His look told me he wasn’t buying my shit. I crossed the clearing to stand beside him, and then he marched off into the trees. We walked in silence for a little while, with no signs of any other life present, not even the steady tweeting of birds in the branches.
“How do your dreams usually go?” he asked as we walked.
I refused to look at him as I answered. “They usually start with me wandering around until I get frustrated. And then often I’ll see a flash of color, Sol's dress. It always takes me a few minutes to find her, but when I do, she’s often sitting on a log in the center of the clearing.”
He nodded. “Then I guess we’re looking for another clearing and a log.”
“You are,” I muttered. “I’m looking for another way home.”
As we wandered farther into the woods, Fin studied every fallen pinecone, and I itched to make a run for it back to the helicopter.
I didn’t know how long we walked. Long past snack time, that was for sure, but I refused to be the one to break and ask him if he brought any provisions with him.
When the sunlight stopped twinkling through the tree branches, nervous butterflies began to flap in my belly. Surely, he didn’t expect us to stay out here all night. I didn’t care how much he paid me—I was not sleeping here.
“I know I've been saying I want to leave since we got here,” I said, “but I honestly think we should go. It’s getting dark, and I don’t want to see what comes out at night in a place like this.”
He glanced over at me, like he’d forgotten I was here. “No, you're right. We should get going.”
Relief washed through me. I’d prepared myself for an argument. I didn’t know if it scared me more or less that he agreed.
Maybe he didn’t know what came out at night here either.
We turned around and started the trek back toward the helicopter. This time our pace was more determined. All the trees looked the same to me. I didn’t know how he knew exactly where he had parked.
His long legs ate up the distance. I scrambled to keep up, only because I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible.
Color flashed in the trees, just like in my dream, except this time it was red.
I stopped mid-stride and let out a shuttered breath.
When he realized I’d stopped, he rushed back. “Are you all right?”
I pointed through the trees where I could still see the red flashing in and out of my vision. “Usually, it’s purple.”
He gripped my upper arms and ducked his head down so he could meet my eyes. “What’s purple?”
“Your sister’s dress. This time I see red.”
He shifted to stand right next to me, to get a line on exactly what I saw.
I focused on the color too. Not that I would tell him, but I felt safer with him by my side here. I knew without a doubt, if a sudden fight broke out he would protect me, just as I would protect him.
He stooped low to duck under some tree branches and head off toward the color. I followed only because I didn’t want to be alone as dusk crept closer.
We reached the tree, and Fin plucked a thick red ribbon from its branches. It fluttered in the breeze.
“I’ve never seen that before,” I said.
Fin stared at the ribbon pinched between his fingers. “This was Sol’s.”
“How do you know?”
He held it out toward me, but I shook my head. When I didn’t take it, he rolled it up carefully and stuffed it in his pocket. “When we were children, she always wanted to wear ribbons like this in her hair. Our mother wouldn’t let her, thinking red to be an obscene color for a child to wear. Of course, me being her big brother, I’d bring them to her and help her braid them in her hair. We’d always take them out, before we had to see her mother again, but it was something we shared.”
Another vision jammed into my head, him sitting behind a teenage girl threading a ribbon through her thick braid.
“Do you think she left it here for you?” I asked.