Lost in the woods is found amid trees.
ADIN
ADIN WALKED INTO winter.
At the home, when winter came,
the boys were soon ill. No one supplied them with extra blankets or warm coats,
never mind heating in their rooms. In his long years there, seven boys died of
lung diseases, and he also shuddered through the unbearable cold, coughing and
sniffling.
Now he was prepared.
Iris showed him how to use her
bank card and therefore he knew what to do to have cash in hand, but a child
drawing a large sum alone would appear suspicious … or be an easy target. He
might technically be a teenager, but he was small for his age, and did not have
the strength to fight off bullies and thieves.
Choosing ATMs inside shopping
malls worked well. Not only was he amid many and less likely to suffer a
beating, but he was able to pretend he was drawing money for his mother. That
was his story, if asked, but only once did an older woman enquire if he needed
help, standing behind him with her own card ready. He smiled at her and told
her his mother had shown him what to do.
He drew the maximum daily allowance
each time, and then made the cash stretch. Less of a trail, not that anyone had
cause to be looking for him.
He headed north, and as the
weather worsened, he bought proper gear, a little here, a little there, never
spending too much in one place. Each time he entered a store, it was with his
needs in mind, and he’d head directly to what it was he sought, select the
item, pay and leave. No window shopping. No indecision. Once a young girl at
the till asked him where his parents were, him shopping for himself, and he
said his father sent him to pay while he went into the store next door.
Every move he made ensured he was
forgotten the moment he walked away.
He walked for the most part,
tramping the minor roads. Sometimes he got a lift, usually from women who
stopped and asked why he was alone out there. The story that worked best was an
argument with friends while on an outing, and he left the fight, choosing to
walk rather than wait for his lift. Generally, those rides took him into the
next town or occasionally a bus station.
A few times he caught a bus, but found
that worked best on weekends. On school days the old folks were too nosy. He
took the train, too, but after a conductor said to stay put, he’d contact the
cops to help him with adult supervision, he stayed away from trains.
Mostly, it was safer to walk.
He avoided cities at all costs.
Too young to secure accommodation
in motels or hotels, he opted for the outdoors. One of the first items he
bought, after sturdy hiking boots and thick socks, was a tent and then a
sleeping bag, one with a built-in pillow. More and more the outdoors felt like
true home. He could not understand why folk chose to live in cities. Swiftly he
had camping in remote areas down to expert level. He was a survivor, after all.
Prepared as he believed himself
to be, winter caught him off guard.
ADIN UNZIPPED THE
tent flap, shivering. Whiteness greeted him. The snowfalls he’d heard talk of
in the nearby town had arrived.
Two days back he overheard a
conversation about frequent blizzards in the region, and how snow piled many
feet thick. Staring out over a landscape featureless, where yesterday had been
trails and boulders, he understood he was in trouble. Not in this particular
moment, no – he’d simply pack up and tramp back to town before conditions
worsened – but long term. If this forerunner stymied him, shuddered him head to
toe with the onset of what had to be minor cold, he could only imagine what a
blizzard would do.
Time then to make new plans, the
kind to see him through winter without calling attention to himself. Not once
did he consider turning around and heading south in search of milder weather. Something
summoned him north, and he chose to follow that inner directive. Or someone.
Sunflower summoned him.
She was in his dreams every
night, her amber eyes pleading with him to watch over her. He would do more
than watch over her in dreams; he would find her in real life.
Sunflower was somewhere in the
north.
Therefore, Adin would bear
winter, survive it, and continue his search with spring.
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