Author’s note: For those who have not been following The Long Way Home, or for whom it has been a while, the main thing you need to know is that Mart has met an Australian girl while travelling and, after a lot of soul searching, gone to live near her in Australia. Everything else should be clear enough. However, if you need more, a short description of each previous story in this universe may be found on the Reminder Page.
May, 1997
“Ah, Mart. Glad you could join us. Take a seat,” Craig Matthews invited. “You’re just in time.”
Beside him, his brother Jonathan glanced at his watch. “I’d say he’s rather late, actually. I expected him at least half an hour ago.”
Mart looked from his girlfriend to her two older brothers and back again. “What’s going on here?”
Daphne waved him inside her flat and explained in a loud voice, so that all present could hear. “They turned up an hour ago and nothing I do will make them leave. Next, I thought I’d try spraying them with the fire extinguisher, only I’m not sure I can afford a new one.”
“We’re waterproof,” Craig noted. “And the maps and things are replaceable. Do your worst.”
“You’re still not sitting down, Mart.” Jon shook one of Daphne’s dining chairs so that its feet rattled against the floor. “Come on. We don’t have all day.”
Daphne gave an exaggerated sigh. “That’s a relief!”
Mart favoured her with a small smile and went to sit down. “And why, may I ask, do you want me here?”
Craig looked up from the scattered papers. “What are you doing on the Queen’s Birthday long weekend?”
He thought for a moment. “That’s in June, right? Well, I guess we might drive out to your parents’ place for the weekend…”
“Wrong.” Jon pushed a map in front of Mart and jabbed a finger into the middle. “You’re going there, with us.”
For several moments, Mart studied the map. “I don’t think I know where this is.”
“The wreck of the Stinson.” Craig traced a jagged line across the page. “We’re thinking of going in this way, starting at O’Reilly’s, and out via Christmas Creek.”
“Though I still think the stretcher trail has some merit,” Jon argued, apparently in continuation of some ongoing discussion.
“Yes, but then we’d miss Westray’s Grave.” Craig shook his head. “Either you do O’Reilly’s and Christmas Creek, or Christmas Creek and the stretcher trail.”
“But that way, it’s a one-day hike and I thought we wanted to do the overnight.”
“Which is why we should do it the first way. If you want to walk the stretcher trail as well, maybe we can do that another time.”
“Wait. What are you talking about?” Mart demanded. “What wreck? And, excuse my ignorance, but how do you even get a wreck on top of a mountain? Isn’t the coast a more productive place for that kind of thing?”
“We’ll take you to see the Cherry Venture another time,” Craig offered, referring to a well-known shipwreck. “This one’s a plane crash site, from the 1930s.”
“With a story of endurance, bravery and bushcraft to go with it,” Jon added. “We’ll tell it to you some other time, but for now we need to plan this trip.”
“It might make more sense to him if you tell it now,” Daphne pointed out.
Mart nodded. “Please. Enlighten me. You know you want to.”
Craig snorted. “Fine. So, there was a plane that went missing between Brisbane and a place just over the border in Northern New South Wales. They searched for a week or so and didn’t find any trace of it. Then, this bloke O’Reilly who had a guesthouse in a really isolated spot just this side of the border heard about it and decided to take a look.”
“It’d been cloudy,” Jon added, “and O’Reilly guessed it had probably hit one of the highest peaks as it crossed the range.”
“So, he walked for a day, through rough terrain, with no tracks, spent a night against a tree and then set out again in the morning.” Craig took up the tale once more. “He spotted a place where it looked like there’d been a small fire and went in that direction – which took all day. When he got up there, he found the wreck and two survivors, who told him that the other survivor had set off down the creek to look for help. The other four, including the two pilots, were dead.”
“This was about ten days after the crash, by the way.” Jon grimaced. “I don’t think it was a pleasant scene.”
“So, O’Reilly took the shortest way out to civilisation – down the creek – found the other man’s body along the way, where he’d fallen down a waterfall, and reached the farms in the valley below.” He paused a moment. “He took group including a doctor back up the same way, while a group of farmers also set out to cut a trail through the rainforest for the stretchers to come down, because the creek was too steep and one of the victims had a broken leg.”
“Which means there are three ways to get to or from the wreck,” Jon explained. “I think the stretcher trail sounds like the best way back, but Craig insists on doing things the hard way.”
“If we were doing things the easy way, we’d do Christmas Creek and the stretcher trail in some order and go home at the end of the day,” Craig argued.
“And you think I’m going to join you on this trek, why?” Mart asked.
The other two turned to him with matching expressions of determination.
“You seem rather attached to our sister,” Craig answered. “I think that almost makes you part of the family. And this is a family trip. You owe us this.”
“Especially when you consider how tolerant we’ve been of you,” Jon put in. “You’ve been messing around with our baby sister for a long time, now, and we haven’t even threatened you a little bit.”
“I am not messing around with her! This is a serious relationship, based on love and mutual respect.”
“To-may-to, to-mah-to.” Craig laughed, in a slightly unnerving way. “You’re coming with us.”
“And Daphne?”
She shook her head. “Oh, no. There’s no way you’re dragging me up that mountain!”
“You’re not invited,” Jon told her.
“Then why are you plotting this at my dining table?” she demanded.
Craig nodded in Mart’s direction. “We were waiting for him. We knew he’d turn up here before long.”
She eyed her brothers for a long moment. “He’d better come back in one piece, you understand.”
“Of course,” Jon answered. “It never crossed our minds at all that we’re talking about a lonely, isolated place, far away from civilisation and containing a number of very high cliffs.”
“No, not at all. We haven’t ever plotted to take him off the trail into the unknown and dispose of him somewhere that would take days to find, even with all the modern technology that wasn’t available back in those days.” Craig’s lips curved into a sinister smile. “We wouldn’t dream of it.”
Daphne rolled her eyes. “No, of course not. You two are innocence personified.”
“She knows us so well,” Craig told Mart. “So, are you in?”
Mart considered for a few moments. “I hope I live to regret this, but yes.”
“And, by the way, Daff,” Jon added, “you’re driving.”
She groaned. “Brothers!”
“Are you sure you’ve got everything?” Daphne hugged herself, trying to keep warm. “Can you go over it again? I don’t want you out there without everything you need and those bags look awfully small.”
Craig nodded and started going through the supplies. The early-morning sky was a clear, pale blue. They had all arisen before dawn to make the two-hour drive to the guesthouse, which was located in the middle of a National Park, at the end of one long, winding road. The sun had come up as they drove, but here among the trees they were in shadow. Daphne had claimed when they arrived that it was just above freezing, but her brothers had given the temperature as about 10 degrees Celsius. Mart had recalculated that to 50 degrees Fahrenheit and thought it just about right.
“Food. Water. Hats. Sunscreen. First aid kit. Wet weather gear. I’d say cold weather gear, but we’re wearing most of it. Sleeping bags.” Craig paused in his catalogue. “Have you got the rope in your pack, Jon?”
“No, it’s in mine,” Mart answered. “Jon’s got the shovel and toilet paper.”
“So long as someone does,” Craig replied, while Daphne crinkled her nose in distaste. “Maps. Compass. Waterproof matches. Torches. I think that’s everything.”
“Flashlights,” Mart muttered.
Jon clapped him over the shoulder. “You’re not in America now. It’s time you started learning the local language.”
“Every time I think I have, I find something else that’s strange,” Mart grumbled.
“And you did remember to talk to the rangers again, didn’t you?” Daphne prompted, glaring at her eldest brother as if he may have forgotten on purpose.
“Yeah, I rang yesterday and spoke to someone. It’s all fine.” Craig patted her arm. “We’ve going to be just fine.”
“Well, I think we’re ready,” declared Jon. “Don’t forget to pick us up tomorrow afternoon, Daff. You remember where we agreed to meet?”
“Yes. Though, maybe you two are lucky that you’ll have Mart with you. I might have forgotten otherwise.”
“Right. Let’s go.” Craig tried to usher Mart away, but his sister had other ideas.
“You can wait for two minutes while we say goodbye properly,” she told them, pulling Mart to her.
“No, we can’t.” Craig frowned and tried to grab Mart, who ducked out of the way.
Daphne cast her brothers a scathing look, then favoured Mart with an intense kiss. “See you tomorrow afternoon. Stay safe.”
He nodded and kissed her once more, before picking up his backpack. “Tomorrow.”
As they walked away, he glanced back every now and then to see her watching him. They rounded a corner and she was lost from sight.
“Ready for a break?” Craig asked, a couple of hours later. “I think I am.”
“This looks as good a spot as any,” Jon agreed, wiping the sheen of sweat from his brow.
As the morning progressed, the temperature had risen and they had all stripped off their outer layers until they were in short sleeves. The walk was strenuous enough to keep them warm.
“It looks like all the other bits of jungle,” Mart added, gloomily. He was not particularly enjoying the adventure so far. An encounter with a particularly prickly vine had left his fingers scratched and a spot on his arm was still itching from something he had rubbed against.
Craig gave him a pointed look. “This is not jungle. This is called rainforest. And I thought you were supposed to have an enormous vocabulary.”
Mart frowned at the fallen tree trunk the other two had chosen in case it might harbour some unknown terror, then carefully sat down. “It looks like a jungle to me.”
“That just shows your lack of experience of jungles,” Jon retorted. “Next, we’d better send you somewhere that has real jungles so you can compare.”
“No, thanks,” Mart muttered, while glaring at a small palm tree opposite him that was completely covered in spikes. “This place is quite hostile enough. I have no desire to experience anything worse.”
In silence, the three drank from their water bottles and ate some of the muesli bars and other things they had packed as snacks. Jon put his jacket back on, muttering about the cold.
“What are you and Daphne doing when she finishes uni at the end of the year?” Craig wondered, breaking into Mart’s thoughts. “You thinking of staying where you are?”
“No,” he answered without thinking. “The sooner I leave the city, the better.”
“And what if she stays?” Jon asked, with the barest hint of menace in his voice.
Mart looked from one to the other and was struck by the fact that he really did not know either of them well.
“She doesn’t want to stay there, either,” he answered, at last. “But if, for any reason, she has to… well, I’ll stay too. I’ve stayed thus far and I intend to go the distance.”
“What if she stays in Brisbane permanently?” Craig persisted. “Are you going to keep on sticking around?”
Mart frowned. “Well, I’d hope that we could find somewhere quieter – maybe out in the suburbs a bit, away from busy roads. The traffic noise just about drove me insane those first few weeks, I can tell you.”
“But you’re not thinking of buggering off back to wherever you came from,” Jon clarified. “You plan on sticking around, no matter what.”
“Yes! Is this why you dragged me out here? So you could interrogate me on my intentions toward your sister?”
Craig shrugged. “Not really. We just thought it was time we got to know you a bit. See how you cope with a bit of hardship. That sort of thing.” He got to his feet. “Before we know it, you’ll be presenting Mum with grandchildren and she’ll be asking us why we’re not more like you. We need a good answer for her.”
The mouthful of water Mart had just taken sprayed out in a mist in front of him and he spluttered for a minute, trying to clear his airways.
“Wasn’t thinking of doing that just yet,” he answered, when he could manage.
“These things aren’t always intentional.” Jon’s voice was serious, but his eyes shone with suppressed laughter. “Though, if it happens when you’re not married, Mum probably won’t want us to copy you then.”
“Good point. We might have to hope for that,” Craig told him. “Are you ready to go, yet? I don’t think it’s too far to the first lookout.”
“Are either of you ever completely serious?” Mart asked, after scrambling up from the fallen log.
“No,” they answered, together.
He sighed. “I didn’t think so.”
“Not far to the first lookout?” Mart muttered, about an hour later. “If this is your definition of ‘not far’, I don’t want to experience your definition of far.”
“It didn’t look far on the map,” Craig answered, sounding a little hot and bothered. “But I think we might be almost there, now.”
Jon snorted. “Either that, or we’ve gotten lost before we even left the marked tracks.”
“Before we what?” Mart asked, stopping dead.
“You do realise that it’s going to get worse, don’t you?” Craig asked. “You don’t have to check in with anyone to do this walk. It’s only about six or seven hours, return. We talked to the rangers for the part after we leave the marked tracks – which isn’t until after we’ve seen these supposed lookouts.”
“Which you will see, if you just keep walking a little further,” Jon called, from up ahead.
The promise of something to look at gave Mart an added burst of energy and he started off in that direction. His earlier grumpiness was forgotten as the view was revealed. They had emerged onto the edge of a sheer cliff, which extended away from them along a serpentine line in both directions. Far below, the floor of the valley was densely forested. To the left, the coastline was just visible as a blue haze in the distance and here and there were signs of civilisation.
Craig pointed to a peak in the middle distance, that seemed to rise out of nowhere. “Mount Warning. It’s part of an old volcano. All this is, really.”
Mart’s eyes followed the sweep of his hand across the vast caldera, much of it eroded completely away. “It must have been some volcano.”
“Millions of years ago, yes.” Craig glanced at his watch. “Well, let’s keep moving.”
“What? But we just got here,” Mart exclaimed. “At least let me get some photos.”
Jon tapped his foot and looked pointedly at his watch, but Mart was almost certain he was just teasing. Nevertheless, he tried to be quick and only took two shots. After another swig from his water bottle, they continued along the cliff edge, heading away from the coast.
The next part of the walk followed the cliff edge fairly closely and the spectacular views helped raise Mart’s spirits. He started tuning out the conversation of the other two when he heard the words ‘Super League’ and not long afterwards, ‘State of Origin’. While he liked sports in general, the intricacies of the ongoing football dispute and its effects on a popular inter-state competition were beyond him. He had embarrassed himself enough times already through ignorance of the rules of rugby league, game of choice in his adopted home; he had no intention of doing so now.
So, as he walked, his mind wandered. In Sleepyside right now, the weather would be warm and the lake ready for swimming. His friends might gather there for a barbecue sometime soon. They would have a great time, just as they had on countless previous occasions. A slight frown creased his brow; try as he might, he could not imagine himself in that picture.
The path turned away from the edge of the escarpment and in amongst the trees. Mart paused, looking out at the vista, then into the dimness of the rainforest. He let out a silent sigh and stepped into the shadows.
“I think it’s time to call it a day,” Craig announced, as the sun sank low in the sky. “How does here look?”
Mart considered the area with a critical eye. “Awful. But since I haven’t seen anywhere better all day I guess it’ll have to do.”
Jon snorted. “If you just watched where you were going…”
“If you’d brought me somewhere with less minuscule, clinging, irritating spikes…” Mart countered. He dropped his pack onto the ground and sank down after it. “The next time you tell me I’m going somewhere with you, the answer is no.”
“And I thought Americans would boast about anything,” Craig joked. “You know: ‘Where I come from, we don’t have these scrawny little spikes on our plants. Our spikes are huge! You can stand on one and it’ll come out the top of your head, they’re so big.’”
Despite himself, Mart laughed. “That’s got to be the worst imitation of an American accent I’ve ever heard. Besides, I think it’s the tininess that’s the problem. Give me a huge cactus covered in visible spines over one of these things any day.”
“You may have a point,” Craig answered, while poking through his pack. “I think we’d better set up camp while the light holds out. It’s going to get very dark very soon.”
Mart nodded and started arranging his things. “You know, I thought you were mad when you said we’d be sleeping outside in winter, without even a tent. But then I remembered that you don’t really have winters here.”
“You won’t still be saying that at three o’clock tomorrow morning,” Jon told him with a smirk.
“Will it be snowing then?” Mart responded, with raised eyebrow. “No? Then I don’t think I’ll be changing my tune.”
“We’ll see,” Craig answered, with a grin.
In spite of his earlier bravado, Mart had willingly climbed into his sleeping bag as soon as their evening meal was finished. True to Craig’s prediction, the darkness was intense. Since they were in an area where no campfires were allowed, they did not have even have that to cheer and warm them. Once the sun had gone down, the temperature had dropped.
During a lull in the conversation, Mart considered his situation. The ground was hard and his bedding barely took the edge off the hardness. The air was cold. Now that he had stopped moving, all of his muscles ached. He would have liked to eat just a little more, but was mindful of the fact that his day’s rations had been consumed. Somewhere nearby, a nocturnal creature was moving and he had little idea what it could be. And, to top things off, Craig had just started to snore.
“He always gets to sleep first,” Jon grumbled. “Always.”
With a sudden pang, Mart thought of Brian. “My older brother does, too. Lucky for me, he doesn’t snore – much.”
“Do you miss them? Your family, I mean?”
“Of course.”
“But you’re still here.”
Mart made a noise of affirmation. “I knew that I would miss them. I was prepared for that.”
A silence ensued, broken at last by Jon. “We didn’t think it would go this way. Craig and I, I mean. We thought you’d run back home as soon as you found out you couldn’t get Twinkies here, or whatever it is that Americans eat.”
Mart snorted. “I’d been here before, remember? I knew what I was getting myself into.”
“What is a Twinkie, anyway?”
“A kind of cake with a creamy filling. They come in a box, individually wrapped. And, for the record, I’m not suffering from Twinkie withdrawal. Sure, there are other foods that I miss, but… well, there are more important things.”
“Are you taking her back with you to live? Is that your plan?”
Mart hesitated. “This is what you really brought me out here for, isn’t it?”
“Partly. She’s our only sister. You understand that, don’t you?”
“Yes,” he answered, in a low voice. “I don’t know that I’d like it if this sort of thing was happening to my sister.”
“So, are you?”
For a long moment, Mart did not answer. “I don’t think she’d be happy if I tried that. We haven’t really made any decisions, but… well, your family isn’t the same as mine. My Dad and his brothers live in three separate states.”
“And we have an enormous extended family all in the one? That’s true, but our states are a hell of a lot bigger than yours,” Jon commented.
“Your extended family is all crammed in one corner. There’s not more than three or four hours’ drive between any of them.”
“We have some cousins in New Zealand,” Jon reminded him. “I defy you to drive there in four hours, or at all.”
Mart grunted. “The fact remains that Daphne has a sense of belonging here, and I… well, I don’t know where I belong any more.”
“And you’d really give up everything you grew up knowing to be here with her? Are you really going to go the distance, or are you just playing around with her?”
In that moment, Mart felt a profound gratitude that he had never had to have a conversation like this with Jim. His sister’s relationship seemed so simple, in spite of the hard decisions they had made in order to stay together.
“I love her and I’m staying.”
“In spite of the lack of Twinkies?”
“Will you quit going on about Twinkies! If you’re so worried about them, I’ll bring some back for you to try the next time I visit, but right now can we please not talk about food?”
“Yeah. Okay.” A silence ensued. “But you don’t want to drag Daff off to wherever and never come back.”
Mart sighed. “I don’t think anyone could drag my sister off like that, against her will. Why do you think Daphne would be any different?”
“She always was soft-hearted. She’d take in any stray. One-eared dog? No problem. Injured wildlife? Bring it on. If she’d ever found a stray crocodile, she would’ve been asking Mum if she could keep it.”
“If you’re comparing me to the crocodile…”
Jon laughed. “You always take things so personally.”
“Really? I thought I was being remarkably tolerant.”
“Yeah, well maybe you need some more practice at that.”
In the darkness, Mart frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Jon let out a sigh. “Look, I can see how this is going, okay? If you’re going to be a part of our family, you’re going to need to know how to take the teasing.”
“Part of your family,” Mart repeated, blankly.
“Are you following this conversation, or not? My sister has adopted you, like some stray crocodile–”
“I am not–”
“See? This is exactly what I mean.”
“Fine, your sister has seen my fine, reptilian form, admired my preponderance of sharp, pointy teeth and leathery hide and decided that, helpless as I am, I need her as protector. Now, what is your point?”
Jon laughed. “I meant that crocodiles don’t naturally live around here.”
“And neither would I, if it wasn’t for her.” Mart considered this for a moment. “But I think I finally understand what you’re trying to tell me. You don’t want to have to be careful around me, for fear I might snap at you.”
“Well, I wasn’t ever fearful…” Jon began.
“I was carrying the crocodile analogy a little further.”
“Ah. Maybe the crocodile wasn’t such a good idea, after all.”
“If Daphne ever asks me to adopt one, I’ll be sure to say no,” Mart quipped, pausing to yawn part-way through.
“You’d better,” Jon answered and they both settled down to sleep.
“Who thought this was a good idea again?” Mart grumbled when they got going the next morning. “I feel like I slept on a sack full of rocks, woke up freezing cold in the early hours, had an inadequate breakfast and then was forced to keep on stumbling through this strange, uncharted land in search of something I won’t recognise when I see it.”
While easier than when Bernard O’Reilly had first blazed a trail, the hike was still challenging. Thick vegetation crowded the path and, as Mart had discovered the day before, a prickly vine called Wait-a-while clung to them if they brushed against it.
“You really are a little ray of sunshine this morning, aren’t you?” Craig asked, in a cheerful voice. “I’m going to make sure you always come hiking with us, from now on.”
Mart made a less-than-polite reply and, after his companions had stopped laughing, the three lapsed into silence.
In the light of day, the conversation of the night before seemed more and more unsettling to Mart. He ran it through his mind over and over, trying to decide whether he really had interpreted Jon’s comments correctly. It still stung a little to be compared to a crocodile. However, the more rational part of his mind insisted that Jon had a point. He was still sometimes out of place here. He had also, more than once, snapped at something that was intended as a joke.
“I think we’re nearly there,” Craig announced, some time later. “Not far now.”
After a few minutes, they came upon the crash site. Very little remained to be seen and what was there had long ago been reclaimed by the forest.
“This is it?” Mart wondered, while staring at a piece of mangled metal. “All that way and there’s just a few bits of old junk.”
“It’s been sixty years,” Craig answered. “And they removed most of the body of the plane ten or fifteen years ago. What were you expecting?”
“More than this,” Mart answered, frowning. “What’s the point of even coming here?”
Jon shrugged. “It’s not about the destination. It’s about the journey.”
For a moment, Mart was stunned. So caught up had he been with his petty complaints about the terrain, the local flora, the quality of food and lack of facilities, he had lost sight of the wonder of his surroundings. He had walked along the tops of towering cliffs, beneath tall trees and through pristine wilderness and he had focussed on the thorns.
Maybe I am like that crocodile, after all, he thought, rather ruefully. So thick-skinned I don’t notice what’s going on around me, and with a limited point of view, never looking up to see the sky. Though, I’d appreciate that thick skin right now; it’d be proof against all these wretched spikes.
“You okay?” Craig asked, frowning.
Mart was jolted out of his reverie. “Yeah. Never better.”
“Good. We’ve still got a way to go if we want to meet Daphne on time. And there’s some more to see before we go. Come over this way.”
His heart lighter, Mart began to explore the site.
As the day wore on, Mart felt more and more weary. After leaving the wreck, their path had been mostly downhill. This had been a relief at first, but the steep descent took nearly as much effort to traverse as some of the ascents had.
The sun sank lower in the sky. The snacks in Mart’s backpack had all been eaten and he found himself longing for a proper meal – and a long, hot shower, and a comfortable bed. He would not admit it to her brothers, but he very much wanted to see Daphne as well. He had learned some things about himself since he last saw her and, while he knew he could not do justice to them, he wanted to share his thoughts.
“How much further is it, do you think?” Jon asked.
Craig, in the lead, shrugged. “Hard to say. Do you need a break?”
Jon nodded and sank to the ground, heedless of whatever was down there. The other two sat down as well. A silence stretched between them. Mart took a swig from his water bottle and considered how long it would be until dark.
“We need to move. We’re late, and it’ll be dark in another hour.” Craig echoed Mart’s thoughts. “You right, Jon?”
The younger brother groaned. “I s’pose.”
With a grunt, he heaved himself to his feet. After sharing a glance with Craig, Mart took the lead. The path was well-worn here, with little chance of going off track. The ground was also drier than it had been in other places, and the vegetation less dense. Glints of sunlight shone through the trees.
As they walked, a sound caught Mart’s attention: a passing car. He began to look for signs of civilisation, but did not find any at first. After a while, he thought he could see something through the trees.
His steps quickened. Daphne’s car came into sight, then Daphne herself. A broad smile spread across his face as she started walking towards him.
“We made it!” he cried, ready to take her into his arms.
To his dismay, she stopped short at arm’s length, one hand held out in front of her. “And I’m really glad, but I don’t think I’m going to hug you right now.”
He frowned.
“You stink!” she explained. “You’re covered in sweat and dirt and who knows what.”
Mart glanced down at himself and had to agree. “Just a kiss?”
She leaned in, only allowing their lips to touch.
“Daffy! You remembered!” Craig approached her with outstretched arms. “You clever girl. Give your brother a hug.”
“No way!” She ducked out of his way, nearly colliding with Jon as he approached from the opposite side. “Be nice to me, or I’ll leave you here.”
“You wouldn’t do that,” Craig cajoled. “You love us.”
“Not that much!”
“She loves him,” Jon grumbled, dumping his backpack next to the car and leaning against the front passenger door. He rested his chin on the car’s roof. “She wouldn’t leave him here.”
“I hope you’ve been treating him well.” She favoured each of her brothers with a stern look, then turned to Mart. “Have they?”
Mart considered for a moment. “Well, let’s see. I’ve been scratched and stung and made itchy. I’ve been tired, cold and hungry. I’ve been pushed beyond what I thought were my limits – and, as a result, parts of me ache that I didn’t even know I had. As you so delicately pointed out, I’m dirty and smelly. And if I get a choice, I’m never going hiking with them ever, ever again. But… they didn’t threaten to drop me over any cliffs, or anything of that kind. And I did see some amazing stuff that I’ll probably never see again.”
“See?” Craig asked. “We took care of him. And now he can have a sense of accomplishment from having endured all those hardships.”
Mart rolled his eyes.
“But can we please go now?” Jon asked.
Daphne eyed the three tired men for a moment, then unlocked the car. “Fine. But Mart gets the front seat.”
Grumbling under his breath, Craig grabbed Mart’s backpack, Jon’s and his own and stowed them in the boot. The brothers got into the back seat.
“I missed you,” Daphne whispered, a smile playing on her lips. “They weren’t really too hard on you, were they? About us, I mean.”
He shook his head. “I think we’ve come to an understanding, of sorts.”
“Is that a good thing?”
Mart considered the things that they had discussed and the implications of his truly becoming a part of this family. A smile tugged at his lips as he looked down into Daphne’s eyes.
“Yes,” he answered, at last. “I think it’s a very good thing.”
The End