The Realm of the Sun

Nessie's Secrets

            Tara approached the cottage at dusk to find a faint trail smoke steadily rising from the chimney. A crisp, sweet aroma made her mouth water as she walked the stone path to the front door.

           "Nessie!" she called from the outside, wanting to assure her adoptive mother of her safety as soon as possible. She burst through the door to find Nessie hovering over the hearth, stirring the pot on the fire, "Oh, you've made cider, Nessie, it smells delicious!" Tara ran to her and kissed her on the cheek.

          "Gracious, Tara, its nearly sundown," Nessie sighed, turning to face her with a weary and concerned smile, the wrinkles around her thin lips deepening like arid ravines, "You've been gone for hours."

          "Yes, I'm sorry, I had to pick more berries, because..."

          "It took you all that while to pick berries?" Nessie asked, incredulously, turning back around to the pot to tend to the cider.

          "No, you see I went to pick berries and I was going to come home straight away, but on my way, I saw a...well, a boy," Tara confessed, clenching her fists at her sides with anxiety as to how Nessie would react. She simply lifted her head from the pot of cider coolly, careful not to react in the way Tara was expecting. Nessie prided herself on reacting unpredictably to terrible confessions. She had been through many hardships in life and faced many issues over which she had no control. The one thing she could control consistently was her temper, and she often succeeded in doing so.

          "A boy?" she asked, calmly, though she was unable to hide some of her surprise.

          "Yes, a boy my own age. Well, a man, I suppose," Tara explained eagerly, still unsure of how this news would be interpreted.

          "Which was it, Tara, a man or a boy? There is a world of difference between the two." The vein in the center of Nessie's forehead was becoming visible and defined, which always signified to Tara that they were about to disagree.

          "He was my own age, Nessie," she replied, growing defensive in anticipation of being reprimanded.

          "You haven't been near the edge of the forest, again, have you? I've warned you a thousand times, Tara, you know how dangerous it is to—"

          "To leave the forest, I know, I know," Tara's smile began to grow from the wrinkles of her angst as she recounted the day for her, "I promise I wasn't, Nessie, I was simply walking by the pond in the clearing, when this boy jumped into the water. At first I thought it was a bear, because I only heard a splash, but then I looked and there he was, swimming around and..."

          "Slow down, dearest, please," Nessie laughed, nervously, unable to keep up with the girl's youthful, adventurous spirit. The threat of the story so riled her she began to cough for a moment, and wondered if only she had heard the menacing rattling noise in her chest.

          "I'm sorry, Nessie, I did not mean to make you excited," Tara apologized, guiding the frail old woman to a chair near the window.

          "No, I'm all right, dear. Go on," she sighed, catching her breath as her back rested against the chair, "Did you talk to this boy?"

           "Oh, yes. He was not very understanding, I must say, in fact he was almost rude," Tara said with equal disgust and fascination as she sat on the hard oak floor beside Nessie's chair. She spread her torn hem over her bended knees and began to eat the berries straight from the basket.

          "How so?" Nessie asked, watching the fire in Tara's eyes ignite as she recounted what was obviously the most exciting thing that had ever happened to her.