There wasn’t a light on anywhere but there was that sound again. What was that? It sound like some sort of screech that was most unfamiliar to me. I...couldn’t place it in anything I knew but the sound hurt my ears. It had the same effect as that of fingernails over a chalk board. I covered my ears and tried to get my eyes to adjust and that was when I saw it. There was a shadow of something large standing a few feet in front of me. This wasn’t a normal shadow. It was that creepy type shadow. It was alreadystyled in a tidy bun to resemble Martha's hairdo for work. No doubt Iwould soon be wearing that. A big woman in a hairdresser's smock wasbending over it. She looked up and waved cheerily as Annie and Ientered."Here's our guinea pig, Vera," Annie said. "This is Tom." Bashful, eh?" said Vera, pointing at my hat and glasses. "You'llhave to take those off, you know."Annie was logging into one of the laptops."It's all right," she said, reassuringly. "We'll keep the webcam offyour. "Let's get in the truck and we can talk on the way to the park." She smiled. The smile made me feel better.I paid the tab, left a tip, and followed Nikki out to the truck. We got in and drove off. I was relieved when she slid up next to me. Close. I remember our first drive together in the aftermath of the storm that connected our lives. She was all the way on the other side of the cab, the console folded down between us. Now, that console stayed stowed and Nikki's place was next to me. And. Like I said, most of them will be friendly. The next thing you need to do as a scout is to make sure we have a good place to camp every night. Ride out anywhere from twelve to twenty miles, depending on the terrain and pick a spot to camp. The third thing you need to do is to find the best route to get to the campsite and to mark the trail for me to follow."We discussed different ways I'd mark the route then I asked, "How long until we're in Indian territory?" You might see some at any time,.