The Girl From The Woods

4.

A piercing whistle erupted into the kitchen and took Bree by surprise. She had jumped, and then immediately felt silly. It was the kettle she'd put on for tea only moments before. She'd completely forgotten about it until its whistle ripped into the grog she was stuck in. She couldn't sleep last night. Nightmares still invaded her rest most nights. Always in the woods. Always running. Sleep deprivation was starting to materialize more and more. She couldn't focus some days. Somehow on autopilot from daybreak to dusk.

Rowan padded lightly into the kitchen with her blanket and took her mug from its place on the counter by the sink and went to the tea box and selected a package of Earl Grey from its little compartment. She tore the top off of the package and plunked the tea bag to the bottom of the mug and walked to the kettle, carefully pouring her mug full of steaming hot water. Bree watched quietly as the girl she'd taken in three weeks ago had just fallen into place here. Rowan was young, but only in her body. She learned fast and was far more emotionally stable than any adult she knew. There was something in Rowan that she envied. Maybe it was her ability to remain calm during all of this. Maybe it was how Rowan seemed to be adapting fine to this change in her life, while Bree was having nightmares and unending questions about their future. Would they find Rowan's parents? Did Rowan want to find her parents? If Bree never asked, never looked, it would be as though Rowan did not have parents. She never asked about them. Never cried, never... seemed to have come from anywhere. Bree was beginning to wonder if she had come from anywhere. 

"Good morning." Rowan's small little voice spoke and seemed to jolt Bree out of her grogginess. "Good morning, sweet girl." 

Rowan walked through the den to the sitting room to the big grey chair and put her blanket across her legs and slowly sipped at the hot tea. It was like watching a little grown up.

"Well I, for one, am glad it is Saturday." Bree breathed a big sigh as she plopped down on the sofa next to Rowan's chair with her own mug of hot Earl Grey. "What a week, huh?"

It had only been three days since the incident with the dogs across the street. Bree felt like her muscles were only just beginning to release the tension from that terrifying event. Her legs were still sore, but her chest had been sore up until that morning so she knew she was feeling better. Rowan seemed unfazed. Her composure was uncanny. Peculiar. She was consistently in this unemotional state. Comfortable. Confident. Unlike a child her age.

"What are we going to do today?" Rowan asked, eyeing Bree with a look that spoke for itself. Rowan wasn't simply curious about their arbitrary plans for the day. She knew it would be more of the same. Rowan wanted to do what she had been asking to do almost daily. She wanted to go to the woods.

Trying to seem unaware that she was on to Rowan, Bree breezily replied a short "Oh, I don't know, I'm sure we'll find something to get in to." There was an uncomfortable silence afterwards. At least it was uncomfortable for Bree. They sat sipping their teas in silence. It was almost deafening.

"I am going to the woods today. Will you come?" Rowan asked as if she were declaring she needed to go to the grocery store or something else completely normal and not completely absurd.

"Rowan." Bree exhaled loudly the breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. "Why?" She demanded.

"Rowan looked down at her mug as if she were mulling over her words a moment. When she brought her eyes up to meet Bree's they were glistening a bit in the light from the window. "I'm going and I want you to come with me." She whispered.

Bree was torn up inside at the sight of Rowan's eyes filled with tears. This unemotional little girl sat in that chair so vulnerable in this moment. She seemed child-like for the first time.