Perception

LXXXVI

It had taken hours, of course. Despite his protests Eli had been checked over by a doctor in the emergency room with one of the police men standing guard outside, Eli's blood whisked away for testing at some night lab in the hospital. Anna had refused to leave his side, but her cuts were cleaned and bandaged up where she sat, and once Eli had been given the all clear they had been taken to the police station, just as the sun was coming up outside the window of the patrol car.
By this point Anna had started losing track of how many people they had had to repeat their stories to, both side by side and alone. She really hadn't wanted to leave Eli, not for one second, but she had thought better but to argue with the police, so she had sat and answered all the questions, time and time again.

The story had been easy to remember, naturally, because it was the truth, really, just with a few details conveniently left out. It wasn't like those details changed anything about the facts either, was it?
So it had all taken forever and a day, but in the end the police seemed to be satisfied that everything had gone the way they said, and now, finally, the same kind police man they had met in the forest, it felt like a year ago, had taken them back to the campsite in the back of his car.
"Thank you, for everything." she said as she took his hand before opening the door, their camping place already waiting to the right of the patrol car, and pressed it softly. "It's meant a lot."
"Of course, Anna, just doing my job." he replied. He got out of the car and opened Anna's door for her.
It was the strangest thing to be there again, standing on the grass, back in their spot, back by the yellow tent with dogs wagging and children playing on the field across, everything just the way they left it. It was all looking an awful lot less ominous in the light of day.
"Yes, thank you very much." Eli added, just as the officer stepped back into his car and disappeared over the campsite.

It was one of those silences where there was so much to say that all the words crashed in on themselves, like stars pulled into a black hole. So she said nothing at all, she just turned around and buried her face in his chest. He put his arm around her and held her there, his thumb rhythmically stroking her shoulder. They stood like that for the longest time, the hug a refuge, a sanctuary from the last day. Then she took the deepest breath.
"I should check my phone. Sarah's probably sent me a thousand messages."
He nodded. "Yeah."
She looked up at him briefly. His tone was off, his usual calm shaken, but what was she going to say?  'Are you okay?'
She knew full well he wasn't. And some things... you could simply not put into words. No, he wasn't okay, maybe, and neither was she, but they would be. She would make sure of it.
He smiled slightly and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. She leaned into his warmth for just one moment more, and then she turned and sat on her knees to dig around the tent for her telephone.
"I'm taking it we're packing up?" Eli asked her quietly, just as she found her handbag under her sleeping bag and fished out her very dead phone.
She nodded. "Yeah. Let's get home, hey?" She looked around their little piece of grass for a power socket. "I'll need to find somewhere to charge this."
"We can charge it in the car, we'll be packed in ten. To be honest... I'm ready to be out of this forest, if that's okay."
She looked at him again, narrowing her eyes slightly again at his tone, and nodded.
"Yeah, of course. Let's go home."