Page 2

“It's a surprise.”

Blue started out the door, tugging me along with her. “Trust me, I think you're going to love this.”

We walked through the field, finding our way into her backyard and to the old barn tucked away on her property. No one had used it in decades, not since my mother was a really little girl, and the Smithson's lived there.

My mother had told me a few stories about the horses, and how Mrs. Smithson would let her brush them for as long as she wanted. But when Mr. Smithson died, his wife went crazy, and the entire place was abandoned, until Blue and her family moved in.

“What are we doing here?”

“You'll see,” she said with a smirk as she pulled back one of the wood planks so we could slip inside. “In here.”

Bending my body, I contorted my arms and back so I could squeeze through the thin opening. “We haven't been here in forever.”

“I know, it's been years. I think I was twelve the last time we played hide and seek in this barn.”

“Is that what we're doing right now, are we about to play hide and seek?”

Blue looked at me over her shoulder as she picked up a lantern she had stashed against the inside of the barn, and turned it on. “This way,” she said, jerking her head and walking forward.

The barn floor was covered in old hay and debris, the roof was caved in on one side, the beams crossing over each other like wood on a fire. You could still make out the pens that the horses called home and the trough where they drank.

Damaged nests from sparrows speckled the mangled mess like scars. There were broken egg shells on the ground, with unbound spirals of bedding from the nests, stretching like cobwebs between the rafters.

I had played in this barn a million times, long before Blue. My mother never wanted me to , but I was never really good at listening. The inside had changed with time, but the scent, that never changed.

It had this musty smell, like mushrooms and stale, wet laundry. The aroma hung in the air like a thick blanket, so dense you could almost see the cloud floating. But the weird thing about that place was no matter how awful it smelled, I liked smelling it.

It made me think of my mother, it brought back memories of pretending I was a knight when I was kid, and hide and go seek with Blue. The scent brought me back, it drummed up moments that were worth revisiting, the few memories that were good.

Walking behind her, I could barely see past the glowing stream that spread out across the dirty floor as we got deeper into the barn. Placing the handle of the light in her mouth, Blue dropped to her hands and knees and stuck her head into a large opening between the fallen beams.

“Are you serious? I don't know if I can fit in there anymore.”

“You can fit,” she said, her mouth full of metal wire.

“Is it safe?”

Whipping her head over her shoulder, she stared at me like I had ten heads. “Since when do you care if something is safe?”

Shrugging my shoulder, I just mumbled, “I dunno.”

I don't. But I care about you.

“Don't be a baby. Come on.” Crawling inside, Blue disappeared into the back hole.

Bending down, I poked my head inside. The smile on her face was a mix of excitement and nerves as she watched me, her eyes moving across my face in the dark.

“We barely fit back here anymore?”

“I think we fit fine,” she said, her voice soft as she set the lantern by her side.

“And why are we here again?”

“I thought I told you already?”

“No, you didn't tell me anything.”

Creeping forward, her lips twisted playfully as she moved in, her eyes sparkling with the delicate light off the lamp.