Escaping the Lost Island (working title)

Chapter 6

Everyone was asleep when I got back to camp except for Isaac. He raised his eyebrows at me as I walked into the clearing, but I said nothing.

"I take it you didn't find them," he said.

"Find what?"

He looked at me quizzically. "The plans for the raft?"

I gave a slight shake of my head. I had completely forgotten my reason for venturing out in the first place. "Oh yeah, I couldn't find them."

"Did you even look for them?"

"Of course I did." My voice had an edge to it, but I didn't care.

Isaac squinted at me. "Want to tell me what happened?"

"What are you talking about?"

He rolled his eyes. "Its obvious you completely forgot what you set out to do, so what happened?"

I feigned nonchalance. "Nothing."

"Right."

"I said nothing!"

He sighed. "Meg, give me some credit. I'm not an idiot."

"You're doing a great impression of one," I snapped. Isaac stared at me and I felt a twinge of guilt. "Sorry," I said quickly. "You're not an idiot, everything's fine."

"Meg..."

"I'm fine." I turned to walk towards my sleeping pad.

Did I usually talk to Isaac about everything? Yes. Was I going to talk to him about what I had just seen? Absolutely not, or at least not right now. It didn't make sense to alarm him with details of the conversation I had just heard, especially when I didn't even understand it myself. I needed to find out more before I explained to him what had happened. Then we could talk it out together. Even so, he was clearly hurt and confused by my behavior, which prompted me to turn back briefly. "Good night."

"Night," he muttered, turning his back on me.

I sighed. Turning again, I walked to the other side of the clearing and lay down. Alex and Jessie's conversation kept cycling through my mind.  Did he really mean what he had said about more people dying? It seemed so unlike Alex to think like that, he didn't seem capable of such...coldness. I was also surprised to discover that I was actually bothered by what Alex had said about me. "Meg doesn't know what she's doing...she's too diplomatic."  Of course I didn't know what I was doing; I would be the first person to tell you that. But I had at least thought that Alex had been on my side. He had always been so loyal and supportive. I rolled over onto my side and closed my eyes, but I lay on my mat for at least a half hour and sleep still eluded me.

Lately I'd been thinking a lot about my family, almost like keeping track of their activities. According to Toby (who had told us it was June 10th a week ago), they would most likely be on our annual camping trip up north. Dad and Cole would go out fishing while Mom and I hiked around the campground talking and exploring. Then in the afternoon, we'd meet up and Cole and I would play football and Frisbee until dark. My dad would start a fire after multiple failed attempts and then stand guard by it, poking and prodding at the glowing logs. Our hot dogs would be slightly charred as usual, but that was just the way I liked them. As the stars came out, we'd all climb into our sleeping bags and play cards until Dad fell asleep and started to snore. Then Cole and I would fall asleep in the faint glow of Mom's reading lamp.

A lump had formed in my throat. What was I doing? Wasting time for one thing and being stupid for another. Reminiscing wouldn't bring me or anyone else on the island home. I rolled over again and forced myself to stop thinking. Within minutes, I was fast asleep.