Spheres

Janie struggled with the uncooperative tent, and grunted, "Marcie, would you give me a hand?"

Her daughter glanced up from her cell phone, and crossed her legs on the transportable chair she was perched upon. "How should I know how to get that set up? Go ask Adan. Wasn't he a boy scout or something?"

The scowling boy glared at his PSP. "The stupid thing broke," he grumbled. "And no, I wasn't a boy scout. It was survival camp."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, big difference. Didn't the counselors have to rescue you?"

Adan flushed. "Shut up!"

"You shut up!"

"No, you!"

"Kids, kids," Janie said, fumbling with the pegs. "Calm down. This is going to work, I know it."

Marcie hit the buttons of her phone harder than she needed to. "You say that every time. It might work if Dad shows up - he is the camping expert anyway, isn't he? But wait, I forgot. He doesn't have time to come."

Throwing his PSP on the ground, Adan yelled, "This is so stupid!" His words echoed in the clearing, and birds flew away, squawking.

Janie gave them a pained look. "Come on, guys. He said he'd come. Maybe he's a little late, but there could be traffic or, or something else that held him up."

"Yeah, whatever." Marcie clapped her phone shut and shoved it in her purse. "Can Adan and I go hiking?"

"Well . . . all right, but stick to the trail, you hear? I don't want you two getting lost."

She grabbed Adan's hand and dragged him, calling, "Sure, Mom!"

As soon as they were out of earshot, Adan whined, "What are we going hiking for?"

"It's better than staying in the clearing, isn't it?" Marcie reminded him. "Now come on, let's go. Maybe there's something interesting in this stupid place."

"What if Dad comes and we miss him?" Adan asked as he sluggishly lagged behind his older sister's brisk pace.

Marcie stopped and turned around to face him. "Don't be an idiot! You know he's not coming."

He stared at his scuffed sneakers, mumbling, "He said he would."

"Yeah, well, Dad says a lot of things. You honestly expect him to come when he didn't remember you turned eleven last month? He didn't even attend my sweet sixteen!" Marcie ground her teeth together and turned away again. "Just . . . give up on him." She swallowed. "It's safer that way."

Adan kicked the dirt. "Whatever. Let's just keep going."

They silently trudged up the path, the searing heat forming beads of sweat on their foreheads. Suddenly, Marcie paused and squinted through the light. "Is that another clearing? There's none marked on the map . . ."

He shrugged and walked into the clearing, followed by his sister, who was still frowning at the map. "'Dan, it's not here. Something must be wrong."

Rolling his eyes, Adan yawned, "Who cares? Just another stupid clearing." Stretching, he noticed a small white sphere clinging to a branch, with a tiny metal hemi-sphere on top. "What's that?"

He slowly walked forward and reached out for it. When his fingers brushed against the soft, slimy surface, it suddenly wriggled off the branch and attached itself to his hand. Wrinkling his nose, Adan attempted to shake it off, but it was like it was glued there. "Marcie?"

"What?" She crumpled up the map and shoved it in her pocket. "Hey, what's that weird thing on your arm?"

"I - I don't know. It's like, stuck there." He looked up, worried. "Can you help me get it off?"

Marcie went up to him and gingerly poked it. "Eww! It's . . . gross."

"Get it off. Please." Adan shook his hand back and forth slowly. "Marcie, I can't feel my hand." Panic entered his voice. "Marcie!"

She stared at him, wide-eyed. "Do you want me to get Mom?"

He shuddered. "I don't care, just do something!"

Marcie turned to leave, but couldn't find the entrance. "Um. There's . . . there's no way to get out."

"What are you talking about?" His chin quivered.

"It's like, all dense bush." She swallowed, and then yelped when something cold landed on her thigh. Peering down, she saw another sphere on it, and the spot where it landed grew icy cold, then burning hot, and then she couldn't feel it at all. "One of them got on me, too!"

Trembling, Marcie tentatively wrapped her hand around it and yanked, but nothing happened. When she hesitantly pulled her hand away, she saw the sphere had duplicated and was now on her numbing fingers. "A - Adan?"

"I see it," he whispered, tears trickling down his face. "What are we going to do? How are we going to get out? And what are these things?"

She shook her head. "I don't know." Looking up desperately, she added, "There must be poision or something in them. Maybe they're mushrooms or something?"

"Mushrooms don't have metal on them, d - do they?" Adan hiccuped. "Look! There's more!"

Across from them, a bush was filled with them, and was rapidly turning brown. "Oh my god," Marcie said faintly. "It's - they're - Adan."

Color drained from his face, he held up his bleeding hand. He took a deep breath and screamed.

But there was no one who could hear them.

***

"They strayed from the path, Ms. Houston," the guide explained to the distraught Janie. "Then they fell in the river or somethin' and drowned."

"But they can swim!" she wailed. "They took swimming lessons, I made sure of it!"

He looked at his companion and sucked in air. "Well, I dunno, miss, but that's how we found their - them. In the water."

The two guides locked eyes for a moment, knowing they couldn't possibly tell the mother how they really found the two children - dead in the middle of the trail, just two heaps of dry bones, with even the marrow missing.