Until The Very End

CHAPTER 11: A Trip to the Camp

            After an hour, Matt, who was from the kitchen, went inside his bedroom. One minute later, he came outside and began wandering the penthouse if Rodolfo’s around and ready to go. But Rodolfo was still in his own room yet, probably changing his clothes or styling his hair. Matt went to the kitchen and drink a glass of water. Next, he went to the living room, picked one book from the shelves, and sat on the couch, facing the wall of glass. He took a gaze outside and opened the book at a random page. He started to read.

            Moments later, Rodolfo approached him. He was stunned to see Matt wearing a bathrobe, different from the bathrobe he was wearing when Anna came. Matt looked at his friend, who was fully dressed. White polo shirt, grey pants, black-coloured shoes, and a brown watch on his right wrist. Rodolfo’s excitement fades away after seeing his friend on his bathrobe.

            “I thought we are going somewhere.”

            “Yes, we are indeed going somewhere,” answered Matt as he flipped one page of the book he was reading.

            “Will you tell me where is it? Is it a pool party? A sauna?” Rodolfo asked, sitting down on the opposite couch where Matt was seated.

            Matt closed the book,  placed it on the table, leaned forward and answered Rodolfo in a question form, “Did you bring any clothes for camping or tent? Wait, did I asked you to bring one?”

            “Wait, what? Why are you asking for a tent? Are we going on a camp?” Rodolfo’s excitement came back.

            “Confirmed, I haven’t told you we are going on a camp,” Matt stood up and stretched his arms up. “Stay here. Your outfit is perfect. I will go and get changed.”

            “Wait! I can’t camp in an outfit like this,” replied Rodolfo, standing up.

            “Of course, you can’t,” said Matt in a response. “Before we go on that, we need to do first what women almost do every day.”

            “What exactly do you mean by that women thing that they almost do every day?” asked again Rodolfo, who was never running out of questions. Matt started to march away from the living room before Rodolfo asks his question.

            “Shopping,” answered Matt. “or whatever they call it.”

            Rodolfo smiled and sat back again.

            Twenty minutes later, Matt went out of his bedroom. He came to the living room where he saw his friend reading the book he had just read. Unlike Rodolfo, he was wearing black shorts above the knee, a dark grey crewneck sweatshirt, white shoes, and a pair of sunglasses. Rodolfo immediately closes the book and stood up, smiling. Matt watched him, then sat down on his seat from before, saying;

            “We have to wait for five or ten minutes, I think.”

            Rodolfo went back to his seat and asked kindly, “What for?”

            “I called someone to drive us to go to the mall. I don’t want to happen again what we had come through the last time we rode a taxi,” said Matt. He was talking about the taxi driver that drove them from the airport to Grande Palazzo.

            “Right,” Rodolfo replied simply.

            No one talked for a moment after. Matt was studying the book that Rodolfo on the table, and he questioned him;

            “So, uhmm, do you love books?”

            “Not much,” he answered as he looked at the book. “I got easily distracted when I read books.”

            “I see,” responded Matt.

            “How about you?”                                                           

            “Don’t you remember? I read books since I was a kid,” he replied, while he getting the book on the table.

            “Right. What do you say about Romeo and Juliet?” Rodolfo asked. He seemed to know about the book.

            “Tragic love,” his friend answered. “But I do like the story, especially how the author, William Shakespeare, ended the story. I believe that not all love has a happy ending.”

            “I used to believe that all love story has a happy ending,”  Rodolfo replied shyly, looking down.

            Silence came to the two. There was a knock on the penthouse door, after. Matt stood up, laying the book on the table again. Rodolfo just sat there in silence, investigating the whole living room.

            It was Anna who knocked on the door. She greeted Matt happily as she said;

            “Good morning, sir. A chauffeur is waiting at the entrance hall down the lobby. He said you called him this morning.”

            Before he replied to Anna, he called Rodolfo who was still in the living room. “Rod, let’s go!” Then he turned to Anna, saying, “Thank you, Ms Anna.”

            Rodolfo came to the door and stood behind Matt. Matt called Anna before she walked away. He said;

            “Anna, we will not be here for the whole day. So you don’t have to come here for room or customer service, expecting that I or my friend will open the door. Alright?”

            “Sir, let me clarify this, please. When you said the whole day, that does mean that you won’t also be here for nighttime?” asked Anna, gazing at Rodolfo.

            “Yes,” responded Matt. “We will be here by tomorrow noon.”

            “I now understand, sir,” said Anna as she placed her hands behind her back. “Have a great day to both of you.”

            Matt left her a grin, and Rodolfo spoke to her, “You too.”

            Matt closed the door and looked at his friend, making a short continuous nod. He took out his phone from his pocket and placed it on the table, standing next to the door. After putting his phone on that table, he went again to his bedroom. It took him minutes inside. When he came out, carrying a camping backpack, he went to the kitchen and drank a glass of water. After drinking, he filled two water bottles with water and put them inside of the camping backpack he brought with him. He took the two large blue storage box that was on the kitchen counter. Rodolfo was still standing at the door when he came back. He opened the door and told his friend;

            “Let’s go.”

            He was outside of the penthouse when he noticed that his friend has not moved a single muscle. Rodolfo was still inside at his fixed spot. The door remained open. Matt took a couple of steps back to the penthouse. He rests his left shoulder on the door, crossed his arms and legs, asking;

            “What’s wrong?”

            “You will not bring your phone?” Rodolfo asked back while staring at Matt’s phone that was next to a telephone.

            “Yeah,” answered Matt excitedly. “The goal in camping is to live without modern technologies or devices for a day.”

            “You’re right, but I’m having second thoughts,” said Rodolfo, lacking excitement.

            “What? Why?” Matt asked, crumpling his face.

            “What if we are in danger? Who would help us?”

            “We will figure that out without any help from others. I know we can,” Matt’s voice was a bit hushed.

            “Thanks for the spirit, but what I meant was, what if we are in grave danger that needed medical attention like we cut our legs off,” Matt’s friend replied worriedly.

            Matt felt strange about Rodolfo’s actions. For a moment he stared at him, then he said, “Why would we cut our legs off during a camp?”

            “Come on, man. Just think of the possibilities.”

            He stared again at his friend and took a deep breath, saying, “Fine. We’ll bring your’s.”

            “Bring your phone too,” demanded Rodolfo. He suddenly took one of the storage boxes that Matt was carrying. “In case my phone run out of battery. It’s good to have an extra.”

            Matt looked at Rodolfo in the eye, took again a deep breath and sighed while nodding. He doesn’t really want to bring a phone to a camp. He went inside the penthouse and grabbed his phone. Rodolfo smiled as both of them left the penthouse.

            They took the lift to go down the lobby. When they reached it, Matt walked handsomely. Rodolfo followed him. Hotel employees and some of the hotel guests greeted him. He replied with a nod or a simple phrase, “Thank you. And to you too.” There are few that came to his front to have a proper handshake with him. And that came to Rodolfo’s mind how it was like to be Matt. He was confused yet amazed. Confused because he was wondering how Matt could handle a lot of greetings from people, knowing that his friend doesn’t like to be surrounded by lots of people and was an introvert. Yet amazed because, at such young age, he gets a lot of respect from people who knew him. Rodolfo had no the slightest idea how it’s like to be a CEO of a parent company.

            As they stopped at the entrance hall, the chauffeur was standing next to a black private car, looking very polished and well-groomed. He was wearing a pressed dark tuxedo, white dress shirt, a black bowtie, white gloves, black dress pants and black dress shoes. His hair was covered by a chauffeur hat. Matt led the way to where the chauffeur was. He approached him by saying a “good morning”. His green orb eyes sparkled as sunlight reflected on it.

            The chauffeur replied with the same phrase and smiled. He automatically opened the door of the car as he replied back. Matt gestured Rodolfo to go inside. When the chauffeur closed the car door, he attempted to go on the other side to open the door for Matt. But Matt stops him, and said that he can do it by himself. The chauffeur moved his head sidely and asked Matt;

            “Where to, CEO Williams?”

            His accent was perfect. He’s pure Italian, but he graduated from a British university. Rodolfo looked at the chauffeur, while Matt went on looking for something in his pockets, answering the chauffeur;

            “To the mall, please.”

            On the way to the mall, none of them had spoken. Matt was still busy searching for something in his pockets while Rodolfo was looking outside of the window car, fantasizing about his camp with Matt. About three minutes later or so, Matt gave up on what he was looking for.

            The mall was just about 21 kilometres east of Grande Palazzo. So it only took them minutes on the road. They parked at the underground parking lot of the mall. Matt and Rodolfo waited for the car to its full stop.

            “You can come with us,” Matt invited the chauffeur to go with them, as he opened the door. Rodolfo did not wait for the chauffeur to open the door. He opened it himself.

            “I have nothing to buy inside the mall, sir,” the chauffeur answered. His smile was cute. “Plus, I have to do my work, sir.”

            “Don’t worry. I’ll pay anything you picked,” Matt replied, taking his backpack out of the car. He added after, “And anyone who works could also have a little fun.”

            The chauffeur giggled silently and said, “Thank you, sir, but I’ll just wait for you and your friend at this exact spot.”

            “Okay. We will be back soon,” responded Matt with a nod and smile.

            He and Rodolfo entered the mall. The first thing they looked for was a tent, camping sleeping bags and sleeping pads. When they had finally bought for them two, they went on looking for toilet paper, paper towels, a toiletry kit and a first-aid kit. Next, they bought their clothing and footwear for the cold night.

            They decided to split up to get things that they wanted to bring to the campsite. Rodolfo’s attention fell on the 21-in-1 multi-tool and never had second thoughts nor afterthoughts to take it. He also took camping bags to store some of the things they bought and extra clothes to wear. On the other hand, Matt took two binoculars, two camping pillows, and a camp rug. The two of them bought pretty much. Lastly, they bought camping outfits and wore them already. Both of them were said no at first, but their outfits do not fit the activity that they’re going to do. They immediately went back to the parking lot and placed the things inside in order. The chauffeur even helped them to do so.

            After, Matt told the chauffeur to go to the entrance of the National Park. While they were on the road, Matt and Rodolfo had been preparing the things they bought. Both of them started settling new things inside their camping bags. None of the two has talked, except for the chauffeur who asked about their camping site. The National Park was farther than the distance between the Grande Palazzo and the mall that Matt and Rodolfo just went in. It took one hour and almost forty minutes before they arrived at the entrance of the National Park.

            There were no people at the entrance. Matt and  Rodolfo get out of the car, took their things in the car, and ready themselves for a little hiking trip. Before the chauffeur drove out, he told the two to have a good and safe camp. Rodolfo and Matt thanked him. Matt added to the chauffeur to pick them up tomorrow noon at the entrance of the National Park. They carried their camping stuff equally and began to walk. Matt, of course, led the way.

            At the entrance of the National Park, tall trees were already seen. There were trails that lead to different paths. Some led to the trees-free places, and some led to rocky-mountain scenery. Green and more greener as it looks, the two were admiring the trees. They never felt the pain from their back because of what they were carrying. Fresh air whirled around them, and Matt lifts his head high, closing his eyes, to feel it. Rodolfo watched him.

            Sweats were pouring from their faces and necks as they continued to follow the trail that Matt had chosen. The trail was going up to a hill that has so many trees. They were exhausted and stopped for a moment. Matt took off his camping backpack, grabbed the two water bottles, and drank water. He handed the other to Rodolfo. Matt rests his back on the tall tree for a minute, while Rodolfo wanders around. When he already had his backpack on, Rodolfo called his name twice. He followed his friend’s voice, and there Rodolfo was, standing on beside a tree.

            “Come here! Look!” Rodolfo exclaimed after seeing his friend coming.

            Matt looked to where Rodolfo was looking. A beautiful view of the coastline and the sea. They stared and admired the view. They watched how the waves run from the surface of the sea to the time it hits the shore. It was a breathtaking moment for the two. The air whispered to their ears and ran to their hair. Matt didn’t notice that Rodolfo left and came back again after a short moment.

            After a while, when Rodolfo came back, Matt told Rodolfo to move on. The trail was going downhill. It was easier for them to travel and walk. Their heads were turning right, left and up as they walk, looking at the flying birds, big tall trees, and falling dead leaves that were being flown by air. They continued to walk for one more hour. Right after that hour, Matt stopped. He was confused for not seeing Rodolfo beside him. That made him turn around. Rodolfo was walking after him, his right hand in his pockets.

            “What do you think?” asked Matt while Rodolfo was coming nearer to him.

            “This is it?” Rodolfo asked back, panting. Matt nodded, then Rodolfo said, “Well, it’s perfect!”

            Matt smiled and put his camping backpack on the solid earth. He took his camping rug, laid it out on the cold ground of earth, and laid down. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, feeling the breeze. Rodolfo, who had not bought a camping rug, just sit beside Matt. He was tempted to lay down beside his friend, but he restrained himself. Instead, he just started the conversation.

            “Have you been here before?”

            “No.”

            “I like this place.”

            “You did?”

            “Yeah.”

            The place was tree-free. No trees surrounded their campsite. They were out of the woods, but the woods was not far from where they were now. The trail to the woods was a hundred feet away from them. A lake was just twenty-five meters from where Matt had laid out his camping rug. It was calm. Ripples ran wider as the wind continues to meet the surface water of the lake. It dies out after ten to fifteen seconds as they were form. Neither human voices nor sounds of a city were present. Natural sounds were being heard. It was half-past 12 already.

            A few minutes later, Rodolfo stood up and walked near the lake. Boulders were at some part of the lake. Stones were everywhere at the shoreline of the lake. He began to look for flat, round-shaped stones. It wasn’t hard to find a few of those. He held the stone like a coin to toss and began to throw it using a sidearm throw. The stone hopped on top of the lake fifteen times.

            “Nice throw,” Matt was standing on top of the boulder, staring at the stone that Rodolfo had just thrown.

            Rodolfo startled and looked to his left. He didn’t realize that Matt had followed him. “Oh, I didn’t see you there.”

            “Teach me,” replied Matt, looking at him.

            “I’d be honoured,” said Rodolfo, stretching his right arm while palm facing the sky.

            Matt carefully came down from the boulder. While he was on his way to Rodolfo, he looked for flat, round stones. He found three before he reached Rodolfo.

            “Are you sure you don’t know how to do skipping stones?” asked Rodolfo after seeing Matt’s stones.

            “Yeah. Why’d you ask?”

            “The stones you picked is…”

            “I know. I learnt it one minute ago. I saw how you examined the stones around you earlier and picked the same ones’ I just picked.”

            “Okay. Let’s move on. You seem to be a fast learner person,” smiled Rodolfo, as he went again looking for stones to skip.

            When he found one, he instructed Matt while demonstrating, “First, rest the flat sides of the stones between your thumb and the tip of your middle finger. Then hug the edge of the stone with your index finger.”

            Matt watched and listened closely. He does the exact thing that Rodolfo had demonstrated, and he does it correctly. Rodolfo used his other hand to give Matt a thumbs up and continued, “Next, tilt the front edge of the stone slightly upward and adjust your aim so the rock is about a 20-degree angle to the surface of the water.”

            Again, Matt followed, and Rodolfo went on saying, “Lastly, use a sidearm throw to throw the stone. Remember, flicking your wrist will add some spin as you launch the stone.”

            Rodolfo threw his stone and it hopped on the water seventeen times. Matt waited for Rodolfo’s stone to get eaten by the lake. After, he throws his stone. It only hopped four times.

            “Not bad,” Rodolfo commented. “With some practice, you’ll be able to get multiple hops than that out of one throw.”

            “Thanks,” responded Matt as he threw his second stone.

            He and Rodolfo skipped stones for twenty minutes. At one o’clock in the afternoon, Matt asked his friend if he wasn’t hungry. Rodolfo admitted that he was and that made Matt ran back to his camping rug after getting one of the blue storage boxes he had brought from his penthouse. The inside was full of filled croissants, mixed nuts, different types of sandwiches, fruit salad, and bottled waters. There was also a bag of marshmallows.

            Matt picked two croissants and a small bowl of fruit salad for lunch. However, Rodolfo had a cup of mixed nuts and an apple peanut butter sandwich. They ate under the sun, facing the stunning view of the lake. They had not talked while eating, but Rodolfo kept on looking at his friend secretly. After their lunch, Rodolfo asked a sudden question;

            “So, how are you feeling at this moment?”

            Matt crumpled his face, as he took the cap of the bottled water that that was on top of the mixed nuts jar. Then he answered, “Alive. I have no idea why would you asked that question. Of course, I’m happy.”

            Chuckling while looking at Matt, Rodolfo stood up and went into the woods. Matt watched him go for a couple of seconds and said, “Where are you going?”

            “I’ll be back,” Rodolfo shouted while walking away.

            He felt strange for Rodolfo. He cleaned the things they had used to eat and store again their foods in the storage box. After, he took the other blue storage box, opened it and stared at the things he had put in it. A small camping axe, mallet and two lanterns were inside. He took out the axe and stood up. About to make his first step to walk, Rodolfo’s voice came in to his ears.

            “What’s with that axe?”

            “I’m gonna go and look for something that can be used on a campfire,” he turned around and saw Rodolfo approaching. Rodolfo’s eyes were shining.

            “Isn’t it too early for a campfire?” Rodolfo halted.

            “That is not what I said. I’ll collect them for now and build the campfire later, not now. Maybe I won’t find some later before nightfall,” replied Matt while holding the axe on his shoulder.

            “Do it later and come join me. I’m sure there are plenty of dead woods that we can collect in the woods. Trust me,” Rodolfo walked past him and stopped in front of his camping bag.

            “Join what?” asked Matt, confused.

            “Swimming,” answered Rodolfo. Matt turned around and secretly gasped when he saw Rodolfo removing his clothes. Rodolfo, who wasn’t aware that his friend was watching him, continued removing his clothes. He left his underpants on and turned around to his friend. Matt was stupefied. He glimpsed at Rodolfo’s bulge, who spoke. “You can’t swim with that outfit, can you?”

            “No,” Matt shooked his head. “No, I’m not going to swim.”

            “Come on. We went here to have fun,” Rodolfo came closer to Matt and attempted to remove Matt’s clothes. Matt dropped the axe and tried to stop his friend, but Rodolfo was stronger.

            Rodolfo surrendered after Matt had gripped his wrist. “All right, all right. I won’t force you, but please just stay here. And if you feel bored here all alone, you can join me anytime at the lake.”

            “And what I am supposed to do here? Watch you?” questioned Matt as he grabbed the axe and walked away.

            “I don’t know. Do whatever you think is fun to you,” Rodolfo replied. Before he marched to the lake, he winked. Matt was shocked at this and did not know what it meant.

            “I hope you drowned!” bellowed Matt.

            “I do hope you’d join me!” Rodolfo shouted back.

            He put back the axe inside of the storage box, then laid down at his camping rug. His thoughts flew high as he stared at the blue blue sky and the funny clouds. Next, he grabbed his phone, turned up the volume and played his music playlist. He rests his phone beside his head and closed his eyes. His lips were moving slowly, probably singing along with the song.

            “… hold back… …hold back the…”

            A long moment after he had laid down, he sat up. He looked for Rodolfo at the lake. Rodolfo was standing near the centre of the lake. The water was at his shoulder level. He watched Rodolfo swim away. After that, he went to his camping backpack and took his sketchpad and a set of drawing pencils he had brought. He returned to his camping rug, sat in his comfortable position, and began sketching the view in front of him. As minutes pass on, his ongoing artwork became to look extraordinary. Moments went on, and he was done, but he wanted to draw more. He looked around and there was it. A perfect subject to draw. He immediately flipped his sketchpad to the second page and started drawing again.

            Thirty minutes passed, Rodolfo came to him. Matt suddenly closed his sketchpad and looked at Rodolfo horribly. His eyes met Rodolfo’s. Rodolfo was soaked so he did not dare to step on Matt’s camping rug. Hands on hips, Rodolfo spoke;

            “Will you join me now?”

            “What are you doing?” Matt replied after standing up, feeling surprised by Rodolfo’s sudden arrival.

            “What? I came here to ask you,” said Rodolfo in bewilderment. Then he said after seeing the sketchpad that Matt was holding, “Oh, you’re an artist. Let’s see what you had just drawn.”

            “No!” responded Matt as he tried to hide his sketchpad behind his back. “Don’t come any closer! You’re wet! You can’t see what’s on my sketchpad unless you dry yourself up!”

            “Okay. I won’t,” Rodolfo stood away from the camping rug. “Let me see it later. For now, please, join me.”

            Matt looked at him for a few seconds and nodded. Rodolfo smiled and went back to the lake. He hid his sketchpad inside of his camping backpack and reluctantly began to remove his outfit. It took him minutes. When he was in his underwear, he hurriedly ran to the lake. Without any other extra move, he swam fastly. He took the chance to walk wearing only his underwear while Rodolfo was under the water.

            While swimming too far from their campsite, they discovered a small waterfall. They had enjoyed the moment there for the rest of the hours.

            Later on that afternoon, around seven o’clock, they came back and went up from the lake. They split ways in the woods to get dressed privately. It was Matt's idea. He felt fun with Rodolfo at the lake. He didn’t mind exposing his body to Rodolfo. After they had dressed, Matt went back to the woods, carrying his small axe, while Rodolfo started to set up his tent. When he got to the part where he had to push the tent pegs to the ground, he wandered around the campsite, looking for big rocks. Then he remembered where Matt had gotten the axe – to the blue storage box. Rodolfo opened the other blue storage box and, to his great surprise, there was a mallet. But before his hand reached the handle of the mallet, Matt’s camping backpack caught his attention.

           Matt came after almost an hour with his arms full of tinder, kindling and firewoods. He saw Rodolfo preparing his tent.

            “Hey, hey,” Matt came, putting down the woods he brought. The firewoods created a sound as they hit another firewood. Matt’s voice suddenly came calmly. “I’ll do it myself.”

            “I finished my tent already and, and the sleeping bags, and everything,” said Rodolfo who kept on preparing Matt’s tent. “Let me help you with this one.”

            “It’s alright. Go. Have some rest. I can do this alone,” replied Matt, trying to stay away his tent from Rodolfo’s reach.

            “I insist to help you.” Rodolfo suddenly acted strangely. His voice became deeper.

            “Fine.”