101 Ways to Skin a Hoodie

Chapter 3

I awake in the shade of a small tree in a bright field, and I raise my hand to my face as my eyes adjust. I get up and stretch before venturing beyond the shade, my silk summer dress rippling in the breeze. I'm barefoot, and the long grass under my feet is cool in the summer sun.

I stride further out into the gently sloping field, birds singing in the branches of scattered trees. I crest one of the subtle hills in the land, and a flower garden comes into view. A man is crouched over a rose bush and is diligently trimming it down into his ideal shape. He's humming softly. I wander over towards him, still looking about at the scenery. I shield my eyes from the sun.

I reach the fence of the garden and the man glances back. He has no face. He gets up and starts heading over to me.

"It's a gorgeous day innit love?" He says. His scottish voice smiles brightly at me. "Here."

The man takes off his work gloves, and with a flick of his wrist the threads in them unsew themselves and reform into a wide sunhat. He picks a tulip from his garden and tucks it into the ribbon.

"That oughta let you see a bit better now."

I start to say thank you but he cuts me off; "I suppose it wouldn't really help in your little predicament, though."

My eyes open slowly. It seems that I fell asleep in the position that I started in. I feel refreshed, this time feeling as though I got a full night's sleep, whatever that means in this place. I twist my back to the wind again and take my phone out. 7:36. That's anywhere from six to eight hours of sleep depending on when I actually dozed off.

Automatically my thumb moved to unlock my phone, and that's what made all the difference. A popup- well- popped up.

"Join Ben's wifi hotspot?" Is the message that the dim screen beams into my eyes.

My head snaps up and my grip tightens around my phone. I spin around in mid air, eyes searching for anything, and that's when I see it. Down and to the left of me I can see a glint in the darkness. I hurriedly stuff my phone back into my pocket and rearrange myself into bullet form, this time angled in such a fashion that I move towards the object.

I'm falling faster than it, and as I approach I can see that the UFO (unidentified falling object) seems to be a hemisphere of what looks like a grayish metal that's about 2 meters in diameter. My reference for this is the blond boy curled up inside it. When I'm a bit closer to the boy, I start calling out.

"Heeeey! Oi! Beeeen!" I feel like my voice is being drowned out in the wind, but on "Ben" he wakes up. He rubs his eyes groggily looking about, until he glances up and sees me. A look of shock flashes across his face and then he starts beckoning me towards him. Once I'm close enough he grabs me and pulls me into his- shelter? I guess.

I catch my breath. For the first time in more than twelve hours I don't have wind eating away at every breath I take, and it feels so reassuring to sit down, even if we are still technically falling at terminal velocity. Key word being we.

Once I regain my composure I glance up at who can only be Ben. "Hey," is what I try to say, before erupting in a coughing fit. My throat is so dry and I'm unbelievably parched.

"Ah!" Exclaims Ben, before bringing his hands together and motioning me to tilt my head back. "Open your mouth."

Too tired to be disagreeable I do as instructed, and Ben scoots closer to me. He holds his hands over my mouth and then opens them slightly, and water starts to fall out. I'm not particularly shocked by this, given the scenario that I'm already in, but I was sure that there wasn't any water in his hands when he motioned for me to lie down, and even if there had been it certainly couldn't have been of the quantity that I was currently gulping down. That's pure dihydrogen monoxide, baby.