Page 107 of Sky Song
“There aren’t any animals. The big ones stay in the reserve, behind the wall. You know that.”
Momentarily, her brain picked up on the distraction. “I know that. How do you know that?”
“I explored this park. I hid here when I walked out of the spaceship depot. I even rested here because it’s safe. Animal-safe, I mean. Humans make it difficult to relax.”
“Are there people around now?”
“No, my hearts. We’re not on a path.”
“What if thereareanimals, and we get attacked?”
She thought he was smiling. “I’ll get a stick. I’m very handy with sticks, did I ever tell you?”
“But you’ll have to put me down!”
“I’ll set you on a tall rock where you will be safe while I fight the wildlife. I learned how to at a very early age.”
“Tell me about it.” Anything to distract her.
He repositioned her in his arms to step over something in their path.
“When I was a small child, I was abandoned in a forest,” he said.
Cricket’s eyes flew open, latching to his face. “What?”
“There you are, beautiful.”
“Lyle. What you just said, was it true?”
“Uh-huh. You sure you want your eyes open?”
All around his face, Cricket saw leaves and tree trunks and flowers, the air buzzing with insects, and an occasional bird flitting from branch to fragrant branch. The ever-present wind blew, rustling everything, and it wasn’t all that scary, truly.
“Were you scared?”
“I don’t remember. I was very young.”
“How were you found?”
“I kept returning to this one spot at the edge of the forest, and one day, two women out hunting found me and brought me back to the camp.”
This time, Cricket truly forgot about the park all around them as she said, “Wait a minute.Keptreturning? Lyle, how long were you in the forest?”
“I don’t exactly know. I estimate about a month.”
A child too young to retain memories had spent a month in the forest? “Were you by yourself?”
“Yes.” He stopped. Looked at her. “You don’t want to hear it.”
“I think I do.” She made a decision. “Put me down.”
He hesitated, gauging her mental state, but at the end carefully lowered her legs, keeping his other arm wrapped around her shoulders in case he had to quickly pick her up again.
Cricket’s feet touched rock. Looking down, she saw that, true to his promise, Lyle put her on a rock so that she didn’t have to set foot on the soft forest ground. A small thing done to humor her childish hang-up, it made her eyes water and her nose itch from emotions.
Lyle.
Her position elevated her over Lyle, and she was looking down on his upturned face. “How did you end up in a forest?”
