Forever and Always Mine

Chapter Four

                                   -------------------- Chapter Four ---------------------

"He's who!" I scream, startling the boy. I hold up my hand to cut off Andre repeating it.  

"Hello." I say to the boy.

"Hi." He replies. 

"What's your name? Mine's Ari." I ask him. 

"Arwi." He says.  

"Ari." I re-pronounce, saying the 'R' sound louder. 

"Ari." He repeats.  

"That's it!" I say happily. He laughs and bounces up and down in my arms.

"What's your name?" I ask again. 

"Adwrian." He says giggling. 

"Adrian?" I ask in a high voice. 

"That's me! That's me!" He says laughing, practically jumping up and down in my arms. I sighed.

"So this is him then." I say to Andre. I sigh and felt like crying. But I was no way in hell going to ever cry again.  

"Yes, that's Ash's little brother." 

"Do I have to give him back?" I ask, desperately hoping to answer was going to be no. 

"I'm sorry Ari, but yes. I suggest you do that now."  

I nod and walk down the stairs to the back door. If Adrian is Ash's brother, why'd he let me take him home? If he knew I had to give him back? I turn my head to see Adrian poking at my cast.  

"What happened?" He asked, worry etched into his young face. 

"I hurt my arm when I was a puppy, remember Adrian?"

"Oh, yeah!" He says loudly, proud of himself for remembering. "Were we goin'?" He asks, not pronouncing all the letters.  

"I'm taking you home, back to Ash." I say calmly. I was walking back into the forest, knowing the way automatically. My arms were starting to get a bit tired, so I put him down and held his hand in my good one and continued walking.

"Do I have to go?" He says, his bottom lip trembling.

"Yeah, you have to home sometimes." I say, trying to make it sound like a good thing.

"Will you visit a lot?" He says, his eyes starting to go watery.  

I pick him up and swing him on to my back.