Chapter 9

Starr looked at the boy she had met the previous night.
“Hello, again,” he said.
“So, you’re Joe’s grandson. But what is your name?”
“Joe, I was named after my grandfather. If you want to meet your friends we have to get out of here.” Joe began to lead Starr back through the forest they had come through. “How did you like your stay with the ‘travelers’?”
“They sure are interesting. But I have no idea who they are.”
“Like I said neither do I and I've been living with them for a while.”
The two of them came to a stream. “I don’t remember this before,” remarked Starr.
“You probably didn’t go this way. It’s a little shorter, but you can’t cross this stream with something on your back. Be careful and step on exactly the same rocks I do.” Joe made sure to step on the rocks with pink backs.
Starr followed him, barely missing a purple rock. When they reached the other side of the stream Joe breathed a sigh of relief. “What’s wrong with the other rocks?”
“They're not rocks- they're snapping turtles and they don’t like being stepped on.”
“You should have told me!”
“Would you have come this way?”
“Uh.. maybe.”
“Yeah.”
Starr gave in and they continued their walk through the forest. The walk back was a little harder that the one there. At a few points Starr and Joe nearly missed falling off a narrow ledge and falling into the ravine below. Soon they came to the spot where Starr had met the “travelers”.
“Well, here we are,” said Joe. “Now where were you supposed to meet your friends?”
“Uh, I don’t know” she stammered.
“How are you supposed to meet them if you don’t know where?” he teased.
“I know where, I just don’t know where. It’s that way” she pointed in the direction of the town. “If you want, I’ll show you.”
“Well actually, I was planning to go to town anyways, so I can go with you and wait for a little while.”
Joe and Starr walked toward the city, back through the same path she had taken before. As before, Starr noticed how brilliantly colored and unusual the trees and plants were.
Soon they reached the gate where Starr and her friends had come in the day before. Stacie and Josh saw Joe and Starr come out of the forest.
“Hello,” Stacie said. “Nice to see you again, Joe. And you must be Josh’s friend.” “Hello, Stacie,” Joe said. “And you must be one of Starr’s friends.”
“I’m Starr,” said Starr. “Nice to meet you Stacie. I guess the two of you already met so I don’t really need to introduce you to someone I just met.”
“Well, I guess I oughta introduce my self” said Josh. I’m Josh. It’s nice to meet you Joe. Starr, Stacie is from around here and she will be coming with us.”
“Joe,” said Stacie. “do you think you’re ready to come with us this time?”
“No, not now. I have some things I have to do” he said. “Maybe when you come back.” With this he headed off to Club Nuevo.
“Well I wonder where Jenn could be?” Starr asked.
“We don’t know. We were thinking of maybe going to look for her when we met up with you” said Stacie.
“What if you met up with her first?” asked Starr.
“Well, then we would have left without you, of course” teased Josh.
“You’re such a nerd” rebutted Starr.
“Do we know where she went?” asked Stacie
“Yeah, she went that way.” Starr pointed to the east to the rugged path through hills and valleys.
The three of them set off. It was slow and tedious and they soon became tired. “Are you sure she went this way?” complained Stacie.
“Yeah. I saw her go this way” said Josh, suddenly not sure.
“Oh look!” said Starr. “There’s one of her bracelets.”
“See, I told you,” Josh smirked. They continued on their way with a renewed sense of purpose. They continued walking and began to get very tired. When they could go no further they came upon an old man sitting on a stump, whittling.
“Have you seen our friend?” Josh called out.
“Well, now doesn’t anyone say hello anymore?” the old man complained. “All anyone does is ask questions and expect answers.
“Hello, I’m Josh.”
“Hello Josh, who are your friends?”
“I’m Starr.”
“And my name is Stacie.’
“Well as to your friend, I don’t know if she came by here. This is a well traveled road. What does she look like?”
“How did you know our friend was a girl?” Starr asked.
“I guess I don’t know,” he chuckled. “But the only person to come by here was tall girl with long hair, who was about your age.”
“That was probably her,” Josh said. “Was her name Jenn?”
“I don’t know. She was in an awful hurry. She wanted to get to the next town.”
“How far is it?” asked Starr.
“Oh, just a few miles that way,” he said, pointing further down the road.
“But Rome is the nearest town in that direction,” protested Stacie. “We can’t stay there overnight.”“You didn’t ask me where you could stay; you just asked me where your friend went.”
“Do you know of a place we could stay?” asked Jenn.
“Why yes,” the old man replied. “There is a little farmhouse up this path.” He got up from his whittling and led Josh, Stacie, and Starr down a short path and to a simple and accommodating farmhouse. After finding them a room to sleep in he left them alone, and they quickly fell fast asleep.