Another week, another story! Don't tell anyone, but I've been writing these all out of order. This particular one I finished just this week. Lastly, thanks to everyone who has followed and reviewed this story so far! Now, onto neverland.
neverland
Mrs. Grumbmiller was a brat. At least, that's what the older kids called Kai when he was being annoying. He was using that word correctly, wasn't he? Kai pushed the thought out of his mind. There wasn't a kid in Ignacia that had to go to bed at nine. No, they got to spend an entire extra hour catching insects by the riverbanks before they were expected to return to their worrying mothers. Then again, Kai didn't have a mother waiting for him, much less a permanent home. But he was sure he didn't want a babysitter like Mrs. Grumbmiller.
The rustling of sheets from the other side of the room caused him to open his eyes to the dim light of summer's end. Tilting his head to the left, he could see his sister tossing and turning in her faded blue blankets. A small head with a mop of tangled black hair peeked up from the pillow before heavy footsteps sounded on the hardwood floors of the hall. She gave a tiny gasp and shut her brilliant blue eyes before lying down once again. The springs of the bed creaked before the room went still.
Through the narrow slit between his eyelids, Kai watched as Mrs. Grumbmiller shuffled through the now-open door. She snorted at the two definitely sleeping children before muttering something under her breath. It was probably something like "those kids only cause trouble for me" or "I need to go very far away to get a break from those two pests," both of which she's repeated to the other women in town on multiple occasions. She closed the door as gently as someone of her disposition could, and plodded back through the hall.
Numerous doors swung open and shut close before the clock struck nine. Just a little longer, Kai reminded himself. A stifled giggle emanated from underneath Nya's blankets before she stumbled onto the thin layer of carpet that covered the floor. "That was close," she whispered into Kai's ear before sitting down. After straining to hear any trace of Mrs. Grumbmiller returning, he did the same. They switched on an electric lantern, remembering to place it beneath a blanket before the shadows could dance on the wall.
"That was too close," Kai scolded. "She's going to find out one day if you're not more careful."
Nya stuck her tongue out at him. "It's not my fault that I have the squeaky bed. And Mr. Dragon likes to be loud at night anyways." She held up a yarn dragon made of fading scarlet wool before crossing her arms.
"Whatever. Just don't get us caught." Kai rolled his eyes. That's what the older kids did when they didn't want to listen to their sisters. He grabbed the lantern and a coat while Nya followed behind. They crawled through the open window, silent as the moon. Fireflies flitted around the curtains and through the edge of the woods like a golden string leading its few followers to a magical realm. That night there were two.
The children bounded through the forest like a pair of deer. Wise, old owls muttered their wisdom from the branches above and crickets chirped among the blades of grass. A girl's laugh echoed in the quiet of evening. If fairies were real, then she certainly would have been one. "Nya, wait up!" Kai yelled to her as he struggled to keep up. He flashed his lantern at the knotted woods, trying to catch a glimpse of his sister as she flitted from tree to tree.
"You're too slow, Kai!" she replied before leaping over a mossy log. A spark of light and a set of pattering footsteps followed sounds of delight to the hollow of a tree. The breeze rustled the leaves that dangled over a small river, flowing through the heart of the opening. Nya twirled in the clearing before sitting down, her cloak sweeping the ground beneath. "I win," she announced victoriously.
"Sure you did." Kai smiled with a half-hearted agreement. He set the lantern down and drew his knees in under his coat. He scraped his bare feet on the familiar, rough floor of the trunk. Nya sighed contentedly and did the same. They both knew that Mrs. Grumbmiller would return in the morning and so would their duties. But no one would notice their absence now. While the rest of the town slumbered, two children claimed the woods for their own.
They sat in the aureate glow of light warming themselves as best as they could until Nya quietly spoke. "Kai?"
"Yeah?"
"What do you think mom and dad would do if they caught us sneaking out like this?"
Kai sat in thought for a moment. He blamed Nya's teacher for giving her class a "family assignment," knowing full well that their parents were gone. It didn't matter if every other kid in Ignacia had them; Kai barely knew them and Nya knew that. But he continued sifting through the few memories he had of them. "I don't think we'd ever be able to sneak out. Because mom would read us a story before bed—"
"What kind of story?" Nya asked, her eyes wide.
"A really boring story," he teased. "But a really nice story. We'd fall asleep before she finished. Then she'd tuck us in and turn off the light." Kai paused before continuing. "And if we ever had a bad dream, dad would sit with us until we felt okay." He became silent remembering the times he sat with Nya, singing her a lullaby until she stopped crying. Nya seemed to be thinking about it too.
"In the summer, we'd sit right here, all four of us. Mom would pack lunch and lots of candy for a picnic. Dad would light a great big fire, ten times bigger than this lantern." His eyes seemed to shine when he said that.
"Fiiyyaahh!" Nya exclaimed before they both doubled over with laughter.
When it became quiet again, Kai resumed. "All the mean people would have to be nice to us because our mom and dad are the best parents in the entire world. And no one would chase us away from the river because it would be our river."
"Mrs. Grumbmiller said that we don't own anything. Because no one wants to watch us, and we don't belong here." Kai looked over at his sister. She was looking straight ahead, but a stray tear fell down her cheek. "I miss mom and dad," she whispered into the light.
I know, Kai wanted to say. I do too. Instead, he let the conversation relapse into silence. The two children began to nod drowsily in the flickering light. But Kai woke himself up with a start. "Nya?" She opened her eyes and looked up her brother as attentively as possible. "Forget what Mrs. Grumbmiller said. This is our river. And this is our town."
Nya opened her mouth to object. "But—"
"No buts. We belong here no matter what anyone says." The question why? leapt into Kai's mind the moment he spoke those words. So, he gave himself an answer. "Because mom and dad would want us to belong wherever we are."
Nya blinked a few times, still trying to wake herself up. But then she smiled, and Kai did too. "Come on, let's go home."
Hand in hand, they walked back through the woods and climbed through the open window. The clock on the wall showed that it was just before midnight. They cleaned the smudges of dirt off of their hands and feet before going back to bed. Nya fell asleep almost immediately. Kai tried his best not to laugh at the seven-year-old's tiny snores.
But Kai lay awake in bed for a little longer. The grandfather clock heralded the arrival of midnight, but he wasn't tired just yet. Still, his eyelids slowly closed in response to the night whiling away. Their woodland excursion was a fantasy, one of the best kinds. It wasn't something that was impossible to reach. It was all real, wasn't it? Way better than Nya's wish for another brother or Kai's wish to do something greater than just becoming a blacksmith.
Maybe one day, when he wasn't nine anymore, all their dreams would come true. But he knew that this is where they were meant to be. He belonged right here. Kai repeated those words to himself until he drifted off to neverland.