Field of Daisies

Chapter 20

"River, it appears a lone hiker has stumbled upon our site. Whatever shall we do?"

            "Shut up, Sky. If you insist on talking like you're ancient, I will take my hearing aids out and force you to sign." The second guy turns to me and says, "Hi, I'm River, this is my annoying twin, Sky. Would you like to join us? I will keep my hearing aids in if you do... unless you know ASL?" He asks hopefully.

            I nod and say, "Yes, please," before registering his second question. "I do not know more than the alphabet in ASL, which I learned back in fourth or fifth grade," I apologize and sit down.

            "To whom do we owe the pleasure?" Sky asks me. I look at him, not quite sure what he's asking.

            River translates, shooting his twin a look, "What's your name?" Sky rolls his eyes at his brother before looking back at me too. River adds, "And do you mind facing me when you talk."

            A pair of nearly matching faces stare at me in anticipation, so I turn to River and use my new moniker. "My name is Emily. Thank you for inviting me to sit with you." I add a smile that could charm even Marissa.

            "Yeah, of course. We don't like to turn away strays. We do have some questions though," River says, now eyeing me suspiciously. "Why are you out in the near darkness, alone, dressed in plain clothes and," he indicates my Keds with some disgust, "those?"

            Sky adds, "Art thou lost? Separated from thy group? A run-ith away?" He asks the last question with a laugh and his brother joins him.

            "Seriously, Sky," River's tone turns dark almost instantaneously, "if these hearing aids weren't so expensive and if we didn't have a guest, I'd be throwing them at your head. Knock it off with the medieval crap," River spits at his brother.

            The brothers' tension makes me feel like an intruder, on top of feeling nervous and trying to think of an answer. Why would someone be wandering this trail in my state?

            I say the first plausible thing that comes to mind, "My grandfather died. He was an arborist and loved to go on nature walks and hikes. I guess I got carried away and found myself hiking the trail for him, trying to reconnect."

            My grandfather was an arborist, like his son, my dad. And he liked nature walks (but not hiking) so I guess this kind of makes sense. He died a few years ago, right before I finished training. Of course, I didn't find out until after arriving at my Posting, numb to the pain I should have felt. Now that I'm thinking about him, a wave of sadness washes over me, threatening to let tears fall. I manage to hold them back, for now. I'll properly grieve for him once I've made it to The Collective, if I can hold it in for that long.

            "I'm so sorry. This is certainly a great way to connect with nature and the people who loved it," Sky remarks, no longer using his odd word choices. He's turned unexpectedly serious and somber.

            "No offense, but did you roll out of bed and onto the trail after the news or something? You look wholly unprepared for a hike of this kind. And your sense of timing is not good considering it's past sunset, you're still on the middle of the trail, and you don't appear to have any camping gear," River says, still suspicious. Sky must be the more sensitive of the two.

            "I left the morning after his funeral, registered, and starting hiking. I'm not a Producer, so I didn't think about gear or the time, I just needed to get out, to move. You know, get out of my head especially." I didn't think about sleeping anywhere but The Collective. That was another dumb move on my part. Is self-sabotage my thing now?