Part 3
It takes them four hours to reach the outer rim of Yosemite Valley. Sam talks most of the time and PB sits and listens. The passenger seat in Sam's VW Bug is uncomfortable, and PB keeps shifting around, trying to adjust. They drive through the town of Chinese Camp and Sam described her childhood and her brother's extraordinary intellect.
"He was programming computers when we were just kids. When Dolly the sheep was cloned in the nineties he became fascinated with the concept of recreating DNA and cloning life. It was all he could think about and all he would talk about. He had no friends really. He wouldn't eat sometimes; he would just sit in his room and literally just....think, scribbling in his notebook. It worried my parents and they tried to have him talk to counselors and try to become more involved with people and just get of his own head but what can you do? He stayed obsessed all through school and graduated at the top of his class. He started working at Genentron right after. They had been following his progress in school and hired him right out."
The notebook is gnawing away at PB and he can no longer stay quiet.
"Sam, I found a notebook in the house. It was obvious it was private but I read it anyway. It was your brother's journal."
He's glad to get it out but her silence is causing him considerable discomfort.
"I'm sorry," he continues "I'm just a naturally curious person I guess. I know you letting me stay there didn't mean I could just go through your brother's stuff but I was bored-"
"What did it say?" she demands impatiently.
"After he quit Genentron some foreign guys picked him up-"
"He quit Genentron?"
"That's what the journal said."
PB repeats everything he can remember from the journal and Sam's face becomes increasingly still and tight.
"Do you have any idea who this man at the top might be?" he asks.
She shakes her head and without looking at him and says: "I wish you had mentioned the journal earlier."
"I'm sorry."
"When he said he was going to Yosemite for some time off I was really happy. He was going to get away, be in nature. He never does that. Now I'm thinking he's involved in something weird. I wish you had told me."
"I really am sorry Sam. I was going to tell you, I just-"
PB doesn't know what to say beyond that and there is very little conversation as they drive the 140 into Curry Village. Sam pulls the car up to the reservation cabin and PB goes in alone.
"Abe Siegel," he says to the woman behind the desk.
"I have his name on a cabin but the reservation was canceled as of yesterday."
"He left?"
"Yes sir, that's what I'm telling you."
"Do you know where?"
"Home?"
The woman's face is sunburned and irritated and PB can tell she doesn't like him. He forces himself to smile at her. There's a ranger sitting in a chair to the far right of the counter and PB has the distinct impression that the ranger is trying to look like he's not listening to them.
"Thanks for your help."
He turns to leave and she calls him back.
"I do remember him, I was here when he canceled the rest of the week," she explains "He asked how to get to Tuolumne Meadows and I gave him a map."
PB gets a copy of the same map and makes his way out the door. He can feel the ranger in the chair's eyes follow him.
"Abe Siegel," PB says to the ranger at the Tuolumne reservation cabin.
“Siegel. Okay, here we go. G-11. I have Siegel at G-11."
PB and Sam drive up into the camp ground, passed the A and B sections. Families with oversized campers set up their tiki torches and pack buns and frankfurters into their metal Bear boxes. Asian and European tourists wander the campground and take pictures by the river and sneak picks of the American's gaudy RV's. The rocky road snakes up through the parked cars and smoking fires to the G section.
Sam and PB pull up to campsite G11 and park next to a green Subaru. There's a small two man tent set up, other than that the site is empty.
"Abe! Abe, where are you?!"
Sam stands with her hands on her hips, looking intently into the trees, waiting for a response. There are two old men sitting at the table one camp over. PB nods at them and they stare back at him, blank. Sam unzips the tent flap and goes inside. PB unlatches the bear box and finds a few cans of beans lined up with a six pack of beer.
"PB! Come here quick!"
Sam's voice is almost a shriek. PB can taste dread in his throat as bends down through the tent flap. He finds Sam sitting on sleeping bag perfectly still, her face as white as a sheet. He follows her eyes down to a paper envelope lying on the tent's floor. He picks it up and spreads it open. A severed human finger sits in the envelope, the flesh already turning green, and the blood black and dry around the cut point.
To be continued in Part 4
Very cool.
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