Title: Once Upon a Summertime
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters on NCIS, I'm just borrowing them for the story.
CHAPTER 12
A WALK UNDER THE NIGHT SKY
Ziva's POV:
I opened the little white gate and walked out into the street. It was very calm. An empty street now at night. I started walking up the street while looking at all the houses along both sides. They all looked nice and homey, but I had to admit neither one of them had the hominess of Gibbs and Jenny's little house. Still, they were all right.
There were gardens with swings and sand boxes. A lot of the people living on the street must have kids. There were not many backyards or gardens without toys or slides. I could not see any tree houses though. Agent Gibbs seemed to be the only one who had taken the time to build one of those.
Along the street were old street lights lighting my way for me. I was not afraid, despite the darkness. This felt safer than Israel where I usually took my nightly walks.
Three houses up the street I stopped and peered over the hedge into a garden. It was the most overgrown garden I had seen so far. The grass looked like it had not been cut for at least a year and there were garden tools spread out everywhere, old and rusty. The only thing that looked alive in the garden were the at least dozen blue and white hydrangea bushes that almost seemed to have taken over the place. They were beautiful but together with everything else strewn around the garden and the uncut grass and untrimmed hedges, they did a good job hiding the house behind them. It was normal sized and painted yellow. I wondered who lived there. And why that person did not take care of his or her garden better.
I continued trottingbare footed slowly up the street. It was a warm night. Not like at home where it would be much hotter even at night, but still warm enough not to get cold. I was not the least bit tired and I continued walking past houses until I finally reached the end of the street. When the street ended I found myself standing in front of a shrubbery. It was not very dense but it hindered my view of what was behind it. I craned my neck and thought it looked like a hillside on the other side but could not tell for sure because of the dark. The street lamps had ended and I only had the moon to light my way as I began to make my way through the shrubbery. Something told me I should go down there to see what was down that hillside. When I had made my way almost all the way through the shrubbery, and received lots of little cuts and scrapes on my legs for my troubles, I almost tripped over wooden stairs with a railing, leading down the hillside.
"Hmm." I mumbled to myself as I gripped the railing and started walking down the stairs. It was a good thing the moon was there or it would have been pitch black. I made a note to myself to bring my flashlight next time I was going out. The desperate need to get out must have made me forget to bring it.
I carefully stepped down the stairs in the dark, listening to the trees making little scary sounds around me while taking deep breaths of fresh and free air.
Coming down the stairs I walked right into a clearing. As both my bare feet touched the cool grass again I found myself standing in front of a pond. It was surrounded by trees and flat stones lay at the edge of the water. The water glistened in the light from the yellow moon above as I walked closer. I stopped and stood among the trees just watching the water for a while. There was calmness to this place. I liked it. I could hear the crickets play and the branchesswooshing in the light breeze. As I walked closer I saw a brook leading to the pond. Right above the brook was a wooden bridge. I broke into a run across the grass, headed for the bridge. When I reached it I immediately climbed up on the railing and sat there, swinging my legs. I stayed like that for a few minutes admiring the view, until a sound made me freeze. I listened intently and kept completely still. It sounded like...a low growl. It came from the bushes behind me. I was not sure what had made the sound. I was curious to find out but I was not stupid. This was not the time to try my luck. Slowly I began climbing my way, one foot at a time, down from the wooden railing. When I was on the ground again the growl came again, this time slightly louder and more on guard, as if to warn me not to get to close to those bushes.
I turned towards the bushes with my hands in the air. "Fine fine, I hear you." I started stepping backwards. "Going now." I felt its presence as clear as if it had been standing right in front of me. Although I was not sure what "it" was, I had a feeling we would soon meet again.
After turning to glance at the bushes one last time I started running towards the stairs again. It was time to head back to the little house.
To be continued
A/N: Please send a little review with some thoughts.