The school camping trip was two days and one night at the pine forest camp. Fon and Kong were assigned to collect firewood in the afternoon — which sounded simple enough, but wasn’t.
“Don’t go far,” their teacher said.
But Fon spotted some beautiful wildflowers to the left, and Kong followed to look, and then there were strange mushrooms to the right, and when they turned to head back, the path was gone somewhere in the dense trees.
“Which way?” Kong asked, voice tight.
“I don’t know,” Fon admitted.
No phone signal. The clock read 4:30 PM. Darkness in two hours.
“Don’t panic,” Fon said. “Teacher Ariya said in the forest, stop first and then think.”
They both sat down at the base of a large tree.
“We need to know which direction camp is,” Fon said. “Then we just walk that way.”
“But how do we know which direction without a compass?”
“The sun,” Fon said, looking up. “In the afternoon, the sun is in the west.” She studied the tree shadows. “Shadows point east. Camp is north of here.”
Kong thought it through. “How do you know camp is north?”
“We walked south when we came out, because the sun was in front of us.”
Kong nodded slowly. “Okay. But what if it gets dark before we reach camp?”
Fon took a breath. “Then we use the stars.”
They started walking, but the forest grew denser as time passed, and the sky visible through the canopy deepened from blue to purple.
And then it went dark.
Kong stopped. “Fon…”
“Stay still,” Fon said, looking up. “Find the North Star first.”
They both looked up. The sky was full of stars.
“Which one is it?”
“Find the Big Dipper first,” Fon said, pointing. “Seven stars shaped like a ladle. See it?”
Kong searched. “I think so… is that it?”
“Yes. Now extend a line from the outer edge of the cup — five times the distance between those two edge stars. The end of that line is the North Star.”
Kong traced with his finger in the air. “That one?”
“Yes,” Fon nodded. “The North Star always points north. Camp is north. We walk toward it.”
They walked with the North Star always ahead of them. Eyes on it. Making sure it stayed in front as they moved.
The forest grew thinner. A smell of smoke drifted through the trees.
“Can you smell that?” Kong said, excited.
“Yes.” Fon was equally excited. “Follow the smell.”
Ten minutes later, campfire light appeared between the trees. Teacher Ariya was standing with a flashlight, face tense — then flooding with relief when she saw them both.
“You two scared me half to death!” she said.
“We’re sorry,” they said together.
She asked how they’d found their way back. Fon explained. North Star. Sun shadow. Direction.
Teacher Ariya smiled. “What I taught wasn’t wasted after all.”
That night they lay in their tent, looking up at the canvas ceiling. Kong spoke quietly.
“Fon… thank you.”
“I was scared too. I just didn’t want you to know.”
Kong laughed. “I knew anyway.”
Fon laughed too. And outside, the North Star was still there, steady and bright, doing its one job it has always done.
