Tangles and Knots

"I don't think I'm supposed to be here." Ellie sighed from her spot next to me, enjoying the light breeze and warm summer air.

I kept my eyes shut, disliking the unnecessary glare the North West sun gave off. Warm days were rare and appreciated, but I wholeheartedly hated bright lights. I couldn't imagine living in a place like Arizona, Florida, or California. My home was Seattle.

"If you're here then you're supposed to be here. If you weren't supposed to be here, then you wouldn't be here." I mumbled, yawning out a short breath, "That's the way life works."

I could tell by the hush of the grass that the wind died down. But I could still hear Ellie move around from my right, "Why do you always talk like that? You're not Yoda."

"So you're a movie critic now?" I asked, turning onto my stomach and burying my head into my arms in front of me. The grassy meadows tickled my exposed legs.

"No. I just wanna know if I should be at my aunt's birthday party."

I glanced up, wincing at the bright sky as my eyes tried to adjust to the new exposure, to see Ellie picking and playing around with the tall grasses.

"It's her thirtieth birthday."

"I thought it was her thirtieth birthday last year."

"It was."

I chuckled lightly. I didn't think Ellie noticed.

"I think you should go." I murmured, watching as a thick red thread, wrapped multiple times around her wrist, strained even more. I had expected it to snap sometime last week, but like all threads, her's withstood it's struggle against it's original nature.

Ellie glanced up from the tall grasses surrounding her body, "You think so? My mom is gonna get mad if I don't show up."

I looked up from her wrist, "Yeah. You should go that way." I pointed the opposite direction in which the thread led her.

She followed my gesture to the path which led to the main street. Her thread led her into the neighbourhood. "Yeah, you're right. The bus will probably come soon anyways." She got onto her feet and stretched out her muscles. She flinched before grasping her left wrist.

"You okay?" I asked quietly.

"Yeah. It's just.. my wrist has been hurting lately."

I watched the thread tighten as she pulled her hand the against it's pull. "Maybe you should have that checked out."

"Nah. I think my brother has a wrist brace I could borrow if it gets worse." She shrugged nonchalantly, "It's probably just temporary anyways."

"Yeah," I sent Ellie a light smile, "Tell your aunt I said happy birthday."

"Will do! I'll talk to you later!" And she started her way down the path, right hand still wrapped around her left wrist.

I glanced over my shoulder, searching for the other end of the thread. It turned into the neighbourhood where it disappeared from my sight.

I knew it would only be a little longer before I wouldn't be able to stop it. Any second now, her thread would just bounce back like a slingshot and it would send both ends of the thread face to face. It happened all the time, every day. There was a limit to timing. Any longer, and I'm sure we'd all die without meeting these important people. That was the only reason that there needed to be for this string to develope it's elastic characteristic.

And when she meets this person, I will only become more insignificant to her than I already am.