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“Yeah, saw the sign.”
“Just making sure. There’s nowhere to turn around for miles.”
“Thanks, Aubrey.” I stuffed down annoyance at my sister’s need to control things. I was used to it.
“Here!” I slowed and turned across the road into the turnoff, which had a small sign I’d never paid attention to before, reading “Lutheran Camp.”
We bounced down an old, paved road for a little way and then it shifted to packed dirt, which was no less bumpy. Finally, the road widened into a clearing that held parking berms and a sign indicating that the camp was closed for the season.
I threw the big car into park, and for a moment no one moved. The forest was tall and dark on all sides of the little clearing, and with the clouds descending, it felt almost otherworldly. A shred of doubt rose in me, a hesitation about exploring when I knew weather was coming any minute. I felt responsible for my sister, for Emily. But I pushed the worry aside. This was not an aircraft carrier, we were not at sea. My fear was disproportionate to the situation. I steeled myself and opened the driver’s door. Everyone else followed suit, though no one spoke until we were gathered at the front of the car, peering around us.
“It feels like we’re a million miles from anywhere,” Emily said, her voice low.
“Let’s look around,” Wiley suggested, taking Aubrey’s hand.
We headed toward the stacked firewood and tent platforms scattered around a central clearing, and I spotted the arched sign at the back of the area. A little flicker of excitement burst to life within me, and I placed a hand on Emily’s lower back as I pointed. “There it is!”
Aubrey and Wiley moved toward the arch, and my sister looked up at the words “Kasper Ridge Worship” with wide eyes. Emily and I followed, and she stayed close by my side, almost tucked into me.
It was odd, seeing the arch standing there at the edge of the clearing. In my mind it had become part of the Kasper Ridgelore, just one more bygone artifact of my great-uncle’s time. But it was still here, and it looked sturdy and proud.
I moved around the arch, running my hands down the logs on each side of the overhead sign, looking for anything that would seem to be a good reason for having come all this way.
“There’s this,” Emily said, pointing to a spot halfway up one of the posts. I moved around to look at where she was pointing, Aubrey and Wiley just behind me.
There, carved into a heart were the initials MK and LL. “Marvin Kasper and Lola Lowe?” I asked.
“Must be,” Wiley said.
It was odd, seeing the lines carved into the wood, knowing my uncle had likely been the one to work a blade there to create them. I ran my fingers over the outline of the heart, thinking about what he must have been feeling as he stood right here, with the woman he loved, making an indelible mark that would outlast even him.
There were a few other sets of initials carved into the wood, but surprisingly few. I imagined the counselors didn’t appreciate that type of vandalism—even if it was in the name of love—and most of these carvings looked weathered and old, as if they’d been made before this was a camp. I was sure Uncle Marvin’s fit that description.
“What is this?” Aubrey asked, tracing her finger along a deeply carved line that led from the heart around Uncle Kasper’s initials and ended in an arrow. It looked like an afterthought, like maybe it had been added later.
“An arrow,” Wiley said. “Where is it pointing?”
We all circled the post, looking for something at the terminus of the arrow, or in the direction it indicated, but there was nothing else on the post we could find. Frustration dug into me as the cold began to make its presence known. We couldn’t stay out here much longer without winter coats and gloves. I glanced at my sister, who was beating her hands against her legs, as if trying to regain circulation.
“Is it pointing into the woods?” Emily asked, her arms wrapped around her body as she suppressed a shiver. We didn’t have much time.
“Not super excited about wandering through the woods at the moment,” I said, and I glanced up just in time to see the first snowflakes drifting down. The weight of my responsibility for everyone here became heavier as I thought about what would happen if we got stuck out here. “We should probably go.”
“Oh my gosh!” Emily put her arms out to catch the drifting flakes, her face aglow with excitement. “Snow!”
“Oh!” Aubrey made a startled noise too, but when I snapped my gaze to hers, she forced a smile. “Snow,” she said.
“You’ve seen plenty of snow before,” I told her, something more than my protective instinct flaring to life inside me.
“Always exciting,” she said, and then she moved toward the closest tree outside the clearing. “If it’s pointing off that post, it’d be to this tree or that one there.” She stopped next to a wide trunk and scanned it.
“Anything?” Wiley moved to her side.
They scanned the tree and I should have gone to do the same, but my attention had been captured by Emily’s fascination with her first snowfall. She was grinning up at the sky, and just when I thought she couldn’t possibly be cuter, she tipped her head back and stuck her tongue out. When a flake landed on it, she turned to me with a huge smile. “Got one!”
Her enthusiasm chased away the lingering worry I’d been feeling, and I smiled back at her. “What do you think?”
“How long before we can build a snowman?”
