Purple Recovery

Chapter 7: In My Dreams

"Nope!" I pulled my hand away from James'. "It's getting dark."

"I have a flashlight!" He exclaimed.

I should have stayed home. I knew I should have. I wasn't sure if sneaking out was the best idea.

I looked up at the dark line of trees. The park was lonely and it looked like something out of the scary movie I watched earlier this week. I think all we needed was some random guy or girl.. It can be a girl... To stand under the light post and watch our every move.

"I can't James, I'm scared." I admitted.

"I'll hold your hand the whole way. I'll never let go."

"You mean you'll never let go of me?" I said to him.

"Um, sure. That works too." He grabbed my hand again and pulled in through the shadows of tall tress. The dead leaves crunching under our feet. We waved through the trees. Soon I started to hear the buzzing of bugs all around me.

"Do you know where you're going? Or are you trying to murder me?" I asked.

He suddenly stopped and I almost bumped into him. He turned around to face me, his eyes looking into mine. "You know I would never hurt you, not on purpose at least. You just have to trust your instincts and go with the flow." He said softly.

"Your eyes are beautiful." I realized what I had just blurted out. "I didn't say that, okay I did but I didn't mean it like that. I mean you have to stop looking at me like that..."

He chuckled and I stopped talking hoping he would forget. "How do I look at you?"

I knew he wouldn't forget. "I don't know... It's just something about the way you look at me. Never mind, I just want to know where we're going."

"We going to your secret hideout spot."

"If it were my secret you wouldn't know."

"But I do, you know why? Because you brought me here, and even I was skeptical about it." He let go of me and stopped walking.

It was a river. There wasn't much water in it, but I'm guessing that's just because it's winter. We stood under a beautiful tree different from the rest. This tree wasn't tall and skinny. It was a thick tree with large roots coming from the ground. The warm colored leaves were still hanging on to its branches.

"I like this tree, it's different." I went up to it touching it's trunk. "So why here? Why in a forest and this exact tree? James what are we doing here?"

"I'm trying to get your memory back. I thought that if I brought you here you would remember something." He took a seat on the ground.

The image of a bright sky with beautiful puffy white clouds played on my mind. Was that a memory? No it was a dream. I've seen this tree before. In my nightmares when I can't sleep at night. But this place didn't make me feel scared although it had me feeling some type of way. It was comfortable. I felt like I belonged here.

"It's home."

"What?" James looked up at me. I sat down next to him both of us facing the river.

"The forest, the river, and this tree. It's home, it's freedom and I don't want to leave." I said.

He smiled but didn't say anything else. We looked at the river. We enjoyed the sound of water running and the buzzing of bugs around us.

"I'm sorry for ignoring you all this week. I know I shouldn't have done that and you're probably very mad. I just- there's things going on." He said.