Forest is close, trees are far

5. Vibeke

Horksel was a nice boy.

 It was not easy to love him but once you did, it was never possible not to love him again. With his outbursts, mischief, he would sometimes ruin his own image, but almost every time you would somehow find a way to fall in love with him again. Or the one who loves would find a reason to see him in a good light again. Such are those who love. They cling to the smallest piece of something like goodness and draw from it all the meaning and all the reasons with which they explain to others but mostly to themselves why everyone else is wrong and only they see the right picture in all its beauty. The only thing they forget is that every painting, like everything else in life, has what makes it good, but it also has bits of bad on which its critics make their money. But like any devotee, the opportunity to look at things objectively was taken away from them at the moment when they fell in love with someone or something.

Mobile home stood alone in the middle of the woods. In front of her, Horksel sat equally alone. Everything around us is a reflection of our inner happenings.

"I'm resting. From the world. Isn't it obvious? "It was also more than obvious. Vibeke leaned against a branch she had torn off as she crossed the fence, which she used to clear the forest vegetation. Eartn sat down next to Horksel on the logs, when she settled she sighed deeply, wipds her forehead with sleeve and looked at her watch. We will arrive. At least you will, Vibeke thought.

"Does anybody know you're here?" she asked the boy. The sun had set, that little bit of light that had been receding after sunset, as if soaked into his hair, orange from the fire emitting its last exhale. 

"Let's see. No, no. "He inhaled and looked at the canopy. "They don't care enough to know." A stiff smile lit up his face, but never reached his eyes. He gritted his teeth and wandered off somewhere where Vibeke wasn't sure she would dare go look for him. Some places are not for visitors. Not because she's afraid of what she would see there. She wouldn't condemn herself because she knew she couldn't help him. Sometimes the only help is the one that doesn't help. The one that leaves peace as it found it.

"Anyway, where are you two going?" he looks at Eartn. "Dressed like this? Fun? Fun in the woods? Don't tell me I haven't run far enough. "His eyes go wide open, searching from one girl to another, suddenly obsessed with the thought he shunned. Eartn starts laughing at the frantic friend, Vibeke barely restraining herself when Horksel pulls her by the sleeve. "There are no people here, are there?" Right? Vibeke, if you don't tell me right now, I swear to you - "

"I'm taking Eartn to the wedding, where Bjerne is. It's not in the woods, don't worry. There by the straits of the Tangled, by the cliff of the Sea of ​​Unrest. We still has at least half an hour to walk. " She pointed in the direction of the strait, hoping to point far enough to calm him.

"Ah well." Relief washed his face, then froze as if thinking of something he didn't want to think about. It was as if someone or something had suddenly entered his mind that he hadn't paid attention to for a long time, but he had never forgotten it.

"Bjerne. Good old Bjerne, "he said.

"Dap. Good old Bjerne. "Everyone agreed unanimously. 

"That girl would benefit from a break from the people." Horksel concluded after almost drowning in a silence that would have been awkward if developed anywhere else. The silence in the forest is being like any other. When she shows up, you shouldn't disturb it. Let her go her own way.

"When you see her, tell her hello from me. Tell her that if she ever changes her mind, my offer is still valid. "

"She should have joined you?" Eartn asked, rising from the logs, wiping the dust and needles from pants.

"I have always been weak on her. Not only because of everything, but also the mentality. She completely understands me, you know. But no I never asked her, if that0s what you wonder. I wanted to, but I didn't. Nothing new, the usual development. "

No one contradicts him. Vibeke looked around as she heard a crack. She was convinced that the Units would jump out from behind the trees and arrest them all for the unauthorized crossing. But it was just an animal on the ground. Or in the trees. She wishes she hadn't left the bottle where she left it, she people like her, who are just trying to understand the meaning of all the nonsense they were thrown into, get a chance for things to work out right, at least for once.