Mind Link

“Where are we going?” Tayla asked after a few minutes of walking down the winding path.

“I don’t know,” Kyle replied, “you’ve got the map.”

“Not anymore,” Tayla said shoving the map into Kyle’s arms.

He huffed out of frustration and began unfolding the map. “So what are we looking for?”

Tayla looked down at the instruction sheet, being careful to keep her eyes on the ground at the same time. “We need to identify several wild plant and animals living on the reservation,” she read out.

“Let me see that,” Kyle said, snatching the sheet out of Tayla’s grasp.

“What? Don’t you believe me?” She snapped and Kyle had the sudden urge to stick his tongue out.

“What the hell is a Mallee?” Kyle asked confused, looking at the first planted listed on the sheet.

“A Mallee?” Tayla wondered just as confused. She tried to think back to her science lessons, she had never heard of a Mallee before.

“It’s a tree!” Kyle laughed. “More specifically a eucalypt tree.” He was squinting at his phone, the screen having gone pale in the direct sunlight.

“Well, what does it look like?” Tayla asked, annoyed at his use of technology.

“Yeah, just hold on,” Kyle waved a hand at her.

“Why?”

“I’m checking Facebook, duh,” he replied in a tone designed to make the recipient feel stupid.

Rolling her eyes, Tayla took the instruction sheet back from Kyle and began looking down the list. There were a lot of names of plants and animals that she didn’t recognise, but quite a few that she did, which made her feel more confident about the task. But they were very quickly running out of time, and they hadn’t even found one thing on the list. She didn’t care about the prize, but she wanted to do a good job.

“Here,” Kyle said, thrusting the phone into Tayla’s hands.

“Oh, done socialising are we?”

“You were done a long time ago,” Kyle shot back. “The tree, if you wanted to see it.”

Tayla looked down at the phone, squinting like her brother had. The tree was thin and stunted, she was sure they had passed at least three of them on their way down the path. The only problem was, at the moment every tree looked exactly the same.

“I think it’s that one,” Kyle pointed to a tree just off the side of the path.

“No way,” Tayla disagreed, “It’s way to fat.” Tayla sighed, she knew they were never going to get anywhere with Kyle acting a total moron. He’d point out every tree in the reservation before finding the right one. Tayla often wondered how she had managed to put up with her brother for all these years, then remember it wasn’t by choice and slowly, year after year, she had grown a little more insane.

“Let’s just keep looking,” Tayla said. “Keep you eyes on the map.”

“Yes mum,” Kyle grumbled.

Only in my nightmares, Tayla thought to herself. Minutes passed by, and still there was no sign of a Mallee, and Tayla had just about given up hope on the plant. They should have checked the list more thoroughly before moving on. They could have been searching for multiple plants instead of just the one.

“Um,” Kyle said after a while.

“What?” Tayla inquired.

“Ah, nothing,” Kyle said, a little quickly.

“What is it Kyle?” Tayla asked again, her frustration rising.

“It’s nothing, alright,” he answered.

“No, it’s not alright,” Tayla stopped walking, “and it’s not nothing, I can tell by your face. You were never very good at hiding your emotion’s Kyle, remember the fourth grade?”

“Yes, I remember,” Kyle snapped, stopping in his tracks also and turning to face his sister, “now shut up about it.”

“Maybe I will, if you tell me what’s going on.”

“Geez, it’s nothing!” Kyle cried, folding up the map.

Tayla saw the movement, and suddenly it was obvious. “We’re lost aren’t we!”

“No!”

“Then why did you fold up the map?” Tayla asked skeptically.

“Because I don’t need it anymore.”

“No, because you can’t find us on the map anymore!”

“Untrue!” Kyle defended.

“Truer than you are most days! Ugh! I can’t believe you got us lost!”

“I did not get us lost! It was your fault!”

“My fault!” Tayla screeched. “And how, exactly was this anyway my fault?”

“You’re the one who kept walking. You didn’t even consult me for directions!”

“I was following you!”

Tayla’s blood was boiling. She had never been more annoyed at Kyle in her entire life. When he crashed her bike; when he slammed the car door on her hand; when he trashed her room convinced she had stolen his Game Boy; when he had dumped the rainbow ice cream cone on her head because he didn’t want anyone to have it but himself, and Philip said he didn’t deserve it; after her had started dating Tayla’s biggest enemy; every time he had humiliated her in front of the entire school, none of these moments compared to how Tayla felt about her brother now. She was so angry.

“Give me the map Kyle,” She said, trying to take it out of his hands.

“No,” Kyle said, moving it out of her reach.

“Yes!” Tayla reached higher, she was on her tippy toes and her face was centimetre’s from Kyle’s.

“No!” Kyle cried again. He didn’t quite know why he was refusing to give up the map, maybe because he knew if Tayla figured out the right direction he’d never live it down. He hated the thought of Tayla being right, she always was, but he would always there to stand in her way if he had the chance.

Tayla screamed from frustration and Kyle’s stance faltered for half a second. Half a second long enough for Tayla to be able to reach up those few centimetre’s higher and grab hold of the map with one hand. Both grips were equally as strong and they pulled with equal amount of force.

As they fought over the map, the wind began to pick up. A light breeze at first, but it got stronger, and Tayla’s hair began swirling around her face, making her lose concentration. Her grip loosened and Kyle stumbled back as the slid from his sister’s grip and was suddenly in his possession. He was so surprised that, in the confusion, he let go. Their one guide, their lifeline, their way to civilisation was caught up in the breeze. It hovered for a moment, and then blew away into the trees, where Kyle and Tayla could not follow it.

The sibling’s jaws dropped, did that really just happen? Did the map really just fly away? Their astonishment was so great; all they could do was stare, their mouths gaping like a couple of fish.

For the first time in what seemed like hours, but was really only a few minutes, Tayla looked down at the path beneath her feet. The gravel had disappeared, she appeared to be standing on nothing but dirt. Of course they were lost, this was not a track at all, but merely a path created over many years by people passing through it. Somewhere they must have made a wrong turn, and Tayla had not noticed, too caught up in trying to look for the Mallee tree.

Tayla was angry, angry with Kyle, angry with the map, angry with the excursion, angry with Mr. Woodley, angry with Cody and Colin and Katie. But mostly, she was angry with herself. How could she let this happen? How could she loose her temper like that? Admittedly it was not entirely her fault, which brought her back to being mad with Kyle. She was so mad, she just wanted to lash out and hit something. And the nearest thing was her brother.

Kyle was still in shock. In shock about loosing the map, in shock about Tayla loosing her temper, in shock about being completely lost in a wild life sanctuary. So in shock that the fist flying towards his face was not noticed until impact.

“Arghh!” He cried out in pain, and turned to see Tayla standing next to him, fist raised, ready for the coming onslaught. His glasses were crooked and digging into his nose, but he didn’t bother to fix them. His cheek and nose stung, but he was not bleeding, Tayla had not hit hard enough for that.

Nostrils flared, Kyle prepared to fight back. He would not stand getting hit by a girl, and worst of all, his own sister. But Tayla was ready for him, dodging away from his fist as it came.

Now they were both angry, and things never ended well when both Kyle and Tayla were angry. Once again, the wind began to pick up, stronger and faster than it had before. But this went unnoticed by the two siblings, too absorbed in their fight. Above their head, clouds began to converge, blocking out the sun and casting a dark shadow on them. This too went unnoticed. The storm was coming on faster than possible. The trees creaked with the strain from the wind; the birds that had been silently perched in their branches flew off in giant flocks, screeching at the top of their lungs.

And then they were falling. Falling faster and for longer than either of them had ever fallen in their lives. They were surely going to die, and at that moment nothing else mattered. All their worries vanished in a millisecond. The whole town, the whole country, the whole world even could surely hear their screams. The wind was like a deafening roar in their ears. The brightest flash of white blinded their eyes to the point of pain. And, impossible as it was, they didn’t stop falling.