The Girls in the Woods

The Introduction

It was March 17, two days before my twelfth birthday.

It was almost spring, so it was getting warmer outside. Bees swarmed flowers, wasps buzzed around the deck, and birds chirped up high in the sun-lit trees.

My dad was lighting a bonfire just outside of our fence. He had been working hard clearing out paths in the woods, along with a big retaining pond, all behind our house. He gathered the wood and threw it into the fire, one by one.

A few days ago, my dad made me a little area on the fence. There was an old, mossy ladder nailed to the top of the fence, along with an old, blue plastic slide going down the other side of the fence. He then put a white shelf on the left side of the slide, close to the walls of the deck. I liked sitting up on the fence everyday I could. It was peaceful, and it was my escape.

I had online school from 8:30 to 3:30 due to covid-19, a virus spreading around my country. After school, I climbed to my spot outside on the fence. The fire was pretty large at this point. It was relaxing to watch the fire. It sizzled and popped like pop rocks.

Not much later, a young girl came outside and met us at the fire. She had straight, light blonde hair. She was wearing a green softball shirt and jeans. She looked about seven or eight years old.

I wasn't listening, because I was in my own little world, FaceTiming my best friend, but the next thing I heard was my dad saying, "Francis, she wants to ask you something."

I just smiled and said okay. Then, I went right back into laughing with my friend. A few minutes later, my friend had to go eat dinner. After we hung up, the little girl went up to me and said, "Hello, I was going to ask if you wanted to jump on the trampoline with me."

"Not really," I replied.

"Francis, be nice. Get off your phone, too." said my dad.

"Fine then, maybe. You can jump if you want to."

"Okay. But will you help me open this gate?"

"Sure."

I opened the gate for her and let her on the trampoline. I climbed back up the ladder on top of the fence.

A few minutes passed, and I got very thirsty. I went inside to get water.

As I was walking towards the backdoor, I heard a small voice say, "Are you coming to bounce?" it was the girl.

"No, I'm just getting water real quick."

"Oh. After will you bounce with me?"

"Maybe."

When I came back outside with my water, I felt bad for the girl. She was jumping all alone.

I decided to do the nice thing and jump with her. It was actually fun! We played games like popcorn, and did challenges like who could stay up and jumping the longest.

Then, I heard faint yelling.

"Shoot, gotta go! Bye!" she said. she ran outside the gate and through the woods back home, in a rush for some reason.

I had just spent, i don't know, 15 minutes with her? I still didn't even know her name.