Nick. Clearly these two made sure they planned ahead.
They trudged on, conversation less forthcoming now as they squelched through the mud. Nick had his head down, water dripping off the hood of his coat, and didn’t see the fork until he was almost on it. The people ahead of him had taken the right fork, which was the logical direction to turn back towards Helensburgh, but something just niggled at him. He lifted his map case and wiped the drops off it, so he could study it carefully. Yes, that was it. The bridge …
He hadn’t realised that he had stopped walking until he heard a small noise of surprise from the person walking behind him. Ahead the group members that he could see had stopped, obviously wondering what had happened. They came trickling slowly back in twos and threes, looking worried.
Bill came striding over. ‘What’s up?’
Nick pointed at the map. ‘I think we should take the left fork. It leads down to a bridge and we can take this as a short cut.’ He indicated a lane on the map. ‘The other way will take us at least two hours more than that.’
Bill snorted. ‘That would be true if we were there. But we’re not.’ He pointed at a fork much further back on the map. ‘We’re here. So we take the right fork here, and the left fork later on.’
Nick felt the colour coming into his face. Of course. He had misread the map. What a stupid thing to do. But … he studied the map again. He could have sworn that they passed that hill just before the clouds came down. His instincts were screaming at him and he just knew he was right. If it was just him, in his nice warm waterproof mountain gear, he wouldn’t have minded. But a couple of the group were starting to shiver, especially since they had stopped, and he felt like he had a responsibility to them.
‘Come on, Tony,’ he said. ‘Back me up on this one. We passed that turn ages ago.’
Tony shook his head, not even bothering to look at the map. ‘No, Bill’s spot on. Right fork is the way to go.’
Nick felt his face flame red. What should he do now? He was so convinced he was right, but what if he wasn’t? Was it worthwhile standing up for, just to get back a couple of hours earlier?
He looked at the group clustered around them. An extra two hours for some of them would make a big difference in this rain.
He grabbed Bill by the arm and steered him away from the watchful eyes. ‘Look, you know we passed that fork not long after lunch,’ he said, careful to keep his voice lowered so no one else could hear him. He had spoken without thinking, and the last thing he had intended was for this to become a public battle of wills.
Bill looked him up and down scornfully. ‘Tell you what, we’ll split up the group. You take half of them your way, and we’ll go the right way. We’ll meet at the café by the station and see who gets there first. Losers pay the bill.’
Nick felt like he had no other choice but to accept. Now all he had to do was make sure that all the less able people in the group somehow came with him. What had meant to be a fun day out had suddenly turned into a stressful situation, but that was OK. Growing up in the mountains had got him used to dealing with what the weather threw at you. If only dealing with people was so easy.
The group split fairly amicably into two. Nick was happy to see that the two without proper coats were coming with him. Or had Bill and Tony engineered that specially? He didn’t want to think about that possibility. Best just to believe the best of people. It was always his approach to life.
During the walk back the clouds cleared, but a stiff wind started up, and Nick was glad when they got to the café and he could have a hot cup of tea. There was no sign of the others though. Not that he should have been surprised. He couldn’t feel elation at the fact he was right. Not when half the group was still out on the mountainside somewhere.
It was almost an hour and a half later when the other half of the group trudged in, looking weary and very muddy. However, some seemed excited by the experience, talking about massive bogs they had been forced to cross and fences that had to be climbed. Bill and Tony just sat in a corner with their coffees, not looking at Nick. He decided he would leave and let them get on with it. It was their group after all. But not before a couple of people gave him hugs and thanks and said they would post their pictures on the group site.
That night he considered the experience. Not great, he thought, but not a disaster. He found himself suddenly looking forward to the next walk. It was a bit of an eclectic group, but they were all very nice. Even Bill and Tony had just made an honest mistake. He reached for his phone. He would just see if anyone had posted any pictures yet.
But for some reason, he couldn’t get into the group. He could see it, but he no longer seemed to be a member. He sank back on the couch in bewilderment. It must be Bill and Tony.
A message to the website support returned the information two days later that he had been blocked from the group for ‘inappropriate behaviour’. The email that he received gave the impression that he had been lucky not to have been blocked from the entire site, so heinous was the nature of his supposed crimes. When he saw the email, he felt a surge of anger and his hands clenched. He started putting together an angry reply to the site moderator. But then the anger died away, and he felt a wave of sadness wash over him. If they didn’t want him, then he would just move on. Find something else to do with his time.
He did have a look for other walking groups online, but there didn’t seem to be anything else that was really what he was looking for. His experience with the first one had made him cautious of anything that seemed even vaguely competitive. And as the winter blew in then it didn’t really seem to be something that anyone wanted to do anyway.
* * *
The thought of meeting Jade sustained Nick through work all week. When Saturday came he was so desperate not to be late that he took an earlier train and got there twenty-five minutes ahead of time. A bitter wind forced him into a cafe not far from the station, where he kept repeatedly checking his watch, paranoid that he would miss her.
He needn’t have worried. At precisely one minute to ten she strolled up, dressed in her usual red coat. There was still no hat, but her hair was tamed into a beautiful long plait that ran half-way down her back. The sparkly green flashed in and out of the braid at surprising intervals.
‘Wow, you look half-presentable,’ he joked, suddenly feeling nervous. ‘Are we going somewhere special?’
Jade gestured in the direction that she wanted them to go and linked her arm through his as they walked, a move that surprised him. She had seemed so remote the day when they first met. Almost alien.
‘Lily likes to see my hair like this.’ She looked up at him with a smile, touching it with her other hand.
It was the first time he had seen her properly smile, he realised, and he was completely blown away. He knew it was a cliché, but it really did transform her face. She did look better than when they first met, he thought, sneaking a glance at her when she wasn’t looking. The dark smudges under her eyes were less prominent, and there was a bit of a glow in her cheeks. Although she could just be wearing makeup. Was that a hint of gloss on her lips?
‘So who’s Lily?’ he asked,
