The Boy Who Could Fly

chapter eight

Aimee paced back and forth in the small treehouse as she waited for Jack to come talk to her. She mumbled to herself, preparing her defense for the inevitable lecture he was bound to give her. She would tell him that the only reason she wanted to see what was across the island is because no one would tell her. Then she would flip it around and lecture him about keeping secrets and not trusting her. That would show him, definitely.

She stopped pacing when she heard someone climbing up the ladder. It must be Jack. Aimee sat down on her small cot bed and waited for him to enter. When he did, Aimee was surprised. She had expected him to look angry or frustrated with her. Instead, he just looked worried.

"Are you hurt?" He asked. Those were not the words Aimee had been expecting, so it took her a moment to process them.

She shook her head. "No...no, I'm okay."

Jack nodded slowly, letting out a quiet sigh of relief. "You could've gotten real hurt, Aimee." Instead of speaking in an angry tone, he sounded more sincere than Aimee had ever heard him. "Just be glad that ya ran inta' Spot instead of anyone else. It could'a been bad. And be glad that she decided to bring ya back here rather than let ya go on. Those pirates on the otha' side are brutal. You would'a wound up bein' fish food. But not until they'd had some fun with ya first. I don't want you to go through that."

His genuineness and sincere concern threw Aimee off guard. She didn't even know he could be like this. She decided to go forward with her lecture anyway. "I wouldn't have run off if you would have just told me what was over there. You should have known that keeping secrets makes a person more curious. If you had told me, I wouldn't have wanted to go over there. But instead, you chose not to tell me the danger that lies over there. You kept it a secret. You should have trusted me with that information, Jack."

"I know." Jack ran a hand through his dark hair. "I know that now. I should'a trusted you, I'm sorry. I'm just glad that it was you and not one of your siblings that decided to leave. They could'a slipped through Spot's territory undetected. She wouldn't have caught them, and that would be way worse."

"Yeah," Aimee said slowly, unsure of how to respond to the unexpected words. "You're right. It could have been a lot worse, I guess."

Jack looked at her. "Please don't do that again. You...you really worried me when we found out ya left."

"I won't." Aimee suddenly felt bad for lecturing him. He knew everything she had said to him. And he even apologized. The way he was dealing with this gave her a feeling something similar had happened before. But she didn't want to ask. "So what did Spot say after I left?"

He shrugged and sat down on the cot beside her. "Just tellin' me to keep a closer eye on you. And any other guests I have, as she put it. She's real protective over her turf and her boys."

"How'd she get to be their leader?" Aimee asked curiously, wanting to know more about the small girl that commanded a bunch of boys.

"She and I got here around the same time, actually," he started. "And I dunno if you've really seen her personality, but she's a born leader. Can't and won't be a follower. So naturally we ran into some difficulty there. We decided to split the turf among us. I take this side for the Lost Boys and she takes that side for the Brookies."

Aimee nodded slowly as she listened to him talk. "And they just accepted her as their leader?"

"Pretty much," he answered. "One time, a small group of boys tried to form a mutiny. She put a stop to it real quick by beatin' up the boy who started it. From then on, she was their leader."

"No more mutinies?" Aimee asked.

Jack shook his head. "Why're you so interested all of a sudden?"

She shrugged. "I'm a curious person, I guess. And I wanted to know how she became their leader. It seemed like it would be an interesting story. And it was." She smiled a bit.

Jack also smiled slightly. After a minute, he stood up. "I'll let ya get some sleep. Just promise me that you won't run off like that again."

"I won't," Aimee promised, nodding.

Jack seemed satisfied with the answer. "Goodnight, Aimee." With that, he left the treehouse, headed back to the clearing.