The Girl Who Carried the Sun

Twenty Five

Twenty Five
☢☢☢

The call came sooner than they hoped. Late on a typical day, on a typical dusk, when it was time for the azure sky to rest and let a purplish hue rule and pressure cookers whizzed in kitchens, Miriam called. Daniel dropped the knife on the chopping board and stopped moving the moment he heard Lily answer her phone with, "Darcha." It reached his ears like a sharp piece of word dipped in acid, demanding all attention as it seemingly burned him on the tip of his ear. What a name it was.

He met Lily's eyes as she briefly glanced up at him from the table where she sat slicing cucumbers. She'd have to go back to town. That was understood. And he'd already hated it... for quite some time.

Daniel gripped the edges of the counter and leaned against it, listening quietly. He watched Lily play with the cucumbers as she listened to the one at the other end.

"Yes, Darcha. I've been thinking of coming back to Bethany for a while..."

"Yes. I'll let Mocha know..."

"Tell her you'll be there after a week," Daniel prompted and Lily looked up at him with a smile, amused.

"I'll be there this week," she told Miriam.

When she dropped the phone and gazed up at him, he huffed and looked away sulkily. "I told you not to go back."

She laughed and continued slicing the cucumbers. "What can I do? They're family too. Besides, Pamo said I need to be there to activate Papa's pension."

Daniel nodded. "Yeah. Right. You'll go and forget me entirely. You won't even remember my name the next time we meet."

"Oh, please. Stop crying about it. It's not like I'm so eager to go back."

Daniel chuckled and swung around to face her. "We could go for a picnic before you go. We could invite Pavei and Veihriine..."

"Oh, yeah! Che Dune and Puh Khozii too!" She lit up excitedly like a spark, "It'll be more fun if we all go out together."

"Sure. We could all go down by the river."

"I can't wait for it. When do we go?"

"Saturday."

"But I just told Darcha I'd be there before Saturday."

"Oh, really? Now you can't. You got plans." He grinned at her impishly.

"Oh, really?" Lily couldn't help giggling.

"Really. And it's not good to travel on Sundays. We should go to church. So, you go back Monday."

"I might as well stay back that week too."

"Now that's an even better plan."

★

Saturday brought with it the promise of a relaxed picnic by the river, a gathering that included not just Daniel, Lily, and Pavei but also Che Dune and Puh Khozii. Pavei had swung by their cabin after breakfast and got busy preparing their picnic dishes with Daniel and Lily.

After the truck had been loaded with food and fishing equipment, Daniel called from the yard for Lily to get moving.

"I'm coming! I'm coming!" she came rushing down the stairs from her room, excited and waving a cap in her hand.

When she made out of the front door, she found both the boys gawking at her in a weird way, like she'd popped out of a wildly different planet.

"What?" she asked them, confused.

"Your outfit seems to speak of your suicidal intent," Daniel replied, suppressing his laughter.

"What's wrong with my outfit?" she looked down at her sneakers, biker shorts and oversized T-shirt. They seemed to be a perfect fit for a perfect picnic.