Moon, she told him, was for the time of year she was born, when the moon was full in the sky. And Lane was her absentee father’s name.
“Moon,” Stone repeated. “Somehow I thought it was a reflection of Native American heritage."
“Well, I’m part Mohawk on my mother’s side,” she said, “so you sort of guessed right.”
He grinned at her, obviously pleased with himself.
Indie grinned back. Oh, don’t be too pleased with yourself, fella. I’m not done with you yet. “And what about your name?” she asked. “How did you come to be called Gladstone Hudson? And do you have a middle name, by the way?”
That wiped the smile off his face real fast. His brows lowered and his mouth set in a hard line.
Indie burst out laughing. “If you could see your face. You look like a three year old who's just been told he has to go to bed.”
That made Stone cough and then he chuckled and then he was laughing out loud just like she was. The wide open savannah echoed with the sounds of their mirth.
After the laughter died and she’d caught her breath Indie wiped her eyes and looked at Stone. “Seriously, though, who gave you that name? Your mom?”
Stone gave an exaggerated sigh and shook his head. “Gladstone Marcus Hudson the third. It was my grandfather’s name then my father’s and now it’s mine. The curse of the Gladstones.”
She gave him a look of sympathy. “Please don’t inflict that kind of punishment on your son.”
He chuckled. “The suffering ends here.”
After that they fell silent for a while and Indie sat back to enjoy the landscape and the view of brown mountains in the distance. Then she closed her eyes to enjoy the warmth of the evening sun. After a long while she yawned and opened her eyes again. Better to stay awake and keep Stone's company. She glanced over and noticed that he was frowning. Then he began to mutter under his breath.
She sat up immediately. “Is something wrong?’
For a while he didn’t answer but just kept scowling and muttering until she knew something was definitely wrong. “Talk to me, Stone. What is it?”
His scowl deepened then he gave a quick shake of his head as if annoyed. “I’m not…seeing the landmarks I should be seeing by now. There’s supposed to be a rock-”
“Are we lost? Are you telling me you don’t know where we are?” Indie gripped the top of the passenger door. This was not good.
“Not lost, just…on the wrong track, somehow.” Stone did not look at her, just kept his eyes on the trail ahead.
Indie frowned. “Come to think of it, we should have hit the main road by now. We’ve been on this road over an hour.” She looked around. “And didn’t we pass that butte like half an hour ago?”
Stone didn’t answer but the muttering started again.
Indie jerked forward. “Let’s check the map. That should help us figure out where we are.” When Stone made no move to hand it to her she spoke louder. “The map, Stone. In fact, both of them. Let me look at them while you drive.”
Still no answer.
That made her suspicious. Then she spoke again and her voice was calm and steady as if she had no concern in the world. “You don’t have the maps, do you?”
He shook his head as if to get rid of some annoying gnats and kept his eyes on the road.
“Do you, Stone?”
“No, I don’t, all right?” His voice was an angry bark. “I didn’t think I’d need them.”
“You didn’t think…” Her voice trailed off as she stared across at him. Then she continued with a scathing rebuke. “The operative words being, ‘I didn’t think’. What the hell were you thinking?”
“Just be quiet, will you?” Came his biting retort. “I need to concentrate.”
“You need to concentrate,” Indiana muttered. “Concentrate on getting us lost is what you’re doing. No map. And now we’re lost all the way out in this wild countryside.” He shot her an angry look and she shut up. Pissing him off was not going to work. Better to spend her energy thinking of a way to get them out of this mess. She did a quick calming exercise, breathing in and breathing out three times and only then did she speak again. “How long ago did you realize you weren’t on the right track?”
There was a delay of about ten seconds then Stone responded. “About twenty minutes ago.”
“About twenty min-” Indie stared at him in disbelief. “But you didn’t say anything.”
“I thought I’d just drive some more, see if a familiar landmark showed up.”
Indie wanted so badly to blast him but she held her tongue. He was a man, after all. He couldn’t help it. For some reason unknown to humankind men could never be influenced to ask for directions. Or, in this case, to get a damn map. Okay, Indie, stay calm. Blowing your top is not going to help anybody.
She looked ahead at the sun sliding toward the horizon. “Okay, we have about forty to fifty minutes of daylight left. How are we on gas?”
“Good,” he said, visibly relaxing now that she’d changed her tone. “A little over half a tank.”
“Okay.” She raised herself up and leaned over to where her backpack lay on the back seat. She dug around till she found her notebook then pulled a pen from the outside pocket. She looked around ,surveying the terrain, then began to sketch. “Immediately you had a doubt you should have said something to me,” she said, not looking up. “There’s no shame in asking for help.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Stone said, his tone sarcastic. “Ask for help from a girl. Everyone knows that women have no sense of direction.”
“What? Don’t let me slap you upside your head. And I would do it, too, if we weren’t in such a dangerous position. We’re on the African continent, in case you’d forgotten. The land of lions and hyenas.” She glanced to the back of the Jeep. “Speaking of which, does this Jeep have a cover?”