Blanket of Stars (Chaelisa ver.)

Chapter 10: Green Eyed Monster

One of my favourite things to do when I was little was to go into the woods not far from our house. I never tired of hanging out in there with my friends, or on occasion, the older kids from the neighbourhood who used to be down there.

There's a part down there that you have to climb down. It makes sense to have a downside to something so great. The front of the woods was boring in comparison. Alice estimated it to be a fifty-foot drop from the top. It wasn't too difficult to climb down because part of it was on a slope. You just pray the roots you're white knuckling won't give way and think to yourself how brave you are for the rest of the day. Until you have to climb back up, that is.

I fell, on more than one occasion, and I got more than a couple of cuts and bruises. They faded. They always faded. Each time Hyeri and I snuck away from in front of the house where our mothers could see us, we'd hurry down to our favourite part of the woods for hours.

I still remember the tone of voice Hyeri's father used when he stood at the top of the high slope, yelling at the top of his voice for us to get home. Walking toward him while simultaneously sharing worried glances with Hyeri, I felt as though I was heading to my execution.

Looking back now, I agree that it was dangerous for children. Children who thought they were ready for anything. Children who were only eight years old.

My friend lost a sneaker down there once. His foot got stuck and it fell off when I was trying to get it free. We found it a few months later. Sadly, it was far past salvageable.

The cooler kids used to make swings from trees that were as tall as the houses. Or, at least, it seemed that way back then. I was dared to try it out once and I accepted the offer somewhat reluctantly. I was terrified, but I could have probably done with some character building.

I still remember the sensation in my stomach just before I fell off. The impact on landing wasn't the worst pain, as I only fell on my ass, it was how I put my hands out to stop my sliding further down the slope. I dragged a bumble bee with me. It was just hanging off my thumb, dying as it was poisoning me.

I must have been in shock because Hyeri hurried to me and asked me if I was all right but I couldn't speak because, suddenly, my thumb was bumble-bee-free and her mouth was over it, sucking the poison out. That was the first time a girl's tongue was on my skin and I can say with all honesty that my eyes weren't wide because of the pain.

I still think that however nice it felt, she shouldn't have done it. It was probably germ-infested from the fall.

My mother never approved of us spending time in the woods, and I can't even tell you how many times I was grounded for ignoring her warnings of how dangerous it was to be in there. The only time I took her seriously was when she told me one of her classmates died in there. Apparently, she was walking home and took a shortcut through the woods when a man strangled her with his belt. I still don't know if it was something she said just to stop me from going down there or if she was being honest, but a few weeks after that I stopped going down there. If I did happen to be feeling daring, I would just stay at the front of the woods.

At the front I always remember a small single dead tree and I could never reach the first branch no matter how hard I tried. All my friends could reach it and pull themselves up, but I couldn't. Even if I jumped, it was still just out of my reach.

Two years ago, I took a walk through those woods and I couldn't believe how low the branch actually was. I could finally reach it without even trying.

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For the past week Lisa has been nothing but nice. She even pulls a chair out for me at the dinner table and then, for the benefit of the only two other occupants of the house, "decides" to sit in the next seat; leaving enough room for me to squeeze in without her parents noticing a moving chair. They still work long hours and they didn't press her for more answers when they asked about her neck. Lisa told them it was some guy and I know that technically she wasn't lying, but they barely batted an eyelid.