the summer i was ten again

[deepest_magic]

Isabella falls from her horse first, caught by a low branch she didn't see. She's a better rider than that, she ought to have - ow - she reaches for Jamie, grabs her hand, but while they clasp hands Isabella's got too much momentum and Jamie falls too -

Something snags Isabella's cloak, something snags her bag, she's got a heap of pine needles prickling her face and can't see. She flails a leg but only loses her shoe for her trouble, and the other slips off when she twists, trying to find 'up' before her horse steps on her - when did it get this dim, the sun was only just setting a moment ago - she can't see anything - "Jamie -"

The next time she inhales it's not the smell of pine needles, it's old fur. Not the hay-sweet shallow pile of having somehow planted her nose in her horse's flank; like a coat. Smell jogs memory. Coats - and wood, not the pines but old treated planks -

She's lost Jamie's hand somewhere along the line. She was wearing gloves against the cold and her hand's bare on fur, on wood.

She feels dizzy and small and something's gone wrong with her clothes and she can't hear the horse breathing or feel the wind anymore.

She fumbles around in the dark, looking for Jamie, the horse, a tree, anything.

She finds a shoulder, too small and skinny to be Jamie's, and then with her other hand she finds a door and blinding light and tumbles out of the wardrobe onto the floor.

Comments

[neverbeatme]

"It just seems so completely obvious to me that there's no way we could possibly have lost that stuff in this house. But I guess most people won't be inclined to look that hard."

[deepest_magic]

"Maybe we wandered around in the woods? There wasn't all that much house."

[neverbeatme]

"Okay. We wandered around in the woods and... dropped all our stuff, for some reason. And couldn't find it again. I am really not impressed with these hypothetical versions of us."

[deepest_magic]

"Thought we saw a bear."

[neverbeatme]

"Sure."

[deepest_magic]

"And I can barely run anyway and I dropped everything to have a better chance."

[neverbeatme]

"Reasonable. Hypothetical Isabella gets a pass."

[deepest_magic]

"I'm probably going to call you James and Jamie sometimes by accident even if I try to go back to Elizabeth."

[neverbeatme]

"That's fine. I can have a weird nickname."

[deepest_magic]

"Okay."

[neverbeatme]

Smile.

[deepest_magic]

Lean.

[neverbeatme]

Hug.

[deepest_magic]

Wait.

"I don't have a pen right now but if there's anything you're worried about forgetting I can write it down as soon as I do."

[neverbeatme]

"I might just want eight hours with your notebook to write down everything in the Narnia files. If I'd written down everything in the Earth files right when you got the notebook, we'd have it in front of us now."

[deepest_magic]

"You can have it. Soon as we have a pen."

[neverbeatme]

"Thanks."

[deepest_magic]

"You're welcome."

Pensive snuggle.

[neverbeatme]

Pensive snuggles all round.

[queensidecastle]

It's another hour or so before Chris pulls up in front of the house.

[neverbeatme]

James realizes that she managed to forget what Chris's car looked like. Since Chris's car is a black-and-white Mini Cooper, it should really have been harder to forget than that. It comes back to her as soon as she sees it, but... she sighs unhappily.

[deepest_magic]

"Hm?"

[neverbeatme]

"I'm annoyed that I forgot what kind of car Chris had," she says, getting up and proceeding to the car. Her hand remembers how to open the door even if she doesn't.

[queensidecastle]

"Now, I know it's been a while, but I seem to remember you kids having backpacks when I dropped you off," says Chris.

[deepest_magic]

"We lost them."