Below the Sky

Chapter 7: Oliver

Chapter 7. Oliver

I awoke to sunlight streaming through the tent that I shared with Mama and Papa. The flap was open slightly, letting in the warmth. I sat up, rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, and slipped out of the tent.
It was a beautiful morning, barely a cloud in the sky. Like always, Mama already had breakfast going, however she and Papa were the only ones up yet. I figured that Maya, Riana, and Lila must still be sleeping.
"Good morning sweetie," Mama called to me. I looked up at her, and gave her a small smile of acknowledgment. "How'd you sleep?" She asked me.
"Pretty good," I said. "Where's Papa?"
"He went to get some more firewood, the girls are still sleeping." I already knew that, but still I nodded my head towards Mama.
I sat down on a log surrounding the fire Mama had going. She was making some bacon and eggs over it, while also pouring water in a bottle for me. Mama handed me a plate of food, steam pouring off it.
The food was really, really good. Bacon and eggs just tasted so much better when you were eating it outside, so many miles from your kitchen.
As I was shoveling some eggs into my mouth, I heard some rustling to my left. I turned my head slightly, and noticed Lila and Riana emerging out of their tent. They both stifled yawns, and half walked, half crawled over to me and Mama. I did not notice Maya following them.
"Good morning," I called to them. They both waved. Mama handed a plate of food to Riana first, then Lila, from where they both chose spots on the log near me.
About an hour later, we all climbed into our canoes. All of our packs were in the boats already, and we were ready to set off on our last day of travel on this trip. It was a perfect day, the sun about a quarter of the way up, with a few wisps of clouds here and there, but nothing crazy. I was in a boat with Maya, like I had been the past three days.
We all pushed off from the shore, and began paddling.
"Everyone, when we arrive where the shuttle will pick us up and drive us to our car, I want everyone to help in carrying everything up, okay?" We all chorused okay, very synchronized.
Maya and I paddled throughout the day. Mama had informed everybody earlier that we only had about seven kilometers to paddle today, so I figured after almost an hour on the water we'd made some headway already.
It had been about three hours by the time we finally arrived at the pick up spot. I immediately noticed a shuttle already parked, ready to drive us back to our car and canoe trailer.
Everyone pitched in with carrying all of our packs and boats up the bank, and soon enough everything was loaded into the vehicle. We were a little crammed into the car, but we all fit.

The drive back to our tacky automobile didn't take too much time. In fact, I felt like it passed quite quickly. I sat next to Maya, and Papa. Mama was crammed in the seat ahead of us with Riana and Lila, and I noticed that though there was some space, Lila and Riana seemed to be very, very close to each other.
The rest of the day passed in a blur. We arrived at our car, and unpacked everything that we'd brought on the trip. Lila and Riana helped Papa load the canoes back in the trailer, and me and Maya helped Mama with the packs. We then got on the road, and started the long ride back home. In the car, I was slightly bored. I occupied myself with staring out the window, and thinking. I pondered why Riana and Lila had seemed so attached to each other lately, and why they seemed to only want to be with each other. I decided though, that they must be really close friends, to want to spend almost all of their time with one another.
It felt so good to be home when we finally pulled into our driveway. Our large house stood even more gracefully than ever before, and our rolling fields and animals just felt so right.

That night, I slept sounder than a hibernating bear. After days of laying on the hard ground, in a stifling tent, it was wonderful to rest in a warm, comfortable bed at last. My sleep was dream free that night, silent, and calm. Until...
Around halfway through the night, a dream entered my mind. In the dream, I was somewhere that was blazing hot. I felt like I was burning up, about to explode into a thousand pieces. I stared down at my hands, but there was no flesh there. Just red flames that curved up and down. I was on fire, but I didn't feel like my skin was being devoured by the heat though. I felt hot, but not melting. It was one of the oddest dreams I'd had in a very long time.
I awoke from that dream confused, but shrugged it off and pulled myself out of bed.

Later that day, I was out running with Dash. I hadn't seen him in four days, and being with my puppy again was one of the best parts of being home. Lila came with us too, and we all jogged down the road.
We had been running for about fifteen minutes, when Lila suddenly called me and Dash over to stop. "Maybe we should try a different route, and not continue up this road," she said. Lila had a frantic look on her face, and she seemed to be jumping out of her skin with nerves.
"Why, don't you just want to go the way we've been going?" I asked her. She shook her head no.
"We just always go this way Oliver, maybe we can turn around, go back past the house, and continue on that way."
"Fine," I reluctantly agreed. Clearly there was some reason of why Lila didn't want to continue on this way, and I didn't want to upset her. We turned around, and ran back towards the house.
The day so far wasn't the prettiest I'd seen. It was cooler than usual in the summer, about fifty degrees. The sun was covered by too many clouds, so no matter how hard it tried, it couldn't peek through. It must have rained the night before, since a layer of mist covered everything in sight. Overall it was just a gloomy day.
We passed our house, stopped in for a quick water break, then ran back out. To Lila's suggestion, we took a right at the intersection out of our estate, heading in the opposite direction of Luke's house. I had an inkling that he was the reason that Lila did not want to continue to his property, but I didn't voice my thoughts.

We finished the run after about forty five minutes. It had been a quiet run, me not being my usual chatty self, and Lila seeming to be lost in her thoughts, not really in the mood to talk. We jogged up to our front porch, and noticed Riana sitting in one of the rocking chairs, watching us. Lila's face erupted into a smile at the sight of Riana, and I just nodded my head at her, acknowledging her presence.
"How was your run?" Riana asked us.
"It was very enjoyable," Lila said.
I waved towards the two girls, and ran inside, leaving them to each other.

That night Papa decided that we were going to go stargazing. My entire family, including Riana, all gathered outside. We put blankets down, and laid on the ground, watching the sky. It was very beautiful, and there were so many stars out it would have taken me several days, maybe longer, to count them all. It was chilly though, so we all bundled up.
Me and Maya shared a blanket, Lila and Riana had one, and Mama and Papa. Papa pointed out all the constellations he knew, like the big and little dipper, and even the North Star. He showed us a few planets that were visible too, like Venus and Mars.
As we stared at the sky, I talked to Maya. We kept our voices down though, not wanting anyone else to listen in on our conversation.
"Have you noticed that Lila and Riana have been spending a lot more time than usual lately?" I asked her.
"I suppose whenever I see one of them, I also see the other, but they are very close friends," Maya said. She didn't remove her gaze from the burning balls of fire millions of years away from us the entire time she spoke.
"No, but they've been spending an abnormal time together, like sneaking away, and only doing something if it's with the other person."
"Oliver why do you concern yourself with matters of friendship like this. I know you don't have many friends so you can't relate to Riana and Lila's bond, but I assure you, they're just very close friends," Maya patted my shoulder in a way to comfort me for not having many companions in a bratty way. Even in the pitch black I could make out the smirk surely donning her face.
"That was mean Maya, I have plenty of friends, I just don't spend nearly that much time with them. Also, you haven't had a single person come and visit you all summer," I finished my sentence, satisfied with my replay to her snarky remark.
"Whatever Oliver, let's just try and enjoy the night sky, instead of focusing so hard on Lila and Riana, okay?"
"Fine," I said. I wasn't entirely ready to finish our conversation, but I didn't want to argue with Maya. Unlike Lila, who was always so occupied with Riana, Maya actually spent time with me.
I laid back on the blanket, and stared at the sky. Out here, in the countryside, the blanket of stars were very visible. If we were to go near somewhere more urban, I guaranteed that the view would not be close to this gorgeous.

As a family, we all gazed at the sky for more than an hour. It wasn't warm out, but no one complained. We just felt so insignificant underneath the universe. With it's many wonders, my problems, and the troubles of my family members, simply felt insignificant.