✅ My Sister's Problem

129. Walk in the Woods

"Yeah!" I cut in before Mum could say anything. "It would be good to walk. We could even take different paths, so we cover more ground." I glanced over at Hugo, and squeezed his hand under the table. Would he be able to tell that there was something on my mind, and I wanted a little privacy to talk to him?

"Oh, but we don't want any more little ones getting lost!" He said, and all the blushes I'd been suppressing invaded my face again. "How about I'll take you for a walk, and your mum can help Lindy find some squirrels. Would you like that?"

"That okay with you two?" Mum asked, and we both nodded. So when we set off again, I had a toasted sausage sandwich in one hand, and a paper cup of coffee in the other. I was still dressed like an oversized toddler, and Hugo's hand on my arm somehow made me feel even smaller, like I needed constant supervision to keep me from running off. I didn't know why that made me feel so happy. We walked off into the woods, and a minute later the trees were closing in around us. There was a little town that we could probably walk to in ten minutes, and local kids were always hanging round in the trees; even climbing them or messing around on rope swings once we got beyond the more strictly-maintained areas of the squirrel and rare bird reserve. But right here there wasn't another person in sight, and we could have been a million miles from civilization.

"This is a nice place," Hugo said, a few minutes later. And for a moment I wished that he hadn't spoken, because it felt so good to just be alone with him, separated from the world, with nothing to think about but the rustle of wind in the trees. "I take it you know the place?"

"Yeah. We stop here every year now. It's kind of become a tradition. But on the way here, Mum shared a memory that... ugh... will always make me think about it differently."

"Oh? A good memory, or a bad one?"

"Umm... apparently Lindy was conceived here. Up a tree. While I was toddling around squeaking at all the wild animals with a friend looking after me. It's just..."

"Is that something you'd like to do?" he asked, and my mind jumped the tracks for a minute. I froze in place mid step, and wondered if I'd just heard what I thought I heard. But before I could even straighten the words out, he seemed to recognise my sudden stiffness and clarified: "Looking at animals, I mean. Running around like a little kid again. I saw signs with squirrels on, is there like a petting zoo here?"

"It's a nature reserve," I said, trying to get my thoughts back to acceptable topics. "You can't touch the animals, and there's big areas with wire fences all around to stop you walking in. But they've done everything to make it a perfect nesting site. So you can see all these rare birds that are native to the area, and red squirrels, and they're used to people being close. It's amazing how close they'll let you get before they spook, but then they can run so fast, and they're up the trees as easy as they run across the ground. They're really cute."

Those memories were good ones, and it was easy to imagine running around like a little kid again, without a care in the world. But as Hugo's mouth opened, I was sure that he was going to tell me that I was cute too; and whether he meant as a child or an adult, I was sure that such a revelation would leave me speechless. So I hurried and said the first thing that came to mind, so that I would be able to say what I wanted to say.

"Anyway!" I said. "I kind of wanted to talk to you. We're almost home now, but it's still going to be a pretty long drive this afternoon. I'm thinking I'm going to try loading the hypnosis thing on my phone. Try to reinforce it a few times, before I see if it works."

"Oh, cool," he said, and smiled. "I can keep an eye on you if you want. I mean... if you don't mind me watching you sleep. Or space out, or... it's not really sleep, is it? But I'm not sure what else to call it. It's not creepy to watch you, is it?"