Perdu entered Pop’s house.

<°)))><

James moved the bush aside and came out in a clearing. He wondered if the place was under guard. He needed to be quiet. The old wooden shed at the back of Pop’s house could be seen from the laundry window. It was a frosty type window with a number of cracks.

Was there a shadow figure at the laundry window? Or was his imagination, his mind playing tricks. That’s what he wanted to believe. He didn’t want any distractions.

<°)))><

Perdu watched through a crack in the laundry window as a man opened the shed’s timber door and entered. Who was this man? Perdu came out the back door and quietly headed towards the wooden shed. The door was open. Perdu stepped into the shack.

The man was on his knees lifting up a floor board, oblivious to her presence.

“Who may you be?” she asked.

The man turned suddenly and nearly lost his balance. He grabbed the top of a timber bench and raised himself up. There was dirt on his knees, which he brushed off.

“Uh . . . I’m a friend of the man who lives . . . lived . . . here.”

“Are you looking for a treasure chest?”

He looked to be regaining his composure. “To be honest with you . . .” He held up a brown paper bag. “This is dope. We used to share the stuff, and now he’s gone I thought I’d borrow some. He wouldn’t mind.”

“Your honesty could get you into trouble. You’re lucky I’m not a police officer. Are you sure the owner wouldn’t mind?”

“Of course not. We were mates. Anyway, who are you? Are you securing the house or something?”

The man’s conduct changed. He was ogling—looking her over.

“Nope . . . I’m family.”

The man raised his eyebrows. “Really? Then you must know his granddaughter, Lee-Ann,”

Was he trying to trick her or had he made an honest mistake? He looked an interesting man and she wasn’t quite sure what she should do with him, and he was still gawking.

“You mean Isabella, don’t you?”

He shook his head. ‘Yep, sorry that’s what I meant.”

His eyes started to dart around the shack. Ava hoped he wasn’t planning anything.

“I haven’t seen Isabella for ages.”

“Really. Well, this is your lucky day because she’s here.”

“Really?” Perdu sensed a heightening of her emotions. “And is her grandfather here?”

“No. You’re a bit late. They’ve taken him away.”

He must mean the Defence people, and she expected that. But the girl being there was a bonus, but what did Isabella know? Wakey, wakey, Ava. How do you think the girl got here? She’s got the transporting device.

35 – Lost and found

THE NOISE OF THE CROWS SEEMED TO BE FOLLOWING Isabella and Lucas as they made their way to find a strong signal. Crows were out of place in the country—they belonged more in the city, where they could scavenge. Her dad used to complain about crows pinching golf balls. She could picture her dad running down the fairway, swinging his golf club in the air. She now could also picture crows flying retaliating with sticks.

The track was just wide enough for one person. Flattened broken branches and leaves acted as a sponge carpet as they headed upwards. A large fallen branch blocked the path ahead. Isabella needed to remove the backpack to crawl under the branch. With her feet crunching the bush carpet she did not hear the item hit the ground. They walked on.

Ah-ah-ah-aaaah

The crows landed behind Isabella and Lucas. A flicker of silver had caught their attention. The crows took it in turns moving the item with their beaks until it fell into a hole. Their squawking increased, each annoyed with each other, flicking debris at the item until it was covered, as if they didn’t want anyone or anything else to have it.

Bella looked at her phone. Still no signal. They reached a clearing and looked towards a higher hill. There was a tower at the top of the hill. There were people moving around the tower, their yellow jackets contrasting against the greenery.

“Wonder if there are problems with that tower? Or maybe it’s a maintenance crew. It might be too much of a hike to get over there to them. Maybe that’s why we don’t have a signal.”

“You may be right, Bella. But the view is great. We may as well head back, and see if we can get a lift into town. Maybe I can sneak over to your Grandpa’s property and borrow the jalopy.’

“Not sure about that, Lucas. I’m sure there’ll still be people hanging around.”

“Well, let’s go spy.”

There was another track that came off the path they were on. They paused. This track wasn’t as well-worn as the main track. Isabella needed to see things like landmarks to give her direction and seeing no landmarks, staying on the main track helped her keep her sense of direction. She was dreading what she knew was coming.

“I think we should take this track, Bella. It’s heading in the direction of you Grandpa’s house.”

Here it was. “How do you know, Lucas?”

Lucas stared at her. “I got lost once, Isabella. When I was younger. It was in bush similar to this but I learned something that day. We have an innate sense of direction, but it can be hampered by anxiety and panic. It’s like we have an internal compass but we need to trust it. So once I calmed myself down, I found my way home. ”

Lucas continued to amaze Isabella. From top-notch comedian to a serious man.

“That almost sounds spiritual, Lucas.”

“Maybe it is. But since then I’ve had a healthy respect for my sense of direction. Anyway, I believe this track will take us in the right direction unless it deviates somewhere along the line.”

Isabella waved her arm in the direction of the new track. “After you, you deviant person.”

She smiled as Lucas gave her a strange look. She felt a twinge in her head. Medicine time? This adventure had side-tracked her from thinking about her medication. She seemed to be thinking okay.

“You would’ve got on well with my mum. She would’ve told you that a sense of direction is tied in with the brain, something to do with spatial mapping, grid cells in the brain.”

“There ya go. That must be what I used but you need to get rid of the fog caused by panic to access the cells. All pretty deep stuff, hey?”

Lucas looked as if he was going to say something else but turned and started heading down the track.

Lucas was focused. Isabella missed her Mum and Dad. Dad would have got on well with Lucas. No spatial mapping with Dad. He’d push the trees out of the way to make the way clear for his darling wife, just like Lucas was doing for her.

Isabella was so caught up in her thoughts she walked into the back of a stationary Lucas. He turned to make sure she was okay.