Story 24 - Part 4 - Committed to Memory

“It wasn’t that bad, was it?” Tiffany asked Kris.

“I’m not doing it again anytime soon,” Kris said. “But I won’t say never.”

“I’m proud of you,” Marc told his wife.

They had finally reached the outside and everyone but Carmine was completely lost as to where they were and where they were headed. Outside was almost as confusing as inside. It had been like a labyrinth crossed with a movie set gone overboard. Carmine had gone ahead of the group on several occasions, and according to his nephew it was to disable traps.

“So, Carmine,” Tiffany said. “How did you find all of those traps in the first place without ending up dead?”

“I grew up visiting similar places,” Carmine explained. “You remember what to look for after a while.”

“Similar places?” Tiffany asked.

“Wait,” Tech’s friend, Don, interrupted. “I thought you came from a place in the middle of the jungle. The whole grass hut sort of thing. I don’t recall seeing giant, death-trap ancient ruins anywhere.”

“That’s because you didn’t,” Carmine said as he continued leading the group through the pathless forest.

Agent Wilson sighed. She had never had this much internal conflict when it came to possibly dating someone. It had been several weeks since they had dinner, and they were not dating each other exclusively. She was use to dating normal people, and Carmine did not seem to fit that description at all.

The hard part was that she could not decide if she really did want to continue to date him. Carmine was a nice enough guy that Tiffany knew they would always be able to remain friends, which was important since he helped out the agency now and again. She had to admit to herself that Carmine had figured out her hesitation before she did. His strange ability to read person did kind of annoy a person who liked keeping secrets. And then Carmine moved some branches aside and revealed their cars.

“You’re ability to find where we parked could almost be seen as creepy….ow!” Kai said as Kris smacked his arm. “What was that for?”

“For all of the ghost or other such comments you kept making,” she snapped.

“She probably would have hit you inside,” Marc said. “Except for the fact that she was cutting off the circulation to my arm.”

“Do you have a photographic memory?” Brad asked Carmine. “Because I don’t know of how you could have gotten us back here.”

“I have a decent sense of direction,” Carmine admitted. “I am pretty good at remembering things. It has kind of become second nature to me.”

Everyone moved to pack the cars and any left over food was distributed to those who were still hungry. Primarily the college boys took most of the leftovers. Rather than leaving right away, though, everyone hoped onto car hoods and truck beds to watch the setting sun. The colors were pretty spectacular as the last of the rays of light shone through various rock formations.

“Tech, Don, and Ruke,” Carmine sighed as he looked over at his nephew. “Don’t go through that passage. At least without me, anyway. I can tell you’re curious.”

“I honestly doubt I’d remember how to get in,” Ruke admitted, “let alone out.”

“You owe us a day trip, Mr. C,” Don said, and Tech signed in agreement.