[Regin Hardhammer]

Harold

Harold was pleasantly surprised that Kalimac agreed to pay his children for their babysitting services. In Kalimac’s voice, however, Harold had detected a baffled and confused tone, as if he was shocked that he had even asked for such a thing. The Whitfoots had never paid the Chubbs for their work before, but on the road the situation seemed to be a little different. Still, Harold had not expected Kalimac to cave in so quickly and had been prepared to defend his position. Oh, won’t Henry and May be delighted, he thought. I must remind them that they must take this responsibility seriously. Wouldn’t want them to cheat Kalimac out of his money by doing a poor job, although he has so much already I doubt it would make a difference.

Despite the dreariness of the forest and and his own uneasiness in being there, he felt his spirits rise a bit and tossed a comment over his shoulder in the direction of his wife.

“Isn’t that great honey,” he said. “We must tell the children about their new job when we get back to camp. Sarah dear?”

At that instant, Harold glanced around and suddenly realized his wife was nowhere to be seen. And he heard Marcho's voice boom out that Sarah Chubb was missing. Whatever small optomism he'd felt before quickly sunk into the ground. Harold's jaw dropped open. I don’t understand.... she was just behind me. Where could she have gone?

The grey shadows had lengthened over the trees and made it difficult to see anything. But Harold was determined not to panic. Yet he'd always had a feeling that there was something hidden in the forest, something eerie and mysterious. Harold shuddered to think that some evil thing might have taken his lovely wife. He anxiously prayed that she was not hurt or distressed. I’m going to find her if I have to turn these woods upside down.

After informing Marcho he was going off on his own to find her and would return later, Harold slowly began to make his way through the tangled branches and bracken keenly searching for any sign of his wife, all the while calling her name. He scoured every tree, leaf, and twig and looked behind every bolder just in case she lay injured somewhere, unable to call out for help. After a while, he began to get frantic and intensified his searching tenfold. While crawling through the dense underbrush, he found that many burs stuck to his shirt and pants. A tree branch ripped his sleeve, but he paid it no attention and kept going. His love was much more important than his clothes; they were not very expensive anyway. To Harold it seemed as if he had been walking forever, but he had been walking in circles and had only gone a short distance.

Suddenly, in the pale reflection of a sliver of moonlight, he glimpsed a set of muddy footprints going out from behind a clump of bushes. He followed them to a half hidden glade where he thought he heard a woman humming. He saw a cloudy silhouette before him: a figure that looked a little familiar. As he got closer, he saw his wife Sarah bending down. Groping along the ground, she was filling her outer skirt with mushrooms


She turned to him beaming, “Why hello, Harold, I stopped to pick these scrumptious mushrooms for our family. They smelled so good. I was tempted to eat them all myself but I decided to wait till we get back. I thought I'd catch up with the party in a minute, since I could still hear your voices carrying over from the next glade. In fact, I thought you all might have returned this way by now. Just where have you been?”

At first, Harold didn't know whether to laugh or be angry. Now that he listened, he could hear his wife was right. The voices of the Hobbits could be heard just a little ways from them.

Quite relieved, he finally replied, “Looking for you.....I went in circles. I thought you were lost and far away. I searched for a long time and could not find you. I was frantic: I thought something awful had happened. This forest is an dark secret place, and I do not like it one bit. Please don’t ever sneak off without telling me, especially in a spot like this. Oh, I’m so relived that you’re safe. Marcho has found a large tree that we can use for firewood, so we can leave here quickly. Let’s go dear. First to Marcho and then safely home to our family in one piece.”

Sarah looked over and smiled, apologizing and explaining that she really knew just where she was going, but thanking her husband for all his efforts The two of them left the glade together, hand-in-hand, heading back towards Marcho and then towards the encampment.