The Longest Night

The Wind in the Willow

Was there anything that he could do to make it all ok again? Was he stuck in this scary mess, no place to run or hide? He asked himself these questions over and over, thinking of different ways to explain last week’s events. Was there any good reason? He knew he didn't like her that way, so why did he do it? These thoughts ran through his head as the dull morning sky flew past him.

"Twenty five?" Willow asked. Her head lolling to the side, her hair flipping wildly as the wind flew in the window. Her sun kissed shoulder looked out of place in the cold mountains. She took a sharp bend and Jamie tensed, his head millimetres from the window. She chuckled lightly and her eyes shone like a thousand or more diamonds.

"Is a beautiful number.” Jamie said not fully understanding what she was talking about, but knowing that no ordinary answer would pacify her. She let out a hysterical laugh and brushed a fistful of hair from her face. Her cheeks were glowing a soft pink and her eyes were watering. What was so funny?

"I-I meant the speed." she choked out. Jamie cussed himself how foolish. "Sha-shall I speed up?" Her chest was heaving now and Jamie couldn't help but join in with her.

"OK OK stupid mistake, laugh all you want." Willow stopped dead, all joking gone from her face, now replaced by a scary look of anger.

"I didn’t' know I needed your permission." she said in a cold detached voice. Jamie looked taken aback. She turned her head back to the road again staring straight ahead no trace of humour left. Jamie didn't know what to do. He sat for a while wringing his hands.

The sun broke through the thin layer of clouds and shone through the windscreen. It glanced off of Willow's hair. He saw the corner of her mouth twitch. She let out a lost string of giggles. She pulled over and clutched her sides. Her pink blouse was scrunched beneath her hands and her stomach was exposed between her shirt and knee length white skirt. The material brushed off her legs as she bent over.

"You - you thought I was-" she broke off gasping. What was up with her?

"Are you alright? You don't seem-err- well." he said cautiously. She turned to look at him, completely serious now but a playful look still in her eyes.

"Never better." with that, she hoped out of the bug and started down a dirt track. The ground was a rusty color and wisps of sand hovered over the ground, her footsteps upsetting the barren ground. Tall fruitless trees towered over the track, the branches bowed with age and the vibrant green leaves brushed their heads as they walked.

It was a scene from a movie, a beautiful scene like those, which Ivy would paint. A rickety pale fence ran behind the trees, separating the track from the vast fields that stretched out for miles. Some were empty; some held crops almost ready for reaping. There was a smell of fresh flowers and citrus fruits but he couldn't see any within the vicinity. He followed her along the trail, and soon, as if answering his question, colorful patches of flowers and tremendous trees teeming with fruit of various colors. Small insects zoomed around like delicate faeries.

"Beautiful isn't it." Willow whispered as if trying not to shatter the beautiful image. "I used to come here with my sister. I have yet to see a more beautiful sight than this one here."

He stared around incuriously, searching for his voice. "I can't agree, I've seen beauty, but this is close." he stopped before he said too much. He had caught himself by surprise, what had gotten over him.

"Really? That's hard to imagine." she lay down on the soft grass. Her shirt slid up carefully revealing her soft tan skin. Jamie lay down beside her. "Do you believe there is something else out there? You know, after death,” she asked. He looked over at her puzzled.

"I don't know, maybe,” he said lazily. She lifted his arm above them and stared up.

"So you think,” she said suddenly dropping his arm so it landed with a thump on his chest. "That we turn to nothingness. Just -poof." she finished in an airy voice.

"Just poof." he said. She sighed and turned away from him.

A rabbit was hiding behind a dark green hedge, its eyes glinting. It slowly crept out noting the stillness. He creped out into the glaring sun and looked around. Before he could do anything however, a streak of orange snatched it up and dragged him into the shrubbery. The noise of the struggling fox could be heard, the breaking of branches and crunching leaves. The bushes shook for a few moments then stopped. There was a quiet stillness between them.

Willow had remained quite still. She turned around tears in her pretty eyes. His face froze. There was blood running down her face from her nose. She coughed heavily and spluttered blood.

"As one life ends, another begins" she said.

********

He stood pacing in the waiting room. Willis was their holding Ivy. She was staring straight ahead, pale faced and knowing. Her lips were moving but no sound was coming out. Hours passed by with no news. Her parents hadn't arrived, maybe they didn't know. He walked over to the desk where a nurse was sitting staring intently at a computer screen.

"Her parents. Can't you contact them?" he asked her. She looked up and sighed.

"We have. They said they would be here sometime during the week to see her. They say thank you for brining her in but there was really - no need." He stared at her dumbfounded.

"What?" he asked but she shook her head.

"I cannot disclose any more information sorry." she went back to whatever she was doing, Facebook probably. He stalked gloomily over to Willis and Ivy and sat down on the hard plastic chairs of the waiting room.

Ivy stared at him. Then spoke for the first time in the three hours they had been here. "I wish I could tell you more." she stopped there, shocked by her boldness. She went back to the small plaits she was putting in her honey blonde hair. He didn't know how to reply to this, just then a nurse popped her head around the door.

"Jamie Knight." he rushed after her

*So thoughts so far? Hope you like it."