In a Forest, Under a Tree Where Many Plans Were Made

Chapter Six

🌲It's a Long Way to Radnok, Summer🌲

After hearing Jacks history, Summer didn't sleep. She usually lulled herself by creating situations about why Jack had just appeared. Perhaps he had been born in the woods, and left there. Perhaps thought dead as child and the day before the funeral he ran away. Perhaps something else. Maybe he was a ghost. A new story for Summer each night. She loved making up stories.

But the real world is never like a story.

The next morning, she said to Jack:

"We should go to Radnok Jack. We could find out about your mother and maybe about your father."

Jack sighed and placed a flat rock down. He had found a sticky substance in the deeper forest. He wasn't sure what it was: but it worked well to stick the wood of the house together.

"I was afraid you'd ask that. Summer: can't we be happy here? I'm doing pretty good on the house now, thanks to that sticky stuff." He said. Then he continued sticking everything together.

"But Jack... It would just be a visit. Just for a day or two. We could get some supplies and stuff too!" Bubbled Summer excitedly. "Please?"

"It's a long way to Radnok Summer. It took me a week to walk from there to Kryston without stopping once. We'd have to stop this time. And we have our things we have to take. It would take too long, and there's nothing much to gain. It's like suggesting we should go back to Kryston. No." He said sternly.

"But it would be different. There's nothing left in Kryston, and it would hurt to much to go back." Summer pleaded.

Jacks eyes started to fill with tears.

"You think it wouldn't hurt me to go back to Radnok? Don't you think I had a life before you?"

Summer guiltily shook her head, but the truth was, she didn't believe he had a life before her. It's like a time before her just didn't exist. At times, it felt like when she closed her eyes the world just stopped with her. She found it hard to believe that other people breathed and lived like her. She saw out of her eyes, and automatically thought that people saw that way too. And when she blinked the world stopped for that millisecond. She'd look into someone's eyes and feel a pang inside, seeing the ticking behind them, inside their head. They had lives too.

Summer was in awe of life. Human life. Always destroying and building. Amazing yet terrible. They thought that they were the masters of the universe, yet they were so small. So so small.

Jack nodded. "It's okay. I know." As though he knew exactly what she was thinking. Summer had the strange feeling that he did.

"Anyway Summer, the point is, we aren't going to Radnok. It's too far. Maybe when the house is done. Maybe." But Summer didn't hear his last couple of sentences and started happily jumping around. "Oh thank you Jack! I've always wanted to see Radnok, too!"

The rest of the day, Summer wrote more in he notebook, watching contentedly at Jack work on the house. She felt a little guilty for not helping, but she had nothing to do. At one point Jack suggested she go hunting, but one glare from Summer reminding him of 'last time' quickly shut him up.

Eventually, two walls were done. Then it started to get dark. Summer quickly gathered some wood for a fire while Jack kept working for a minute.

'He's been working for ages, non stop,' thought Summer. 'He should have a holiday or something. Just one day off. Maybe tomorrow.'

Summer made a fire outside the tent, and she and Jack huddled together. Wrapping a blanket around their shoulders, with Summer resting her head on Jacks shoulder. They just stared at the flickering flames, and admired the way it danced on the black background of the sky.

As Summer sleepily closed her eyes, right before she entered her world of dreams and thoughts, she heard Jack mutter:

"It really is a long way to Radnok, Summer."