Anne

Thad's run slowed to a walk and the pain in his hand had diminished. Once again he was mindful of where he was. Still, he was east of his room. He could not figure out how he could go east so far so fast and yet seem to make no progress going west. It was a beautiful yet cold day. Thad noticed that there was snow on the ground. Thad came to a halt and took a few moments to rest and look out through the trees. Thad thought that there was precious little in this world more strikingly beautiful than the woods in the winter.
Suddenly he saw her.

She was drifting through the snow out among the trees. At first Thad was reminded of the girl in black, but this girl moved much more solidly if still gracefully. Thad could see that this girl left footprints and more importantly he could see hair of the most beautiful shade of auburn falling out from the sides of her hood. She seemed to not notice Thad. Even when Thad called out to her she paid no attention. Thad stepped away from the path in her direction, but oddly enough with every step he took in her direction she seemed to get farther away. It did not take long for Thad to decide that this was silly and just go back to the path.

Once Thad got back to the path he took one last look out into the woods and could not see this new cloaked and hooded girl anywhere. Thad turned to go west once again but as he turned he saw that the auburn haired girl in the cloak and hood was standing just inched from him.
"Have you met the girl in black?" she asked out of the blue.

"Uh, well . . . " Thad stalled not sure if he should be honest. "Yes. yes I have."
"Really?" giggled this new girl with a sense of amusement and wonder. "Did you like what she did? What was it like?" she asked.
Thad was turning some shade of red by now he was sure, but he continued this conversation all the same.
"Well, on a very base level I liked it, but I didn't really like her, so it was certainly lacking."
The girl with the auburn hair cocked her head to one side and stared at him for a moment.
"Insightful." she quipped "My name is Anne, let me walk west with you for a while."

Anne's quirky demeanor and striking good looks certainly help influence Thad's decision. He agreed at once.

As the two of them walked west, they laughed and talked. Anne seemed to be just as amused with Thad as he was with her. She laughed as he ate a cookie that she had first put in her mouth. "That's gross!" she laughed. "Not really." he said, "Not a whole lot different than kissing you would be." He tried to kiss her, but she turned away quickly. Over the next few days he tried several times to kiss her, but she usually turned away, or the couple times he did manage to kiss her it was like kissing a statue. She was rigid and inflexible. Thad became frustrated and asked "If you want to come west with me why won't you kiss me?"
Anne shrugged.

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© 2003 - Jonathan Gardner