It Started At Camp

10 | Pray

August 8

Lena

The bird flew into the backyard unbeknownst to the gardiner and the carpenter who lived as neighbors in the quiet forest.  The quiet strum of the guitar flowed through the house, but froze as though a wall were separating the two from ground to sky.  The gardiner wished she could be apart of the music but was too wrapped up maintaining the garden.  For what would people think should they come upon her untended lawn?  

The carpenter was entranced.  Not by his song, but by the beauty of the gardiner.  How could she not know the beauty of the garden came from the hands that tended to them?  Suddenly a quiet chirping took them both by surprise.  The gardiner took notice first and attempted to heal the poor thing before the carpenter could try to help.  As she worked, the carpenter watched through the slips in the fence before standing up and making his way closer to the gardiner.

"Is it okay?" he asked.

"It's fine," she said quickly without much thought.

"Can it fly?" he asked.

"Yes, it can."

"Let it fly if it's so fine," he challenged.

The gardiner began to get flustered as she tried to nurse the weak bird who struggled on the ground.

"Leave me be and it will fly!" 

"I thought you said it already could."  The gardiner said nothing.  "Well, at least let me know if it will be okay."  The gardiner opened her mouth to speak, but the carpenter quickly followed up with, "Us."

It had been too long since the gardiner remembered what the forest was like before the fence seperated the two houses.  Before the music stopped at the creaky wood as though ordered.  

"See, the bird will be okay.  The bird will live because it's not just you in this forest.  It's me.  And it's them."  A chorus of chirping filled the air.  "But right now, the bird is dying because you can't seem to make a choice.  So we can heal it together.  Or you can try to get a bird to fly again by yourself."

The carpenter knelt down beside her.  "It's mine too.  We can do this together."

The gardiner furrowed her eyebrows.  

"Give our baby a chance, Lena."

My eyes shot open as I sat up in bed, huffing and puffing uncontrollably.  There was a shift above me.  Parker.  "Lena?" she drew out my name as she caught up with consciousness.  "Are you okay?"

I nodded then realized she couldn't see me.  "Yeah," I said in a breath. "I'm just nervous."

"What about, babe?"

"Today," I said letting my thoughts catch up to me.  "I'm going home."

Derek

Lena hadn't left the room at all these past few days.  Parker guarded it during the times we didn't have class, and during her free time, and she even ate lunch and dinner there.  They had shifts it seemed.  Sometimes it'd be Cassie.  Or Tiana.  I got excited when it was Tiana.

Despite her being the closest to Lena, she was the most willing to hear me. 

"Hey," I said when we were in class together one day.

She glanced up from her sheet music briefly.  "Hey."

She said nothing else, looking back to the page and humming under her breath.  I rubbed my neck anxiously.  She made it clear we were not friends and yet here I was purposely sitting by her, working on a song together, and trying to get her to listen to even more of my problems.