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Chapter 10: Questions

If you haven't already you should watch the trailer. It is truly amazing. 

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And a very Merry belated Christmas to those of you who celabrate and a Happy New Year. 

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Chapter 10: Questions

~E L L I O T~

I have to wonder what he could possibly be thinking as he watches us take barrels from the pile next to the shed. He’s impossible to predict. The Captain stands like any other soldier would. His hands are crossed behind his back, his feet are shoulder width apart, his neck straightened out, and his chin slightly tilted upwards. The two white lines on the left shoulder of his uniform glow in the bright sunlight. The light overhead deepens the shadows on his face. The darkness cast by his brow hides his eyes.

“Elliot.” I tear my gaze away from the enigmatic Captain at the sound of my name. Davie smiles anxiously at me. “Do you want to share a tree?”

I attempt to smile back. “Sure.” 

The barrels are much heavier than they look. Davie and I tow two of the barrels over to one of the many trees. The orchard is actually quite pretty. Speckles of sunlight bleed through the dense canopy onto the dark earth. The wooden hut and the dirt path makes it all very picturesque. And then Harry stands in the middle of it all, his narrowed eyes, his gleaming gun and his slick forehead. He looks like footage straight out of a war documentary.

“I think if we take off our shoes we could climb easier,” I say, turning my back to Harry and looking back up at the tree.

Davie nods, grazing his fingers over the bark. “Sounds like a good idea.” Removing my shoes, the soil feels cool under my feet. I wiggle my toes as I search for a place to start climbing.

I’ve seen Davie around the clinic in Norton. When he was little he was always a bit jittery. My parents were friends with his until my father and both his parents got recruited. He began living by himself at only fourteen and it all went down hill from there. He’d come by the clinic every week complaining about some ache that didn’t exist. Jade told him he wasn’t allowed to work with guns because of how jumpy he was, and is. He’s just one of those people who is strung up so tightly he’s affected by the tiniest things. This really isn’t the best situation for him to be in. I’m surprised he hasn’t had a heart attack. 

I fall out of the tree a couple times. My thighs burn from the run yesterday and my biceps protest from the stretch. Finally, I get a good hold on one of the branches and heave myself up. I move to a different branch so that Davie can lift himself into the tree. The smell of apples is intoxicating.

When I was little, Oliver and I used to go out into the woods and climb trees all the time. More than a few times we got a bit rough and one of us would end up falling. When we were about ten Oliver came up with a game where we would duel with sticks on one branch. The loser is the first to fall off. In the beginning, I would win most of our duels. The two of us would come home covered in scratches and bruises. I even have a scar on my elbow from scraping it against the trunk. As we got older, Oliver grew taller and stronger and I began to lose more often. Wanting to prove myself, I said that we should be able to shove each other and not just hit each other with sticks. I thought that with being shorter, this would prove to my advantage. But I underestimated his strength and ended up with a broken nose and a scar above my eye to show for it. Oliver refused to duel with me after that.

“So you work in the clinic right?” Davie intervenes on my reminiscing. It’s probably for the best. I shouldn’t get too nostalgic anyway. 

“Yeah I went to the clinic a lot when I was little and I think Luna took a liking to me.” I smile to myself as I reach for another apple. I’ve made a cradle with my shirt to hold the fruit, exposing my midriff. I take trips to deposit the apples to my barrel below when I can’t hold anymore. We’ve been in the tree for about an hour and I have surprisingly filled a little more than half the barrel.