the willow by the river

Chapter 2

The handwriting on the note is a bit rough and clumsy, but still easy to read. It looks like your regular teen boy handwriting, like any one of my male classmates could've written it. Except if it was written by, say, Kevin, it would have at least four swear words and at least one drawn dick. I open the barrel just to check that the "surprise" isn't something i'd like to get out of there as quick as possible, even though it doesn't seem like it. 

It is not, in fact, something disgusting or unpleasant. It's a sweatshirt. I take it out. It's big, soft, blue, and has another small note attached to it with a safety pin. For cold days. I'm sorry, I didn't have anything more exiting to leave here. Well, i'll have to come up with something better next time. Will this even fit you?  I pull it up to my face. It smells nice. After a minute of just staring out in the air in surprise, cause wow, someone found my safe place and didn't destroy it, I put it on. It's even more soft on the inside. I pick up the sketchbook on the very top of the pile in the barrel, and look at the first page. 

The drawing itself looks like it did last time I looked at it. But at the bottom of the page, on a spot that used to be blank, there's now written something. I really like the way you drew the nose. And the eyes, they look so... glistening? sorry if you don't like that i've written in your sketchbook. 

It's written in the same handwriting as the note, but lighter, and it looks like I could easily erase it if i wanted to. But I don't. I find this whole thing weirdly exiting, and a bit terrifying. I pick up a smaller, more cheap sketchbook, rip out a sheet of paper, and start to write.

When i'm done, i pick up my note, and pin it to the tree where i found the note, with the same needle. I wonder where they got that from?