Second Skin

Chapter Five

One month earlier.

"Come on, Alex! I'll race you to the oak tree.

I start to run. Alex sprints past me and picks me up.

"Alex, put me down! I scream with laughter.

"No! Picking you up is to much fun. Replies Alex, who keeps me locked in his arms despite my struggling.

He touches the oak tree, before putting me down.

"There now we both win." Alex looks at me, smiling.

"What time is it?" I ask.

"I don't think I'm a clock, Addell." He says with a grin.

"You know what I mean!" I punch him in the arm, playfully.

"Alright, alright." He looks at his watch on his right wrist.

"It's six O'clock. We should be getting home."

"Let's go then." I start to walk towards my blue bike. Alex goes to get his camo-colored bike from the bushes.

Alex takes me home, which is a 30-minute ride from the patch of forest we are in now. We arrive at my house. 

I walk my bike to the barn. Alex follows me, but instead he parks his bike in front of my house and jogs to catch up with me.

"Remember that our picnic is tomorrow." Alex reminds me.

"I know, Alex. It's not like we've been trying to plan this for two weeks or anything like that."

"In my defense, summer baseball practices take a lot of time. Besides, it will help to get me in the army."

"I know Alex, I've been to every one of your games this season."

We come to the porch steps. I open the door and my familie's mutt greets me. His shaggy black-speckled fur, and long, pointed snout with brown eyes make him different from any other farming dogs we've had.

His body language is clearly happy to see Alex and I. Our canaries tweet with excitement.

One of the canaries, lemon drop, tweets to me "Let me out! Let me out! I wanna fly around."

I chuckle, "okay, you can go out as long as you go back into your cage when I say so." I walk over and open the door for the two canaries. They flutter out.

"Bye, Addell." Alex calls to me from across the room. I hurry over to him.

" Thanks again for taking me out bike riding."

"It was nothing." He smiles at me then steps out and shuts the door.

"Did you have fun and where is Alex?" Asks my dad as he steps out of the shadows of the hallway.

"We had fun, and he just left. Where's mom?" I say back to him.

"She's in the barn, tending to the horses. Your little brother and sister are feeding the chickens and getting eggs from them. Why don't you help out your mother by starting dinner?" Suggests my dad.

I walk to the kitchen and start making a salad. My dad follows me.

"What did you and Alex do today?" He asks me.

"Oh, you know the usual, we biked to the forest and had fun. We also talked to the forest animals." I vaguely tell him.

"What sort of fun?" My dad questions.

"We ran races, climbed trees and practiced Morse code."

"Why Morse code?" My dad asks, not understanding the reason why two 12-year-olds would want to learn a military code.