The Giant Forest - COMPLETED - True to life adventures of preteens.

Getting Lost One Step at a Time

Mousi wasn't the only one who didn't make it to the evening worship gathering in the Conference Center at Mt Hermon during the opening night of this week of camp. The word had gotten out that this week was going to be unique, special, unlike any other experienced at camp in his 100 plus year history. The camp had a record number of attendees. The counselors and support staff was ready.

Every camper was assigned to a counselor. Each counselor was responsible for a group of 7-8 campers. Butterfinger noticed some of those in his charge hadn't shown up. The group that hadn't shown up were a tight knit group of five that all came from the same school - a small Christian school 'over the hill' from Mt Hermon in the heart of Silicon Valley. The counselors had names for the cliques that were formed. Butterfinger called this group of five "The Bunch."

Aimi was one of the kids that Butterfinger noticed hadn't shown up. Aimi was very strict with her time ... and her friends! They called her "Little Mama" only half in jest.

"I'm glad my friends know I am looking out for them," Aimi would tell herself. Sometimes, however, Aimi forgot to be a kid herself.

Before coming to camp, Aimi got a present from her dad that she thought she wanted. After she got it, however, she wasn't sure she liked it. After carrying it around for a while, it became part of her. She had it with her all the time. She even developed a new habit of swiping her side to make sure it was always with her. Her Steppit looked something like a watch fob, but smaller. The device did tell time. It also told her how far in miles her feet took her each day, how many calories she might have burned and how many steps she had taken that day. Oh, and the silly gizmo made faces at her, too. Spiders, monsters, and aliens.

The faces were the part that reminded her most of her dad. He always made funny faces.

"Hey dad! This one looks just like you!" She liked to tease her dad. His funny face, she said, looked natural and his natural face looked funny. Her daddy didn't mind. He often laughed at himself, too.

Aimi checked her Steppit often. She had a rather arbitrary goal of wanting to cover more than 10,000 steps or about 4 miles each day. Her best day in number of steps is better than her dad's best. All this to say, that Aimi, when she put her mind to it, could accomplish considerable feats. She just needed to learn to focus more when it counted.

On her way to worship time, Aimi reached to her side pocket, contorted herself to the right so she could read the face of her Steppit without unclipping it from her favorite navy blue tights.

8,974.

That's the number of steps she had for the day. Aimi had gotten better at doing math in her head. She and her dad had practiced with flashcards many mornings during their commute to school. Aimi new she had about 15 minutes till she had to be at the Conference Center to join the other campers in the evening singfest. She also knew she could cover about 1,000 steps in that amount of time. She reckoned correctly that all she had to do was walk the path for 500 steps, turn around and when she returned she would be at 10,000. "I'll get the extra few steps that I need when I walk back to the cabin."

Aimi took off at a faster pace than usual to be sure she got back in time. She also loved to sing to herself while, well, doing anything. She also taught herself how to whistle quite well. As Aimi walked away from the camp she hummed and whistled until she saw a giant beetle crawling across the path in front of her. He was so big that it startled her. Aimi didn't just dislike bugs, she hated them. She froze in her tracks and screamed a quiet scream! She felt much more fear inside than the noise she let out would indicate.

"Get out of my way! Go away!" She said as loud as she could without anybody being able to hear her. The bug seemed oblivious to her actions as he continued on his way. Aimi was afraid they would meet again. She should have been afraid had they NOT meet again.

She contorted herself again to look at her Steppit to see if she had gotten to the turnaround point yet. She left knowing she had plenty of daylight remaining. But ... there was a sudden cloud cover that came over. The moonlight was blocked. Coupled with the natural darkness caused by the trees it suddenly got dark enough that Aimi could no longer see the display on her Steppit. She had always been a terrible judge of time ... and now distance, too it appears.

"Have I been gone 5 or 10 minutes? I wonder," she said loud enough for the beetle to hear her. The beetle, almost across the path, didn't turn around or look up. "I'd better turn back just in case."

Aimi spun around imitating a tin soldier in a nutcracker play and began to retrace her steps, counting every time her right foot struck the ground. Then multiplying by two. She calculated that after 250 steps she'd back at the campground.

Two hundred and 50 steps later, no campground was in sight. Three hundred steps. No campground. Five hundred steps, 1000 total just on the return trip and still no campground.

"How can that be? All I did was walk straight, turn around, and walk straight back."

Aimi doubled back to see if she missed a turn. She knew that it wasn't possible for her to miss a turn because there were no turns. It was a single path that she and her friends had been on many times. Still when she went back there was no campground. The darkness grew heavier upon her, also.

Aimi resolved to count off 2,000 steps in the direction she thought the camp should be hoping she'd come out somewhere that she recognized. All the while, she tried not to be scared ... yet.

One thousand steps. Nothing. One thousand five hundred. Nothing. Two thousand steps. Nothing. Aimi was scared now.

She saw a flickering light. "It's probably a lightning bug," she speculated. It was about 30 to 50 yards away. The 'bug' however, didn't flit. The light remained motionless.

She hurried in the direction of the light not thinking about counting steps anymore. She just wanted to get out of the trees and find a recognizable place or better yet a counselor with a flashlight.

When Aimi stepped out of the giant forest to her back, she found that she had not returned to camp but had made her way to the beach. The light that she thought was a lightning bug was in a boat anchored about a stone's throw away from where the sea met the sand after the tide had retreated.

Aimi saw a figure in the boat and immediately wished she could turn around and go back the other way.