WHAT! HE’S GONE!” THE Club said in the morning. The grown-ups and children crowded around Julius as he sat on a stump. He sat with his back bent over and the sides of his mouth seemed as if to hang off his face.

“Oh honey, I’m so sorry,” Mrs. Parker said sitting on a lawn chair next to him and giving him a hug. When he was younger, this made Julius feel comfortable; now, it just made him feel childish, for not being more responsible with his dog. He moved away from his mom, not wanting her to see his tears.

The group stood around the sad little boy, pondering where his dog could be. Leonardo thought for a little, then walked back to the tent to think. He always needed somewhere quiet to think. Julia sat on a lawn chair, legs together and hands on her lap. The three other boys stood where they were, awkward feelings bubbling inside. Mr. Walker had left and went into his tent to fold up his sleeping bag.

Suddenly, the silence was too much. Why are they feeling sorry for me? Julius thought. What’s the use? He stood up and walked into the forest. Mrs. Parker watched as her son walked away from her. He was everything she wanted him to be: strong, tall (a big 6’.1”), intelligent, brave, a good leader (a little plump around the sides, but no one noticed that). But the greatest was that Julius was a devout Christian and very blunt about it. Having to see him so sad could almost break any mothers’ heart.

Mrs. Parker looked at her husband who placed his hand on her shoulder. “Ted—could we possibly look for the dog at least for today?”

Mr. Parker shrugged. “I guess.”

Mrs. Parker smiled. “Thank you, Ted.”

Mr. Parker gave his wife a kiss at the top of her head and walked off to the tell his son the good news. Slowly, the smile from Mrs. Parker’s face left. A sudden thought grew in her mind.

What if they don’t find Captain?

~

THE CLUB HURRIED OVER the grassy hills, searching high and low, calling out:

“Captain! Captain!”

“Here boy!”

“Come on Cap!”

“CAPTAIN!”

“(whistle!)”

“Who’s Captain?”

Leonardo stopped in his tracks and spun around to look at his sister. “Julia, go home.” Leo continued his pace, trying to catch up with the boys.

Julia stood stunned. “What? But home is like, what, 80 miles away?”

Her brother slapped his hand on his face. “Not ‘home’ home, the campsite ‘home’,” Leonardo called from ahead.

Julia stomped her foot. “Grr! Guys wait up!”

The boys kept on walking.

“WAIT UUUPPPPPP!”

Julius held out his arms to stop the rest of the boys. He sighed. “Well—I guess we’re ‘waiting up’.”

The Club (and Julia) searched through the grassy area for about an hour. It took them that long to realize that the dog was not there, and they returned to the forest. The Club had decided to separate and started looking in different places.

“Captain!” Julius called, “Captain! Here boy…” Then he whispered silently, “Oh Captain, where are you?”

“Guys!” called Virgil. “Come over to my current location, haste!”

Julius hurried over to Virgil. The rest had not heard him yet so there was not anyone around except Horace and Julius. The historian pointed to a dirty and old collar that seemed to be buried in a pile of dead leaves. Not knowing what it was, Julius took a stick and picked up the collar, then placed it in between Virgil and himself.

The two bent over to peer at it but one glance could tell you one thing:

This was not Captain’s.

On the collar had a name, but not Captain’s. It said [JOEY] and on the
bottom said [OWNED T_: JA_ON LON__OAD—NU_BER: 555-21_-2000]. Then, attached to it by tape was a piece of stationary. Julius snagged it off the collar and carefully opened it. He stuck his upper lip into his bottom, which showed he was thinking. Then he showed it to Virgil. The boy looked at it, then pondered for a while. The paper said:

My Son, Peter: Please do bring the secret weapon. We’ll probably leave and drive by the old Heart. Look 4 items: rock, paper, scissor.
J.L.

Virgil passed it back to Julius. “Hmm….” he said to himself. “It looks like an interesting artifact.”

“Yeah,” Julius agreed. “It looks like some sort of scavenger hunt map for a camp.”

“Indeed, but why didn’t the unknown inscriber simply inscribe the letter ‘for’ instead of the number ‘4’?”

Julius shrugged.

“I dunno’?

As he answered, Julius heard Horace and Mark walking up to them. He quickly looked away from the tree towards the boys and gave Virgil a look that said ‘don’t tell them yet’. Virgil looked at him, but didn’t say anything when they, Mark Atony and Horace got to the tree.

“What was it?” Mark asked.

“Oh, nothing,” Julius said as he stepped on top of the collar and crumpled the paper in his hand behind his back. “Hey, let’s go see where Leo and Julia are, huh Virgil?” he said, slightly elbowing his companion.

Virgil nodded. “Suuure, let us indeed.”

Mark and Horace looked at each other with great surprise. When was the last time Virgil ever said ‘sure’? Never! That’s when. But, Mark Atony and Horace agreed and hurried off to find the brother and sister.

~

THE DENSE WOODS SEEMED endless for poor Captain. He had seen something that night and ran after it. The figure had been dragging something along the forest floor but didn’t seem to notice the cunning dog stalking behind.

The figure had just plopped the thing into something hard and tall. Suddenly, a bright light showed right in front of Captain. He had yelped and dove behind a tree. The bright lights were headlights from a jet black pick-up truck. A man was driving and wore a black baseball cap and chewed on a toothpick. Captain knew it was a toothpick because Mrs. Parker always had them when she was serving guest.

The man glanced around to make sure no one was looking. Then, the man looked directly at Captain. He sneered and yelled at him.

“Aye! You stupid dog, come ‘ere!”

It wasn’t a happy yell like when Julius couldn’t find him, but a mean one like when he went to the toilet in Mrs. Parker’s flowerbed. The man opened the door, slid off his seat and leapt at Captain.

But Captain knew better.

He had sped away from the man and stumbled into the deep and dark forest.

Captain was now hungry and was searching for some food. He finally found a brook to drink from. His tongue lapped at the water. Captain looked at his reflection in the water. His ears were dirty and his paws were terribly muddy. Julius would have a fit if he saw him right now.

Ah, Julius. His special boy who fed him and took care of him. And that group of boys who were always with Julius; they were nice too. Except for the girl. Captain had seen her kick a cat once.. Though it wasn’t his business to feel sorry for a cat. The noble dog stuck his nose in the air in disgust of cats. Then, he caught a whiff of something.
Something familiar. Captain suddenly sprinted back into the opposite direction. He quickly stopped and looked behind, then continued away from it.

The dog knew what was to come.