My Perfect Stranger

Chapter 9

JOSHUA

We rode on our horses roaming in search of trees full of fruits. I wanted to suggest a cheeseburger but honestly riding on a horse to the town to get a cheeseburger was odd and I also did not know where to park our horses so I decided to go with Clara's idea.

"Hey look. There are plenty of trees there." She pointed out and went in that direction and I followed her.

The trees were quite tall and loaded with apples and mangoes. I was not afraid to climb the trees, I was afraid that maybe Clara would insist and I was also pretty sure that she had not climbed trees in her whole life.

"You stay here, I'll get the fruits." She said while looking up the apple tree as I had expected when we reached there.

"No, you cannot go. I have climbed plenty of trees while you on the other hand have climbed none." I spoke.

"What makes you so sure that I haven't?" Clara asked me.

"Have you?" I asked her totally ignoring her question.

"I have not but now I'd like to. How hard can it be anyways?" Clara said and started climbing the tree. She never listened to me.

"Fine. But please do not fall down. Nothing would be worse than carrying a fractured baby around." I said to her.

I saw Clara climbing up cautiously. Her muscle strength was truly amazing. I was shocked when she made up the top without breaking a bone. Maybe I had underestimated her. She plucked out some apples and threw them down for me to catch and I did. She didn't speak a word the whole time which got me worried because maybe I had offended her. She started climbing down in a rush but I knew that she'd be alright but I was still not able to get my eyes off her. I was worried about her. She was close to the ground when her leg twisted and she started falling down. I won't be lying but I saw that coming so I was prepared. As she was falling down, I caught her in my arms. Her eyes were closed and her face was tense.

"Open your eyes. You are fine." I said to her. She opened her eyes and I put her on the ground."

"Are you alright? You haven't got hurt right?" I asked her with concern.

"I am fine. You were right, I should've listened to you." She said with a faintly voice.

"No Clara. I'm sorry for discouraging you. You did a great job and I'm proud of you for that. I know you fell down but that doesn't matter. You won because you tried and did not give up." I said to her with an apologetic and pleasant smile. Clara hugged me and I hugged her back even tighter.

"Come on now, let's go and get some mangoes." I said to her and we got up and walked towards the mango tree.

"Go and get us some mangoes." I said to her while she was looking up the tree. The mango tree was comparatively bigger and taller to the apple tree.

"I don't want to climb this one. You do it." Clara insisted.

"Clara you can do this. I believe in you." I said to her with an encouraging tone.

"I will not climb the tree all alone. You have to climb up with me too." Clara said and I agreed with a nod. We both started climbing the tree cautiously and I was leading. I was climbing up a branch and offering my hand to Clara and she accepted my help without hesitation. The tree was very tall and honestly very difficult to climb. The distance between the branches was too much and climbing it was sucking all my energy left.

We finally made it to the top and the view from up there was mesmerizing. The terrain looked very pretty mostly because we both had worked very hard to get up there and according to me, the tiniest bit of success can give us immense happiness only if we have worked really hard and earned it. "The ride from a helicopter cannot give us as much joy as compared to the two-day trek we might've done for the same view." I thought to myself while looking at the terrain. Clara plucked out some mangoes and offered me one. We both were sitting silently on the branch of the tree while gazing at the amazing hills, lake and the beautiful blue sky. Clara felt peaceful. We weren't speaking to each other but I could sense no awkwardness. I felt calm and at peace. I wanted to sit beside her like that every day while eating mangoes like wild animals on a tree. We decided to climb down after 20 minutes. We had almost touched the ground when Clara said,