Änglamakerskan

Crows and Doves

November, 1984

In my home town there weren't many people - there had been cases of disappearing children, most likely amidst the old railway banks and vast countryside, that had kept people away - and so there was only one school building. It accommodated children of all ages, right up until they were eighteen. When I was twelve I made friends with a much older girl - her name was Charlotte Huxtable - and she was in her eighteenth year. She was seen as an outcast - she dressed differently, had a different and unique style, and people shunned her for it. She didn't seem to mind though - if anything, she enjoyed the solitude from what I could gather, but she still looked sad sometimes. I always wanted to talk to her, to ask if she was okay, to give her some more compassionate attention, but I was very shy back then.

One day, in November, I was walking home from school. My home was at the foot of an old decommissioned railway bank that had since been overgrown - bushes, trees, all sorts of plant life had sprung up as nature reclaimed lost ground. A small brook cut through this area too that aided the growth - and I had to routinely cross a wooden bridge when walking to and from school. I liked the winter months - the trees were barren and towered into the sky like eerie spires, the cold air made me feel alive and there was often a light frost or bit of snow. That day, it was getting dark (customary of the winter months) and there was a light blanket of snowy dust across the bank, and I came to the bridge to see something I hadn't encountered before.

Charlotte Huxtable was stood midway across it, watching the water flowing below her, fixated on it even. I stopped at first - I suppose I was a little intimidated. She dressed all in black - a black shirt, a black waistcoat over it, a black tie, a black skirt, black stockings, black shoes. Even her hair was black, and it almost reached her legs. She stood out tremendously in the winter landscape, which only made her presence here all the more different.

I shrugged off the nerves that came with my shy nature - I didn't want to be like the other kids at school who made fun of her or ignored her. I felt that ignorance was the most unking thing I could do to her. In actuality, I was very fond of her. I liked the way she didn't let others dictate her life, how she made her own decisions regardless of the things people said, and I for one thought she looked ever so smart and ever so beautiful. She kept a camera around her neck at all times too - she seemed interested in photographing nature.

I came to the bridge and stood a short distance away from her, mustering up my best smile and saying hello as firmly as I could - trying to hide any nerves still present in my voice - as I gripped my backpack's straps. She turned to me, looked me up and down and offered a small smile warm enough to cut through the crisp air between us. She said hello back and I realised it was the first time I had heard her voice - it was calm, quiet, intelligent in nature. She made me feel at ease just like that, with the uttering of a single word, and I leant against the side of the bridge with her to watch the water.

I told her my name and said that I had seen her around at school. She laughed a little and told me that most people saw he around, and I realised how silly my statement must have seemed to her, given her radically different appearance. I said that i liked the way she looked and thought she was strong, and she smiled again. She told me that she thought nothing of the people who gave her ill attention, stating that she believed people who focused on being nasty were simply not intelligent enough to focus on anything better.

She said that I seemed like a smart "young lass" - especially so for my age. I was unable to hide my shyness at that point as I said thank you and she told me that she thought I was sweet. I asked her what brought her here, saying that I hadn't seen her here ever before, and she informed me that she often came down to the bank and the woods later at night. She had come earlier today because she had left school early.