Silver Umbrellas

Twelve-- Innovate

Their second walk to Eugene was a little more light-hearted than the previous one as they chatted and laughed nearly the entire way through the scant woods. It could hardly be called a forest anymore; maybe "tree graveyard" was a more appropriate term. Even so, that didn't slow them down or dampen their mood as they trekked at a rather quick pace. Yesterday they had arrived at home just a few minutes after sundown, which was something they wanted to avoid this time around.

Like Alice had said before, it was a rule to not be out after sundown. The creatures that might lurk in the dark of the night had all the power when the daylight vanished.

Tino was at the end of telling a story, one hilarious tale concering a very sleepy Denmark and a banana, when Alice cut off mid-giggle and stared out at the world beyond the canopy of her silver umbrella. Tino also fell silent, and the two of them stopped walking. He even went so far as to slow his breathing so he could hear any approaching predators better, and his hand drifted toward the pistol on his hip.

"What is it?" he whispered without taking his eyes off of their surroundings.

"Uhm... This way!" she said, tugging on the bottom of his jacket while gesturing a little bit to their left. "I recognize this part of the woods."

"Okay, but where are we going?" he inquired, visibly relaxing now that he realized there had been no need for such alarm. 'Phew...!'

"This way," was her unhelpful answer. Alice led her uncle between two slowly disappearing, jagged stumps that had once been tall, proud oaks, and then onward for about a hundred yards. Tino stopped when she did, then looked around curiously for whatever it was his niece was looking for.

Her lips were pursed in a thoughtful pout for a second, and then her eyes lit up as she spotted something clear lying in the dirt. Oregon pointed it out to Finland, and the pair hurried over to investigate it. The clear object's shape was becoming more and more familiar as he approached it--

"This is the cockpit's dome!" he realized with his mouth wide open. And he was correct. The deep scores in the dirt were the perfect indication for a plane crash. "The entire plane is gone already..."

Alice urged him closer and bent down to scoop up some of the damp, loosened earth, which she patted onto the round window that was already dirt-spotted from her initial ministrations. There was no band of metal framing the glass, and the rivets that had bolted it into place were long gone. She picked it up by one side hesitantly, lifting it high enough to crawl under. When she was sitting cross-legged on the ground and facing Tino, the dome didn't quite reach all the way to the soil but she was well protected from the rain.

"Do you think we can make another umbrella out of this, Uncle Tino?" she asked while craning her head back to look up at him. Her forehead and tip of her nose were comically flattened against the inside of the glass.

"I suppose it's possible," he conceded. "Definitely something to look into. But let's pick this up on our way home so we don't have to carry it to Eugene and back."

"'Kay!" Tino made sure to keep the wide umbrella over her head the entire time she was crawling out from underneath the plane's cockpit cover.

Alice popped back to her feet energetically and grinned up at her uncle. "That was fun!"

His reply to that was a smile and a nod. "Let's keep moving, Alice. We shouldn't waste too much time when we have a city to explore." The young state agreed and resumed her grasp on the bottom of his coat because they couldn't hold hands very well; the umbrella had to be held up between them first and foremost.

The rest of the walk wasn't any less cheerful than before, but the conversation had to taper off into silence the nearer they drew to the feared city. In the back of his mind, Finland couldn't help but think it almost looked silly to be afraid of a half-melted and practically empty place, even if it was as big as it was. Alice's grip on her uncle's jacket tightened reflexively. Tino noticed.