Hunted – 22

As Logan led the way through the trees, apparently looking for the perfect spot for their talk, Brice felt nervous. It was not a feeling he enjoyed in the least—or normally experienced.

Eventually Logan stopped. They were in a small clearing with trees towering above them. “What was your childhood like?” Logan asked, quite out of the blue as far as Brice was concerned.

“Like anyone else’s I suspect—two parents, brother and sister, nice house in a small town. It was nothing spectacular. Why?”

Logan put one foot against a tree trunk and leaned back as he studied Brice. “Describe your parents.”

“My father was…” Brice faltered for a second, a frown on his face. “He was…tall, muscular, had dark hair. He was very strict, I think.”

“You think?”

“Yes. No.” Brice rattled off the information in his official studio bio. “He was a school teacher, just like mom. My brother was the athlete in the family, my sister was a doll and popular. I was the flamboyant one. Had the lead in all the theatrical productions. I left home to seek fame and fortune in the big city, got a job as an extra in a TV show and that was all she wrote as they say.”

“That’s how you remember it?”

“That’s how it was, so yes.”

“Ever go on trips when you were a kid?”

“Sure.”

“Where?”

Brice rubbed his forehead as he tried to remember. “When I was little,” he said haltingly, “we went camping. Yeah, that’s right. Spent all summer in…in some forest. I remember that much but…” He frowned deeply. “It’s weird. I can remember the forest, the trees, the plants, the smell of it, the feeling of freedom, but…but like a dream, not reality, or not like it should be. It was too…too wild if that makes sense.”

“Describe the town where you lived, the way you remember it.”

“Which one?” Brice asked then shook his head as if that wasn’t right.

“There was more than one?”

“No! No. It was a small town, I told you that. Typical like out of a movie. You know, cute houses, picket fences, one main street down the center.” He shrugged.

“Where was it?”

“In Iowa.”

“There’s forests in Iowa? I thought that was corn country.”

“Maybe it was…” Brice looked puzzled. “It says Iowa in my bio damn it, so that’s where it was.”

“The same way it says your parents were school teachers.”