Can I Tell You A Secret?

Chapter Thirteen

Wren and I skip school tomorrow for our counselling appointment with a lady called Susanne. We don't tell the school that. We just tell them that we have a doctor's appointment, which technically speaking is true.

"So girls, why are you here?" Susanne asks us.

She's older than Dr. Marie. She has shoulder length blonde curly hair, and wears a tiny bit of makeup. She's very pretty.

"Well," I say, and tell her the entire story that I told the girls.

She keeps her therapist face on. I don't know much about counsellors, or therapists, or psychiatrists, but I do know that it takes an awful lot to surprise them. She proceeds to ask us strange questions, which I don't know how to answer. Neither does Wren. But I come out of Susanne's office feeling like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders, and I can walk slightly better now.

"So how'd you find that?" I ask Wren on our way out.

"It was awkward. But it was refreshing as well. How'd you find it?" she asks.

"Same," I laugh.

"What do you want to do for the rest of the day?" Wren asks me.

"I was thinking that we could go to places that May would have loved," I suggest.

"And we could leave little trails of Mayness around," Wren smiles.

When May and I were 8, she invented trails of Mayness. Sometimes when we went out, be it to a shopping centre of the beach, she'd leave a trial of something. It wouldn't just be anything; it would be something that was a part of May, which meant something to her. Once we went on a walk, and she left a trail of glitter worth $40 all through the woods. Glitter was a very May thing. She was very girly, and loved pink, and glitter, and sparkles.

"I like that idea," I agree.

We buy 3 cheap lipsticks, all a bright, fluorescent pink.

"Everywhere we go, we'll draw a pink lipstick heart there," I explain.

"Isn't that graffiti?" Wren frowns.

"Not in May's world," I say softly.

First we go to Claire's. They don't have Claire's in New Zealand, but May would have spent a lot of money and time here. We explain our idea to the owner of the store, and get permission from her to draw a pink heart on the carpet.

"Thank you so, so much. This is really important to us," I tell her.

"It's not a problem," she smiles.

Wren snaps a picture of the heart, including some of the surrounding stands so we know this one was taken at Claire's. The next place we go to is a bag shop. When the grumpy looking sales person isn't looking, we draw a heart on a black leather bag that May would love. Wren takes a picture, and we run out of there before the lady starts looking at us suspiciously. We spend 5 hours (and 2 whole lipsticks) going around London and finding places May would like. We go to the London Eye, and draw a heart on the class. We go to Madam Tussauds, and draw a tiny heart on Taylor Swifts shoulder. We go to Ben and Jerry's, and draw a heart on our ice cream cups.

When we get home, we print out the photos and put them in a photo album. On the front of the album we write May's Favourite Places in London. We sit back and admire our work.

"OK, this is going to sound so unbelievably cheesy, but I actually feel like May is with us in England, and has seen it with us," I sigh.

"I would shoot you for how cheesy that was, if I wasn't thinking the exact same thing," Wren laughs.