Fields

IV

My eyes flutter open and I remember what I heard before on the talking box. Someone has their arms around me and I'm laying on the forrest floor. 

"Tedrick?" I ask softly.

"Cameron, what happened?" He asks me. 

"Nothing." My gut feeling says I should tell him but my mind say don't.

"Cameron, what happened?" He says more firmly.

"Nothing!" I yell and pull myself out of his arms. I stand up and turn back towards where ever I was running to, and start running. This time I make sure not to trip over anything. This time I'm sobbing while I run. Tedrick is chasing after me and calling my name, but I can't hear it. The noise around me sounds like a blur and all I can think about is what my father did. What did he do?

I change direction a little bit, I know where I'm headed now. I run to the middle of the woods and stop. In front of me stands the tallest tree in the world, well that's what Dad says. Why am I still listening to what my father says? He's a liar.

"Where are you going Cameron?" Tedrick yells. I look over my shoulder and see him doubled over panting. He must be tired after running after me. He catches me watching him. "Cameron please." He begged. 

"Race you." He said in a small voice, just loud enough for me to hear. I turned back to the tree and started climbing. I pulled myself up one branch at a time until I was at the top. I looked over our paradise. I can see the orchard, the two houses, the garage, the river and the fence. There was a gate in the fence to let Dad in and out. But you could see it from the houses and it made a loud beeping noise to let you know that someone was entering or leaving our paradise. Tedrick came up and sat next to me on the high branch. We took in the view. 

"What's wrong Cam?" He asked cautiously.

 "I can't tell you Tedrick."

"I thought we could trust each other Cameron. Guess not." My heart shattered with every word he spoke.

"Ted, please, you'll hate me if I tell you the truth."

"No Cam, I could never hate you." He said genuinely.

"Okay well, Teddy, you know how my father said that he lost your dad, cause the bad hearted people killed him?"

"Yeah." His eyes started to tear up.

"Well I was playing with your talking box, and I got it to work."

"Wait, what? I've been working on it for weeks and you just play with it and it works?" He said slightly upset.

"Please just listen Tedrick."

"Okay." He said.

"Well some guy was talking in it, and he was talking about my dad. Paul. And your Dad, Craig."

"Well what did he say?" He asked in a shaky voice.

"My Dad, well he killed his own brother."

"What? Your Dad murdered my Dad?" His eyes widened with fear.

"That's what the guy in the box said."

"How the hell could he do that to his own brother?" He yelled.

"I don't know, but he did." My father actually killed his own brother. My father killed Tedrick's dad. My father is a murderer. My father is a monster. "Why? What would make him do something like that Teddy?"

Tedrick turned around and looked me in the eyes. "I don't know but we're going to find out." He said rather determined. We both looked out over the fence until it started to get dark. 

"Better get going." 

"Not a word of this to anyone?" I said more than asked.

"Till we find out more." He replied. We climbed back to the trunk so it would be easier to climb down. "Race you down." Teddy said then we both started dropping down the branches as fast as we could. We both had this thing, our own little thing where we always raced each other. We've been racing each other since we were little kids. He was one branch ahead of me, but we were close to the ground. When he was on the bottom he slipped off and stood on the ground. I was on the branch above it, so I let go and fell. I landed on top of him and knocked us both to the ground. I stood up and held out my hand. He took it and I pulled him up. We laughed and slowly walked back towards home. I was in such a good mood compared to what I was in before so I didn't bother about the time.

"Teddy what's the time?" 

"Oh no." He replied. We started running but we both knew it was too late. Mum and Auntie wouldn't punish us, but if father was back... 

We ran up the path and into my house. Both Mum and Auntie were sitting at the dining table.

"And where have you two been? It's ten thirty." Auntie Bella said.

"You were meant to be back one and a half hours ago." Mum said more sternly.

"I'm so sorry, we were up the big tree." I said.

"We were just being so silly that we forgot about the time." Tedrick added.

"Won't happen again will it?" Auntie asked.

"No." We both said simultaneously.

"Better not. Good thing dad's not here otherwise they'd be severe punishment." Mother said coldly.

"Thank you. We'll go to bed now." I said. Tedrick hurried out to the other house and I walked down the hall to Simon, Annie and my room. I went in and shut the creaky door behind me. Simon was asleep in the small bed, and Annie was curled up in the big bed. I changed into my raggy old nightgown and hopped in next to Annie. It was still quite hot but that was fine. I was just relieved that father wasn't home yet. Cause I really didn't want to see his ugly old face.