Page 2 of Where We Began

“It's August!” she scoffs, making a face. “You won't even catch a sniffle. Come over here!”

I almost do it.Kara made it. So did a baby deer. Surely, I'll be okay.The tip of my damp sneaker touches the first rock again. For a moment, I'm transported back to a winter years ago when I was small and even bolder than I am now, which is saying a lot.

My foot slides back to solid ground.

We stand there, split apart by the hungry river. Two sisters facing each other, not truly parted, but unable to touch. The sadness in me is wicked—I love Kara so fiercely that not doing as she asks, not being at her side, is torture.

But drowning would be worse.

“Sorry,” I say shaking my head. “I'll meet you at the bridge.”

“Hey,” she calls gently. I meet her concerned eyes. “It's fine,” she says, her dark eyebrows furrowing. “I shouldn't bully you like that. It's okay for you to say no.”

Smiling with relief, I nod. “Thanks.”

“It's a dumb river, you cross it all the time when it's calmer, so who cares.” She shrugs and starts to run. “Beat you to the bridge!”

Filled with energy, re-inflated by her understanding, I give chase.

Everything seems greener, brighter, by the water. It gives life to this wonderful forest I call my home - this secret place that no one knows about but my family. I've asked Dad why we're alone out here. He always says it's because no one understands how wonderful it is to live in nature. How can that be? One minute of running over the sun-kissed grass in bare feet, and anyone with a heart could see this is Heaven.

The bridge rises up ahead of me. Through the trees across the water I catch glimpses of Kara. Astoundingly, I'm beating her. Digging deep I demand even more from my young body. My legs are like a colt's, but so are hers. We're the same height. The same build. She's a year older than me but we're nearly twins, full of the inherent competition that only sisters know.

Gasping with effort, I jump onto the first plank of the bridge. Kara hits the wood half a second later.

I won.

“Wow,” she laughs, approaching me with her hands behind her head. “You really wanted to get here first, huh?”

I shrug. “Don't take the power out of my win.”

“Fair, fair.” She claps too loudly, her grin huge and toothy. “Congratulations! You won! Woohoo!”

“Okay, that's enough.” Sticking out my tongue, I lean on the wood railing. Its rough, one of the first structures our father had built out here that wasn't our house. We'd helped him, feeling so pleased that he'd let us chop the thinner logs. It had taken a few days and the hard work had left me blistered. I'd relished in the soreness every night.

Now, my fingertips trace the letters cut into the wood of the railing. My name is carved beside Kara's. We'd done it one after the other, and because she'd gone second, she'd made her name slightly bigger than mine. She'd sworn it was only because my name waslonger,so this was fairer.

She puts her elbows on the railing beside me. Together we stare out at the river. “We should get back,” she says.

“You think Dean is awake yet?”

“Probably.”

“Then yeah,” I agree, pushing off the wood. I dust my hands on my dirty shorts. “Mom'll want some help.”

“You just want to hold him again,” she teases, following me to the well-trodden path home.

I flash a shy smile. “So do you.”

She waits a second. “Yeah. I do, actually.”

Together we hurry over the flat ground. At some point I stumble; Kara catches me, her hand tangling with mine. We squeeze our fingers tight, staying like that. Hand in hand. The way we've always been... The way I imagine we'llalwaysbe.

I have no idea how wrong I am.

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