Shattered Blue

Up in the Loft, my bedroom, I drank ice cold ginger beer, cuddled up on my tatty antique armchair my father had lugged up here one rainy afternoon. I was reading a pink book I had snitched from my sister’s room. I had no idea why it was only about ‘snogging’ but I’d have a word with my sister about it later. In the meantime I killed some time and brain cells.

The book slowly slipped from my fingertips onto my lap but I couldn’t care less. I leaned my head back and let the warm buttery sun spill onto my face from where it crept in through my only window.

I thought back to yesterday and the ‘elephant’ boy. If I could only catch one more glimpse of his spectacular eyes no other variation of the colour blue would ever satisfy me again.
I was loath to ask my parents about him, much less my four siblings; the forest was my world and haven and I rarely let anyone ‘in’. The first time I had did not end well.

I sprang to my feet and stretched out my lithe nut brown body and yawned loudly like my cat, Mousse. Mousse looked up from his perch on the windowsill, let out a sorrowful meow and went back to dozing.

I grabbed a pair of scruffy shoes and with the shoestrings tied together I swung them around my neck, and scratched around in my sweets drawer for a few brightly wrapped butterscotches. They crackled as I slid them into opposite pockets and swung myself onto my windowsill. I let down the rope ladder my brothers had helped me install and made my wobbly way down onto soft green turf.

Our garden was big and overgrown but it still felt too crowded especially with family around every corner. My room faced the forest and a wide sweeping lawn led down a gentle slope from the house. A wooden fence, overgrown with a creeping honeysuckle vine, showed the perimeter; of where our grounds met their wilder cousins.

“Joe!” my brother Deon, aged eight, yelled, spotting me from where he was sitting on the swing. “Can I come with you today?”

I winked at him as I put on my shoes. “When you’re older!” I yelled before running towards the fence.

"You always say that!" Deon's voice followed me, like an angry whirlwind. My speed increased and my shoulder length curls whipped out behind me. It was a downwards slope towards the fence and sometimes I ran too fast to stop before I reached it.

I got a face full honeysuckle and leaves and I felt seriously winded. I laughed to get rid of the feeling and fumbled with the gate’s latch. It swung open with a rusted squeak and I slipped through and closed it behind me.

Peace settled on me like a silk throw the further and deeper I went in and my excited breathing slowed down. The slight headache I always carried with me at home, melted away. Dappled sunlight cast patches of green light onto my arms and when I reached a towering oak tree it became dark and deliciously cool. I kicked my shoes off; I only needed them when walking but for climbing…

I reached up and hefted myself up into the tree with a grunt. I began to climb this ancient and settled into a deep nook that had been hollowed out by the same movement for years.
From here no one could see me but I could see them. Not that anyone ever came out especially so early in the morning. I know the neighbour’s children regularly used my worn paths but we had a truce; they stayed clear of my haunts if I continued to show them where to hide things. I unwrapped a butterscotch and popped it into my mouth before closing my eyes. My mind drifted not to the slight stirring of the wind, nor the smells around me but to that boy from yesterday. Again.

For some strange reason this bothered me and I scrambled down the tree reluctantly and not even bothering to put my shoes on I wove my way towards my river spot.

The sight of it empty of anyone person strangely relieved and disappointed me. I picked my way towards the book but when I lifted it up something beneath it winked at me in the light.
It was a chocolate bar wrapped in its shiny plastic covering. I looked around and picked it up and smiled gleefully; it wasn’t one of those cheap chocolates my mother brought home from the local store, it was one of those expensive ones with eighty percent cocoa or something along those lines. I practically screamed ‘eat me!’ but I wondered who had left it here. No one knew of this spot except…I smirked and unwrapped the chocolate before I placed a handful of my own sweets underneath the book.

The sun had melted the chocolate inside and thus a few minutes later I was left licking my fingers and wishing for more. I looked longingly at the cool river water as it had turned out to be a scorching day but when I dipped my feet a shiver ran up my spine. I pulled my feet back and was surprised that they weren’t blue already. It would probably be a few more weeks before the water became warmer; summer had only just started.

How had that obviously city boy not found this water cold? I thought back to him taking off his ridiculous city shoes and calmly feeling the water. I sprang up. My shoes! I had left them at the tree and they were my favourite pair. I sighed and began to trek back.



When he crawled out of his rage he realised he had no idea where he was. He looked around him and wondered how he had wandered this far without knowing. Maybe if I just turn back I’ll be able to find my way back? He asked himself. He spotted something on the ground a few metres away from him and walked over towards it stopping just before the biggest tree he had ever seen in his life. After craning his neck up in awe he looked back down at a pair of dirty sneakers. They weren’t a big size; maybe a child had left them here accidentally? But when he lifted one up tentatively trying to find out more he found a name scribbled in permanent marker on the inside.

“Josephine?” who is this mystery girl? he wondered, thinking back to that flash of a slim figure.

He shook his head and smiling dropped his newest chocolate bar inside one of the shoes. He hoped she had found the other one already. She sort of reminded him of his own sister or at least the way she used to be and his sister had always loved chocolate.

He put the shoe back down and noticed a rough vague path woven into the undergrowth. The one led back and the other led downwards, probably towards the river. He began to follow the one back. At last I’ll be able to find out where she comes from, he thought.