Hidden through time

5. The root of the source

Written 2015 by VeGirl ©, but the photo is not me; I mean is not mine. ;-)

* * * * * * * * * *

It was as if there were something calling out to me in the lush nature around the hotel and I found myself drawn to it. This was not the Frances that my friends knew; I was usually more of a social butterfly instead of the hermit who stalked about in forests.

What if my friends in the boule-club knew? I snickered to myself where I stood by the huge window in the diningroom of the restaurant. Then thoughts of the boule-playing youngsters in town flickered through my mind and it hit me how boule was more of a game that elderly people found fascinating? Old people and children.

Why were all the young people involved and no older? My old friends were suddenly on my retina. It hit me that those were friends I didn't have anymore; it was just like Charles had said.

We could not return home again.

That fact was hard to process, even if I agreed; this was too strange to understand. The thought of not returning home stirred mixed feelings inside me. Not seeing my family again; my grandchildren, filled me with sorrow. Where were we supposed to go? What were we to do?

"Are you heading out again?"

I turned around to find Charles walking up to me. I had hard to comprehend how fit he looked and couldn't hide the smile that spread on my face. He started to look like he had done in the start of our relationship. How could he do that?

What was going on in this town?

"Are you okay?"

I almost had to shake my head to snap out of my sad state of mind. "Yes, I'm fine." There was a long explanation I should have gone into, but I halted there. "I'm just... confused, that's all..." I did my best to smile bravely. I would never have thought that getting younger could be a reason for depression.

Charles took a deep calming breath. "I second that." His voice was sounding very different than I was used to and even if he intended the tone to be tart; that was lost to me.

I made another try to snap out of my chain of thought; to act as if this was perfectly natural. "Yes, I need to head out to clear my head."

"Fancy me to come with you?"

I looked surprised at him and was about to make a snarky reply when I thought better of it. "No, you don't want to come and I need to be alone."

For a moment he looked hurt. "That's fine, be careful."

"Do you still fear that I will fall into the bloody pond?" The anger was suddenly too hard to strain away.

"That is not a pond!" Charles snarled and I thought he sounded just as much as an emotional teenager as I felt. "A loch can be immensely deep!"

I took a step closer and put a hand on his chest. "I know you nearly drowned, but I swear to you that I'm a great swimmer if I happen to fall in." The reassurance was wasted and I interrupted before he went on another tirade of the dangers. "I'll see you at tea-time?"

He took a ragged breath, obviously to calm down. "Okay," he resigned.

There was both a sense of victory and of defeat as I walked towards the greenery. Mostly I needed the serenity and time to think.

My hormones were running amok with me and slightest confrontation made me explode. Could it be change of hormones that had once again sent me into a different personality?