Shattered Blue

Out of breath and feeling sticky and hot I angrily grabbed up my shoes and shook them like naughty puppies. I stopped as something fell out and my eyes widened when I picked up a chocolate bar identical to the one I had just eaten.

Maybe I should be suspicious that something I wished for suddenly appears like this. I grinned hoping it was that boy’s doing and not some shadowy individual.
I stuffed the chocolate into my shorts’ pocket and decided that it was too hot to be outside today. Maybe I can force myself to read through that horrible book at home just until it cools down outside…

I stopped in my tracks. The birds had fallen silent and the forest was unearthly quiet. A cold wind sprang up and the sky darkened. I looked around hurriedly and decided that I was close enough to home to make it. I began to run feeling as if I was running away from the wind itself. Something cold ran down my face and giggled at the sensation as more droplets tickled my scalp.

I went off the track; snakes sometimes used it to escape quickly from the rain and as rare as poisonous ones were in this area I didn’t want to risk a potential encounter with one of those children of the earth.

I saw a flash of colour to my left and I stopped and glanced back through the gaps in the
trees. My breathing escalated in excitement but I paid it no heed. I crouched low even as a low drizzle started up. My elephant boy cursed as he looked up at the grey sky, his hair already dotted like grass with early morning dew. His wide shoulders lifted and sagged in a visible sigh before he started off in a slow jog. Why is he going towards my house? Has he lost his way? I followed him but since I was no longer on the path I had to dodge rotten tree trunks, and leap over ditches. He increased his speed as the sky began to cry in heavy torrents and I soon lost sight of him. I tripped and fell, my focus broken. I pulled myself up, mud spattered and wet through and continued stubbornly on even though I knew it would be safer to climb up into a tree until this brief but heavy rainfall ceased.



The air was slightly humid and his sweat quickly mingled with the rain water already on his skin but as the rain grew less and steadier he ran faster and nearly ran straight into a wooden gate overgrown with honeysuckle. He stepped back and surveyed it for a latch or lock of some kind and when he did he pushed the gate open with a bit of a struggle; it was rusted stiff. He stepped into an unkempt but clearly lived in garden where a wide lawn swept up to a large brick house also overgrown with honeysuckle.

He looked at it in puzzlement trying to place why the comfortable sprawling building looked so familiar. He saw children running and playing that weren’t there and then it slowly dawned on him. A slower smile spread across his features and he turned away after burning the image into his mind.

He closed the gate and continued back down the path. Something moved to his left and turning his head he came face to face with a muddy monkey. Green speckled brown eyes looked up into his and the dark mud spattered face split open in a grin to reveal startlingly white teeth. He looked down at her torn and bloodied cut-off jeans, her bony bare feet and then up at the green shirt that clung to her lithe muscled form.

She held out her hand and before he knew it he was shaking it in bewilderment as she bobbed her head and chirped, “Thank you for the chocolate.” She let go of his hand and stood looking up at him as if waiting for him to speak. But his voice had fled. She smelled like wet earth as she brushed past him and continued up the path he had just taken.

“Keep off the path! Snake like ‘em!” she yelled over her shoulder and disappeared around the bend. He heard something akin to ‘silly elephant boy’ but realised that he must’ve misheard.

Thunder cracked like a whip overhead and he decided it was time to go home. But how could he find his way back with rain in his eyes and mud everywhere?

“Do you live close by?” said a voice at his elbow. He whipped around with his hand over his heart breathing heavily. She barely gave him time to answer before tugging on his shirt and giving him a bright smile. “You can come inside and call your parents to fetch you.”

He paled. He couldn’t let that happen under any circumstances; having to phone from her house of all places…He shook his head and mumbled something incoherently before tugging free from her grasp and trudging down a random path.

“Where do you live?” she asked following him.

Go away go away go away, he thought fervently and muttered rudely, “None of your business.” He glanced back at her, gauging her reaction. He expected her to be angry or disappointed but she shrugged and, whistling, turned back. Her whistling was off key and it was an old tune he could not recall. He needed to tell her but would she remember? His voice finally unstuck and he shouted hoarsely after her, “I’m Anthony!”

She crossed her arms behind the back of her head and paused in her whistling. She laughed at some private joke and carried on with her tune.

He shook his head and went on walking. She had not remembered after all. Maybe it was the wrong girl? She was a wild hare this girl not the neat little thing he was thinking of.



After he was too far away to hear me I stopped and muttered, “Bleh! That name never suited you…” I stuck my tongue out at his tiny figure far in the distance seen through a myriad of trees. I lifted up my right hand and with my thumb and index finger I pretended to squish him. “Maybe you’re a mindless ant after all…”