Trusting Aden | ✓

one: odd encounters

one: odd encounters

Breathing in the wonderful scent of maple wood and fire is a wonderful way to wake up. I turned over to see the digital clock blinking 11:26 AM. Leave it to me to sleep almost past noon.

Standing up, I stretch my limbs and hear my back pop, groaning in sleepiness. I walk out of my room and over to the balcony to see my neighbor turning on the grill for a barbecue. "Morning Mr. Fredrickson," I called. He looks up at me with his eyes wrinkling at the bright sun that shines over us, "Good morning, sweetheart."

I wave to him and turn to the bathroom to go wake up. After all weekend, out on search teams, it's Monday morning. Usually, I'd be in National Government Class, but today, thankfully, it's a Non-Student Day due to a Faculty Inservice. It whittles down to me got having to go to wake up at the break of dawn.

"Charlotte Rae, can you please come here," Mr.Fredrickson calls from the backyard. I run down the stairs and out the back door to see him with three logs of firewood.

"Would you like some help?" I laugh. His face turns into a scowl as he mimics me, causing me to laugh while trying to take two logs off of him. "George, one day you're going to get hurt!"

"And, love, that day you will still help me," he smiles. I laugh, shaking my head and I run inside to get the meat to grill. While in the kitchen, I see a note from Belle, on the fridge, telling me she'll be home before dinner to visit me.

While Mr.Fredrickson cooks the meat, he instructs for me to go into the woods, behind the complex, to get some wet twigs and branches for his smoker. Reluctantly, I grabbed a basket and held it close to me as I walked into the trees.

I try to help him out as much as I can because he is so kind and loving. When I first moved to this complex, he was so kind as to help my friends and I bring our boxes even though he could barely pick them up. Since then, he's been a sweetheart, helping in any way, and I, too, help him the best that any college student can.

The air smelled so beautiful, like bark and wet dirt. It must have rained last night. I smiled to myself and I squatted to pick up small twigs and branches. Along with the twigs, I found a beautiful shimmering rock near the roots of a huge oak tree. I placed it in my pocket instead of the basket, not wanting to accidentally throw it into the fire.

A snapping twig brought me back to my senses. I looked around fearfully, looking for the source of the noise. Looking to my left, I could see my building and the grill with smoke coming out of it. Another noise of leaves rustling made me jump, my eyes narrowing at the little pile of leaves.

I bent over, picking up a branch that was near my feet, not breaking eye contact with the leaves. I cautiously walked over to the pile of leaves, and once I was close enough, a small grey animal popped out, surprising me. "What are you going over here, lil' bud?" I cooed at the small rabbit. In response, it turned and hopped away.

Ridiculous how I could be so frightened over the rustling of a small pile of leaves. The yellow eyes are what is probably set me on edge, I tell myself. It's been a couple of days since then and it still chills me to the bone. Eyes like that aren't something so common, more or less something to forget or dismiss.

After a couple of hours doing nothing, I started to get sleepy. So instead of sleeping and wasting my day, I decided to head over to Belle's Parent's house to check up on the whole family. After Friday's events, she decided to crash at her parents' house is that she hasn't seen them in almost 2-weeks. She went to them because she needed her mother. Belle is the type of person to get worked up over the smallest things and distract herself with impossible ideas. Instead of coming to terms with the fact that Amelia has run away, her imaginative mind has come up with the idea that she was taken away by mythical creatures! I'm all for fairytales when we're young, but seeing as we are almost adults, I don't get why she believes in such foolishness.