Eden's Heart

Mystery

Eden was laid out over a rock, her back arched over the mossy surface as she napped. She hadn't meant to fall asleep, really, but it was just so serene here. So calm and quiet. However, She was awoken unexpectedly by a rustling of bushes. She sat up, her long ponytail following her before she looked over at the place at the bank where the sound had come from. Soon came a broad shouldered body, ducking down and under a few bigger branches as he looked forward. She gave a soft smile, her green eyes lighting up at the sight of her friend. "Kole! Hey!" she said, her hand in the air as she waved at him. The boy stood to his full height as he smiled back at her. He was tall and dark haired, shoulders tanned beyond his white tanktop. Jeans clung to his hips snugly, and his voice was one of warmth and clarity. "Hey Eden" he said, his accent ringing heavily just like her and her father's.

It was funny, Eden had known Kole all her life and yet she still got excited to see him. Her mama had been best friends with his, and they had played together since they were 2 or 3 years old. He had grown into the type of guy who belonged in the sweltering heat of south carolina. He was strong and brave and not opposed to manual labor. He wasnt too smart, but that was fine. He was sweet, and that was more important around here. Eden was almost jealous. He had such an easy time blending in here, but she was always a little too awkward or plain. Southern girls were supposed to be pretty and sweet. They were supposed to be dim witted and cheerful. Eden couldn't be any of those things. She was a book worm, having spent hundreds of hours at the old bookstore a few blocks down from her home. It was one of those places where the smell of dust was something you could feel, weighing on you yet somehow healing your busy and tired mind. The mere supply of books made her head spin and her heart pound with excitement. It was the closest thing she had to the stories she had heard about out west. Out west, she heard, It was different. People sat and talked about ideas. About thoughts and feelings and politics. They didn't talk about weather and fishing, they talked about the big stuff. And they'd all sit in big rooms with fancy coffee (not that bitter stuff her daddy drank)

Those people out west would sip their coffee and talk. They would listen to one another and discuss their world and their ideas and their dreams. That is what Eden had heard, and the feeling she had in that bookstore, with its old bibles and Charles Dickens novels with broken spines. That feeling had to be what the people out west felt. It just had to be.

It was hours that the duo sat and talked, but they didn't talk the way people talked out west. They talked in circles like lazy seagulls over the shore, simply squawking at one another and not really responding. Story after story, question after question. Conversation here was more like a clumsy exchange than an art. Still, it was enjoyable. She smiled, laughed, shared plights with Kole as he spoke of his parents and his friends (all of which were her friends too). It was alright, just not exactly fulfilling conversation. Eden really didn't know what fulfilling conversation was.

After the sun had settled low, and skipping rocks had lost its appeal, Eden and Kole sat lazily on the rocks, stretched over the moss and crevices. It had been soothingly quiet for quite a while until a small sound roused their attention. As the bushes rustled, Eden's head shot up like that of a deer, and Kole soon followed. From the trail came a girl, and she didn't look like she was from around here.