Journey's Child

30

I took a deep breath of the fresh ocean air as I walked through the door of the cottage and looked out over the beach now bathed in the late summer sun. I was beginning to feel homesick for this place I hadn't yet left. I decided to go search the tide pools and look for Sam the starfish, to say goodbye.

He wasn't in the tide pool I remembered seeing him in and I felt let down that he was gone. After searching several more areas I found him.

"There you are! You moved!"

I reached down and gently pulled him into my hand. He curled one of his points around my finger.

"Hi Sam. How are you? I came to say goodbye. I'm going back home tomorrow."

I set him back in his new tide pool and watched as he crawled over to a rock and curled himself around it.

"Well take care of yourself."

I looked up when I heard my name. Ben was walking over to me.

"Hi Gilly," he greeted.

"Hi, what brings you here?"

"I just wanted to say goodbye."

"Oh," I said suddenly feeling shy.

The day was beginning to fade with the sun, and a cool breeze replaced the earlier warmth in the air.

"I have to go feed Captain, Thad's dog, and play with him so he doesn't get too lonely."

"Okay," he said looking a little disappointed. "I could come with you if you want."

"Sure," I agreed, hoping my mom would say yes.

We walked up to the cottage together. I found her folding clothes on her bed. She agreed that I could go as long as Ben went with me and we were back in an hour. I tried for more time, but she said it would be getting dark.

"One hour, Gilly."

"Okay."

"The keys are in my purse. Be careful."

"We will."

Ben and I talked about starting school and I told him what it was like back in San Jose. I described my house in Willow Glen and Susannah. I was in mid-sentence when he suddenly stopped.

"Did you hear that?" he asked.

"Hear what?"

Just then there was a snap, like a stick breaking.

"That!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah, I heard it. So?"

"What was it?" he asked looking scared.

"I don't know. A squirrel or something?"

"Gilly, something's following us!"

I wasn't really scared, but I heard it too so I whispered, "Let's run!"

We ran the rest of the way. Captain greeted us by the aqua boat.

We both managed to give a breathless laugh as I unlocked the door and let us in the house.

"That was creepy!" Ben sighed as he looked around in awe of Thad's house.

I fed Captain and let Ben investigate the living room. He asked about Heather's picture and I told him who she was, but I didn't tell him what happened to her. It was just too private to talk about.

Captain gobbled up his food and was ready to play. We ran the length of the beach as he pranced along with us.

We talked easily about riding bikes, our favorite sports and movies we'd seen.

The hour went by way too fast. If the air hadn't cooled quite so much and the sun hadn't pulled away so quickly, I would have been tempted to stay longer.

"Well, we better get back," I told Ben.

"Okay, but let's go through town."

"I can't. It takes too long that way. I'm already late and my mom will be getting worried."

"Gilly..." he began to protest.

"You can go that way if you want, but I've got to go back on the path," I said as I turned and began to run.

"I'm coming with you," Ben called as he followed me through the trees.

I heard Captain bark his goodbye as we began winding our way on the trail.

"Gilly, slow down."

I stopped by the old twisted tree waiting for Ben to catch up. He found me bent over with my hands on my knees, panting.

"You can run fast," he said sounding surprised and out of breath.

"Thanks for coming this way with me."

Just then a light breeze tickled my ear making me smile as a small voice breathed, "Run!"

"Run!" I shouted to Ben. We both took off not stopping until the path opened up to the beach and the cottages were in view.

At that point we stood facing each other and trying to catch our breaths once again.

"What happened?" he panted.

I didn't want to try to explain the voice I heard so I said, "Nothing, I just need to get back before my mom starts to worry. I have to go. Goodbye."

"Goodbye, Gilly," he said and to my surprise he leaned towards me and kissed me on the lips.

I stood there sort of in shock, then he gave me a crooked smile and headed off towards town.

I started walking to the cottage still not sure about what had just happened. I had a big smile on my face and I felt strange but happy inside. I looked back to see if I could still see him and he had also turned to look back at me. He gave me a big wave and I waved back. It would be one of the last good memories I would have for a very long time.

b~nXHL