The Secret Pond – Chapter 4 – Abigail
I love the moments when you find writing inspiration in random places. When I logged onto my WordPress account yesterday, there was a post on my reader called A Rare Moment in the Woods from a blog called Sunny District. The next thing I saw was a beautiful photo of a deer in the woods. Here’s the link to it A Rare Moment in the Woods I was struggling a little bit with what to add to this week’s segment and the photo from Sunny Disrict gave me just the inspiration that I needed. Thanks Bipasha, a lover of all things pretty.
Chapter 4 – Abigail
Abigail watched as Sally left the library and headed up to her room. They decided to meet in the garden at 2:00 PM to give them each a chance to eat lunch and change clothes. She gathered up her things, including the copy of Great Expectations, and headed towards the carriage house. She was excited to finally see the place that Sally always talked about. Even though Mrs. Baxter had a large household staff, she seemed to keep Abigail busy with many other tasks when she wasn’t tutoring Sally. So she never got a chance to just walk around and explore the grounds.
Another thing she was wondering about was how Sally and Lila would interact with her around. Abigail knew when she had her own imaginary friend, Alice, she didn’t share her with anyone. She wrote about her and their adventures in the leather bound diary that she kept hidden under her mattress. She would only talk to her when she was alone in her room. Sally was a lot more open with Lila. Abigail felt honored to have Sally share their experiences with her.
Abigail grabbed a light jacket from her closet, not sure if she would need it or not, left the carriage house, and walked out to the garden. She saw Sally dressed in her yellow rain coat carrying the light green backpack walking towards her. They met each other at the elephant shaped topiary in the middle.
“Ready?” Sally asked.
“Let’s go,” Abigail replied.
They walked together to the back wall of the garden.
“It’s good that you brought a jacket,” Sally said, “it can get pretty chilly in the woods.”
“Is Lila with us?” Abigail asked.
“No silly, she is already in the woods. She didn’t want to wait inside for me to finish with school.”
“Will she meet us there?”
“Maybe, but she might be exploring. She does that a lot.”
“Without you?”
“Yeah, I can be too busy in my own world for her sometimes.”
As they walked behind the back wall of the garden, they arrived at the beginning of the forest. Ahead of them was a opening in the trees about three feet wide. A worn dirt path is what met them there. It wasn’t a fancy one put there by the Baxters.
“I’ve always seen the woods from the house but never knew there was a path back here.”
“I found it while I was playing back here one day. The day that I met Lila. She showed me all of the cool places.”
“How did the path get here?” Abigail asked.
“I don’t know for sure. One of the maids said that my grandfather spent a lot of time in these woods. Maybe he made the path. I don’t dare ask my mother and father about it. They will probably make me stop coming back here if I do.”
They started down the path and were swallowed up by the trees. Abigail could feel an immediate chill from the shade created by the trees and was glad that she brought her jacket. After walking in the woods for a few minutes, they came upon a clearing on the left side of the path. Sally and Abigail suddenly stopped when they saw a doe, just standing there looking at them. Next to her were two little fawns.
“The mama always watches us when we are here,” Sally whispered.
“She is making sure that we aren’t going to hurt her or her babies,” Abigail added.
“My family owns all of this property. I think Lila and I are the only ones who come back here now. The animals should feel safe here because we won’t hurt them.”
“Is this what it is like back here all of the time?”
“Like what?”
“Quiet and peaceful.”
“For us humans yes. For the animals and insects, it is busy. We don’t always hear all of the things that they do day to day.”
They continued down the path. The property seemed to go on for miles. Abigail couldn’t believe that all of this was back behind the tree line that she saw from the carriage house window every day. The sounds of their footsteps on the path broke the silence of the woods. After a few minutes, Sally stopped and pointed to a spot ahead of them.
“We need to watch where we are walking now. Gloria just had her babies over there and they may be out of their nest.”
Abigail followed Sally as she walked carefully down the path. They came up to an area with a bunch of trees surrounding a pond. Sally turned to look at Abigail with a smile.
“Welcome to the Secret Pond,” Sally said proudly.
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