Anything to Make You Smile

The long grass swished and raked against my skin as I waded through it, the sun-dried yellow sticks carved lines into my skin causing my legs to feel like they were on fire. My dress was scattered with the itchy heads that got caught when I brushed past, scratching my legs as I moved.

Golden light bathed the land from the sun setting over the distant hills, framed by the sky and the tops of the grass.

The slight breeze carried the sounds of distant shrieks and laughter over the small knoll to the field where I was. The summer holidays were spent here, for about a month and a half of our lives, and about a quarter of the family always came too. Being the only young girl in the group with no kids of my own all the children were dumped on me for babysitting while the parents chatted under the oak trees.

It was peaceful now that I’d managed to escape.

Our family came out to this spot every summer, as a family reunion and it was always the same. Everyone drove out to this small secluded farm in the middle of nowhere and settled down like we owned the place. Barbe-ques, staying up late, swims at the lake, laughing around the campfire: everything I enjoyed about coming out here. But most of all I enjoyed the peace and quiet.

The townhouse we live in back in London was so full of noise, it’s good to get an escape every once in a while.

That afternoon we’d gone for a swim at the lake, the water had been freezing, as always, and when we’d come back to the farmhouse, we drank fresh lemonade and sat around laughing about our lives.

This was the first time I had been back out here in almost three years, school and my studies has gotten too much for me and I never had enough time to come down here with the family.

I glanced around me at the fading light and marveled at how such simple things could make me happier then all the other things in life. Sure, my family might have enough money to give me some of the things that I wanted, but what I wanted was to live out here.

I carried on pushing through the long grass until the field ended and the trees started. I headed towards my little spot, an old tree with low branches that overhung the small river that lead to the lake we swum at. I went and sat down at the base of the trunk with the dappled sunlight falling on me.

Sitting up there looking out among the green of the surrounding trees, the calm water trickling slowly underneath, was like sitting in my own little paradise. I leaned back and enjoyed the breeze on my shoulders for the first time these holidays and closed my eyes peacefully.

Suddenly a splash brought me out of my daydream. I sat up quickly and looked around the side of the tree quickly.

There was someone down in the river.

I hid myself behind the trunk of the tree while still watching the movement. I could faintly make out a figure, standing knee deep in the river, bent over what looked like a crate. The figure moved slightly and I was able to fully make out who it was.

It was a boy about my age wearing jeans that had been torn off at the knees and a plain white t-shirt. His skin was unbelievably tanned compared to my almost porcelain complexion and his dark hair was long and curling around the nape of his neck. It was obvious he was farm hand.

I recognized him immediately, he was the boy that had been here since I’d first started coming out to the farm.

Robbie.

I got up slowly and silently, sneaking around the tree to get a better look. I wasn’t even sure if he would recognize me after so many years. When we had been younger we had talked, but as I grew up and started maturing, talking to farm hands really wasn’t the proper thing to do. And if my friends found out I would have been the laughing stock of the entire school.

He looked a lot different from when I last saw him: a gangly teenager with messy hair and acne all over his face, now he was tall and filled out with muscles tight and obvious through his white shirt.

He looked amazing.

Suddenly he stood up straight and reached down to pull his top off. I gasped and then clamped my hand over my mouth, moving back behind the tree just as he looked over.

“Hello?” he called out uncertainly. He voice was much deeper then I remembered it. Although he wasn’t 14 anymore with a scratchy, high pitched voice, now he was 21, the same age as me. I crouched behind the tree thinking how silly and immature I was being, my heart thumping in my chest, though, at the thought of even talking to him.

He must’ve decided I was just a squirrel or bird because when I looked back around the tree he had disappeared. I breathed a sigh of relief and leaned back against the tree. I sure wasn’t coming back down here again.

I stood up slowly after a few seconds and brushed myself off. I turned to start heading towards the farmhouse again and ran straight into someone. Strong arms gripped me and stopped me from falling. The sound I emitted was somewhere between a gasp and a scream, it echoed off the rolling hills around us.

I looked up into the clear blue eyes that bore into me. He looked at me suspiciously.

“Leah?” he asked softly.

“Robbie.” I confirmed, with a nervous smile.