TWELFTH SEQUEL

 

Alice was hindered by the very long scarf she was wearing for the first time.

It was of an innocent white alpaca with blood red silk fringe.

After knitting on and off for years she had tied the last red thread this morning.

She was moving stuff in the wood shed together with Henry.

They were making way to reach the garden furniture.

Stepping on the fringe again, Alice took off her scarf and hung it on a beam.

They both took a chair in each hand and exited into the early spring.

Seeing Leve and Mary standing by the fire they let go of the chairs.

They ran towards Leve with tears of joy and calling her name.

You have missed me then.

Leve said when they held her tight.

They whispered her name and dried their tears.

The fire was burning fast and Mary fetched more branches from a huge heap nearby.

Leve and Henry fetched the chairs and some benches.

Alice brought blankets and baskets with apples and accessories.

Johannes and Samuel arrived.

When they were seated around the fire, Leve told some about her explorations.

Samuel had visited several of the places she described.

Subdued music was still playing.

The small wrinkled apples they were roasting were the last ones from last autumn's plentiful crop at Leve's yard.

Henry revealed that the mountain of branches were from the park.

Mary suddenly remembered and told them about the sound of water Leve had heard there.

Johannes had an idea how to avoid the cumbersome removal of all the felled tree trunks.

They could be cut in pieces and stacked to form walls on either side of the path.

After a long time of neglect, working with the park suddenly felt exciting to them again.

They agreed to meet there the next day.

Early next morning the men cut and stacked wood logs.

The women hauled out branches and stacked them next to the old ones.

In the evening the path was cleared as far as to where the trees had been felled last time.

They all gathered there and listened.

They heard the water clearly.

It was impossible to judge the distance but they were determined not to give up before they reached it.

It would be easier to proceed now that they knew how to care for the felled trees along the way.

Spring had turned into summer when one day they saw the stream behind the last trees.

Beyond the shallow stream lay a less dense area with mostly deciduous trees.

They decided to keep the whole stems of the remaining four pine trees for building a bridge later.

Eager to reach the other side they removed their shoes and waded over on the sandy bottom scattered with stones.

The water was cold and reached up to their knees.

They sat down on the brink where the sun reached down.

The difference from the dark, cold and frightfully overgrown pine forest was great.

They heard more sound and felt more smells.

Maybe even animals were living here.

First Alice and then the others lay down to rest and all slept for a while.

Gusts of wind woke them up.

The ground around them was of grasses with various flowers, some of which none of them had seen before.

They picked some of the kinds that impressed them most.

Since the sun was getting low, they gathered opposite the pine path they had created.

It was very straight and narrow.

They could just about see the arched entrance in the distance.

With their faces still warm from the sun they drank some cold water and waded back to the other side.

They put on shoes and ran in a row as best they could on the uneven path to the entrance.

 Johannes realised that they had left their tools at the other end, but he said nothing and hoped that it would not rain.

They parted, dazed from their experiences.