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Winter In Summer | i [angels forever]

Winter In Summer || i || 

Winter Wilfred and Hugo Osborn had a rather strange friendship. They met whenever possible at the woods that belonged to Mr. Oakley who let them stay there as long as they did not disturb his lovely kingdom of jungle. What made the twosome different is that they never hung together in public, for ancient reasons that both of their families believed in. They’ve kept their friendship hidden and in order for it to stay furtive, they needed a secret sanctuary where they took each other's vows of staying close for eternity and as long as oxygen was floating around them. And they found good old Mr. Oakley’s woodland on a breezy day in mid-March, last year.

Winter was 10 and Hugo a year younger; Hugo's parents lived in Midwest, a neighbourhood that took fifteen minutes of walk to Winter's house. They both liked cartoon animation and hiking, the woods were their favourite place in the world  for its peacefulness and greenness. Winter liked books about tigers; he made his mother buy him stickers and posters of real tigers and cartoonist ones whenever she asked him what he wanted when she went shopping. Hugo on the other hand, loved dolphins and enjoyed quality time with his Mama’s Mum. They formed a group called The American Russian Allegiance to Recruit Blue and Green Power Rangers in hope of rescuing the goodness of the wicked evil in the world before it was too late. But for the world, it was indeed, too late to be rescued. 

Winter, despite his time in the woods, never showed a sign of a tan while his chum Hugo who was toned to a light pink skin, green pair of orbs and black hair seemed to find it funny. Winter mocked Hugo about how cat-a-like he looked most of times but Hugo just laughed and responded with, "You're just jealous, my friend. I have color and you don't." 

Today was just like any other day to anyone in Calfestone and the world, but today also marked a year anniversary of the day Hugo first met Winter. Hugo and his Mama’s Mum, Audrey were sat on a bench in High Wisteria park enjoying a tuna fish sandwich that Audrey especially made for her grandson. His favourite snack food delivered warm in his hands during a windy autumn day. 

A pale skinny boy came up to him with a red beach ball in his hand, he successfully performed a military salute to his sister making her laugh and hit him playfully on the shoulder before running off to buy ice cream for both of them from the blue striped van parked in the corner, ringing its bells to lure children.

Winter smiled at Audrey and Hugo and offered his hand to shake hands. Audrey merely nodded and frowned while Hugo took his white hand in his pink ones and shook it firmly. Audrey suspiciously excused herself to take a walk while Winter sat on the bench next to Hugo, a small frown covering his face.

“Was that your nana?” asked Winter.

“That was my Mama’s Mum.” said Hugo.

“Why didn’t she shake my hand?” asked Winter, he felt disappointed. He always witnessed his father sticking his hand out to shake strangers’ and it seemed extremely polite. In an abrupt move and sudden realization, Winter leaped off the bench and stared wide-eyed at Hugo who looked as surprised as Winter felt.

“What?” asked Hugo.

“Did I, unintentionally that is of course, prude on your religious or cultural traditions not to shake hands with strangers?” He was never one to be impolite; he always respected rules and was  fascinated by differences in cultural traditions. 

Hugo blinked and sat quiet and gaped at Winter for several seconds. “Absolutely not, My Mama’s Mum is just scared of germs and dirt. She hardly touches anything or anyone she’s not one thousand sure of it or him or her being wiped with a piece of Dettol wipes.”

Winter flushed pink at his hasty irrational thought. He apologized.

“Oh, there’s no need. I’m Hugo, by the way.”  He said smiling at the boy.

“Hugo” he said, as if testing his name on his tongue, “I’m Winter.”  

“Like the season?” asked Hugo, fond of the boy’s name already.

“Yep. Just like the season.”

Winter's sister, Celestine, was back with a chocolate ice cream cone for her brother and vanilla scopes in a medium sized cup with nuts spread on top of it for her. He introduced his sister to Hugo, she smiled at him.

“You don’t look from around here. Where are you from?”

Hugo pondered her question then answered truthfully. “Oh, I’m from Midwest.”

Celestine rose her eyebrows. "Where did I hear that name? It sounds oddly familiar?" She stared at Hugo trying to piece it together while devouring small spoons of her ice cream. 

Audrey made an appearance and sat next to Hugo and glared rather heatedly at the pair who stood in front of her grandson. 

"You two should leave." Her tone cold, making Hugo look at her in surprise. He never heard his Mama's Mum sound so emotionless.

Celestine dropped her cup of ice cream, gasped and grasped for her brother’s arm and swiftly managed steering him away from that woman, from the park, from everyone all the way  reaching their home. Winter was quiet and stared long and hard at the back of Celestine’s braided head as he heard the door click open. Celestine shoved Winter on the chesterfield maroon sofa and ordered him not to mention to anyone or anybody about this encounter with the 'weirdo' in the park. Winter was flabbergasted.  Hugo was a nice boy and he wanted to be friends with him. He was curious why Celestine acted the way she did, and even more curious of Hugo's grandmother being very rude towards him and his sister when he was obviously being nice. Speaking of himself of course, Celestine acted rude as well by just sprinting from them like they had an infectious disease. He made a mental note to make an excuse tomorrow to go again to the park in hope of finding Hugo, apologize on behalf of his foolish sister’s behaviour and suggest him to play some play station or watch re-run episodes of Pokémon with him. Winter slept that night, completely sure, of Hugo’s approval of his hypothetical suggestion.

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