That's just life

3.

                                                                                             NOW

Its been 3 days since I woke up in the hospital and 2 since I came back home.

I'm still registering the shock of it all. 

When we came back home, Audrey was the first one to visit me. 

She came with her mom, Mrs. Hudson. When she saw me, she rushed towards me and put her arms around me. I hugged her back tightly. She smelled of lavender and floral stuff and something else that was just so........ Audrey.

When she pulled back, I saw that her silver lined her eyes. 

"Oh come on Audrey, I'm still here for all that mattersk" I said 'coz hey no one likes to see their best friends cry over them. She looked at me and then hugged me again. I hugged her back. She was sobbing now. 

"Hey do you remember the woods?" I ask trying to lighten the mood, because this was not how I  liked to see my best friend after being told I was sick.

I feel her smile through her sobs.

"Yeah." she says.

                                                                           ***

We were 12 and Summer holidays were going on. Schools had gotten over 2 days ago and the very next day Trish, Ava, Audrey and I had left for a trip with Audrey's parents. They were going to their farmhouse on the coast of California. 

The trip alone was so much fun. We played so many songs we loves since we were kids. We ate like people who had been forced to starve for a decade.

When we finally did reach, it was magnificent. The white building was placed in the middle of a huge garden and had a pool behind it.

We planned to jump right into it after we settled in.

"Come on girls..... we gotta go." Mr.Hudson said. 

We settled in in about 15 minutes with Trish, Ava, Audrey and I sharing a room.

The next day we were to head back in the evening. Figuring we still had some time left, the four of us went out 'looking for adventures'. Hey we were too small to be serious about that stuff. We went into the woods behind the farmhouse.

The woods had medium sized trees through which sunlight sparkled in through pinholes. 

"Woah just think..... what if some ghost jumps out from between these trees?" Trish said, looking around.

I rolled my eyes,"No Trish don't get your hopes up there are no ghosts around".

That was so Trish. Always amazed and fascinated by weird things like ghosts and phantoms and creepy looking houses.

She frowned. "Well look you scared them away Sash."

I laughed.

When I finally did stop laughing it seemed as if my laughter was being echoed. For, like, a really long time. 

No. This wasn't an echo. It was a separate laughter.

I wasn't someone to get scared by this kind of stuff. But Audrey was.

"Umm guys I really think we should just go back. My mom will be waiting." She said. 

The laughter stopped. Now this was starting to get...unusual.

"And besides, I really need to use the loo", Audrey continued. Her voice seemed more like a wheeze than how she wanted it to be all cool.

We all got the sign.

We headed back really fast.

We found Mrs. Hudson packing up and doing a last minute check of the bedrooms.

"Oh you girls are back", she said.

"Yeah......thankfully" Audrey whispered and I held back a grin.

10 minutes later we drove out and while we were driving we went past those woods.

"Mrs. Hudson what are these woods?" I asked, looking out for any sign of life in those trees. I jumped a little as a robin flew out from it.

"Well you see this whole area was nothing but trees before. The rest of the area was cut down but the woods area was left untouched as a way to preserve this area's authenticity. Oh and it is also said that there was once an old woman who used to live in there but her house was burned down as the people believed that she had dug around in black magic." she remarked.

On that last comment I saw her trying to hold back a grin so I knew she was kidding about that stuff. Mrs. Hudson knew about Audrey's fear of ghosts and had often joked about it. I played along.

"So do you think there are ghosts in there?" I asked stressing on 'ghosts' in such a way that Mrs. Hudson figured out that I had understood what she meant.

She smiled a bit and and said, "Well ther ehave been sightings of an old woman wandering around and asking all those who venture there if they knew where her hut was."

I grinned. Mrs. Hudson was very good at making up stories, especially stuff like this.

Audrey flinched. She hadn't noticed her mom's grin because she was busy staring at the woods from the window. I knew she was looking for that 'old lady'.

After the woods ended and we drove ahead, Audrey's eyes showed plain relief, which only shows how freaked she really was.

She said, "Mom, tell me more about that old woma-"

She cut off at that because she spotted the slow grin which had started to spread across Mrs. Hudson 's face.

Audrey narrowed her eyes. "Moooom?" she asked questioningly

"Yes dear?" Mrs. Hudson replied innocently batting her eyelashes.

I let out a huff of breath while trying to control my laughter. To everyone's great disappointment Audrey noticed that too.

Oh, man. Somehow Audrey happened to be exceptionally good at noticing things around her.

She rolled her eyes. "Great guys, just great," she said. 

That was our cue. All of us cracked up. Even Audrey smiled a little, and the one to laugh the most was Mr. Hudson. His laugh boomed through the car.

Mrs. Hudson sheepishly said, "I'm sorry honey but you're so easy to get to well, certain topics."

"Well, I'll think about forgiving you when....." she cut off there.

She was also particularly skilled at taking advantage of the situation.

Mrs.Hudson rolled her eyes. She knew that as well as we did. "Yes honey? What is your wish we are going to have to fulfil to convince you? Because as you might have noticed we are kinda tied by the fact that you're younger than us and we have absolutely no power over you," she said her voice dripping with sarcasm.

I absolutely love Mrs. Hudson's sarcasm.

Audrey smiled like the grinch at that. "I want a book. An awesome one. Actually make that 2. I want two books. Or else I'll be compelled to stay mad at you guys for the rest of my life."

"Yeah yeah whatever," Mrs. Hudson replied.

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