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After a few minutes of trying to find a clearing to sleep in, Kitra started to jump up and down in excitement and ran off. I looked towards Kai who just shrugged and started walking towards Kitra. I walked slowly behind him, lost in thought as always. I was pulled out of my thoughts by a shrill shriek of joy. I looked at the person who made it, Kitra. “It worked! It worked! The toy store people were right! The wand does work!! Look! This clearing is perfect.”
“Kitra, I think it was already here. I don’t think the wand made it.” Kai told her. I rolled my eyes. Kai and Kitra started to argue on whether the wand really worked or not. Of course, Kai let Kitra win the fight. I looked around the clearing and pushed some leaves out of the way. I was about to push some more leaves out of the way when suddenly I was tackled by Kai. He landed on top of me but quickly got off and went to the spot where I was pushing away leaves. I got up heatedly and went up to him.
“Do you mind telling me why you tackled me?!”
He just put his finger to his lips, the way you would when trying to tell a little child to be quiet.
“No I won’t be quiet!”
“Just shut up!” he said quietly but forcefully at the same time.
I shut my mouth. The look on his face, when he told me to shut up, made me. A few seconds later, Kai launched his hand out at what ever he was looking at. He picked it up to show us. It was a copperhead snake. Kitra looked at it, fascinated.
“Can we keep it?” she asked.
“No. This snakes venom may not be fatal to adults or older kids like us but it is extremely painful and you’d have to go to the hospital as soon as possible.” Kai explained.
How he ever saw it in the dim light is a mystery to me. I watched as he interacted with Kitra. I suddenly felt lonely. It was my fault that she got hurt, I know it was, I just didn’t want to admit that I had hurt my best friend. I guess she has a right to hate me, but I didn’t mean to. She didn’t have to come with me but she chose to. I’m going to have to apologize sometime soon or I’ll be miserable this whole trip. Even if she doesn’t forgive me, I heard apologizing makes people feel better.
I’m going to start thinking you’re crazy if you keep talking to yourself like this.
And everyone outside my head will think I’m crazy if I keep talking to you.
“How about you two go get us some firewood?” Kai said, turning to me and Kitra.
I sent a glare towards him. He gave me a look that said ‘You had better go or I’ll eat you.’
I turned, surrendering to his eyes, and left with Kitra to find firewood. We picked up sticks every now and then, not talking to each other. I was waiting for the awkward silence to end so I could tell her I was sorry for what happened at the barn.
It was five years ago when it happened. Kitra and I were only ten at the time so we decided to get rid of our boredom by exploring the old barn. We had been friends for as long as I can remember. I said that Zebanana was my only friend because I didn’t want to think about what happened to Kitra. I kept telling Kitra that it was okay to play in the old barn and that nothing would happen. I had no idea what that day would bring and how much pain it would leave both me and Kitra in.
“Come on Kitra! Let’s play in the old barn!” I said excitedly.
“I don’t think that’s such a good idea.” Kitra said, uncertainly. Kitra was really shy when we were younger and I was her only friend.
“I promise nothing will happen!”
“If you promise, then I guess I could go with you.”
“Yay! Let me just write my mom a note to let her know where we’re going.” I said running inside to get a pen and paper.
After writing the note, I came back outside. “Alright. I put it on the refrigerator where my mom can see it. Let’s go.” I said, running towards the barn with Kitra running behind me, trying to keep up.
We made it to the barn in no time. I finally got the wooden doors open after much trouble. We both walked into it. “Look at the rafters.” I said, pointing up. “We could climb on them.”
Kitra, again, said it wasn’t a good idea but I talked her into it. So we climbed in to the rafters, and started walking across them, pretending we were tightrope walkers in a circus. Kitra suddenly lost her balance and fell before I could do anything. The next thing I knew, I heard a sickening thud and a growing puddle of blood around Kitra.
I walked as quickly as I could to the intersection of rafters and jumped down into the haystack below. I got up and ran to where Kitra was. I slowly moved her and noticed that there was almost no blood coming from her head. Luckily, she didn’t land on her head but on her side. So if the blood wasn’t coming from her head, where was it coming from? I scanned her body that’s when I noticed that there was a pitchfork stuck in her leg. I hadn’t noticed it before because it was half covered in hay and I hadn’t moved her all the way. I grabbed the pitchfork and yanked it out of her leg. She didn’t react to it, and all I knew at this point was that I had to stop the bleeding. I took off the jacket I was wearing and wrapped it tightly around her leg like a tourniquet. That’s about the time I realized that there were tears streaming down my face.
I heard the barn doors open and my mom came in, looking like she had just run here. She was gasping for air, and then she saw me crying and Kitra on the ground, unmoving. She didn’t ask what happened, she whipped out her phone and called for an ambulance. The ambulance came and took Kitra away. I was fighting the paramedics so they would let me ride with Kitra but they said that I couldn’t. I cried and cried on the way to the hospital in my mom’s car.
We got to the hospital and they let me see Kitra who was still unconscious. I looked at her small form in the big hospital bed thinking about what would have happened if I fell instead of Kitra. Right now I wished I had fallen instead of Kitra but the reality was that I was fine and Kitra might die. She hit her head hard and the pitchfork went halfway through her leg so she may never be able to walk again.
A few days later, Kitra woke up. I went to see her but she didn’t look happy to see me. They let me in the room alone with her. “Are you happy now? You can’t see my leg but I have four holes in it from where I hit the pitchfork.” It was her right leg. “The doctors say that I won’t be able to walk again for another year at least; maybe two years.”
“Kitra, I didn’t mean for you to get hurt. It was just for fun playing up there.”
“Does this look like fun?!” she said motioning to herself in the bed, her leg, and her bandaged head.
“I’m sorry.”
“You’d better be! This is all your fault! I don’t ever want to see you again!” She yelled at the top of her lungs.
At the yell, some nurses ran in to see what the matter was. They told me I had better leave, so I did.
I never saw her again until today. I could recognize her by her hair; it was the exact same color as it was five years ago and her hazel eyes; which had a distinct green color to them. The awkward silence stretched between us until I finally decided to break it.
“So, I haven’t seen you in a while.” I said nervously.
She looked at me then went back to picking up sticks. I just needed to tell her sorry and it would all be over with.
“I’m sorry about what five years ago.” At that, she stopped.
“Do you know how much pain I went through then?” she asked. “I went through two years of therapy, just so I could walk again. My head injury was so severe that I don’t remember anything before that day, except you. You and my family are the only people I remember. I remembered exactly what happened, vividly, to this day.”
Tears started falling down my face. “I’m so sorry. I don’t care if you accept my apology or not because I know it’s all my fault. If I hadn’t asked you to go, you never would have been hurt and we’d probably still be friends to this day.”
“Yeah, maybe.” She said looking down at the sticks in her hand. “You know,” She started, sadly. “I was thinking about seeing you after the accident. Every time I passed your house, I wanted to stop but couldn’t. I still blamed you for what happened but it’s not your fault. I was the one that chose to go with you.” More tears slid down my cheek. “Also, when I said I never wanted to see you again, that was just because I was mad. So I have a question: will you forgive me and become my friend again?”
I tried to stop the tears but couldn’t. “You’re not the one who needs forgiving. I’m the one who needs to be forgiven for even asking you to come with me.”
“How about this: if I forgive you, you forgive me?”
I smiled, tears still falling down my face. “Sure.”
“Now, let’s get more sticks and bring them back to ‘camp’ before Kai gets worried.”
“Yeah, could I see your scar first?” I asked.
She lifted her right pant leg to reveal four scars running up her leg. The pant leg just covered up the scars so no one could see it. “Do you know how much I was panicking after you fell? I had no idea what to do.” I told her.
“I know. I could hear you but I just couldn’t open my eyes. I couldn’t feel pain either so it didn’t hurt when you removed the pitchfork from my leg.” She said, picking up more sticks. “Do you think we have enough sticks now?” she asked me.
I looked at the bundles in both our hands. “Yeah, this should be enough.”
We headed back so Kai wouldn’t get worried but it was too late for that. We were about to get an earful from a worried Kai. Worried and Kai don’t mix very well.
He wanted to know what took so long. I looked at Kitra for silent permission to tell him the story. She nodded so I began telling him the story from beginning to finish. Then I told him our conversation and how we were friends again.
“I thought there was some tension between you two since we met Kitra.”
“Now you know why.”
It was summer so we could sleep outdoors without getting cold. It was actually really hot. The only reason we had the fire was for light so it wasn’t completely dark if someone had to get up to go to the bathroom.
When Kai and Kitra fell asleep, I stayed up. I couldn’t sleep because if I did, I’d either dream about Liana or my mom, neither of which I wished to dream about. After a few hours, I fell into a troubled sleep.