He nodded.
“You didn’t tell Nathan?” I asked, surprised.
“Yes, shortly after you left because it was clear what you were planning to do. He’s searching for you on the other side. By the floating forest.”
“Oh!” A sinking feeling fluttered in my stomach. Nathan probably wouldn’t speak to me for days, but that wasn’t the reason for the sinking feeling. I knew Nathan would forgive me after his first fit of anger.He forgive you in three seconds…
I looked at Troy, who adjusted his old cowboy hat and took a step back to give me access to the cabin. “I’ll look for Nathan and let him know,” he said. “You better get back before it gets pitch black.”
Suddenly, I was scared. The whole scene reminded me of a horror film. The orange-red evening light had given way to a gray dusk that now hovered over the swamp like mist over the graves in a cemetery. Troy looked eerie in it, almost like an undertaker. His hat, which was slightly askew, made him seem taller than usual.
I nodded and he disappeared as quietly as he had arrived. I cautiously walked around the hut and jumped from the veranda onto the ground, whereupon a flock of quacking ducks fluttered up from the tall grass on the bank. A few pelicans circled in the sky. Shivering, I hurried off and rubbed my upper arms. I had no idea why I thought about Pan now of all times, of how hostilely he had looked at Nathan. But Pan was an honest, good-natured fellow. Yes, he was jealous, but not insidious. He wouldn’t sneak around and lie in wait for Nathan.
I hoped.
I kept walking, glancing left and right. Spanish moss brushed across my face like a spider’s web and dead branches cracked beneath my boots. I thought of Nathan. I could already imagine the hard line of his lips as he glared at me. Gloomy and disappointed. Oh damn!I looked around again. Fog crept from the side of the floating forest across the flat land like the shadowy body of a ghost. I thought briefly of Mom. I wondered why I didn’t see her now like I did on the Agamemnon; then my thoughts suddenly jumped to Troy’s warning about Pan.
You should be careful. I won’t say anything more than that.
I never questioned it, so why was I doing so now? Because Troy had advised me to go back to the hut before complete darkness set in? What was he afraid of?
I was so lost in thought and, at the same time, so tense that I only noticed the rustling near me after a while.
I stopped abruptly and peered fearfully into the bushes, but could hardly see anything because of the twilight and the fog.It occurred to me that people in horror films always stopped too, always at moments when they would have been better off running. With that thought in mind, I set off abruptly.
I hadn’t gone ten yards when something dark and huge fell out of the bushes and stumbled into me. It happened so fast, I couldn’t react. I screamed and fell onto the muddy ground together with Pan, who had knocked me over. The impact wasn’t hard because of the grass and wet ground, Pan’s weight, however, pressed my ribs against my lungs. We were wedged together, he half hanging on top of me. I lay there still for several heartbeats, dazed with fear.
“P-Prinsessa!” he stammered, completely dumbfounded, and sat up a little so that his upper body was no longer on mine. “I…I sorry!”
“It’s fine,” I groaned and propped myself up on my forearms. I felt uncomfortable and vaguely threatened. “What are you doing here?” I tried with all my might to suppress the strange feeling. This was Pan. Pan, who had saved me several times!
He stood and wiped his hands on his pants. “I look for you. I worried. Nathan and Noah gone. You gone.”
“Oh,” I said. That sounded like Pan, but fear of something indefinite clung to me. Maybe he had also been looking for Nathan to squeeze his throat. I could imagine that Pan could do that, one-handed with two fingers. However, he loved Nathan in his own way, just as he loved me. He would never hurt him.How could you even think such a thing, I scolded myself as I sat up and the palm of my hand landed on something hard. “Ouch!” It was a white tube so big that it had pierced the palm of my hand.
“What that?” Pan asked from above.
Something fluttered in my throat like a black moth. A premonition that stuck there, blocking my breath. I held the tin up in the fading twilight, dimmed by the fog.
Camphora/Hypericumwas printed on the yellowed label.
Sparta’s camphor ointment!
My fingers gripped the container like iron. Sparta had said the tube had been stolen from him and it had never turned up again. How did it get to Lost Memories? Had Sparta lied or…I looked at Pan, unable to get up.
“Did you lose that?” I asked in a thin voice and slid back a little. Did the ointment fall out of his pocket when he fell?
“I not know…what is?” He opened my hand and took the tube from me. I let him because I was still completely confused.
“Sparta ointment?” Pan frowned. “Why here?”
A dark tremor ran through my limbs. Pan must have carried the tube with him and lost it, there was no other explanation. But if Pan had had it in his possession, that meant…
When I rose, my legs felt like worn rubber.
“Willa…” Pan’s face showed dismay, but perhaps also guilt. Red panic flickered before my eyes, but I barely noticed as I turned and rushed away like a madwoman.
“Nathan!” I screamed as loud as I could and tripped over a root, but I caught myself and dashed between two bushes into the undergrowth because Pan would catch me too quickly on the path. “Troy! Nathan! Help!” They had to be close, but I knew that in this area, depending on the weather, a scream could be swallowed up by the swamp in a flash. And our shack was five minutes away and I wouldn’t be able to outrun Pan for that long.
