Life On the Fjords

The Swing

"Hey, Jamie." Jack whispered as he lightly shook his shoulder.

"Mm?" He moaned, half-asleep.

"Get up."

It was too cold for that! Jamie pulled his blanket over himself tighter. "Why?"

"Because you and I are gonna hang out today."

"And do what?"

"You'll see!" Jack playfully yanked the blanket off from over him. "Come on! Get dressed!"

"Jaaack..."

Jack picked him up and hoisted him over his shoulder. Elsa was giggling at the scene from the doorway. As he was carrying Jamie out of the room, Jamie mumbled, "I hate you."

"No you don't!" Jack cheerfully replied.

The chatter awoke Mary, who sat up groggily, "What's going on?"

"Mary," Elsa spoke up, seeing an opportunity, "I was thinking while Jamie and Jack spend some time together, you and I could get to know each other a little better." Mary didn't react, she appeared to be distracted by something. Elsa winced, "Are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah." Mary stuttered, face flushing and her body going stiff. She didn't look like she wanted to move a muscle and kept the blanket firmly over her lap. Elsa had a sinking feeling and she approached, gingerly holding a hand out as if to ask for permission to move the blanket.

Bowing her head, Mary moved aside the covers and revealed splotches of blood on the bedsheet. This wasn't an unusual sight for Elsa and she sighed, "Don't worry, it happens." Mary didn't answer. Her last ordeal had been so humiliating and uncomfortable she just wanted to sink into the walls. Elsa brushed Mary's dark hair aside and said, "Come here, I'll help you clean up."

...

In the toolshed, Jack sawed apart a piece of wood that was seventeen inches long and eight inches wide. Jamie watched, perplexed. "What are we doing again?"

"We're gonna build a swing." Jack answered, working up a small sweat despite the chill in the air. The fact they were both bundled up in their winter clothing didn't help either, but this wasn't a task that would require much effort. "Can you grab that rope on the wall for me?" Jamie looked around and found what he was asking for. Bringing it close, Jack measured out how much he thought would be enough and cut off two long pieces.

"Why are we building a swing?"

"I thought it'd be fun—and it'll give you something to do when the weather gets warmer." Jack gathered everything in his hands, throwing the rope over his shoulder and carrying the swing seat in his arm. "Here, help me pick out a spot."

Jamie followed, lazily scanning around, not exactly as invested as his brother was. He was more excited about the deep footprints they were both leaving in the snow than their 'fun' activity. Jamie hopped in the snow, matching his footprints to the unknowing Jack's.

"How does this look?" Jack asked, pointing to a relatively isolated tree with plenty of space for swinging. Jamie shrugged. Jack took it as a yes. "Okay, now look." He showed him the four holes he'd cut into the corners, "The rope's gonna go through here. I rounded the edges so the rope won't have any pinch points and get worn."

"Okay?" Jamie had no idea what any of this meant.

"Wait here!"

"Mhm." Jamie waited silently as Jack ran to the shed and grabbed the ladder.

"Can you hold it here?"

"Yeah."

Jack took the rope and began climbing the ladder while Jamie held onto it. Jack seemed to be in quite a good mood, he noticed that whenever Jack was like this, it was because he and Elsa had 'been together' the night before. Little did he know was that Jack was eager for Jamie to have something new to play with. Jamie had been wondering about what he saw since the night it happened, he wondered how often they did it, why they did it.