Chapter One
Violet POV
This week was barely even there. I floated through the halls, sat through my classes and stared off into the distance over lunch. He had done this before. But for some reason this time it worried me more. Everyone reminded me of him. Shoes, jumpers, hair, my heart would jump every time I thought I saw him, and then retreats back into its cave. I was barely existing, just hanging on.
Finch was gone. He hadn't been to school for days. He wasn't answering his phone, hadn't been seen, and as hard as I looked, I couldn't find him anywhere. All the places we had been, the place we met, the places we loved, and he just wasn't there. I was so lost without him, like all the colours of the world had dulled. I was sitting in my room on a Saturday morning, waiting for something – anything – to happen. Dust settled over my desk, with only school books sitting open there. My bed was unmade, clothes were strewn across my floor, everything that reminded me of him was hidden away. I sat, numb by my window, watching cars pass by, hoping it was him, when the first message came in.
I am on the highest branch.
Sun beamed off my face. He was still here. Finch was out there somewhere waiting for me, leaving a trail of crumbs. He knew that he could only be found by those that wanted to find him. This had to be a clue. A hint of the world woven into a sentence. I knew exactly where to look.
I almost ran over to my wardrobe, yanking the door open and falling to the floor. I pulled out our wandering bag, rummaging through trinkets, slips of paper, shells and feathers, everything for us to leave behind, digging past pens, my notebook, flyers of places we had wandered to, until my hand reached the bottom, grabbing his map. I spread it out on the floor, the roads stretching, streaming out all over my bedroom floor. Red circles scattered all over the tiny map of Indiana, our tiny world, tiny home, tiny lives. My life was even smaller without finch. I could barely even see the stars without him. Milltown, Fishers, Alexandria, Hammond, all tiny places that hold something Finch thought was worth seeing. And he wouldn't see anything that wasn't special.
After searching all Finches spots, and asking the internet, my laptop said that there were many highest branches in Indiana, but only one matched with Finches wanderings. The shoe trees.