Chapter 4

Rayne’s eyes popped open as soon as it was light. She heaved out a sigh of relief to see the rain had stopped and it was bright outside the car. For several moments, she struggled with the zipper in the sleeping bag before having enough freedom to sit up. Her body ached. Everywhere. She could definitely confirm that Cabriolet’s were not comfortable for sleeping. As she started to move about, she realized there were certain priorities to deal with, now.

Finally, the zipper co-operated and Rayne was able to get out of the car in record time. Was she afraid after her wildlife encounter last night? Yes, but the first thing she desperately needed to do was find somewhere to go to the bathroom.

After attempting a few brief, very brief stretches when she fell out of the door extracting her feet from the sleeping bag, she decided her bladder was more important than working out a few kinks. Surveying the area, she looked for anything that might resemble a bathroom. It had been a campground, so surely there would be one somewhere, right? Popping open the trunk, she dug around in the bags until she found a necessary item. Toilet paper would have not been on her list if the boy hadn’t tossed it in with the pile of purchases. Thank goodness for the blue-haired boy.

Hugging a bottle of water and a roll of toilet paper, Rayne started to move away from where she drove in. It had been raining, but she was almost certain there weren’t any buildings hidden in the thick trees she’d passed the night before.

Three small buildings later, chanting inside her head, please be a bathroom, she looked through the filth covered windows to find out they were small cabins like the one by the car. She was just convincing herself of the possibility of having to hide behind a tree and try, which she really wasn’t sure how, when she spotted a larger building with a faded sign barely hanging above the door. It said showers, which meant there should be a bathroom in there too.

If her brain hadn’t been so focused at that moment, the protesting door and the loud squeak it made as she pushed with her whole body to open it, may have frightened her. Rayne was at her wit’s end though, so she really didn’t have time to be leery, any choice in the matter would be moot only for a few moments longer. The door stayed open enough that a little bit of light filtered into the dirty space.

Old plastic shower curtains hung lifelessly in four shower stalls, she hesitantly peeked in and hoped it was just the dim light and they weren’t as dirty as they appeared. Not important right now, she’d go exploring later with the flashlight. Not being a woodsy kind of person she had no idea how long the campground had been abandoned, but the building didn’t appear to be decaying as much as neglected, not that she was any sort of expert. As she passed the shower stalls, trying not to notice that is was darker the further into the building she went, relief filled her when five stalls with doors sat just beyond the showers.

Biting her lip, concentrating on not thinking of how much she really needed to pee, she opened one of the stalls. There was a toilet, which spurred a new chant in her head of please work, please work. Why are we prone to chant silently at moments like this? She really didn’t know, but with no flashlight she was a little concerned with the state of it, unable to make out the condition. She glanced at the small window above and then back down at the toilet. Forget how much she needed to use it, she had to see it first. Stretching up on her toes, acknowledging that was a bad movement to make at that moment, Rayne grabbed the handle of the window and threw her weight back, praying it would open. Two more yanks and it popped open, giving way to leaves and dirt that drifted to the floor. It didn’t provide as much light as she wanted, but she could see the toilet more clearly now.

She held her breath as she lifted the seat. Nothing appeared to be living in there. Do I attempt to flush? Rayne cringed as she pushed the lever down and a loud echoing noise churned through the wall. The water went down. No water refilled it, but that was okay with her right now. She was only a few seconds away from prancing, so she opened the water and splashed it over the seat, setting the bottle down quickly, she used a handful of tissue to wipe it off. Normally she would never have just dropped the handful of damp tissue on the floor, but this wasn’t a normal time. Waiting was no longer an option.

As she opened the door again, she felt like she might make it. Well, at least until the next time she had to use the bathroom. Rayne took a few moments and looked around the room, taking more time for details now. There was a door at the end, and feeling a little braver she went over and pulled it open slowly. It was like a large closet with a water tank in it. Sticking her head in, and into cobwebs, she looked around. There were taps, was the solution to running water that simple? She didn’t have anything to lose in trying. Stepping all the way in she gripped the top tap and tried to turn it. It wouldn’t budge. Maybe she needed a wrench or something, not that she knew how to use one, but they always used one on TV. Rayne gave up and stepped back out again. All of this could wait, right now she just wanted coffee.

She had to backtrack twice to find her way back to the car, obviously, she hadn’t paid enough attention on her earlier quest. She did notice how quiet it was, something she hadn’t remembered experiencing for a long time. A small squirrel skittered across the path in front of her, and Rayne stopped to watch it run on fast little legs, its tail moving almost as fast as its body when it ran up a tree. Smiling at the tiny creature, it came to her that this may turn out to be a wonderful retreat while she figured out what to do to fix her life.

Rayne stood still, just listening to all the sounds around her. A bird, at least she was almost certain it was a bird made an echoing call that seemed to travel all around her. A steady tap against wood she identified as a woodpecker sounded off behind her. With the breeze blowing, the leaves on the trees could almost be a waterfall. The place was alive with various chirps, tweets and fluttering, just a few of the sounds. In truth, there were so many differences that it could take her an hour or more to sort out each one, and she planned to, just as soon as she had coffee.

Rayne wanted to stomp on the box in her hand. She read the instructions once more for the little converter do-dad thingy. Apparently, she had to select the right voltage, plug it into the car lighter and then she could plug her new travel coffee maker into it. Simple, if she knew what the correct voltage was. She just wanted coffee and would be more than willing to solve puzzles after that.

Opening the box, she went back around to the opened driver’s door and plugged it into the lighter outlet and turned back to look at the coffee maker. If she blew it up, she was going to be devastated—no coffee was a very bad thing. Picking up the brewer, Rayne set it on the floor of the car and slowly plugged it in. A light lit up on the converter thing, but that was it. Blowing out a breath, she hoped that meant it was going to function. She had water— now if she just knew where the boy had put the coffee, the world would be right once more.

Going back, she looked in the trunk. She had to take it all out might as well start now. Rayne started pulling things out, still amazed that this much had fit into the car. Besides her clothes, he had packed a tent, a small folding table and chair, and food all squished into a cooler, which could also plug into the converter. There were several cans of food scattered in nooks and crannies to conserve space. She even had an air mattress, and after sleeping in the car last night, it sounded really good right now. It plugged into the lighter to be inflated. Who knew a car lighter could do so many things? She felt around under one of the bags of clothes and touched something that felt like a can of coffee, of course she stood there grinning as she pulled it out and hugged it. Coffee. The day was looking better now.

Roughly ten minutes later, Rayne held her travel mug of hot steaming coffee. Inhaling the aroma was almost as gratifying as drinking it. She paused and looked at the mess she’d made pulling out a bit of this and a few of that. Was she looking forward to setting up her little camp? Yes, now she was. It could be fun. The boy had saved all the instructions, so it should be fairly simple to set up. She turned around and tried to decide, while savoring the coffee, where she was going to set up her tent. He’d said something about the morning sun, but she couldn’t remember for sure. Shelter it from the sunrise or face the sunrise? Wouldn’t it be better to have the warm sun at dawn? Oh, dawn light. So, the East—she should make sure it wasn’t in the open to the East. Turning in a complete circle, she frowned, if she knew which way was East, it would be easier. Had she bought a compass? Honestly, she didn’t know. He had been packing stuff and ringing it up all while she stood there wondering if she should even be thinking of camping alone.

Not ready to admit she was awake enough to work, Rayne wandered over to the little building and pushed the door open. She didn’t step inside, just remained standing outside looking in. It was very dirty from what she could see. There were a few areas where daylight showed through the holes in the walls. Rayne sipped the coffee while debating on cleaning and using it instead of the tent. No, that would be too easy and a waste of money. The sales boy had told her to keep the food locked away from where she slept, so it didn’t attract animals—an idea she didn’t want to think about and the little cabin seemed the best place to store it all. It would be easier than digging around in the car every time she wanted something. She could even use it with the little table and chair if weather turned stormy again.

Nodding at her first definite idea of the day, Rayne went to pull out the small stack of instruction sheets. How hard can it be to set up one tent? Can’t be that difficult, right?

With sweat dripping down her forehead Rayne stood back and eyed the results. Is it supposed to lean like that? It had not been as simple as the instructions had implied. Two people probably would have made it easier. Each time she had the one side of the little collapsible poles all in place, she’d go around and hook the other one into its hole and then the first side would jump out and tip over again. At first, she was sure she’d been sold a defective product, but she finally managed to get it upright, mostly. That was when she noticed the entire top of it was screened, but her heart settled back down when she fit the fly thing over the top. Why they didn’t just put a roof on was beyond her.

Staking it had been a whole different event, after several attempts, she dragged it close to the little building and tied two of the strings to a post so it wouldn’t blow away. Buying a hammer would have been a great idea, well, if she’d known what it took to put the stakes into the ground. For a few brief moments, she debated on tying the other strings to her car, but as she’d already cheated by using the building she wanted to at least partially comply with the instructions. A rock had solved the lack of a hammer, even though the boy had told her to just step on the stakes. Did they need to be completely in the ground? Hopefully not. Either she wasn’t heavy enough to use his step technique, or the ground was unusually hard and no amount of hammering was going to push them all the way in. Despite a few little kinks, she had her tent.

It didn’t look overly large on the inside and she wondered if the air mattress was going to fit. Glancing at the sky, Rayne decided she should probably clean the little storage cabin next, just in case another storm came through. Somewhere in the car was a hand broom and dustpan. The boy had just smirked at her, saying there wasn’t much need to sweep while camping, Rayne felt some gratification knowing he had been wrong about something. Of course, locating it in the clutter of items that were half in the car and piled on the ground was going to take a few minutes of searching.

She hadn’t bought cleansers, not even thinking she’d need them, and she was sure the blue haired boy didn’t think of cleaning often. How she was going to clean the very dirty window of the cabin? Rayne didn’t want to waste her bottled water to do it, which brought her back to trying to turn the taps again in the shower building. She couldn’t help laughing at herself, she was a list person and it brought her a small measure of comfort when she decided she needed to start a list to keep things in priority.

As she swept out the building, Rayne realized she was enjoying all of this. Just her and the wilderness, she was roughing it. She giggled, okay, so not including all the luxuries the car lighter brought, she was roughing it as much as she ever would.

By noon the little cabin was all clean and the table was set up inside with her laptop and camera on it. The precious coffee maker earned a place indoors. Her bags were neatly organized. She hadn’t bothered to remove the cases with her fancier clothes in the trunk of her car. She doubted it would offend the squirrels if she didn’t dress for dinner. She had a list too, it made her feel better having one. On the list, in addition to the water tap and exploring the immediate area was a reminder to start the car for a few minutes after using the converter and car lighter. The last thing she needed was to be stuck here with a dead battery. Bonus camper points for just thinking of that.

Deciding she’d earned a break, Rayne sat in the camping chair beside her tent eating a granola bar and apple. She had the book of plants she’d bought open in her lap, but preferred looking around at the real versions. The few items she had managed to identify that were nearby were a great likeness though. The only reason she had bought it was the mention of poison ivy had her wanting to know if there were any other poisonous plants she should be aware of. It wouldn’t be good to end up with a rash out here by herself.

Looking up at the sky, she wondered if there would be a breeze any time soon. She felt hot and sticky after everything she’d done, and dirty in a most uncomfortable way. The water tap was at the top of the list for a reason, she had to find a way to bathe. Was there a lake around? Would she be brave enough to go in if she did find one? She didn’t know about that just yet, but this had already been a day of many firsts for her, so it was entirely possible.

Break time over, Rayne got up, she had too much to do and a whole new world to explore.