Chapter 4 Part 1 ~ Good Friends?

It was Ella's first day of a new school year, she was in Grade/Year 1, and she was walking home with Lucinda, who lived not far away from the orphanage and she offered to walk with Ella as she didn't want her dad to pick her up. They weren't always enemies, but not ever friends; just they treated each other with common courtesy. Lucinda wasn't scared of Ella just wary of her in case she injured her by accident. They were okay with each other's company and still felt some of the excitement of their first day of school.

The school was situated near the forest so that the edge of the school yard touched the forest. It had been a hectic day finding the way around the school, meeting new teachers and settling in to school life once again but Ella had got through it without much trouble, a lot less than usual at any rate, and was feeling that it was her lucky day.

When passing the age old oak tree in the school yard, no one knew how old that oak tree was it just seemed to have lasted through many ages - according to the elder's it was ancient and had been there for practically forever, they noticed a small pool of clear-looking water. It wasn't very small but at the angle the girls looked at it light bounced off its surface throwing about mini rainbows. Both were entranced by the sight and loved water so they agreed to go have a closer look.

It was just unlucky that there was a broken wire nearby coming closer to the girls, as if death commanded that it should. The girls were too distracted by the water and the mini rainbows bouncing off its surface to notice the broken wire: no one noticed that the pylon was broken and the wire still had an electric current flowing through it just waiting to be unleashed. Almost silently the wire drew inexorably closer to the unsuspecting girls, who were captivated by the pool's mini phenomenon.

Suddenly, there was a rustle in the grass which caught the girls' attention, and that was all that was needed to break the spell the pool had cast upon them. Both Ella and Lucinda froze wondering whether their minds were playing tricks on them. In Ella's mind there was a small voice screaming for her to run. Ella also had a very bad feeling that something unpleasant was going to happen in the not too distant future...

The goings on in Lucinda's mind was on a similar subject to Ella's but on the opposite end of the stick. She thought that her dad was checking up on her and felt no fear, even though there was a small voice of common sense trying to tell her that her dad wouldn't creep up on her. That she quickly shut up, assuming that her dad hadn't wanted her to know about it so she decided that she would inform him that night when he got back from work that she'd found him out.

Both looked at each other for confirmation on their decision to stay and decided that it was a small rodent hiding in the grass. Neither realised that it wasn't a rodent or animal for that matter it was the broken wire getting closer and closer to them with every second that past. When they turned their attention back to the pool the mini phenomenon had finished and it no longer held their attention so they began to walk back to the path, they didn't realise that with every step they took it brought them closer to the highly charged broken wire. While Lucinda's mind was free from any diversion it was not so in Ella's case. She was still fretting over what the rustling the grass was. She felt pretty sure that it wasn't good and resisted the temptation to run like the small voice in her head was screaming at her to do. So instead she stopped, while putting a temporary halt to the errant thoughts in her head, to question Lucinda and put her fears into words,

"Lucinda, I believe you are going to think me very silly for saying this but I'm going to say it anyway."

"Say what?"

"I don't mean to frighten you or anything so I'll-"

*sigh*"Come on Ella just spit it out! Stop sidetracking yourself with inane words!"

"What does inane mean?" (Lucinda only knew the word inane because her father had said it.)

"Never mind... Just come right out with it!"

"Oh, right... yeah, okay... Well, I was thinking about the grass rustling and I just thought that it really didn't seem like a rodent. You know, with the grass rustling that much I think it must have been something rather different... something quite a bit bigger..."

"Come now, Ella listen to me and please don't interrupt, I think that you are letting your imagination-"

"But-"

"No, I said listen and don't interrupt. As I was saying, I feel that you are letting your imagination run wild on something that truly wasn't important, okay?" Lucinda was never going to reveal what was really going through her mind. She felt ashamed about her father not trusting her with Ella because it showed a lack of trust in her that she really didn't want anyone to know...

"Yeah, okay. If you really think that then fine...."

"Yes I really think that," Lucinda replied in a flat tone.

Ella could see that something had upset her and decided that she would ask her what was wrong. After the words had formed in her head, something warned her that Lucinda didn't want to talk about it so Ella wisely kept silent; the words were left unspoken on her lips, leaving Lucinda to mull over her unpleasant thoughts. Ella didn't really know why but she had the feeling that she wouldn't want to know what was wrong with Lucinda. They walked a bit further in silence and on Lucinda's part she was grateful that Ella didn't decide to pry and that Ella had kept silent so that she could think clearly over everything her father had said about Ella last night...