Forever and Always

Chapter 4

2018        

      Clara sat on a log a little far off from the other village women. She had her knees huddled to her chest, and her chin rested on her knee. As the women, in their red robes, weaved and cooked in front of their huts, the children ran around chasing each other. She watched tiredly as they giggled, chasing each other around their working mothers. A few times she felt herself start to drift off, but she snapped her self awake again before she fell asleep.

         It's been two months since Bucky's final test. After the test, Bucky couldn't come join her in the little village right away. He had to hang out at the lab and do some other simple tests to make sure everything else was normal and that Shuri's procedure to clear
Hydra's junk out of his mind didn't mess with anything else. That whole process took at least a month and a half, and not too long ago, Ayo was directed to bring to the village, where she was staying as well.

Bucky was exhausted and mostly stayed in his hut. Sometimes during the day, Clara would see him walk out of his hut once in a while and stare out into the lake, then walk back into his hut. He never came over to see her though, but she wasn't mad. She knew he needed his rest, some recovery time. Once in a while, Clara would also see the village children go into the hut, then run back out laughing and giggling a few minutes later.

There were also limited huts in the village, and they were all quite small. Clara thought it would be a good idea if Bucky got his space to recover, so she spent the nights outside by the little campfire that was set up in the middle of the clearing. Some nights, however, she would sleep up against the walls of the hut, just so she could closer to Bucky if he needed her at any time at all. She found herself staring up at the stars every night, listening the sounds around her until she would just drift off. And then she would wake up to the women and children getting to work early in the morning and a thick blanket on top of her, keeping her warm all night. Every morning she would fold the blanket and give it back to one of the village women, and the next morning, the same blanket would be right on top of her when she wakes up.

There were a few nights, unfortunately, when she was so restless she couldn't sleep at all. She was so used to waking up in the middle of the night because Bucky would need her, but he must be really exhausted to the point he probably doesn't even dream. Clara would sit there, next to the hut for hours, struggling to sleep, and jumping up if she heard any noise that sounded like Bucky calling her. This restlessness caused her to go on walks, to get away from the village for a bit, and hopefully tire her out. But that did nothing. And soon enough, she couldn't sleep at all. She just couldn't. She wanted to make sure she was awake in case...in case he needed her again because it's been too long. She wasn't used to not helping him, and it made her restless because she had that paranoia of having to help someone or do something.

Clara, with heavy eyelids, continued to watch the children. She kept her chin on her knee and she smiled when she saw one of the kids who must've been it for awhile finally tag another kid. Everytime she would feel her eyes start to drop, she would shake away to tiredness and blink a few times to keep her eyes open. A village woman came over to her at one point, holding out a bowl of soup.

"Are you hungry, Ms. Peters?" She asked her as she held out the bowl. "You must eat something to keep your energy up." She urged Clara to take the bowl, and she did.

"Thank you, ma'am." The woman dipped her head before going back to what she was doing. The children, who seemed to get tired of playing tag, noticed that she was eating, giving them the hint that food was ready. She sipped her soup as she watched the kids ambush the woman and her pot of soup, and one by one they each got their own bowls of soup. The children, with their soup, ran over to Clara and plopped their butts down in the grass right in front of her, and started slurping away.