A little love goes a long way

10

When they entered the home - home, what a wonderful word - Rose had been baking, evident with the smell of ginger in the house. Collie and Rosemary bounded towards them, Sophie crouched, bracing for impact, and immediately being toppled over by the two dogs, leaving slobbery kisses over her face, she laughed and pushed her way through the fluffy mess, removing her scarf and boots - Jake having wandered off to talk to Rose, Sophie looked around for Grandpa Brian, his boots were by the door, when she was interrupted by Rose calling her name. She walked over to the kitchen where Rose was smiling and ruffling Jake's hair fondly, soon doing the same to Sophie.

She cooed at them, like a proud mother hen. "Aw, you made a friend Sophie?" She nodded slowly, a smile working its way onto her lips, Rose smiled too. "That's amazing sweetheart" she kissed her temple, "now, do you want to go to their house for the meal? I know, their dad, nice man - sweet, - he buys our strawberries - rambling, sorry." She apologised as Jake shot her a look, Sophie was thinking it through.

On one hand, friends - and now that friends were encouraged Sophie wanted as many as possible - on the other hand, what if they were cruel, like Olive or Mark, what if they didn't like her? Or maybe they would, but what if they were cruel anyway.

No. Sophie scolded herself mentally. We have an opportunity and we both know that if anything happens, we can take it, she saw Hope appear in the corner of her eye, making a pushing motion with her hands, a faint blue aura pulsing around her - she smiled encouragingly.

"Yeah. Yeah, I think I'd like that." Rose kissed her temple again, her smile widening as she turned back to the oven.

"I'll arrange it with Jun then honey, can you go get Shorty? He's up in the attic, knock a few times - 'kay?" She nodded and Rose turned back to the oven again.

Skipping up the steps, she knocked five times. Silence. Five more times, still silence.

Supposing he mightn't have heard the knocking for whatever reason - she entered, inhaling deeply as she did.

Paint, so much paint in the air - it was no wonder he always smelt of it. The canvas covered floor beneath her feet lay coated in dry paint. In the centre of the room sat a birch table - though Sophie could only faintly identify the true colour under the canvases, paints, stains and more equipment frequently used in art, her Grandpa sat to the right of the table, back to her, window to his left and an impressive easel in front of him, a medium sided canvas atop it with messy pencil sketches, intricately interlocked to create a more detailed version of the cow he had shown Sophie that morning - the one with the swollen belly looking towards him - she assumed that this would be the sketch before the painting, but she could never know with Brian.

She called his name a few times before realising he had headphones in his ears. Walking slowly behind him, she tapped his shoulder, he jumped slightly in surprise before looking up and taking out a single headphone.

"Well - lookie who it is. Welcome to me little studio." He gestured around him with his arms, taking great pride in the awed look on Sophie's face. "Y'like? Used to be yer nursery for when you visited, it did. Once you stopped then me and the missus renovated - lookie" he pointed to the far corner, where - separated from his own personal sketches - there lay some blobs of paint and scrawled words. Subconsciously she had moved towards them, hearing her Grandpa's shuffling behind her she smiled.

"Those there were yer first ever drawin's. Aw, you shoulda seen Rosie then, teary-eyed she was. You'd seen one of me works" more shuffling, Sophie turned as he pointed a piece out "this one I reckon, what with the colours an' all." He smiled, eyes distant. "You tol' me right then 'n' there you wanted to draw like me when you got older - I damn near started bawlin' too!" He laughed. "Made me feel all loved an' everythin'." He side hugged her, "now, what was it you came 'ere for chick-pea?"

"Oh, right. Rose made ginger-something, I didn't get a good enough look at it - any look at it actually." His eyes practically sparkled, muttering something about gingerbread men or cake, something like that, before ripping out the other headphone and practically sprinting down the steps, causing Sophie to chuckle at his childish antics. Jake was like that too. She shook her head and followed after him, a smile on her face.

After a very well spent few hours decorating gingerbread men - and their own respective gingerbread houses, one for each of them, 6 in total, it looked like a gingerbread village - Grandpa Brian retired back to his art-room, Jake plopped down on the settee, Sophie not far behind him, and Rose started clearing away the empty icing bags and the mess that remained.

A cheesy Christmas film had appeared on the television, Sophie was using it mainly as a background noise as she drifted away into her imagination, this was where her personalities grew. Anxiety was the first that appeared, he nodded to her before sitting next to Jake. Hope jumped out from behind the curtain, smiling ear to ear, congratulating her for Overcoming Fear, who soon followed Hope, nodding his head in resignation. Fate stood lazily, propped up by the TV, she'd been so bored as of late. The others didn't show - she supposed that these were her key emotions lately, and she listened to them chat amongst themselves, Hope nudging her with her ethereal arms, nodding towards Rose, she disappeared.

"Sophie dear" her eyes found Rose's own, she smiled "okay so you can hear me - sorry 'bout that." She inclined her head to the tea towel beside Sophie, it seemed as though Rose threw it in an attempt to get her attention. "Right, so. I talked to Jun about the meal, he invited us for tomorrow - said today was too short notice, also ordered a crate of strawberries, no idea why - ha - they don't grow in the winter. Silly man - rambling, got it" she smiled at Jake before turning her attention back to Sophie. "If you still want the dinner then it's tomorrow, if not - that's completely fine sweetheart - I jus' need to know" Sophie shook her head.

"I'd love that" Rose looked confused so she clarified. "The dinner. The dinner - of course! Sorry" she bowed her head out of reflex, Rose padded over and stroked her shoulder.

"Alright hun," she continued to rub her shoulder, "we can do something in the morning - oh! I have a Pilates class tomorrow" Sophie shook her head with a snort of laughter whilst Rose muttered about the benefits, "alright, no Pilates then, but if you change your mind-?" She left the invitation in the air as she padded back to the kitchen, Sophie ruffled her brother's hair as she stood up. He questioned where she was going with an anxious face - Anxiety perked up at the feeling of worry in the air, sinking back into the sofa once it was absorbed - he looked as though he was about to follow her until she told him about the horses.

"They're beautiful, especially Ava - that's the one I named y'know? But there's a few others too, I think you'd like them."

"I guess I'll have to judge that for myself then, won't I?" Sophie could hear the smile in his voice as she stopped wrapping the scarf around her neck, resuming once he laughed and joined her.

The trees were bare - some would call it spooky, Sophie called it relaxing - as they walked through the thinner part of the woods as to reach the clearing where the horses resided. Basked in the light of the setting sun, the forest behind the stables - where evergreens and fir trees, amongst others, resided - looked so picturesque, Sophie halted for a moment, basking it all in, the familiar feeling of peace, hope and freedom filling her senses.

The stable soon came into view, Jake following behind her she opened the doors. Soft whinnies came from inside, the smell of straw-filled her senses - and Jake's too she supposed.

Leading him to Ava's box-stall, her head emerged, a soft whinny of happiness as Sophie stroked her snout and scratched her behind her left ear. Jake walked over to the other horses as Sophie pressed her forehead against Ava's, Jake laughed gleefully as the foal licked his hand.

"Seems like Garry likes you" Sophie chuckled into her hand at Jake's incredulous look, it melted away as he looked at the name-sign.

"Let's go get something to eat." Sophie nodded and slowly pulled away from Ava, whispering goodbye, before she set off with Jake at her side.