by Topaz Hauyn
She smiled back at him.
His smile widened, then he winked and left the window.
El heard him inside. She tried to get up to leave the pushing cart. She didn't want to add extra work to him. She wanted to be able to move around by herself again.
She didn't manage. Her hands held to the handrail alright, but her legs wobbled, so she didn't even get to her knees.
»Be careful. I'll help you«, said Roberto from behind.
He held her with firm hands around her waist and helped her climb out.
She met the cool ground with her bare feet. There was no grass only dry leaves giving way under her weight. Luckily he still held her around her waist.
El reached after him spontaneously and held herself at his shoulders.
»Are you a goodness who misstepped and fell into our human world?«, asked Roberto.
El blinked. She should be a goodness? That didn't feel right.
»Forget it. Just a crazy idea, when I looked down from that window. You are such a beautiful woman and completely wrong dressed.«
That was true. She wore only a thin dress. Too thin for the weather. Against her back the air felt cold and Roberto, who stood in front of her, felt warm.
El leaned against him. She enjoyed the warmth of his body and the security of his hands holding her. His scent was the same as the forest. As if he belonged here.
»I don't know«, said El.
»You don't know if you are a goodness, or if it was a crazy question?«, asked Roberto and laughed. A joyous laugh. »Doesn't matter. Let's get you inside to warm you up. You're shivering.«
Could she walk, El wondered?
She didn't find out.
Roberto put one arm fully around her waist and the other under her knees and carried her through the door frame into the house. The hall was a dark brown with light falling in through all the open doors.
»There is the living room, the dining room and the kitchen. Out the back is a pond and the wood to make a fire in the fireplace«, said Roberto then climbed up the stairs. »Bathrooms and bedrooms are upstairs.«
He brought her into a room at the end of the hall upstairs and showed her around: Bed, bathroom and the wardrobe of one of his sisters. »Take what you need. She'll bring her own clothes, those are spare clothes. Just in case. Very useful.«
Spare clothes? What a luxury, thought El. Was that a memory? Did she have to be careful with her clothes before?
She missed what else Roberto said.
Before she could try to ask, he had sat her down on a chair, next to a small table and left.
El sat there and sorted through the many impressions. He was kind, and she liked him a lot more than the people she must have known before she lost her memory. Somehow she felt safe for the first time in her life. She liked him touch her.
»I love you«, said El into the empty room. The sound of her voice and the words sounded right. They made her feel warmer.
Slowly she got to her feet, holding herself at the table. Her legs wobbled less. She walked the room, picked a long sleeved shirt and a skirt from the wardrobe and put them on. They warmed a lot more than her thin dress.
The light faded more and more until the room was only dimly lit.
El listened to the sounds of the early night and some rustling and clattering around downstairs. She would use the walls to try and get to Roberto. She didn't want to be alone upstairs. She wanted to be with him.
Roberto put the last Christmas present on top of the neat stack in one corner of the living room. He would have to set up the tree tonight and decorate it. Maybe El wanted to help? He would ask her during dinner. The sandwiches were already eaten, but in the kitchen cupboard stood glasses of sieved tomatoes and spaghetti. Just in case. They would eat those tonight.
A heavy sight from the door behind him caught his attention and he turned around.
El stood in the door frame, wearing a too large colorful sweater and a tan-green skirt his sister had called too long and unfashionable before she left it at the house. »It's fine for the family«, had been her reasoning about it.
With El wearing the combination she looked ready to celebrate a winter Christmas party. Charming and adorable. Only, he felt protective and unwilling to share her with any other guest.
Luckily, his family wouldn't be here before tomorrow.
»I'm glad to see you walking around on your own«, said Roberto. He was aware she held tight to the door frame, but she managed to come down on her own. A success.
He walked past the sofa to her, until only half a step was left between them. He slowly reached for her, to give her time to step back or shake her head.
She did neither.
Instead, she smiled at him and stepped forward. Into his arms.
He closed his arms around her waist and held her close, caressing her back.
She looked up at him, with her huge black eyes. The tips of her black hair fell on his hands.
Holding her felt, like she filled a hole in his life. One he hadn't known existed. It didn't even matter, where she came from or why she lost her memory.
»Will you stay with me, El?«, asked Roberto.
Normally he wasn't that spontaneous. Yet, he had a hunch, that when he didn't act faster this way, he would lose her. A foreboding feeling of threat that lingered around her and reduced after he had asked her.
She was warm in his arms. Fit perfectly in the embrace. Like she had always belonged there.
»Yes«, said El and the feeling of threat reduced even more.
He felt like he could fly.
Robertos bent down and kissed her on her inviting lips.
El enjoyed the warmth coming from Robertos kiss.
She had managed to come down the stairs herself and found him in the room he had called living room.
He had turned around from the sparkling packages she knew from the pushing cart and walked over to her.
She had clung to the door frame. Her legs again wobbly and tired, but she had succeeded in coming down.
She had smiled at him, and he had stretched his arms out. She had stepped forward into his warm embrace and safety, wondering what she could say or do to stay with him. Then, he had asked her to stay with him. What a wonderful turn of events. Especially, because she found the right word to answer.
»Yes.«
As a result, he kissed her. So warm and so soft, she could feel his lips pressed against hers. With his hands caressing her back and his chest pressing against hers, she felt totally fine. She smiled at his lips.
This felt like home had been with the lush green meadows, although it rained most of the year, according to her aunts and uncles. Her parents had always laughed at that and said, they had wonderful sunny days as well. Yet, the day she had vanished, standing in the rain on top of the old lost hill, had been a rainy one. She had had no business going up there. Except, that feeling that something called out for her, for Elinéora MacBird, from the top of it.
Despite all the tales she knew about weird stuff happening there, she had climbed up the slope. Halfway up, rain started to pour out until her dress was completely wet and the water ran through her hair, down her neck and into her dress. Cold like icy fingers.
The faint memory of shadows followed. One she couldn't really grasp but seemed important.
Elinéora blinked.
Roberto had ended the kiss. He looked down at her, like he waited for an answer.
She hadn't heard the question.
Instead, she blurted out her memory. At least the things she had remembered during the kiss.
»Elinéora«, said Roberto slowly, »what a beautiful name. And you remembered it during the kiss? Shall we continue kissing to unearth more memories? Will you marry me and stay?«
Elinéora nodded. She reached up and caressed his stubbly cheek.
»Yes. I'll marry you and stay around so long the hill doesn't pull me back«, said Elinéora.
She shuddered.
She didn't kno
w where she was, but for sure, she would never ever climb back up that hill. And probably better not walk over the place she had appeared here again.
For now, Elinéora was happy to have her memory back and having found herself a husband she could love.
Roberto sat down on the sofa. He leaned back into the soft backrest and held Elinéora close to his side, one arm laid around her and drawing circles with his fingers on her shoulder, holding her hands with his other hand. He tried to sort through everything he just heard.
She had walked up a hill and vanished, then appeared again on his path? At least that explained the dress. A bit. For she said she didn't wear it when walking up that hill. More, she had remembered her name. Elinéora MacBird. Sounded like a name from Scotland which was far away.
»We're in a forest in South France«, said Roberto.
He knew stories about people vanishing and never coming back as well as stories about people appearing out of nowhere. Hadn't there been a story about his Great-grandmother vanishing one night, after giving birth to her second child? Never to return? Hadn't she been on her way to the house as well? He needed to ask his parents.
»Maybe we should block the path I found you on«, said Roberto. »I'm glad I found you, Elinéora.«
Roberto leaned over to kiss her. He could never be sure to lose her again, but he could fence of the path and make sure, nobody accidentally got lost in this forest in the future. Not even his soon-to-be wife. This wouldn't be easy in a natural reserve, but owning the forest had to be useful for once.
THE END
The Flower on the Mountain Top
Lilianna stood on top of the mountain. All the other mountains around her were lower. She was on the highest point in the mountain massive and nearly alone as well. The guides waited a bit below the top, for they wanted to stay safe from the weather. No interest there in risking their lives on top of the mountain, when they didn’t need to. Thanks to hooks already anchored in the rock, they could wait a bit down.
The mountain was cursed. Or so they said.
People miraculously vanished there. Therefore, there were hooks in the rock for the last part. The guides weren’t willing to go up and risk their lives.
A rumor Lilianna had laughed at from the first day she heard it. People vanishing on top of a mountain. Sure. No bodies had ever been found around the top. It probably was a story to spark interest and get more tourists, who paid for tour guides.
There was only one detail that still tugged at her thoughts sometimes during their way to the top. She had started climbing a few days back. The backpack with her tent, the food and the canteen was heavy on her back. As was the nagging thought. How come, those people stayed gone? Gone from the world. They had names, families, careers. They never showed up again after climbing up that mountain. So far, in none of the stories she had heard, those people had seemed shady and needing to hide.
Well, she knew she had no reason to go underground and use that rumor as cover. She would climb down that mountain and return to the lowland world she lived in. Like most of the tourists had. Why should it be different in her case?
The sight was fantastic. Most of the days there had been no clouds, no snow, just sun and cold, thin air. When snow started to fall lightly, earlier this morning, the guides had said it was safe to continue climbing, the clouds were too thin for a storm. Thus, they had finished the last part. And now, standing on top of the mountain, looking out over everything, like she was an ancient deity or a queen, reigning over everything, it was worth the effort. Worth the dried jerky she had to chew for a long time to make it eatable, worth melting snow in her canteen before she could drink it, worth the cold that bite into her cheeks all day long.
Lilianna smiled and punched her fist into the thin air.
Breathing took an effort, she wasn’t used to the reduced oxygen saturation of the air, but she felt great.
Did ancient emperors feel like this after a victory? Or presidents of world spanning empires? Possibly.
The silence around her was total. Nothing moved. No bird, no animal. Only her breath broke the silence.
The sun-rays sparkled on the other, lower, snow covered mountain tops. The clouds from earlier today were completely gone.
Unfortunately, the top wasn’t large enough to put down her backpack and jump around. It was a narrow plateau, large enough to climb up, with a pole anchored in the rock to grab and hold tight, while climbing up and down. Not even a summit cross was there. Only a massive, thick pole to grab and pull yourself up the last step.
She looked down at her feet. Her boots were warm and clunky, yet small enough to give her a feeling for the rocks she climbed. She had already trampled down the white snow, turning to each direction, enjoying the sight, which differed by the angle of sunlight falling onto it.
Lilianna took another slow breath. She should start climbing down. The guides had said she had a few minutes to enjoy the sight, before they needed to return to the ledge they had slept last night.
She looked around one last time, then searched for the hooks to attach herself to for the climbing. She hooked into the first. Somehow it looked older than before. There were red spots, like rust, on it.
She looked closer.
Was the equipment still safe? How could she have overlooked such a detail on her way up?
Lilianna looked back up to the pole standing on the tip of the mountain. It still looked like before. Only, there was a blue flower blooming at its bottom, right where the pattern of her shoe sole was pressed into the white snow.
The flower looked a lot like the small forget-me-nots she saw each spring on the meadows around home. Little happy flowers, reminding her, year in, year out, of happy hours spent with her grand-parents in their gardens.
But they didn’t grow in the snow. Certainly not on top of a mountain, which was towering thousands of meters high above sea-level.
Was she hallucinating? Did she see a Fata Morgana? Was such a mirage even possible up here?
She had thought they needed the hot, glimmering air of a dessert to mirror oases and buildings from far away to the tired, and dehydrated dessert-walker.
Lilianna licked her lips. They were dry. From the cold. When was the last time she had something to drink? Back at the ledge before starting today’s stage? With one hand she grabbed some snow and ate a few bites. It was still cold against her tongue and teeth, but not as cold as she had expected. More like soft ice-cream in summer. Without the flavor. She gulped the little drops of icy water down.
The forget-me-not still grew next to the pole, right in front of her eyes.
Wouldn’t it be a great thing to bring it back down? Let a scientist identify what kind of flower it was? Maybe she found a new species. But, then, hm, she shouldn’t pluck it from its place, if it was new and unknown. In that case, it was rare and should stay here to grow and spread.
Lilianna grabbed the holding spot on the pole and pulled with the other hand at the hook with the red, rusty dots on it.
It didn’t move. Good.
Time to climb down, meet her tour guides and get moving. The sun above her seemed to move fast across the sky.
With a smile on her lips, grateful for having had the chance of coming up here, Liliana started climbing down. She did double-check each hook. The further down she came, the older they seemed. One just slipped off the rock, to her pull.
Her heart rate increased.
The next hook held.
She would have to report that the hooks needed replacements. This wasn’t a safe place to climb anymore.
At that thought, Lilianna laughed out loud.
The mountains echoed her laughter and magnified it to a not-of-this-world kind of laughter. High-pitched and low murmuring at the same time. She shivered from the sound alone and started to feel the cold around her.
She quickly closed her mouth. She shouldn’t lough out loud. Shouting or laughing loud could cause an avalanche to go down.
She climbed down
in the shadow, which felt much colder, than climbing up in the sun had, earlier today. She climbed to the place, where her tour guides waited for her.
Only, they weren’t there.
Neither grumpy Bill, nor overly joyous Sid, with all the tales and rumors about this and the other mountains.
Lilianna looked around.
The snow was fresh and without a trace. No tread marks, no piece of rope, no message.
They wouldn’t leave her alone up her, would they?
“Bill?”, asked Lilianna. “Sid? Where are you?”, she asked a little louder.
Not too loud, for she didn’t want to cause an avalanche by shouting around. Another one of Sid’s stories, where the echoes of the human voices got thrown back by the mountains so often, that the sound waves caused the snowfields to break loose.
Did she cause one with her laughter?
She didn’t think so, because in that case, the snow would be packed, and she would see little snowballs and probably pieces of the rocks lying around. But the snow on the meeting point was untouched by shoes.
Icy fear crept up her neck.
She had to stay calm.
Maybe they had a reason to leave. They would come back.
If they could.
The sun was moving.
Lilianna was getting colder.
What if Sid and Bill couldn’t come back? Sleeping here wasn’t safe. She couldn’t set up her tent here, hanging on the unreliable, rusty hooks.
She pressed her lips together. She would have to find her way back to the sleeping point and hope that the two waited there for her. She wasn’t sure she would find her way down the mountain easily. That’s why she had hired the two tour guides. To guide her up and down the mountain. Reducing the risk of getting lost by people who knew the mountain better than her.
The path laid steep and narrow ahead of Marion. The sun just went up and didn’t yet reach her down here, between the high mountains. Something she didn’t care about, for the sun would come down soon enough. Which meant reflections on the snow crystals and a more dangerous hike upwards.