Under the Gray Willow Tree

Chapter 35

Willow's POV

I smiled weakly as I read the journal that I had written when I was just eight until about fourteen, just before that day. A trip down memory lane is always a very emotional thing, and add painful to that once all the people that are involved in that certain 'memory lane' are gone.

My journal is filled with loads of memory and pictures of the best moments in my life in my family. Well, actually, this book is actually more like a scrapbook, a scrapbook that Jess and I wrote together.

"Hey! Willow! Look what I just bought when I went out with Mum just now!" Jess yelled at me from downstairs.

My ears perked up in curiosity. I immediately put down the stuffed teddy bear that I was playing with and scrambled off my bed, running downstairs as fast as my legs could take me.

I ran straight into my sister, and knocked her over, panting heavily, with me lying on top of her. I didn't bother to get up. She pushed me off and then helped me get up. Well, she carried me and carried me all the way to the couch, and put me in a sitting position. She then sat down beside me, placing a box on her lap.

"What's that? What's that? What's that?" I blurted out, all in one breath.

She chuckled – obviously able to sense the curiosity in me – and put one finger to my lips. "Shh... It's a secret."

I pursed my lips and started pouting, jumping up and down the couch at the same time. "No fair!"

She chuckled once more. "It's our secret silly!"

"Oh," I replied dumbly.

"And sit down! Someone might see us and know our secret!"

I nodded enthusiastically and sat down back beside her. My eyes twinkled in excitement. "So, what is inside the box?"

"You really want to know?" she asked me teasingly.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!"

She smiled. "Okay. I'll open the box then.

She untied the pink ribbons that sealed the box shut excruciatingly slowly. A lot slower than it would normally take a person to untie a ribbon. I can bet that she is just teasing me, making me wait much longer than necessary and making me die of curiosity, as usual.

She's always doing that. It gets annoying at times.

She lifted the lid slowly, but I knocked it out of her hand, not wanting to wait any longer. She grinned at my reaction, an obviously satisfied grin. She wanted me to die of curiosity. And she knows that from what I did, she definitely got what she wanted.

I peeped inside the shallow box. It was only a notebook, with its pages in landscape. I pouted in annoyance and disappointment. So the 'secret' was only a notebook. And with a used, brown cover, and its papers looking like they're blank recycled paper, bounded with a blue ribbon together messily.

I pursed my lips. "So, is the secret inside the notebook?

She burst out laughing so hard, that I thought that she might die from lack of oxygen. She managed to control herself a while later though, and then, she rolled her eyes and messed up my hair at the same time. "It's not a notebook silly. It's a scrapbook!"

I cocked my head in confusion. "What's a scrapbook sis?"

"Oh Willow," she sighed, sounding slightly amused at my question. "Why are you so innocent? A scrapbook is a book where we can paste pretty pictures and write down all the good and happy times we have?"