Counting Stars by NJ Boyer

Author:NJ Boyer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: NJ Boyer

After reading the file, I asked Tia to bring Willow to my parents’ house. I was sitting on the old tree swing when Nimaamaa brought Willow out the back door.

“Hey, Willow!” I didn’t have to pretend to be happy to see her. She had grown since I last saw her at the end of the summer.

“Hi Echo,” she signed. “It’s good to see you.”

“Agreed. Come on. I have a special place to show you.”

I brought her to the slat ladder to my treehouse. “Now, I know it looks dicey, but I will go first to show you it’s all fine. Crow’s Shadow would never let anything be truly dangerous for his tribe.”

She nodded her head, but I read her trepidation.

“Look, would you like me to have Zac here to catch you? Just in case?”

She nodded again. As I watched, I realized there was something heavy in everything she did.

Zac popped up behind her, and she gave him the saddest smile I had ever seen from her.

I climbed before her. She clung to the rungs white knuckled and cast a few concerned glances at Zac, who stayed below.

I pulled her through the trapdoor. I had cleaned the treehouse of spiderwebs and dirt. It still kept the nature of its design, but was less objectionable to the normal person.

“Welcome to my place.” I said as we took the mats set out for us. “I bet you know why you are here.”

“Yes,” she signed. “This is a nice treehouse. Storm said that you had one.”

“Of course she did.” I feigned exhaustion. “It’s about as old as the tree, it seems. And it holds its secretes well.”

She laughed.

“You know, I don’t want to talk about it.” She rested her hands in her lap. It was her defiant way of not talking.

“Willow, not talking about it doesn’t help. Take it from one who knows.” I reached out and rubbed her shoulder. “Nothing you say to me will go anywhere if you don’t want it to. And I might be able to help you. Should I tell you what I have read?”

She nodded.

“You haven’t been ‘right’ for about a year.” I started. “You are looking at moving away when you turn fourteen and you have stopped coming to classes at the center. We have all sorts of paperwork on what you are not doing. But I, for the life of me, couldn’t find out why.”

She dropped her head.

“You don’t have to talk to me, Willow. But if you don’t talk to someone, you might make an error that could change your path enough that you won’t know yourself in a few years.”

“But I don’t want to talk about it. Talking doesn’t make it better. No one will believe me, anyway.” Her signs were small, contracted, making them difficult to read.

“Okay, how’s about I put away my leadership role for a while and be just Duck’s Echo? You used to talk to me and we would work through the issues. Do you remember?” I felt horrible. If I had been here, working in Hope, I would have already solved this issue.

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