Irene, My dead best friend [Wattys 2015]

Chapter 14: Lo and Behold

Chapter 14: Lo and behold

“Ah, clear they see and true they say

That one shall weep, and one shall stray” 

― Dorothy Parker

There are two kinds of people in this world. The first ones are those that are absolutely certain of everything they do in their lives. From making decisions about clothing all the way to serious decisions that determine what happens to their lives then henceforth; they are serious about everything. Then there are my kind of people who have to go through a whole thinking process of the pros and cons of doing things, the process of going through and understanding my fears for taking any decision and then making that decision that I shouldn’t even attempt anything. Some people would argue that there is that meek grey area in between where people make some decisions and some they can’t. I say that’s rubbish because either you’re brave enough to do it or you don’t.

In these past two days I had also determined two things:

1)    That I was clearly the second kind of person in the afore mentioned scenario BUT I was willing to improve on my current situation considering here I was running through a forest with someone who I’ve known less than 24hrs ago and leaving my parents behind.

2)    I had been looking at the world from a very naïve outlook; clearly everything around me was not how it seemed. I had evolved from having “growing suspicions” about Irene to now being sure something of a whole other nature was going on. The only other thing left to determine was that if Irene was innocent and as new to all this as she claimed to be or was I heading all too deep into something I had no idea about.

These thought were at the forefront of my mind right now, just coming in circles like messages go one after the other on billboards atop tall buildings. It was only when Irene’s rugged breathing came into earshot was when I became sure that she was following me because obviously the whole feet situation had still not been clarified.

“Where are we going? I seriously don’t think we should be going this way” she asked walking/floating besides me, while pulling out small leaves from her hair.

“What? No, we have to go this way so we are as far as possible from the main roads. Heading in this direction increases our chances of not walking into anybody and will also keep us safe while we figure things out,”

“I don’t know. I just have this feeling that we shouldn’t go this way. It…doesn’t seem right..” there was hesitancy lacing her words. I looked into her eyes and I knew there was more to it but she looked confused. Stopping mid stride, I turned towards her and stared into her crystal blue eyes.

“Why? What doesn’t seem right?” I was going to keep my calm and ask her like a gentleman, no need to get worked up over stalling us as usual.

“Like I said, I don’t know. I get the feeling like I have come this way before… like I regretted every second of it,”  there was genuine fear in her eyes and for a second, I thought it was infectious but I shook myself out of it.

“Hey, listen to me,” I didn’t have time for her premonitions, “don’t worry, I’m right here with you. You probably just feel that because you’ve been lost in this forest for so long. You, yourself said you can’t even remember how long you’ve been here. Just throw it out of your head and help me out here, please. We really have to get away from the roads and you know it’s a 20 minute walk. Okay, how about this,” I could see she was still afraid but getting around to it, “I know I haven’t been the greatest person to be around so far, but I promise I’ll take care of you no matter what.  I won’t let you get hurt and will take you to safety to the best of my ability,”