Where the Willow Tree Grows

Chapter 2

The people of our village didn't react very...quietly. As soon as we walked into the entrance, you could hear whispers. Once we got to the center of the village, people weren't whispering anymore. You could barely hear yourself over the noise. People weren't just talking to themselves, either.

"Sienna, who the heck is that?" Dawn emerged from the little shop by our house carrying a bag.

The person at the head of the village came over. "Who is this?"

"A man, he says. His name's Tom. Sayo and I found him at a shipwreck. Can you find him somewhere to stay?"

He nodded and motioned for Tom to follow him. They exited the clearing, chattering gradually becoming louder.

Now all eyes were on me and Sayo.

"Um, hi," I spoke quietly. There was silence. Then an eruption of questions.

"Where'd you find him?"

"What was he doing in a shipwreck?"

"Where'd he come from?"

Then some angry voices.

"Liers!"

"He couldn't have come from anywhere!"

"You're telling us there's other land, which is just plain stupid."

I shook my head and walked into my house with Sayo and Dawn. Dawn closed the door behind us. "Ask someone else, people!" she screamed out the window, which caused me to smile.

"Dawn, I'll have to answer to them eventually." I suddenly got nervous. I wasn't great at public speaking in general, but speaking in front of two hundred people? No, thanks.

"You don't have to give them answers."

She was right, but I knew that the townspeople would pester me still. "Sayo, you should go home. Your mom's probably worried, you know how she is with strangers. Take this fish with you." I gathered up half of the fish from the bucket and put them in a smaller bucket.

"Okay, Enna. If you need me, just come to my house." She left.

A few hours later, the sun had gone down and I was sitting by the little pond in our backyard. The was a little willow tree next to it that I climbed once. I fell down and broke my arm, but it was worth it. My parents fixed my arm with a cast and told me stories of when they were young and climbed that tree.

I had loved the pond, my parents used to tell me stories about the water nymphs when I was little. They had set out to find land years later.

And just like the rest of them, they never returned.

I swirled a stick in the water, trying to make sense of what had happened. A lot for one day. That's what.

Eventually, I gave up and went to my room. It was bright green. Not neon green, but the green that matched my eyes. And Dawn's eyes, too.

Sea-green.

It made me happy, so I decided to paint my room that color. All my furniture was birch wood, a bright color that went well with the walls. My bed was a big canopy bed, the kind I had always dreamed about when I was small. Finally, Dawn had cracked and bought me one when I was eight.

 Now I was fourteen, though, and I noticed that if I stretched out my feet would fall off the bed. But I still loved that bed.

I put on some nightclothes, brushed my teeth, and got under the blanket.

. . .

The next morning was humid and gloomy. The rain was pouring from the sky like an ocean. Hardly the day for a trip to the beach. But still, I went. I had a feeling something was off, and it was making me nervous.