Brain and Heart

XIII: My Reflection

Reylann's POV:
I clutched the map Alena gave me, making it crease in the center. I looked at it again and made my way down the dirt path, making sure to keep Sasha close to me.

I couldn't help but hear a rustling noise behind the bushes further out. At first I ignored it, but then my curiosity took over.

I walked slowly towards it. "Um, hello?" I asked, not really wanting an answer.

The noise stopped, and I watched as a young girl popped out of the greens, eyes red. I opened my mouth to say something, but I didn't know what.

"Are you okay?" I found myself asking. She nodded.

I brought Sasha closer to me and slowly let go of his hand. And helped the girl get out of the bush. There were leaves and sticks stuck to her hair and legs like leeches.

She had uneven bangs that fell right under her eyebrows and unruly, short hair. Her dark hair matched her eyes, which scanned the area around us.

"Where did you come from?" She asked softly.

I pointed behind me. I was unsure whether I was meant to tell her the truth. Then she gestured to Sasha.

"Is he your friend?" She asked.

I nodded.

"He's blind, isn't he?" She said that in less of a question, but as if she already knew.

"Yeah," I responded.

"Don't you think the light bothers him?" She asked me again. I noticed that she spoke really fast.

And before I could even respond, she ripped a piece off of her white dress and carefully tied it around his eyes.

I watched him turn his head in confusion. "Who...Who are you?" He asked her.

She was about to say something, but then I stopped her.

I was about to tell her that he was deaf, but I couldn't bring myself to. When I saw the confusion on her face and his, I couldn't help but dismiss it.

"Never mind." I said under my breath, and she raised an eyebrow at me and then turned her attention elsewhere.

"Hello," she told him.

When he didn't respond, she picked up his hand and made a waving motion with it.

"Hi?" He replied.

She continued to talk to him.

"I was crying earlier, you know." She pointed to the bush. "I didn't want to bother anyone, so I went outside."

I listened to what she was saying carefully.

"My brother says it's annoying. And crying is only for babies, but I couldn't help it." She sat down with him on the dirt and started drawing something.

"This was my family before I was sad," She said after drawing a few figures into the ground. Then she crossed them out, one by one.

She grabbed his hand, balled it up into a fist, and then held on to his pointer finger.

I sat, watched, and wondered whether she knew that he couldn't hear her. And the way she acted made it seem like he could see her, even though she had given him a blindfold earlier.

She put his finger to her chest, then brought it up under his eye. And dragged it down, making a tear motion. Then she put Sasha's hand down.

"I cried so much, it left a pattern in my head," She said, tapping on her head. "I love music, so I turned it into a song."