Falling Daisies

Chapter 8

"Lucy, where are we...?" 

"You'll see."

The forest was just how I remembered. Rich in abundance with the bright leaves of autumn. It was starting to get late and the sun was beginning to set, leaving a beautiful array of pink hues to fill the sky with trickles of ruby red and orange seeping through the colour like running ink. It was like the sky's own personal canvas, that's what she had told me, all those years ago... It was magnificent.

I heard it before I saw it; an instant wave of emotion washing over me as the trickling water sounded like music to my ears. It felt to me like coming home. I could feel her there all around me and I'd like to think this was where she'd chosen to come back to, where we'd been so happy so many times. I had always known this way the place to return to if I wanted to feel close to Grams...

"Woah..." Ben's words seem to catch in his throat as I beamed at him, satisfied with this reaction, as we passed the path out onto the lakeside. His eyes roamed freely around my secret paradise and I felt a wave of pride knowing he was one of the few people that would appreciate this place and I was the one who had discovered it for him.

Of course it wasn't really a secret place. This was after all only the National Forest, where families road bikes and children collected sticks and where people came to soak up its natural unspoilt beauty. Or, like me and Grams, they came to paint.  

This was my favourite spot in the entire forest because of the spectacular view you could get here of the impressive lake which resided in its centre. Today was no exception and the water glistened and reflected the colours of the earth around it.

I broke our silence,"My Grams used to bring me here when I was younger to paint. She was the one that encouraged me to peruse it. Just watching the effortless way her brush glided over the pages that first time was captivating. It was like there was nothing and then there was something, suddenly they were filled with these images, that just captured the beauty of whatever was around her perfectly and I felt like I'd just witnessed a magic trick. I knew then I was going to make art my life, one way or another."

"I bet your Grams is an amazing woman." Ben smiled at me, putting his arm around my shoulder.

"She was..."

"Oh god Luce, sorry... How long...?"

"A week before I met you, it was her funeral the day we did." I shifted uncomfortably and Ben released his embrace and pulled an Adonis pose.

"You mean the day you couldn't stop staring at me cause I'm so B-E-A-utiful and I took pity and let you come sit with me..?" He winked, earning himself a punch to the ribs but I was laughing too. Ben just got me, he knew it made me upset to talk about it, he could just tell and so quickly could turn the mood around to make me smile. How was I so lucky to stumble upon him?

"Lucy it's beautiful, but what are we doing here?"

"Sit." I instructed him pointed at a large rock and he obediently followed my command.  

"Now turn your head that way and DON'T say ANYTHING!" He slowly turned his head trying to keep his eyes on me, full of curiosity, as I fiddled inside my bag.

I got out my sketchbook and smiled at him, my face crunching up in an urchin grin and his eyes widened but then quickly fell back to the relaxed, lazy smile he always wore that sent my heart into overdrive. Then I drew.

I couldn't have timed it better if I'd of tried, the whole location behind Ben and his beauty was like I was drawing what heaven itself looked like. Occasionally, I would just stop and stare at him, watching how his chest moved in and out when he breathed, how his Adam's apple would rise and fall when he swallowed, how his tanned arms, that had the faintest smattering of freckles, looked so strong and protective and how his eyes seemed to look out onto the world as though he was trying to find the solution to life itself, intense and brooding yet equally soft and enchanting. If this boy wasn't the definition of perfect I didn't know what was. There was nothing wrong with him.