Chapter Four

Both girls were very glad that the morning was a cheery one. The snow-topped mountain peaks in the distance were dazzling-white against a cloudless, brilliant-blue sky as Katrin stepped out of the tent, stretched and yawned. She had almost forgotten the events of the previous night until she noticed Meredith sitting on the log with the baby on her lap, attempting to give it some milk from a flask. She was obviously having much difficulty, as the milk was running everywhere.

Although Meredith had removed the cloth wrap from the baby and she was now, rather ridiculously, clad in a flannel night-shirt of Meredith’s, Katrin’s gaze was quickly averted to something else. It was the expression on her sister’s face. It made her feel a little uneasy, seeing that look in her sister’s eyes. It was a look which she had never seen before, a look of peculiar tenderness and almost... but she could hardly bring herself to acknowledge it. It seemed to foreshadow something of Meredith’s life-to-come; a life which would separate them, forever. But there, she wouldn’t think about it. There were far more pressing matters to worry about at the moment.

“Did you sleep OK?” asked Meredith, glancing only long enough at her sister to acknowledge her presence, then quickly redirecting her attention to the pain-staking process of feeding the baby.

“Not really,” said Katrin, perhaps a little more coolly than she had intended.

“Thankfully the baby slept last night,” said Meredith, wiping its small mouth with a tissue.

“What about you?” asked Katrin, sitting down on the log beside her.

“Oh, I slept on and off,” came Meredith’s reply, with a yawn. “But I couldn’t really, worrying about the baby and everything.”

“But she’s not your responsibility,” snapped Katrin, the tone of her voice betraying her emotion.

Meredith looked up. She looked surprised, even injured by Meredith’s ejection.

“What do you mean, she’s not my responsibility? Who else’s responsibility is she then?”

“Well, I...”

“I think we’re both aware that this child no longer has a mother, and since we found her and there’s no-one else within a radius of at least ten miles from here, it makes her our responsibility. You’re in this as well, you know.”

“I didn’t mean...”

“Katrin, could you please get me a banana. I’m not getting very far with this milk.”

Katrin sighed, stood up and went to look for the container with the fruit. She hadn’t meant to be so... straightforward. And Meredith was looking so run-down. But it was no wonder; after all, they had both had a big fright.

Meredith wondered what was keeping Katrin so long as the minutes ticked by and yet she did not appear with the banana. The baby was beginning to fret again. Meredith put down the flask and tenderly cuddled her close. The child’s hands, which were no bigger than fifty pence coins, tightly clasped around her fingers. “I wonder what your name is,” whispered Meredith, dreamily.

But the magic of the moment was promptly broken by an anxious cry which came from the door of the tent. Katrin came running out presently, wringing her hands, with an expression which could only have been contrived by the considerable contortion of her facial muscles.

“Oh Katrin, our food’s gone! Almost all of it! First the pager, and now this!”

“What do you mean, it’s... gone? Are you sure?”

“I’m positive. I’ve been through all the containers. All that’s left is a packet of crackers, some blueberries and one of your silly low-fat yoghurts. At least whoever stole the rest of the stuff was considerate enough to leave that.”

“I can’t believe this, Katrin. As if we haven’t got enough problems. Well, there’s only one thing for it now.”

“What?”

“We have to find our way back to the caravan.”

“You’re crazy!” cried Katrin. “How on earth could we? It could take days, and there’s the mountain to get round somehow. And we’ve got the baby.”

“I know all this, Katrin, but what else do you suggest we do? Mum and Dad said that unless they hear from us they’ll assume everything’s OK, and come and get us on Tuesday- which is five days away yet. Since we’ve lost the pager there’s no way of contacting them, so we’ll just have to find our way back to the caravan. Otherwise we’ll starve to death- or at least get very sick- before Mum and Dad ever realise something’s gone wrong. Maybe if we hurry, we could reach the caravan before tomorrow night. Dad did say it was a day and a half’s journey, didn’t he?”

“He said at least,” sighed Katrin. “But I think I’d rather stay here and starve to death than get lost on the mountain somewhere and be eaten alive by wild animals.”

“But we’ve got the baby to think about, too,” said Meredith, with an exasperated roll of her eyes. “If there’s any hope at all of getting her to safety, we’ve just go to take any of the consequent risks in our stride. Besides, it appears that it’s going to be too risky now to remain here. If there are Indians nearby...”

“There are Indians nearby,” stated Katrin, matter-of-factly.

“Did you hear those drums last night?” asked Meredith, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes... I heard something. I thought I was imagining things. It was an awful sound; it made my hair stand on end.”

“To think that they’re back... just wait till Dad finds out. I’m sure he’ll be climbing the walls to get some footage of them.”

“I don’t want anything to do with Indians. Except, of course... well, we’ve been landed with the baby, so there’s not much we can do about her. But speaking of Dad, don’t you think we better get our things together if we want to leave soon?”

“So you agree with my plan now, then?” asked Meredith, ignoring her sister’s comment about the baby.

“As you say, there’s no other option,” lamented Katrin.

“Then let’s get a move on before you change your mind. You can be as fickle as the weather sometimes.”

Katrin glowered at her sister, even though Meredith’s almost light-hearted tone made her feel a little more at ease. They both hope that, even for just a few days, the weather would renounce its foresaid fickle-headedness and show them a little kindness as they endeavoured to climb the mountain. The weather certainly looked fairly promising; the sky remained perfectly clear, and there was a hardly a wind to ruffle the daintiest of leaves. They quickly set to work packing up all their belongings, or at least, what was left of them. Once Meredith had succeeded in feeding the baby a small handful of blueberries, they were ready to set off.

As they finally left the clearing, armed and rigged with more equipment than would generally have been thought of as healthy for two young girls to carry on their own, they were very glad to leave it behind, all nostalgic notions having been purged from them by the overshadowing gloom of death which still lurked in the atmosphere. Even the baby seemed glad to leave; she ceased her incessant sobbing and nestled, quite to Meredith’s delight, on her shoulder with a contented sigh.