hope you guys are hungry. I found some great mushrooms in the forest that I made soup with.”
“That sounds good, honey. Where is your mother?” asked Edis, taking a seat.
“She had to go over to see someone who fell off a horse and broke their arm or something. I don’t know much about it,” she said, carrying over the pot and placing it in the center of the table.
Now seemed as good a time as any. “It’s been nice lately,” Legon began. “Would you be up for another picnic, Sash?”
“Yeah, that sounds good. When were you thinking?”
“Oh I don’t know, how about tomorrow? We can go for lunch. How does that sound?”
* * * * *
Sasha thought about Legon’s proposal. There was more to this invite than just a pleasant outing, she could see it. Legon could mask his feelings well from most people, but not her. “Yeah that works great,” she said, smiling.
“Good,” he said with a slightly relieved smile. He spooned some soup into his mouth.
“Wow, Sash, you really are something else! This is amazing!”
“You’re welcome. I’m glad you like it.” She could see that this reaction was the truth. He did like the soup, which was saying something - Legon hated mushrooms. After lunch Legon and her father went back to the shop. Sasha stayed in the house cleaning up.
She was trying to figure out what was on Legon’s mind. He seemed tense when he had asked her to go on a picnic. She had tried to use one of their hand gestures to figure out what was wrong, but he had only told her to wait. She didn’t like waiting, not when her brother was holding back from her. There could have been a thousand reasons why he was hesitant, but she couldn’t think of one that made sense.
The rest of the day and night passed without incident. Sasha was having a harder time sleeping than before, and she could hear in the room next to her that Legon was too.
By eleven the next day she had lunch prepared and was wrapping two glasses into cloth so they wouldn’t break. She heard the front door open.
“Hey Sash, are you ready?” came Legon’s voice.
“Yep, I’ve got the food, the cedar, and this time the glasses.” She held up the cloth-covered glasses and smiled.
Their mother was sitting at the table scribbling something on paper and she looked up. “’This time’? You two haven’t been drinking from the bottle have you?”
“What are you talking about mom? You know you can’t work and listen at the same time,” Legon said.
“Sorry dear, you’re right. I shouldn’t have been eavesdropping. I know you two wouldn’t do that,” she said, looking back down at her paper.
* * * * *
Legon saw Sasha give him a thumbs-up. It was good she wasn’t paying full attention to them or they would be getting a lecture about drinking out of the bottle right now. It was a pet peeve of hers. Sasha nodded toward the back door and Legon walked over to her and out of the house. They were greeted by the smell of all the fields in full bloom. The sun was out and the sky was clear. She was wearing a bright white top with her hair pulled back. The white cloth seemed to make her cheeks glow. She was on his right and the basket with food was slung around her right shoulder.
“Do you want me to carry that?” he asked
“Yes, thank you,” she said with a smile, passing him the basket. He placed it on his left shoulder.
They were entering the woods and he felt the air get cooler as the smell of the woods intensified. It was a nice smell, and he liked it better than the smell of town. It was funny that he only noticed that the town had a scent to it when he left it and was surrounded by a new smell. “There is so much around us we don’t see until we leave it,” he thought. They were climbing the hill to their favorite spot. When they broke through the trees, they saw the town in full swing. Little lines of wispy smoke rose from most of the buildings, as well as the thick greasy line that was Kovos’ and Brack’s smith. They sat down on the grass and began to pull out lunch. Sasha unwrapped the glasses and uncorked the cedar.
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on now, or do I have