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Show 24. "Let's look for the camera once more, then I promise we'll pack up and head for home. You know how important it is to find the camera don't you?" She shook her head yes. "Come on. We'll go together." Stephanie tagged along with him, lifting each sage clump with a stick as he memorized again the texture of the clearing. He was actually glad for her company. It had been hard for them to talk tn front of the Morrises, and then, afterwards, he'd been so sick he'd only wanted to get off by himself. Once he got the nausea under control, he and Stephanie had searched everywhere--around the landing site, into the aspen on one side, and back to their camp on the other. They had covered everything eight times. But JD couldn't believe the camera wasn't still out there, somewhere, if they could just find it. It was mid-afternoon by the time they finally broke camp. "The Morrises are probably home by now," Stephanie complained, jamming her things into the duffel bag. Finally, everything but the garbage was packed and ready to go. "Aren't you going to eat your sandwich?" Stephanie asked JD who'd left his lunch untouched. "I'm not hungry." He looked again over the matted grass where the lean-to had been, then circled around through the aspen and inspected the covered latrine. His last glance at the mountain took in the low-hanging cloud bank on the horizon. "I guess we'd better get started. There's some weather moving in." JD pulled off his parka and threw it on the second seat of the car. "Damn it, Stephanie!" He banged his fist down hard on top of the VW. "What could've happened to that camera?" "Come on, JD. We've gotta go," Staphanie groaned. "Yeah, we're going," his mouth was set in a hard line as he slid into the driver's seat. Then he held his breath until the engine caught, remembering what had happened with Stephanie. "Are you sure you tried the lights last night?" he asked. "Double-sure. And they didn't work either." "I asked Clarence what might've happened to the car," JD said as they started down the road, tipsily swaying over the worst of the ruts. |