When Lost

by Melissa (Zeute)

She walked along the meandering dirt path berating herself. "I get lost in the preserve at home; what made me think I wouldn’t get lost in a strange place?!"

Sighing, the pretty 16-year-old paused and looked around at her surroundings. "It is beautiful at least, so peaceful, lush and green. It should seem dark and dreary but the sun dappling through just makes it cheerful."

She continued on her path, carefully looking for signs of the direction she should take to get back to camp. The others wouldn’t miss her for some time and she hoped to avoid any knowledge of this mishap. A carriage ride along the trail hadn’t appealed to her for some reason so she told the others to go ahead and she would just stay back.

Hearing a voice ahead she started toward it. That doesn’t sound like an adult, more like a young child. Oh please don’t let a little one be lost out here too and dependent on me to get him or her back to family! As she rounded a turn in the path she saw a grassy slope ending in a shallow stream bubbling and swishing over rocks. Near the edge sat a little boy with red hair. His hair’s not as darkly red as Jim’s and cut practically shorter than Mart’s! And what a cute dog!

Beside the boy was a black and white dog with long fur, it saw the girl but sensing no danger just looked at her, not daring to leave it’s charge even for a friendly pet. Instead it turned back to the boy with just one wag of its tail. The boy held a long stick and had a little backpack on his other side. He seemed to be talking to the dog but she couldn’t quite make out what he was saying. Not wanting to get too close and scare him she stopped and called out, "Hello there! Are you lost?"

The boy turned and stared at her with curious blue eyes, freckles scattered across his face, more densely across the nose and tops of his cheeks. "Uh-uh. I’m geocaching. Are you geocaching?"

Geocaching? Is that something real or just something he made up? "No, I’m afraid I don’t even know what it is." She leaned down to pet the dog that had run over, tongue lolling when the boy had spoken to her. "What’s your name?"

"I want it to be Digger Guy, can you call me that?"

The girl smiled, "What if I just call you DG for short? Digger Guy is a little long to keep saying."

"Yeah; do you have a digger? Or a bulldozer? What about a tow truck an’ a dump truck?"

"I don’t have any of those. Are you here by yourself?"

"Nope. I have all those, lots of them. They’re in my tent. My sister will sometimes play with them, too. But she has her own stuff. Babies and stuff. Do you have a tent?"

"I do. And my friends do too. Where is your tent?"

"Over there." He pointed to a set of trees behind her. "My dog’s name is Zoe. Do you have a dog? She likes to chase a ball a lot and throw it for her. I throw good and Zoe runs after it really fast. And sometimes she eats the ball which makes Nana mad ‘cause it makes Zoe barf on the floor."

DG stopped to take a breath so the girl broke in, stifling a giggle. "We do have a dog at home. Will you take me to see your tent?" She hoped that getting to another camp site would help her find her way plus this little boy really shouldn’t be out here by himself.

"Okay, you can see my diggers."

The girl followed DG along a short path, the little dog trotting alongside loyally. Shortly, the entered a clearing where several campsites where set up. She recognized them as some they had passed on their way in and realized with relief she could just follow the road back to her own with no one the wiser. She hadn’t even been gone as long as she thought.

A little blonde girl with a short bobbed haircut was sitting in the soft grass near one of the tents playing with some dolls. Another blonde of the same size was pushing a miniature stroller with another doll back and forth while she stood in the same place. The stroller was a pink and purple umbrella stroller and perfect baby doll size. The second blonde’s hair was lighter and longer and she was more exuberant than the other girl.

DG strutted over to the two little girls. "Hey, Sami, BB. I finded a girl."

The girl sitting looked up and with the air of one so very sure of her place in the world and the disdain one could only have for sibling said, "Nana and Pap-pap and Mimi and everybody are looking for you, William." Her dark hazel eyes were solemn.

"Hi!" the other girl shouted, jumping up and down. "I saw an ambulance and they talkeded to me. Then they went back to the hospitabilly-bill. What are you doing?" She went on bright blue eyes shining, but the older girl had no idea what she was saying it was spilling out so fast and garbled in that way only children can do. So she only asked, "What’s your name?"

DG answered importantly, "That’s BB and she’s Sami; Sami’s my sister." He pointed at the pretty girl with a sweet smile who was now standing next to the bouncy angelic looking blonde.

"There you are you little turkey!" came an exasperated voice from off to the side. They all turned to see a plump woman with dark, reddish blonde hair coming toward them in quick strides, the children all shouting "Mimi!"

She stopped by DG putting her hand on his shoulder. "Where have you been? And you know you aren’t supposed to run off like that." She turned to the girl. "I’m sorry. He has a habit of going to just where you can’t see him and not answering any calls. I was just so relieved to find him everything else was blocked out. Did you bring back our lost lamb?"

The girl laughed, "I’m really not so sure he was lost! He seemed very sure of where he was and told me he was geocaching. Plus he had his guard with him, Mimi." She pointed at Zoe who ran over thinking she was wanted.

"Oh you don’t have to call me that! It’s just a nickname that came about when the kids first started talking. I’m actually Caroline, or Caro." She laughed with an affectionate smile and stroke for the children who were still clinging to her. "And you are?"

"Please call me Honey, it’s a nickname but I’m more used to it than my own name at this point. And can you please tell me if geocaching is real or a game DG invented?"

"I’d love to but first, who is DG?" asked Caro with a confused look.

"Oh!" Honey blushed. "William didn’t tell me his name, just that he wanted to be called ‘Digger Guy’ so we settled on ‘DG.’ I didn’t want to press him for a real name."

"That explains it! No worries. Anyway, geocaching is game, a worldwide scavenger hunt, if you will. People hide caches, post GPS coordinates to the website and others go out to find them."

"In the woods!" William shouted.

Caro smiled at him and looked back at Honey, "Yes, sometimes they are in the woods, but really can be hidden anywhere with appropriate permission even in the city."

"Mimi," BB said and then continued with more language Honey couldn’t understand even though she knew the little cheerful girl had to be referring to her because she had pointed at her. Her confusion must have showed because Caro laughed and explained, "We call her ‘Miss Nonsense America’ quite often because she talks so fast even those who know her well can’t half understand her. In this case she wanted you to ‘come up for dinner.’ She says ‘come up’ no matter the other person’s location."

Honey kneeled down by the girl and said, "Thank you very much for the invitation BB but I’m camping with my friends and they would worry if I didn’t show up for a long time. I have a little more time to visit and then I need to go back."

"As long as you aren’t camping with 50 eating contest champions then you are all welcome. We have a few eating champions in the family and so always have plenty of food. It won’t be anything fancy, just mountain pies, grilled corn on the cob, seasoned packet potatoes and s’mores for dessert."

"Oh that sounds divine! There’re seven of us and only two eating champions in the bunch. Are you sure we wouldn’t be imposing? The rest of us may not be champions but we can be in the running."

"Oh we can handle that. We got a great deal on the corn at a roadside stand so the more eating them is less we have to haul home and the rest I know we have more than plenty of so I know you’d be welcome. And if your friends are like you the kids will love to have to company. There are 3 more around here somewhere and all of them are tired of the rest of us."

"Well, I’d like to hear a little more about this geocaching and then I’ll head over to our campsite and see what the others would like to do. I know we’re tired of our fare and cooking so I think it will be yes, though." Honey added with a warm smile. "Thank you so much!"

"Great! Walk over with us and you can meet some of the rest of the family. We can talk geocaching on the way." Caro leaned over to pick up some of the dolls Sami had scattered around. "C’mon kids. Your parents, Nana, Pap-pap, and the other kids are over by the bonfire." She turned to Sami and BB. "You two can help me carry your sundry babies and stuff back too."

With her arms full of baby dolls and clothes, Caro fell into step beside Honey following the 3 kids as they squabbled about who would get there first. "Do you have any specific questions in mind about geocaching?"

"What kind of things do people find?"

"They’re mostly little toys and dollar store items for kids but sometimes there are more expensive items in them. Usually those items are a first to find prize in the harder to find ones. Although, one girl did find a diamond ring in a very easy cache." Caro’s eyes twinkled. "That one wasn’t posted on the website until after the fact. She was a very avid cacher as was her boyfriend so he proposed to her that way."

"How romantic!" Honey sighed. "What are the items hidden in?"

"Most common is an ammo can or waterproof, plastic containers. The caches range in size, too. While some are practically so small you need a magnifying glass others can be rather large. The small ones don’t have any trade items, just the logbook you sign as a finder and maybe a pencil. You typically sign the logbook in the physical cache and also log it on the website, along with any comments you may have." Caro explained, her enthusiasm for the sport shining through. "There are actually quite a few caches here on the campgrounds. If you like, later after dinner, you and your friends can come along and see how it all works?"

"It does sound very interesting and we all love the outdoors so I think everyone would want to but even if they don’t I’ll definitely join in." Her golden eyes sparkled as she added with a laugh, "My best friend will like the mystery quality the most and will probably be just as enthusiastic too."

Caro laughed, "I have to admit to loving that aspect also. Some caches are more mysterious than others but we can go over those details later." They stopped at a bonfire where various people were sitting and chatting or playing with kids. Caro introduced Honey quickly and then told her, "Wait just a minute before you go." She dashed off to a green tent set back away from the others a little bit in a pretty spot under some trees.

When she returned she held some papers in her hands which then gave to Honey. "Here’s some information on geocaching in general and also one of the caches I planned to look for. It should appeal to your friend’s sense of mystery as it’s a puzzle cache. You need to figure out the clues before you even get the coordinates. Any history buffs will be attracted to the legend it’s based on, The Water Witch. Some of this area was said to be hers and her power was linked to water."

Honey quickly scanned the page, more intrigued than she had been before, "It does sound very interesting! Even if no one wants to come for dinner, I’ll at least be back to join you for this."

"No problem. My dad and Bob were setting everything up so it won’t to be more than half an hour before we get started. We always get the kids their food first so even if you aren’t back for a little longer we’ll still be ready. And then once they get settled we’ll go caching. But you better get going or I’ll stand here talking your ear off!" Caro admonished with a wave.

"See you later!" Honey called as she dashed off. I’m glad I got lost! You can find some of the most interesting things you wouldn’t have otherwise when you do.

 

Author’s notes:

Honey is not mine; she belongs to someone else and I just borrowed her. The other characters are mine and my niece and nephew’s since I garnered some input from them to distract them from other matters.

This is my first full fan fic story and I’ve always thought the Bob Whites would like to geocache. I kept it very simple so I could complete the challenge. That’s why there isn’t a real plot but I think it has potential so a continuation may come later.

I apologize for any errors or parts that drag. I had no editors and I’ve never written a full story so please bear with me and feel free to offer any constructive criticism!

Word count – 2330 (just for practice!)