Forest is close, trees are far

6. Vibeke

As they got close, the cliff with the church at the top loomed before them on horizon.

Suddenly, Eartn stopped.

"What's wrong? Let's go. "Vibeke called her, but when she didn't answer, Vibeke froze. Other girl feel to the ground, hands over lips.

Vibeek hurries back, throws herself on ground, stones cut into her knees. She grips Earth and tries to shake her back. All commotion brings out sob from her vocal cords."What's wrong? Speak Eartn, Eartn! The earth is calling Eartn! Eartn hello where are you? "

All I needed was this. I could open a funeral home by the fall.

 "Eartn are you here?"

" Hey Eartn Bjerne is waiting for you, we don't have time for this. Eartn, come on. "

She brought the weeping girl back when she throws a hook wraped in memory of her lover. "Vibeke ... I can't do that." In a faint voice, just an echo of that determined Eartn who isn't afraid of the world and who goes to a wedding she's not invited to. 

"I.... She.... This was a bad idea. "

All of this was one big bad awful idea, but now that she's here she has to see how bad ideas end. He has to make sure he's right, though he hopes, but he doesn't let hope get too upset. There is no hope when mistakes happen. A favorable outcome would be a coincidence, not the result of hope."Give it to me," she murmured, trying to figure out how to resolve this complication that separated her from the goal. Eartn knew only half the story and so it should have stayed. But with her unconscious selfishness she affected both parts. Vibeke got angry. 

"Wait, really? You for real? After I brought you in person, all this way, you are changing your mind now? Do you think that— "she meant to say that she might have had her own plans that she abandoned to take her over shortcut, but she stopped in time. yes she had. she had put them together in the morning when she learned of news from Sorgnen. The plan matched Eartnin's only where they intended to arrive. The opportunity could not be missed. 

"I was in that damn car."

"What !?" she turned so abruptly that she could feel the wind slappinh her across her cheek. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"My uncle was driving, we were coming back from theater" only now Vibeke notices that Eartn is crying when she speaks and her voice is not her usual calm one. She wipes her tears with sleeve, but the more she wipes them, the more new ones she sheds. "I told him something and then- there was nothing."

She wanted to go but her legs wouldn't listen. "Everyone died except me, Vibeke."This was not in the plan. "Bjernini and Nigleas' parents were in the car we ran into." This was even less.

"Does Bjerne know about this?" Vibeke barely stutters after the first wave of the impossible passes through her consciousness. Usual, just stopped being that. That's what she wanted, wasn't it? But not like this.

Eartn shook his head, sniffing, soaking her already wet sleeve with new tears. She crouched down and buried her head between elbows, muffling sobs that could not be suppressed. They broke as if emerging from the depths of the sea and longing for air. That's probably what Eartna's insides looked like if she'd hung out with Bjerne all year without telling her anything. The interior melts under pressure, becoming compressed like the deepest places in the oceans.

"Listen, you will tell her. But not today."She began to cry even harder. But Vibeka could not give up. He dropped to the ground beside her and tried to hug her, but only placed her hands limply on her shoulders, more as a support for herself than a gesture of support. This situation is so strange to her. Eartn is the one not wavering. She who always knows what is right and is not afraid to say it out loud. For a long time she was convinced that this was how fearlessness looked. Not too high, always in Converse.

"You will tell her when you are already married and have already traveled half the world. Somewhere where lovers go to swear eternal love. Of course you won't need it because you're not so pathetic. "

"It's not right not to tell her. And I can't, Vibeke, they'll hate me. " Vibeke pressed her forehead to reduce the pressure building up there. She shouldn't have used her so vilely. She should have left her at the bus stop waiting for a bus that would take her to the same place before she did. The shortcut is nonsense. It was silly to think that anything was as simple as it seemed to be.

"Then you'll tell her sooner. But not today. Although I think it would be wisest to tell her while you are on the other side of the world. Then she can't leave you. And by the time you get home, you have plenty of time to recouncil. "

It calmed her down a bit, she even laughed, and Vibeke took the opportunity to pull the crying girl to her feet. "Come on now. We have to go. "

Every word is more and more shaken, wobbly, as if the longer they are out, the more the wind shakes them.

"Come on, we have  little more. " Vibeke fixed Eartn's tie, impatiently tightening the cloth, and then hey descended across the meadow, toward a destination that promised many unfoldings.

"You're in more of a hurry than I am," Eartn noticed.

If only you knew, dear Eartn. "Phf, I'm not walking back through the dark."