Hob
Elizabeth had always been afraid of the forest. When we were children I could not understand it; I had absolutely no imagination. If a thing was undaunting to me, then it ought not to intimidate any one else either. Since then, I had learned better – I had learned to be afraid myself
“I have walked into the forest alone,” Elizabeth said, but more as if she hoped to convince herself than me. “I came all the way to find you.”
“I know,” I said.
“I can’t do this. Not again.”
“You don’t have to. I can go on alone.”
“I am too afraid to walk through an empty forest with you and go to a house where I know there is no one living and you will go alone?” she asked.
“I’ve refused to hide my face. I won’t be afraid of the dark and I will dare to walk alone all my days if I have to,” I said.
“I agree with the sentiments,” she said, “but this is real life, Hob.”
“Not this part of it,” I said. “One of us has to go there, and I have never been afraid of anything like this. You know it is only the real world that frightens me. Go back. I will find the answers to your questions and I won’t be long, I promise.”
She argued a little longer, but though she wanted to go back, she felt that she could not abandoned me. In the end, I needed reinforcement.
“Elizabeth? Hob?” David’s voice echoed through the trees long before we saw him.
“David? What are you doing out here?” she asked. Even I could hear the relief in her voice.
“He's come to take you home with him,” I said. “That way you don’t have to walk through the forest on your own again.”
“Actually, I was going to come with you both, wherever it is you are going this time,” he said.
“But you will take Elizabeth home, won’t you?” I said.
“What about you?” he asked.
“I’ll be alright on my own,” I said. “You know I’ve been in and out of these woods all my life.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. Absolutely.”
“Alright, then, I’ll go back with Elizabeth.” I have always very much appreciated the fact that with David there is never unnecessary argument or protest – if he thinks a thing necessary he will do it, and if he is persuaded that it is not necessary, he will leave well alone. Not so, my sister.
“I have not agreed to go back without you, Hob,” Elizabeth said.
“But you will,” I said.
“Hob, I am not a child to do as you say simply because you say it,” she said. “I am still your older sister, remember. I don’t want you to go and do this on your own. In fact, I am not sure that you ought to do it at all.”
She was being deliberately vague about exactly what it was we intended to do, partly to keep David from knowing what it was, and in part, I think, because the entire idea made her so very uncomfortable. I would have to admit that I was not altogether at ease with it myself, but I thought it necessary, and so, in her heart, did she.
“Elizabeth,” I started, but David interrupted me.
“If a thing has to be done, then it has to be done,” he said, taking her hands in his, “and if you cannot do it, then let someone who can. Hob is not afraid to go alone, and you want to come back with me, don’t you?”
