in my right mind

4

In a land far away, Evie and Jack hustled around early morning, fitting in perfectly with the rest of the people. Dressed in clothes that were not too fancy or extravagant, they looked ready to work. The sun was shining brightly, and the weather was pleasantly warm. Their facial expressions were that of a warrior ready to strike into immediate action.

Today was a special day, and everyone was either working or doing something or they were pretending to. A few children ran around in the usual banter. One would think this early in the morning, they would be asleep, but they were as active as any adult out there. Maybe even more.

A lot of hustle and bustle had lit up the otherwise large empty field. It was a day of celebration and happiness. And in ways a day of mourning too, but that depended on perception.

"Do you know of any who shall be coming?" Evie asked Jack, knowing full well he'd again give her the vague answer he did. It told her he knew something, but he just wouldn't tell her. It wasn't common knowledge to know who would be coming on this day, but Evie knew that Jack knew about someone. And it disturbed her to know he wouldn't tell her about it. He told her everything or at least that's what she believed.

"Why do you suppose I would have the insides on this matter Ev..?" He asked her in a resigned tone. She had already asked him this question at least an umpteen times, and each time he had patiently answered in a negative. As persistent as she was, he wasn't good on patience.

But somewhere in the back of his consciousness, he knew that getting angry on her would not be the solution, because he was actually hiding something from her. It broke him to not be able to tell her because he told her everything that went on. But then again he hadn't intended on not telling her, he just didn't want to even think about it. Somehow she had caused him to think about it and then she had realised he was thinking about something. The problem was he couldn't tell her. It was already suspicious that she couldn't find his best mate anywhere around here. It would only take her to put two and two together to be able to tell. It was but a disturbance. Entropy. This isn't how people were scouted, but his best mate had insisted, to put it mildly, and that is why he knew.

Evie turned her face away from him and began walking away. Jack not telling her who was coming had become quite a bit bigger of a suspicion for her than it should have been. With her heart in a clench, and tears prickling at the edge of her eyes, she tried to control the involuntary shivering of her jaw and sat down under the magnificent oak tree.

This oak tree was like no other tree. It was the tree. It was the place to go when you had questions, but no answers. It was the feel good place for this small community. It's shade spread across a large area, providing shelter from the sun's UV, but it did little to make her feel better. She sat there with arms folded, jaw clenched.

Jack didn't like to see her in pain. As oblivious as she was to how he felt for her, he was destroyed with the fact that he hadn't been able to tell her. This time it was because he didn't have the courage to do it. And yet this was another thing he was hiding from her. But practically stuck at the butt to each other, he couldn't pretend he didn't know her heart was crushing to pieces. He made his way to the oak tree and sat besides her.

They sat there in a sweet silence for a few minutes. She rested her head on his shoulder, and a weak smile framed his plump lips. He put his arm around her shoulder. They stayed like that for a while in sweet harmony and silent agreement.

"Evie, what if I were to say that yes, I know something, and that yes, your suspicion is granted, but no, as much as I wish I could, I cannot tell you what it is because it is not mine to tell," tears glistened in his eyes and promised to break lose as he opened up to her. He was so close to saying that "it's his best mate's" secret but he had bit his tongue on it.

She held his face in her palms and turned it around so she could see it. She saw the tears brimming his eyes and the pain that his face reflected. For the first time she felt guilty for being so persistent to him. She realised that it was indeed hard for him and her suspicion of him not caring about her at all died down to ashes right there. A slight blush creeped onto her face as she realised how big a deal she had made out of him keeping that unimportant piece of knowledge from her. To be honest, she thought it might be something distancing them, or she would've let it go. The only things that she really wanted to know were, after all, about him.

"Okay," was all she said, but her expression said a lot more. In many ways, it confused Jack, but in many more ways it told him a lot. They both pulled back and rested with their backs against the tree for a bit, not passing a word between them. This wasn't the strange kind of silence where they would feel charges in the air. This was the routine silence for them.

Evie's heart had unclenched again. He unclenched it, but it was under the tree after all. She wondered about that tree and she could rightly claim that this was no ordinary tree after all. A hand slipped into hers and a smile crossed onto her face.

"Let's go, we don't want Chief to tell us not to waste time like lovers.." Jake said as he stood up and pulled her off. She blushed profusely when he said lovers. It didn't go unnoticed.

At that very moment Chief appeared in front of them. Evie broke into uncontrollable giggles and Jack laughed at her giggles.

Chief wasn't so sure if he was going to say all the things Jack had imagined him saying but lovers he was. Because lovers they were.