and came back a few minutes later with the water bottle, a crease of worry between his brows.

“She doesn't look good. And Mom's still sleeping.”

Tabitha sighed. It had felt nice to forget for a few minutes. She pushed herself to her feet. As she stood, the room grew black around her. She reached out, trying to find something for balance, and fell onto the bench. After a few moments, the blackness cleared. Cedar was staring at her with panic in his eyes.

“What happened?”

She waved him away. “It's not a big deal. I stood up too fast.”

He shoved her water bottle across the table. “You better drink some more too.”

She nodded and took a sip as he climbed the ladder. She'd never had a blackout in the middle of the day.

Her stomach grumbled so loudly, she was surprised no one came looking for the bear.

Ashley and Cedar were murmuring upstairs. Then she heard, “Stay away from her. She's the enemy!”

Tabitha shrank onto the bench. She wasn't sure which was worse: the things her cousin was saying, or the fact that she must be really going downhill if she was saying them out loud. At least before, she'd been sneaky about making Tabitha feel bad.

She sat with her arms wrapped around her legs and listened to Cedar calm his sister. It began to grow dark outside, and things grew quiet upstairs. She shivered. Cedar didn't seem to be in a rush to come back. She eyed the fireplace. She might as well try and build a fire herself. It was too early to go to bed—she'd toss and turn all night. Besides, the last thing she wanted was for Ashley to see her.

She swung open the door to the woodstove. Taking three pieces of newspaper from the stack beside the stove, she crumpled them and placed them on the grate. It took her three tries to make a teepee of kindling that stood on its own. Then she laid a larger piece of wood, one she hoped was dry, across it all, balancing it on the grate so it wouldn't collapse her teepee.

She pulled the matches from their perch on the ledge above the woodstove and removed one from the box. She hated lighting matches. If she held them too close to the head, she worried her fingers would get singed when they lit. So she held them farther out, and half the time the match broke.

Taking a deep breath, she struck the match. Nothing. She struck again. It lit. Carefully she brought it to the fire and touched it against the paper. Not wanting to take any chances, she held it to five different spots of paper, dropping it into the flames just before it burned her finger.

She sat back on her heels and watched, praying that it would catch and she wouldn't have to start the process all over again. The paper caught quickly, flames licking the top of the stove. After a few moments the paper burned up and the flames died. She'd failed. What did she think, that she was some kind of mountain woman?

But then she heard a crackling. A piece of kindling in the back was burning. She sat forward and blew softly, the way she'd seen Cedar do. The flames grew higher, and another piece caught. Before long all three pieces were burning nicely, and the bigger piece was starting to catch too.

“Did you do that?”

Tabitha fell onto her butt, startled at the sound of Cedar's voice. “Yeah.”

“Wow. I didn't think you had it in you.”

Tabitha grinned. Then frowned. Did he think she was completely useless?

He waved his hands in front of himself. “I didn't mean it like that. Just that I didn't know you could build a fire.”

“Neither did I.” She stood and stepped away from the stove. This camping stuff wasn't so hard after all. If you didn't mind starvation, wild animal attacks, dehydration and infections that might kill your companions.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

She and Cedar sat on the floor in front of the fire in comfortable silence. The smell of wood smoke filled the air. As her fire grew stronger, some of the cold seeped from Tabitha's body, although her backside still felt icy.

“I'm sorry about Ashley,” Cedar said.

“Me too,” Tabitha said. “I hope she'll be okay.”

“I mean about what she said to you.”

Tabitha shrugged. “At least she's saying it out loud.”

“She doesn't mean it,” Cedar said.

“I think maybe in her heart she does.”

Cedar shook his head. “She's been really messed up since Dad died. It's like this has put her over the edge.”

Tabitha nodded, wondering how Cedar could be so calm. Was he letting this flow off him the way he did with the bullies at school? Was that possible?

He stood and threw another log on the fire, then paced around the room.

Maybe he wasn't as calm as he seemed.

“I'm going to bed,” Cedar said. “I want this day to be over.”

Tabitha stood slowly, not wanting to black out again. “I can't believe it, but I'm actually tired.”

“Yeah.” Cedar closed the doors on the woodstove to make the fire last longer. “Not eating for days does that to you, I guess.”

Tabitha's arms were barely strong enough to pull her up the ladder. She stopped with her eyes peeking across the floor and checked to see that Ashley was sleeping before she crept to her bed.

Cedar leaned over his mom. He pulled back the sleeve of her shirt. “Come look at this,” he whispered.

Tabitha tiptoed to Tess's bunk. “What?”

Cedar pointed to Tess's arm. A red line snaked from her bandage up toward her arm. “That wasn't there this morning.”

“You're right,” Tabitha said. “What is it?”

“I think it's the infection she was worried Ashley would get.”

“What do we do?”

“Get that tube of ointment.” Cedar began unwrapping the bandage.

Tess woke. “What're you doing?” she asked groggily.

“Taking care of your arm,” Cedar said.

Tabitha grabbed the first-aid kit from the end of Tess's bunk and rummaged through it until she found the ointment. She handed it to Cedar, who squeezed a line of it onto Tess's arm. The cut was definitely infected. Yellow pus glistened along the scab. Tabitha could almost see the puffy skin throbbing.

“Thank you,” Tess murmured, and closed her eyes.

Cedar wrapped a fresh bandage around her arm and laid it at her side. He rested his forehead on her mattress.

Tabitha put a hand on his shoulder. “Let's get some sleep.”

Cedar pushed himself up. “Yeah.”

Tabitha slept fitfully. Both Tess and Ashley called out during the night. Each time, she woke with her heart pounding and needed to repeat the Fibonacci string to fall back asleep. In the early morning she woke again and lay there listening, trying to figure out what had woken her. Her aunt and Ashley were both quiet. Cedar was breathing deeply.

Then it hit her. The silence had woken her. The rain had stopped. She'd gotten used to the clatter on the roof. Now that it had stopped, the silence rang in her ears. She pressed her face to the window. The sky was brightening, and it appeared that even the fog was lifting.

She crept downstairs.

Her fire had gone out overnight. She decided not to light one right away because the sound might wake the other three. She sat shivering on the bench, her body achy and tired, dreaming of the breakfast she would have when she got home. Pancakes dripping with maple syrup and butter, with blueberries, strawberries and raspberries. And French toast. And maybe an egg on the side. Make that two. If they got home.

Her head jerked up as she realized a noise outside had encroached on her daydream. A low roar. Oh no. The bear was back. The roar grew louder. She relaxed as she realized it was only a helicopter.

A helicopter! She ran to the window. It was coming toward the lake. Their rescue! If it knew they were here. “Wake up! The helicopter's coming!” she shouted.

She ran out the door in her bare feet and flew down the stairs. The black closed in around her, and she thought she might faint. She flailed her arms, grasping for the handrail, and waited impatiently for the feeling to pass. The world cleared. She took a deep breath and jogged, slower this time, out to the lake. As the helicopter grew closer, she waved her arms frantically. Would they see her? She felt so small against the backdrop of trees and mountains.

What could she do to make them see? She yanked off her fleece and waved it in the air. The helicopter wiggled and flew to the other end of the lake. Her shoulders drooped as it flew away. It hadn't seen her. They'd be stuck here forever.

But then it changed direction again and came lower. She realized it was heading for a clearing to the left of the hut. They were being rescued!

She turned to run back to the hut. After a few steps she slowed to a fast walk. Cedar was downstairs, yanking on his boots.

“It's landing!” she called.

He nodded. “I'll go tell them we need help. You get Ashley and my mom up.”

Tabitha climbed the ladder. She ran to Tess and shook her shoulder. “Wake up! The helicopter's here!”

Tess's eyes cracked open. “What?”

“We're being rescued. You have to get up!”

Recognition slowly dawned in Tess's eyes. She pushed herself to a seated position. That was as far as she got.

“C'mon, Tess, you can do it.”

Tess nodded. “I just need a rest.”

Tabitha unzipped her aunt's sleeping bag. “You can rest once we're out of here. We need to get going.” She pulled Tess's legs and placed them on the floor. “If we don't get out of here soon and get you and Ashley to a hospital, one of you might die!”

Tess's head snapped up. She looked over at Ashley, and her mouth formed an
O
. She pushed herself out of bed with her good arm and started to walk toward her.

“Cedar's gone to get the pilot. We'll get Ashley next. You need to go down the ladder.”

Tess nodded and wobbled toward it.

Tabitha got there first. “I'll help you from below. Can you use your good arm?”

“I think so.”

Tabitha breathed a sigh of relief that her aunt was talking. Things would be okay. She climbed halfway down the ladder and braced herself. Tess knelt, then flattened onto her stomach and dropped her legs over the edge. Tabitha helped guide them to the rung. As her aunt put her weight on them and reached for the first rung with her hand, Tabitha pushed against her back with one hand to support her weight. They worked their way down the ladder, one rung at a time, until Tess reached the bottom.

Tabitha helped her put on her shoes, then opened the door. “Can you get to the helicopter by yourself?”

“Where is it?”

“About a minute's walk to the clearing.”

Tess nodded. As Tabitha opened the door, Cedar came up the stairs with the pilot.

“I'm Pete,” he said. “We're extracting people up and down the valley. We don't have time to linger, so leave your stuff. You can come back for it later.”

Fat chance of that, thought Tabitha. She'd never be coming back to this place, stuff or no stuff.

“Cedar, help your mom,” Tabitha said. “I'll get Ashley.”

Cedar nodded and hooked Tess's arm around his shoulder. The pilot came into the hut.

“You need me?” he asked Tabitha.

“Yeah. This could be tough.” She faced the ladder one last time. Each trip up took more and more effort. “You have any food?”

“I've got some caramels in the helicopter.”

Tabitha started salivating at the word
caramel
. Even the idea of it gave her the strength to climb the ladder.

Ashley lay motionless on her bunk. Tabitha nudged her shoulder. “Hey, Ashley. We're being rescued. Time to go.”

Ashley opened her eyes and stared blankly at Tabitha. Then her eyes focused on Tabitha's face, and she drew back.

Pete stepped forward. “Miss, we're taking you to a hospital.”

Ashley's face darkened. “Is Max back?”

Tabitha sighed. “No.”

“I'm not leaving without Max.”

“Ashley, you're sick. You need to leave now, Max or no Max.” Tabitha reached a hand to help Ashley to sit up.

Ashley hit her arm out of the way. “Don't touch me! I'm not going!”

“You have to come!” Tabitha insisted. “If you stay here, you'll die.”

Ashley crossed her arms and glowered at them.

Tabitha sized up the pilot. His arm muscles bulged through his T-shirt. “We have to get her out of here,” she said.

He nodded and moved to the head of the bed. Tabitha stood by her feet.

“On three,” Pete said.

“What're you doing?” Ashley asked.

Tabitha ignored her. “One, two, three!” She wrapped her arms around Ashley's knees while the pilot scooped her up under her arms. They lifted her off the bed and took a step into the middle of the room.

Ashley began thrashing. “Put me down! Let go!”

Tabitha couldn't believe how much strength Ashley had for someone so sick. One foot got loose and kicked her in the chest, but Tabitha wrapped her arms around again and held on as tightly as she could. As much as she'd like to let her cousin drop and leave her to fend for herself, she knew she had to get her to safety.

“How are we going to get down the ladder?” Tabitha asked.