When Given a Lemon

Part 21

They looked at me expectantly. I could tell they were barely holding in all of their questions.

Like, if we got to go inside?
Whether that was why it took us several hours longer than them? What were we doing?
Where else did we go?

However, I feel the last of my energy depleting. I don't have enough to answer them properly.

Nor do I know where to start. I laid back on my bedroll, took a deep breath, and stared at the top of the tent.

“And why were you all cut up and dusty?” They slapped my leg then coughed as a plume of rock dust filled the tent. “Your pants are even worse than your jacket! Take those off!” They bellowed. I feel bad for everyone that has a tent near ours, there's been a lot of noise coming from here lately. I glanced up at them waving their hands around to clear the air and scoffed. I’d feel bad if they didn’t walk into that one all on their own. Laying back again I closed my eyes and tried to make myself focus enough to answer some of their questions.

“I'm all messed up from crawling around in the shale, dodging being bludgeoned to death, and hefting sharp, bulky stones up neverending hills for the captain.” I glowered, then when their interest only grew, I resignedly proceeded to tell them all about my adventure, though I did a little bit of jumping around because that's the order my brain wanted to remember it all in. When I got to the part about getting lost in the woods they looked almost excited, sitting up on their elbows, amber eyes alight as if begging me to give every detail I could pull together for them.

In contrast, all I want is to sleep!

“Do you think it was a spell?”

“A what?” I scoffed, “this isn’t a faerie tale, Lemon. This is the real world.”

“Yeah, yeah. Not like hocus-pocus children’s stories, but like one of those mind tricks gifted people can do.”

“You’ve lost me. Gifted, people? As in, they themselves are gifts? Or that they are given a gift and it teaches them tricks?” Why is it that half of what Lemon says is beyond my comprehension or awareness? So far, all of that sounds ridiculous. My eyebrows are raised at them and they are insufferable enough to chuckle at my confusion.

“You don’t know what a gifted person is?” I scoffed in response to their blathering, thinking that there is no way it can be real; that people can do mind-tricks beyond what pick-pockets, street magicians, and politicians can.

“No and neither do you because it’s utter nonsense.” Now it was their turn to scoff at me.

“And Merryl lighting fires in the freezing cold with gusting wind and pouring ice-rain is nonsense then?”

“Merryl lighting fires… What are you on about? He didn’t light… I mean, it was just regular…” I found my words tapering off, unable to explain how he had repeatedly gotten the fire relit for us when we literally had no flint or dry tinder. At first all we had come up with was wet leaves, and yet he had been able to get it lit and kept it lit, providing us enough light to find better burning material. I wanted to believe that he was just very adept, but even what we found later had been wood soaked to the bone and the air chill was enough that normal fires would struggle to catch.

Lemon left me to my thoughts for a while as I tried to process this new information. I appreciated them giving me space because I found myself arguing with my own words while trying to make sense of it. A situation I'd rather not have others witness since it was often out loud, but one I often found myself doing when I struggled putting together a cohesive understanding of something complicated.

I’ve found myself trapped in this mental dilemma more and more recently, and I am starting to worry what our closest neighbors might think of me if they overheard. Lemon disappeared somewhere, but returned before long, so I was still awake when they climbed into their bedroll sometime later. When I spoke into the darkness I knew they were quietly waiting for me.