Chapter 6: In the Bleak Midwinter
The boy was waiting. Facing the wind, he stood at the cliff where they'd first met.
"Pirate's Point." Wendy breathed.
She wiped her brow. Even in the cold, she was warm from running across Center-Point. She looked around. There was nothing but ocean. She must be in the Eastern Sector. Home of the wealthy and…unwealthy.
Carefully, Wendy stepped over the last footprint. She waited for the boy to turn.
He did not.
"I…I…" Wendy swallowed. Every instinct told her to reprimand the boy, scold him for attacking her. But, a deeper part of her craved to know if he understood.
"What did you mean?" she asked, hair ripping in the wind. The blue ribbon darted over her eyes. "What did you mean that your father is alive and never coming back?"
The boy stiffened. A tremor jerked through his shoulders.
Then, he turned.
Wendy stepped back, seeing the boy for the first time.
At first, in their brief meetings, she'd thought him a wild boy with sharp features. And that he was – his bangs were scruffed to either side and jagged as the wisp of hair hanging down his neck like a rat tail. His jaw, sharp enough to cut stone, was locked in a grimace as he glared at Wendy below thick eyebrows.
A gust swept between them. The boy's hair flew from his face. Wendy blinked. Stepping forward, she looked closer. Nearer. Deeper.
And she saw him.
The boy stood taller than she, but not oppressively. His shoulders were slightly bent, as if he were curving inward to protect his heart. Wendy looked up. He had a curved nose. Tiny, like a button. Smile lines were fading from two teal eyes. Wendy looked closer. A shadow was crossed over his face like a mask, but his eyes were clear. So clear, in fact, the boy was vulnerable to the person that only paused to notice.
And Wendy did notice. She saw that this wild boy, was scared, lonely, and hopeless as she.
And that was the only reason that Wendy followed the boy down the cliff, across shipyards, into The Docks, and to the doorstep of The Benbow Inn.