Previously: Summer Leigh Roxton, age four, had jumped into a swirling, blue
misty portal to retrieve her Dolly that she had carelessly thrown into it.
Not long afterwards, in an attempt to rescue Summer, her brother Will,
seven, her sister Victoria, almost ten, and the Malone children, Edward,
eight, and Alice, five, were sucked into the vortex as well.
CHAPTER 2 – Meetings and Misunderstandings
Summer popped out of the other side of the swirling fog with a soft thwopping sound. She stood for a moment swaying slightly. Quickly recovering, she looked desperately around for her doll.
Searching through the small piles of stones and sticks that were scattered over the ground, she muttered to herself, "Come on, Dolly. Stop hiding. I'm sorry I threw you in."
Exasperation quickly overcame her soft entreaties. Summer stood up and balled her little fists on her hips. She stomped her foot on the ground and scolded in an exact imitation of her mother.
"Dolly, you need to come here, now! I am too tired and upset to hunt for you. Really, you are being an impossible child!"
Her sharp little eyes were darting around as she spoke and at last they were rewarded with the sight of her doll hanging limply from a low branch of a thorny bush. Summer lost no time in running over to the bush and tugging her Dolly free. The doll's dress caught on one of the thorns and a small piece of cloth was left dangling from the branch.
"Oh, Dolly," Summer sighed as she hugged the doll to her chest. "You've torn your best dress." She rolled her eyes as she continued in her "mother mode", "How am I ever to teach you to be a lady in this God-forsaken wilderness?"
As Summer realized that her quest for her doll was over, her mother's dramatic side quickly gave way to her father's more practical side. She looked around and didn't see Alice or the mist or anything familiar. She fell back on her tried and true method of getting attention. She hollered.
"Alice! Tori! Will 'n Edward! Come and find me! I'm right here!" she yelled. She waited for an answering shout and when none was forthcoming, she felt her temper rising. She clutched her doll tightly in her hand and marched back between the bushes she had emerged from just a short time ago.
The meadow was there, but it looked different to her. If she were older and more verbal, she would have said that the trees and scrubs that hemmed in the large rectangle of grass were smaller and fewer, that the underbrush had not been cleared away from under the leafy, overhanging branches to create shady hideaways.
No, she couldn't say why it looked different, but what she did notice was that the other children were not in sight. As a puzzled expression replaced the angry frown on her tiny face, she noticed something else…the targets at the bottom of the cliff wall were gone!
Her puzzlement was followed swiftly by the first tingling of fear. The wind that blew across the meadow whipped her hair around her face. The sun that had lately shone down on the five children playing hunters in the meadow was hiding behind large, gray clouds. The beautiful meadow, where she had had nothing but happy times surrounded by her family and friends, now made her feel exposed and afraid. She had never been completely alone before but now she couldn't "feel" anyone near her. Summer didn't have to think twice about what to do. It was time to call in the big guns. She ran across the meadow, heading towards the pathway that she hoped would lead to the treehouse, yelling as loudly as she could, "Daddy! Mama!"
As she reached the other side and disappeared into the dark overhang of the jungle canopy, two raptors stepped out of the shadow of the cliff face and into the meadow. They snorted as they lifted their long noses into the air. An unfamiliar scent wafted on the breeze as it blew across the grassy field. The scent may have been unfamiliar, but the message it sent to the hungry raptors was clear. Ahead was prey. They sniffed the air again and then took off across the meadow.
The raptors had no sooner been swallowed by the jungle shadows then four children came tumbling out of the air behind a bush on the other side of the meadow. All four landed in a heap, with the unfortunate Victoria on the bottom of the pile.
"Ouch, Alice, your elbow is in my eye!
"Well, Edward is on top of me and I can't move!" Alice said in an annoyed voice as she shoved her brother.
Will was the first one on his feet. He reached down and pulled Edward off of Alice. Poor Edward had hit his head on a rock and was valiantly trying not to cry.
"Are you okay, old man?" Will asked kindly.
Edward nodded his head, rubbing the sore spot.
"Will, help me up, please," begged Victoria as Alice rolled off of her and staggered to her feet. "I'm sure there's a bug down my socking and I've got dirt all over my dress!"
"Really, Tori," Will said with disgust as he and Alice hoisted Victoria to her feet and she commenced hopping around on one foot trying to pull her shoe and stocking off. "All this fuss over a tiny bug. I thought you were the fearless huntress."
"Do shut up, Will," she said as she sat down and peered inside her stocking.
Alice had heard enough.
"Would you two stop bickering!" she scolded. "We have to find Summer and I don't see her anywhere!"
The other three were instantly sobered as they remembered their mission.
Victoria hastily pulled her stocking back up and slipped on her shoe. She leapt to her feet.
"Alice is right, boys," she said as if they were the ones holding them up. "Summer must be here somewhere."
They all started looking around and calling Summer's name.
"Well, she's not here," said Will, after fifteen minutes of fruitless searching. He folded his arms across his chest. "She probably went back to the treehouse." He was thoroughly sick and tired of his sisters and their problems.
"Summer wouldn't know the way back to the treehouse," Edward argued. Alice nodded in agreement.
"She's too little to be on her own." Alice clasped her hands in agitation. She was getting very worried about her little friend.
"Fine," Victoria snapped. "Let's head back to the treehouse and get our parents to help us look for her. Mark my words…Summer is going to get us all grounded. Oh, why does she have to be so troublesome?" Victoria stomped off. She really did love her little sister, but this wasn't the first time Summer had gotten them all into trouble.
Will and Edward raced past Victoria and rushed through the bushes into the meadow. The girls nearly bumped into them when they stopped short. Victoria was about to make a cutting remark when she saw what had pulled them up short.
The meadow, their meadow, had changed. It didn't look right, it didn't feel right and it didn't smell right.
The children stood, clustered together, trying to understand what had happened. Alice slipped her hand into Victoria's. A stiff breeze blew over them. The sunny morning had turned into a cloudy, gray afternoon. The wind whipped the branches of the dark, shadowy trees on the other side of the meadow. The children stepped closer to one another.
"What happened?" whispered Edward. "I don't like this."
Will was looking on the ground for their spears. He whispered, as if to himself, "I can't see our spears anywhere!" His eyes quickly searched the rest of the area. With a look of mounting fear, he pointed towards the base of the cliff. "The targets are gone, too!"
Alice began to whimper. Victoria pulled her closer to her side. Being the eldest was no longer a pleasure, it was now a burden. She knew that she needed to get the younger children to safety.
"Okay, everyone. We must be brave," she said encouragingly. "We're going back to the treehouse as quickly as we can and we'll look for Summer on the way. I'm sure our parents can explain everything to us."
The tiny, frightened, but determined band of children walked quickly across the meadow only stopping to fill their pockets with stones and to pick up sturdy looking sticks for spears. They were young, but they had been well trained to survive on the strange plateau that was their home.
**
Things were not going well for Summer. It was dark under the trees and the path was not clearly marked. Twice she had tripped over exposed roots and fallen hard. But the little girl was brave like her father and stubborn like her mother. She wasn't about to give up once she had made a plan. She picked herself up each time, brushed herself off, and, clutching her Dolly even more tightly to her small chest, she continued her quest to find the treehouse.
Pausing to pull a stick out of her shoe, she thought she heard animal sounds behind her, sounds she had heard only at a distance before. She increased her pace as best she could in the tangle of vines that wove themselves back and forth across the ill-defined path. She was just beginning to think that she wasn't going the right way when a very welcome sight loomed up in the path ahead of her.
A grouping of tall, spiky stones blocked her way. They seemed to have grown out of the ground. Each stone was separated from its neighbor by small slits and crevices, until they reached about fifteen or twenty feet into the air. At that height, they widened out, pointing like giant claws towards the very top of the jungle canopy far, far overhead.
But Summer saw nothing sinister or frightening in their formation. She was delighted to see them, because she knew them well. The children often played in between the towering monoliths finding hideaways where their parents couldn't reach them.
"Look, Dolly," she whispered to her favorite. "It's the castle. We are on the right path and we'll be home very soon.
This happy thought was cut short by a very loud snorting sound behind her. Without stopping to think, Summer quickly squeezed herself into a narrow crevice in the nearest stone and ,sliding her small body through the familiar maze, soon reached the center of the "castle".
The two raptors that had been following the small girl leapt out of the bushes onto the path where just seconds ago their prey had been standing. The path was empty. They howled their fury at being denied their meal. They blinked their evil, yellow eyes rapidly as they looked around the small clearing. They lifted their noses into the air and snuffled and snorted trying to pick up the scent.
Summer, huddled in the very center of the tall stones, stuffed her Dolly into her dress pocket and pulled her knees up to her chin. She clamped her hands over her ears as hard as she could. She didn't know exactly what was making that horrible noise but she knew that it frightened her very much. She longed to be in the safe arms of her mother. Tears flowed down her cheeks but she didn't make a sound. She didn't want what was out there to know that she was in here.
The raptors sharp sense of smell told them that their prey was still nearby. Now ravenous with hunger, they howled and grunted in their frenzy. Their black tongues hung from their foul, slobbering mouths as they turned to the tall stones that hid their meal. They leapt at the rocks, their sharp claws scoring the stones as they frantically tried to dig out their dinner. Their howls rose into the air, seeming to whip the wind, which was now blowing hard, into even greater fury.
Poor Summer was so scared now that she couldn't stay quite.
"Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!" she cried.
Suddenly, two loud explosions ripped through the air, followed by two more. The raptors screamed and then were silent.
Two men, who had been coming down the path from the opposite direction, walked forward cautiously. They wanted to be sure that the raptors were indeed dead before they got too close. It was crossed their minds that maybe they could find what the raptors were after and take it home for their dinner.
Lord John Roxton and Professor George Challenger lowered their rifles as they realized that the raptors were dead. They quickly raised them again, however, when they heard a high pitched scream come from inside the standing stones. No wild pig made that very human sounding noise.
"Who's in there?" Roxton yelled as he pointed his rifle towards the sound. "Come out peacefully. We don't want to hurt you."
There was silence and then a scrabbling sound as a tiny figure popped out from between the rocks and latched onto Roxton's leg.
Both Roxton and Challenger lowered their rifles as they realized that the small figure was a little girl, crying so hard that she couldn't speak.
Roxton quickly handed his rifle to Challenger and picked up the distraught child. She clung to him sobbing and wiping her streaming eyes and nose on his shoulder.
Roxton was at a loss. He didn't know what to do. He patted and rubbed her back, muttering "There, there, now."
It wasn't long before Summer's sobbing began to abate. She was not only afraid, she was outraged. She reared back and started pounding her fists on Roxton's chest.
"Raptors can't get inside the fence! You promised! Raptors aren't ALLOWED inside the fence!"
Her small fists continued to beat on Roxton's chest as he tried to understand what she was saying. He finally thought that he got it.
"Whoa, whoa," he cautioned, holding her away from his body. "These raptors ARE outside the fence. WE'RE outside the fence. You see, no one broke the promise."
He thought that sounded reasonable.
The little girl looked at him in disbelief. Then her dirty, wet face screwed up into another burst of tears as she howled, "Oh, no. I'm not SUPPOSED to be outside the fence." And she flung herself back against his shoulder, crying even harder.
"Is she hurt?" questioned Challenger. He was as astonished as Roxton at finding this little girl out in the jungle all by herself.
"I don't think she's injured," Roxton said as he ran his hand gently down her arms and legs. "But, how did she get out here? Where are her parents?"
Summer stopped crying and leaned back to look up into Roxton's face. Her impossibly wet and grimy face broke into a smirk. She pointed her grubby finger and tapped Roxton on the nose.
"Silly, Daddy," she chortled. "You're right here!"
She looked at him more closely. "You look funny, Daddy. Where's your moo- stash?" she asked as she ran her finger under his nose.
Roxton just stared at her.
Suddenly, Summer was so tired she couldn't keep her eyes opened. She collapsed against Roxton's shoulder. Her sleepy little voice was barely loud enough for the men to hear.
"I'm glad you shot those mean raptors, Daddy. Please take me back to the treehouse. I'm so tired. I want to go to bed." Her voice trailed off as she closed her eyes. Her head snuggled up against Roxton's neck.
Roxton, who had been rendered speechless up to this point, looked over the little girl's head at Challenger, "Did she call me Daddy?" he asked incredulously.
Challenger chuckled and rubbed his hand over his beard.
"Well," he answered, amusement in his voice, "she does look exactly like you, John."
Roxton squinted one eye shut and tilted his head to look down at the sleeping child.
He shrugged.
"Let's get going," he said. "It looks like rain."
He started off down the path they had just traversed. Challenger brought up the rear, carrying the rifles.
They had gone a few yards when Summer raised her head from Roxton's shoulder and looked back at Challenger.
"You look funny, too, Grandpa." Summer sighed and then went back to sleep.
Challenger's mouth dropped open. "Grandpa? Did that child call me Grandpa?"
He shook his head in shock.
"We must hurry to the treehouse, Roxton. Clearly that child is hallucinating!"
Roxton laughed and hoisted the mystery child higher up onto his shoulder.
To be Continued…
Chapter 3 coming soon.
CHAPTER 2 – Meetings and Misunderstandings
Summer popped out of the other side of the swirling fog with a soft thwopping sound. She stood for a moment swaying slightly. Quickly recovering, she looked desperately around for her doll.
Searching through the small piles of stones and sticks that were scattered over the ground, she muttered to herself, "Come on, Dolly. Stop hiding. I'm sorry I threw you in."
Exasperation quickly overcame her soft entreaties. Summer stood up and balled her little fists on her hips. She stomped her foot on the ground and scolded in an exact imitation of her mother.
"Dolly, you need to come here, now! I am too tired and upset to hunt for you. Really, you are being an impossible child!"
Her sharp little eyes were darting around as she spoke and at last they were rewarded with the sight of her doll hanging limply from a low branch of a thorny bush. Summer lost no time in running over to the bush and tugging her Dolly free. The doll's dress caught on one of the thorns and a small piece of cloth was left dangling from the branch.
"Oh, Dolly," Summer sighed as she hugged the doll to her chest. "You've torn your best dress." She rolled her eyes as she continued in her "mother mode", "How am I ever to teach you to be a lady in this God-forsaken wilderness?"
As Summer realized that her quest for her doll was over, her mother's dramatic side quickly gave way to her father's more practical side. She looked around and didn't see Alice or the mist or anything familiar. She fell back on her tried and true method of getting attention. She hollered.
"Alice! Tori! Will 'n Edward! Come and find me! I'm right here!" she yelled. She waited for an answering shout and when none was forthcoming, she felt her temper rising. She clutched her doll tightly in her hand and marched back between the bushes she had emerged from just a short time ago.
The meadow was there, but it looked different to her. If she were older and more verbal, she would have said that the trees and scrubs that hemmed in the large rectangle of grass were smaller and fewer, that the underbrush had not been cleared away from under the leafy, overhanging branches to create shady hideaways.
No, she couldn't say why it looked different, but what she did notice was that the other children were not in sight. As a puzzled expression replaced the angry frown on her tiny face, she noticed something else…the targets at the bottom of the cliff wall were gone!
Her puzzlement was followed swiftly by the first tingling of fear. The wind that blew across the meadow whipped her hair around her face. The sun that had lately shone down on the five children playing hunters in the meadow was hiding behind large, gray clouds. The beautiful meadow, where she had had nothing but happy times surrounded by her family and friends, now made her feel exposed and afraid. She had never been completely alone before but now she couldn't "feel" anyone near her. Summer didn't have to think twice about what to do. It was time to call in the big guns. She ran across the meadow, heading towards the pathway that she hoped would lead to the treehouse, yelling as loudly as she could, "Daddy! Mama!"
As she reached the other side and disappeared into the dark overhang of the jungle canopy, two raptors stepped out of the shadow of the cliff face and into the meadow. They snorted as they lifted their long noses into the air. An unfamiliar scent wafted on the breeze as it blew across the grassy field. The scent may have been unfamiliar, but the message it sent to the hungry raptors was clear. Ahead was prey. They sniffed the air again and then took off across the meadow.
The raptors had no sooner been swallowed by the jungle shadows then four children came tumbling out of the air behind a bush on the other side of the meadow. All four landed in a heap, with the unfortunate Victoria on the bottom of the pile.
"Ouch, Alice, your elbow is in my eye!
"Well, Edward is on top of me and I can't move!" Alice said in an annoyed voice as she shoved her brother.
Will was the first one on his feet. He reached down and pulled Edward off of Alice. Poor Edward had hit his head on a rock and was valiantly trying not to cry.
"Are you okay, old man?" Will asked kindly.
Edward nodded his head, rubbing the sore spot.
"Will, help me up, please," begged Victoria as Alice rolled off of her and staggered to her feet. "I'm sure there's a bug down my socking and I've got dirt all over my dress!"
"Really, Tori," Will said with disgust as he and Alice hoisted Victoria to her feet and she commenced hopping around on one foot trying to pull her shoe and stocking off. "All this fuss over a tiny bug. I thought you were the fearless huntress."
"Do shut up, Will," she said as she sat down and peered inside her stocking.
Alice had heard enough.
"Would you two stop bickering!" she scolded. "We have to find Summer and I don't see her anywhere!"
The other three were instantly sobered as they remembered their mission.
Victoria hastily pulled her stocking back up and slipped on her shoe. She leapt to her feet.
"Alice is right, boys," she said as if they were the ones holding them up. "Summer must be here somewhere."
They all started looking around and calling Summer's name.
"Well, she's not here," said Will, after fifteen minutes of fruitless searching. He folded his arms across his chest. "She probably went back to the treehouse." He was thoroughly sick and tired of his sisters and their problems.
"Summer wouldn't know the way back to the treehouse," Edward argued. Alice nodded in agreement.
"She's too little to be on her own." Alice clasped her hands in agitation. She was getting very worried about her little friend.
"Fine," Victoria snapped. "Let's head back to the treehouse and get our parents to help us look for her. Mark my words…Summer is going to get us all grounded. Oh, why does she have to be so troublesome?" Victoria stomped off. She really did love her little sister, but this wasn't the first time Summer had gotten them all into trouble.
Will and Edward raced past Victoria and rushed through the bushes into the meadow. The girls nearly bumped into them when they stopped short. Victoria was about to make a cutting remark when she saw what had pulled them up short.
The meadow, their meadow, had changed. It didn't look right, it didn't feel right and it didn't smell right.
The children stood, clustered together, trying to understand what had happened. Alice slipped her hand into Victoria's. A stiff breeze blew over them. The sunny morning had turned into a cloudy, gray afternoon. The wind whipped the branches of the dark, shadowy trees on the other side of the meadow. The children stepped closer to one another.
"What happened?" whispered Edward. "I don't like this."
Will was looking on the ground for their spears. He whispered, as if to himself, "I can't see our spears anywhere!" His eyes quickly searched the rest of the area. With a look of mounting fear, he pointed towards the base of the cliff. "The targets are gone, too!"
Alice began to whimper. Victoria pulled her closer to her side. Being the eldest was no longer a pleasure, it was now a burden. She knew that she needed to get the younger children to safety.
"Okay, everyone. We must be brave," she said encouragingly. "We're going back to the treehouse as quickly as we can and we'll look for Summer on the way. I'm sure our parents can explain everything to us."
The tiny, frightened, but determined band of children walked quickly across the meadow only stopping to fill their pockets with stones and to pick up sturdy looking sticks for spears. They were young, but they had been well trained to survive on the strange plateau that was their home.
**
Things were not going well for Summer. It was dark under the trees and the path was not clearly marked. Twice she had tripped over exposed roots and fallen hard. But the little girl was brave like her father and stubborn like her mother. She wasn't about to give up once she had made a plan. She picked herself up each time, brushed herself off, and, clutching her Dolly even more tightly to her small chest, she continued her quest to find the treehouse.
Pausing to pull a stick out of her shoe, she thought she heard animal sounds behind her, sounds she had heard only at a distance before. She increased her pace as best she could in the tangle of vines that wove themselves back and forth across the ill-defined path. She was just beginning to think that she wasn't going the right way when a very welcome sight loomed up in the path ahead of her.
A grouping of tall, spiky stones blocked her way. They seemed to have grown out of the ground. Each stone was separated from its neighbor by small slits and crevices, until they reached about fifteen or twenty feet into the air. At that height, they widened out, pointing like giant claws towards the very top of the jungle canopy far, far overhead.
But Summer saw nothing sinister or frightening in their formation. She was delighted to see them, because she knew them well. The children often played in between the towering monoliths finding hideaways where their parents couldn't reach them.
"Look, Dolly," she whispered to her favorite. "It's the castle. We are on the right path and we'll be home very soon.
This happy thought was cut short by a very loud snorting sound behind her. Without stopping to think, Summer quickly squeezed herself into a narrow crevice in the nearest stone and ,sliding her small body through the familiar maze, soon reached the center of the "castle".
The two raptors that had been following the small girl leapt out of the bushes onto the path where just seconds ago their prey had been standing. The path was empty. They howled their fury at being denied their meal. They blinked their evil, yellow eyes rapidly as they looked around the small clearing. They lifted their noses into the air and snuffled and snorted trying to pick up the scent.
Summer, huddled in the very center of the tall stones, stuffed her Dolly into her dress pocket and pulled her knees up to her chin. She clamped her hands over her ears as hard as she could. She didn't know exactly what was making that horrible noise but she knew that it frightened her very much. She longed to be in the safe arms of her mother. Tears flowed down her cheeks but she didn't make a sound. She didn't want what was out there to know that she was in here.
The raptors sharp sense of smell told them that their prey was still nearby. Now ravenous with hunger, they howled and grunted in their frenzy. Their black tongues hung from their foul, slobbering mouths as they turned to the tall stones that hid their meal. They leapt at the rocks, their sharp claws scoring the stones as they frantically tried to dig out their dinner. Their howls rose into the air, seeming to whip the wind, which was now blowing hard, into even greater fury.
Poor Summer was so scared now that she couldn't stay quite.
"Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!" she cried.
Suddenly, two loud explosions ripped through the air, followed by two more. The raptors screamed and then were silent.
Two men, who had been coming down the path from the opposite direction, walked forward cautiously. They wanted to be sure that the raptors were indeed dead before they got too close. It was crossed their minds that maybe they could find what the raptors were after and take it home for their dinner.
Lord John Roxton and Professor George Challenger lowered their rifles as they realized that the raptors were dead. They quickly raised them again, however, when they heard a high pitched scream come from inside the standing stones. No wild pig made that very human sounding noise.
"Who's in there?" Roxton yelled as he pointed his rifle towards the sound. "Come out peacefully. We don't want to hurt you."
There was silence and then a scrabbling sound as a tiny figure popped out from between the rocks and latched onto Roxton's leg.
Both Roxton and Challenger lowered their rifles as they realized that the small figure was a little girl, crying so hard that she couldn't speak.
Roxton quickly handed his rifle to Challenger and picked up the distraught child. She clung to him sobbing and wiping her streaming eyes and nose on his shoulder.
Roxton was at a loss. He didn't know what to do. He patted and rubbed her back, muttering "There, there, now."
It wasn't long before Summer's sobbing began to abate. She was not only afraid, she was outraged. She reared back and started pounding her fists on Roxton's chest.
"Raptors can't get inside the fence! You promised! Raptors aren't ALLOWED inside the fence!"
Her small fists continued to beat on Roxton's chest as he tried to understand what she was saying. He finally thought that he got it.
"Whoa, whoa," he cautioned, holding her away from his body. "These raptors ARE outside the fence. WE'RE outside the fence. You see, no one broke the promise."
He thought that sounded reasonable.
The little girl looked at him in disbelief. Then her dirty, wet face screwed up into another burst of tears as she howled, "Oh, no. I'm not SUPPOSED to be outside the fence." And she flung herself back against his shoulder, crying even harder.
"Is she hurt?" questioned Challenger. He was as astonished as Roxton at finding this little girl out in the jungle all by herself.
"I don't think she's injured," Roxton said as he ran his hand gently down her arms and legs. "But, how did she get out here? Where are her parents?"
Summer stopped crying and leaned back to look up into Roxton's face. Her impossibly wet and grimy face broke into a smirk. She pointed her grubby finger and tapped Roxton on the nose.
"Silly, Daddy," she chortled. "You're right here!"
She looked at him more closely. "You look funny, Daddy. Where's your moo- stash?" she asked as she ran her finger under his nose.
Roxton just stared at her.
Suddenly, Summer was so tired she couldn't keep her eyes opened. She collapsed against Roxton's shoulder. Her sleepy little voice was barely loud enough for the men to hear.
"I'm glad you shot those mean raptors, Daddy. Please take me back to the treehouse. I'm so tired. I want to go to bed." Her voice trailed off as she closed her eyes. Her head snuggled up against Roxton's neck.
Roxton, who had been rendered speechless up to this point, looked over the little girl's head at Challenger, "Did she call me Daddy?" he asked incredulously.
Challenger chuckled and rubbed his hand over his beard.
"Well," he answered, amusement in his voice, "she does look exactly like you, John."
Roxton squinted one eye shut and tilted his head to look down at the sleeping child.
He shrugged.
"Let's get going," he said. "It looks like rain."
He started off down the path they had just traversed. Challenger brought up the rear, carrying the rifles.
They had gone a few yards when Summer raised her head from Roxton's shoulder and looked back at Challenger.
"You look funny, too, Grandpa." Summer sighed and then went back to sleep.
Challenger's mouth dropped open. "Grandpa? Did that child call me Grandpa?"
He shook his head in shock.
"We must hurry to the treehouse, Roxton. Clearly that child is hallucinating!"
Roxton laughed and hoisted the mystery child higher up onto his shoulder.
To be Continued…
Chapter 3 coming soon.
