It's Me, Baby

Prologue

I love how the stars cover the whole of the sky so the darkness looks like its sparkling. It makes me feel happy.

My room is really hot and I can’t sleep so instead I sit by my window and admire the pretty stars. I can hear noises coming from outside, so I decide to walk out to go to the barn. I have to be really quiet when I tiptoe through the house though, so I don’t wake my mommy.

I want to take some carrots to chestnut, my pony, but I don’t think mommy would like me to do that. She says she doesn’t like it when I go on my own. I don’t want to upset her so I just walk to the barn instead. I like it in there. I can look up at the stars and it feels like I am floating.

I lie down in the hay on the floor of the barn for a little while trying to make patterns in the twinkling stars when I hear some sniffling noises. I think they are coming from outside so I run out to where the sounds are coming from. 

It’s the boy from next door.

I start to slow down when I see he’s sitting on the fence next to the road. Mommy says it’s dangerous to be too close to the road. I’ve only seen him a few times before when i passed his ranch with grandpa but I like him; when he smiles at me he makes me feel special.

He lives in the ranch next door to ours but I heard grandma and grandpa talking in the kitchen one night and I think they said he was moving. I don’t want him to go; I haven’t even spoken to him yet. I want to talk to him before he leaves so I walk up to him and sit next to him on the fence.

I’m not sure if he’s noticed me yet, I think he’s thinking really hard about something, he has the same look that my grandpa has when he thinks.

“Hello” I say smiling. I think I surprise him because when he looks up he falls off the fence backwards. Woopsy.

“Are you ok?!” I asked in between laughs.

I didn’t mean to make him fall or to laugh about it but when he stands up I notice he is laughing too so I don’t feel so bad. I’m glad he isn’t hurt, I don’t know what I would have done if he started crying, it would have made me sad.

“Hello” he says smiling. He stretches out his hand. I find this strange because only adults shake hands with people, but I shake it anyway. His hand feels nice. It is warm and soft and makes me feel tingly.  

“How old are you?” I ask.

“Seven” He says as he dusts the dirt off of him and stuffs his hands in his pockets.

“I’m five” I reply.

“I’m older than you” he says grinning at me.

“Well I get to live longer!” I say sticking my tongue out.

He stands there staring at me but I don’t know why. When he smiles at me, I can’t help but smile back.

That’s when he grabs my hand and pulls me towards the barn I was just in. We run inside and then he lets go of my hand. I want to hold it again but I also don’t want him to think I’m weird so instead I ask “why were you crying?”

“I wasn’t crying I have hay fever.” He says but he is looking at the ground the whole time and I know he is lying.

That makes me laugh a little bit because I would have said the same thing. He looks around and lies down on one of the hay bales; he then focuses his eyes back on me. I decide to lie down next to him. 

“What’s your favourite colour?” he asks.

“Blue” I reply.

“Me too” he says, grinning at me again.  

“Do you like pizza?” I ask. I hope that he does because pizza is my favourite.

“Who doesn’t?” He says back which makes me smile. I like that he likes pizza too.

He sits up and looks at me. “Do you want to play a game?” he asks.

“Yes” I say happily.

“What do you want to play?” he asks while smiling.

“Hide and seek” I say back.

“OK, but you’re counting first!” he says and before I can say anything back, he runs away to hide.

When I get to ten I start again because I can’t remember what numbers come after that. 

 “Ready or not, here I come!” I say as loud as I can, so that he can hear me but also quiet enough that my mommy won’t hear. I hope she doesn’t, I’m having fun out here, and I don’t want to go back inside.

 We play hide and seek for a long time, it is really fun and I laugh a lot because he always walks past my hiding places but then he’d hear me and I’d get caught. I don’t care that he is better than me at this game; I just like playing it with him.

When it is my turn to count again I walk quietly out of the barn and search for him in the silent darkness. I see something move by the massive tree that is just next to the barn, so I slowly make my way over to it.

As I get closer I can see him, lying under the tree, staring up at the beautiful bright stars.

I get a tingly feeling inside my tummy.

I walk over and lie down next to him. He glances over at me and smiles causing me to smile back. It is a breath taking smile. He sits up and his eyes roam over the floor around us, like he is looking for something.

He picks up a pointy stone that was next to his leg and starts to carve something into the big tree. When he is done he leans back and allows me a look at what he has carved. I let out a surprised gasp, although I don’t think he heard, as I look at the heart he has drawn. Inside the heart are the initials L.T & A.G.

A.G...

Those are my initials!

L.T must be his... now that I think about it, I still haven’t asked what his name is, how did he know mine?

I look over to him grinning at me and just as I am about to ask, he attempts to stifle a yawn, which escapes anyway. 

I realise that we have probably been out here for a long time now. I think he is getting tired. I know I am.  

“Are you tired?” I ask him.

“A little” he says back. We walk back to the barn, hand in hand which I like a lot, and he sits on the bottom step.

“Me too” I mumble. I want to stay out here with him longer but I am pretty tired now as well. I also want to be back before my mommy notices I am gone, I don’t want to scare her.  

“I should probably go back now” he says but he looks sad about it which makes the tingles come back into my tummy because it means he wants to stay out here with me too. He looks up at me and smiles. The really big smile that makes me feels special.

“I like you” he whispers, still smiling up at me.

“I like you too” I say back.

He stands up and kisses my cheek, and then he runs back home. I got butterflies when he did that and I can’t wait to see him again. I quickly run back to my bedroom making sure not to wake my mommy.

That night I dream of tingles in my tummy, warm hands holding mine and sitting under a big tree, watching the stars.

My first thought when I wake up the next morning is that I want to see...

I forgot to ask his name!

I run to my window and look out. Usually I can just about see his house from my window.

Something is wrong though. It doesn’t look anything like the house I drive past with grandpa, it looks empty. There aren’t any trucks parked either. My mind wonders back to grandma and grandpa talking in the kitchen.

It is too late.

He is gone.