A Bit Of The Rest Of The Story

 

Ground Zero

            Apparently Robert, the blond kid who took off up the river when he beheld Ralph eventually ran out of steam. At some point he was more tired than terrified. And since, the car he and Matt had parked by the Ranger Station was back the way he had fled from, he stopped, rested for five minutes, and decided that he better go on back.
            Robert and Matt encountered each other about a mile from the scene of the recent action. Neither one of them had anything to say. They just kept trudging down the riverbank, arriving at last to their camp area as was. It was a dismal sight. 6 Heineken cans lying around randomly, the butt of one expensive cigar lying where Matt had been sitting, the sodden coals of their camp fire, and their dampened packs and lightweight tents.
            Matt stuck the beer cans and the cigar butt in his pack. They took down the tents and walked as directly as possible to the old Civic parked outside Rick’s office door. They stuffed their stuff in the back of the car and Matt drove back out to the highway.
            “Matt?” said Robert from the passenger seat. He was kind of hunched over in the seat.
            “Yeah, what?” said Matt.
            “I don’t feel like that was real. You know? What really happened out there?” said Robert, hopefully.
            “Oh, well! Yes. That was real. You don’t get to decide if you like or don’t like real. Real just is. You met a mythic guy, who turned out to be a real guy, and we stole his stuff, etc.,” said Matt.
            That was the extent of the discussion. It didn’t take long to get back to town.

24 hours later….

 
            During the night, there had been a vigorous rainstorm. In the morning sunshine, everything was bright and fresh and still dripping rainwater off of every branch and twig and leaf. Birds were doing that thing like in the old Disney movies. These days, birds only behave like that in Ralph’s Great Forest.
            Ralph cracked his knuckles with delight. All the clouds from the previous day's events had left his mind. This drippy sunshiny day looked OK to him.
            It was time to gather firewood, so he and Twigg went off to gather deadfall. This gathering going on all of the time is part of the reason the Great Forest is so tidy and pleasant.
            Ramona made fish soup for the morning meal. Easy and quick. Ralph had gone out at first light and sweet talked a few of those gullible trout.
            Midday, there wasn’t much on the agenda, so he decided to go contemplate things for a while on the big cedar log. The thought of his purloined beer and cigars made him a little blue for a moment. But he trudge on up the path anyhow.
            Maeve was waiting for him there.
            “Somebody has been here during the night, Boss,” she remarked.
            “How do you know?” said he, looking all around.
            Of course, during the dark hours, Matt and Robert had sneaked back into the Great Forest and left two new six packs of Heineken and a box of much cheaper cigars tucked down into the hidey hole under the big log.
            There is a bit of a mystery here. Perhaps they blundered upon the log the first time. Was it allowed somehow? But, a person could say that it was just a random accident.
            But then to find the spot again? Maybe making restitution gave them a sort of pass. However, I'll bet they couldn’t find it again, just for no reason. In fact, they would probably find themselves all turned around and back at the parking lot. It  has happened before to other adventurers.
            “Well, Birdy,” said Ralph, “Not bad. Not bad at all!”

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