The Christmas Wish by Jamie Jennings

Author:Jamie Jennings
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Prentobook Press
Published: 2022-05-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Four

The sun’s glare on the surface of the water was so bright that Landon had to turn away and close his eyes for a moment.

It was colder today. The snow was thicker too, which meant that there was more to reflect the bright sunshine, and eventually, Landon had to go back to the car to get his sunglasses so that he could sit and look out at the lake in peace.

Ben and Nat had been more than happy to look after James for another day. They’d been eager to, actually, after what had happened yesterday and had been feeling bad ever since. They really thought that it was their fault that James had come down with something. That they’d been inexperienced with the trail and so had let something happen to him. That was city-folk for you, Landon thought; they couldn’t help but think that the natural world was out to get them. Whatever their feelings were though, Landon was relieved to have another day to himself. What had happened yesterday, seeing Daniel again, had been overshadowed in the end by seeing James lying sick in bed. Seeing him there had caused such a huge feeling of worry to rush up inside him that it had taken a while for Landon to even remember what had happened by the lake. By the time the evening had come, it was just a hazy memory. The whole day had left him even more exhausted than he had been before, and then, of course, he hadn’t been able to sleep again. The bad dreams had come back. Dreams of Daniel going missing and James being ill. If there was ever a day he needed to spend alone, in silence, breathing in the fresh air and looking out over the water, then it was today.

There was, however, another reason he had come here again.

As the breeze blew through the forest and Landon listened to the distant shaking of the trees, a dark cloud spread over the lake and brought a chilled air with it. Landon shook, dug his hands in his pockets and buried his chin down into the collar of his jacket. Even in this winter weather, there was nowhere else he’d rather be. As snow started to fall, he went down to the shoreline and kicked some pebbles with his boot, trying to find one smooth enough to skim. When he grabbed a big one and tossed it up to catch it, he realized that even if he could find the feeling in his frozen fingers to skid a stone across the water, it wouldn’t get very far now the lake was covered over with ice. Dropping the pebble back to the ground, Landon turned around; already hoping he would see what he had come here to see.

And, sure enough, there he was.

Standing by the car, dressed in his old, puffy winter coat, Daniel had one hand on the roof and the other deep in his pocket, just as he always used to when waiting for Landon and James to catch him up.

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