The Woodlands (#1 THE WOODLANDS SERIES) (COMPLETE)

24. FOOD AND WATER

Clara took my hand. It felt tiny in my own. She swung our arms together like we were schoolgirls. She was like a tiny ray of light—always smiling, always a comfort. She looked to me and smiled, shiny white teeth gleaming, her springy, black hair bouncing up and down as she walked.

“I’m glad to have you to myself for once.” She gave my hand a squeeze.

“Me too,” I said. Distance from Joseph was a good thing at that moment.

“It is so beautiful here. In Palma we wrote about the Wilderness but only from our imagination. It’s so much more than I had expected,” she said, her face full of wonderment.

She was right. From where we stood, we could see a carpet of alternate greens. The sky was clear blue. The spring weather brought with it warmth but not heat. The grey, rocky mountains contrasted with the pines. There was life everywhere. She patted her belly.

“Yes, we could be at home here.” She was talking to her child, so dreamy. Sometimes I did wonder if she was ‘all there’. She was full of hope, which was not a bad thing, but I couldn’t understand from what source it originated. After everything she had been through, she seemed unaffected. It had to be the baby that kept her so buoyant, something I neither comprehended nor wanted.

Something occurred to me that hadn’t before. Spring weather.

“What month is it?” I yelled to Alexei.

“It’s just turned to April today,” he replied. “Why?”

“Just wondering,” I said unconvincingly.

Alexei shrugged his shoulders and returned to his conversation with Apella.

Clara was looking at me curiously. Her eyes asked me, what that was about?

“I turned seventeen two days ago,” I said with a sigh.

“Happy birthday!” Clara said, clasping her hands around my shoulders and pulling me to her. I had never heard that phrase before. A change of age was not marked by anything in Pau, except access to a new ring. She was giving me a big squeeze when she jumped suddenly, like someone had kicked her.

“Ouch!” she exclaimed. Then in the sickly sweet voice she reserved for her baby, she said, “Naughty child, you shouldn’t hurt your mother so,” with her finger raised in mock disdain.

“Are you ok?” I asked. She looked weary. We needed to rest. I flagged the others and we let her sit for a while.

“I’m all right, really. I’m just hungry, and thirsty, but so is everyone else,” she said, waving her hand, shooing us away like bothersome flies. We had to find something soon. We were all getting hungry and weak after our night in the trees. I scanned the area. I felt like there was a memory pinching me, something to do with Rash. He was making fun of me in the Arboretum. I was saying something was surprising, interesting. I remembered him telling me I was confusing boring with interesting.

“Rash,” I whispered, smiling to myself. Forgetting where I was for a moment. Joseph looked at me. Eyes searching but I was replaying a memory in my head, looking right through him. I was reading about the pines. Rash was teasing me about having no life. I punched him in the arm. What I was reading was interesting because the plaque described the spring needles as being edible and that the male pollen cones were sweet. We needed sugar. I limped down the side of the hill, and picked a few of the small, yellow cones. I put one in my mouth. It was sweet, chewy. I filled my pockets and dragged myself back up the hill. I handed them out.

“Try it,” I urged. Joseph chucked one straight in his mouth, always the trusting one. Clara did the same. The others waited until they were sure I wasn’t planning a murder-suicide, but eventually they tried them. It wasn’t going to satisfy for long, but it was something until we found water. When we got up and started walking again, I tried to remember anything else about the plants I had read about, opening my eyes and really observing our environment. I was hoping it would come back to me. We split up again, the boys still searching for water. Clara and I, arm in arm, headed up the back.