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

[queensidecastle]

"So what's the plan? Who else are you going to tell?"

[deepest_magic]

"I don't know about my parents yet. The notebook's pretty proof positive, but I think they'd be upset. The problem is I'm not sure I remember being ten or American or anything well enough to mimic it consistently. I may have to let them continue to send me to school just to reacclimate."

[queensidecastle]

"Elizabeth?"

[neverbeatme]

"...well," she says, "for one thing, I've spent the last fifteen years going by James."

[queensidecastle]

"...Huh," says Chris.

[neverbeatme]

"If it wasn't for Isabella I might want to be homeschooled, but I don't want to abandon her to face the genuine Earth schoolchildren alone. And there's value in seeking out normal experiences for the country we'll be living in."

[deepest_magic]

"But I live in Arizona during the school year."

[queensidecastle]

"I can move to Arizona."

[deepest_magic]

"That'd - that'd help."

[queensidecastle]

"Consider it done."

[deepest_magic]

Isabella glances at James, taps her absence-of-ring: do they mention that?

[neverbeatme]

Thoughtful headtilt; nod.

"Also," she says, "we were married."

[queensidecastle]

"...Congratulations," says Chris. "Sorry I missed the wedding."

[deepest_magic]

"There's pictures."

[queensidecastle]

"I'll have to look at them sometime. Maybe not now, though. Now I think we should be working out a plan for your immediate future and then heading home."

[deepest_magic]

"Yeah." Sigh.

[queensidecastle]

"So I'll move to Arizona, and you and - James - can go to school together - are you going to want to change your name? Or anything else?" she asks James.

[neverbeatme]

"My legal name can stay. I don't have a problem with being a girl for most purposes and I think I'll be happier if I grow up into the same body I had the first time around. But between me and people I'm close to like you and Isabella, yeah, it's James."

[deepest_magic]

"Jamie."

[neverbeatme]

[queensidecastle]

"All right. Is that enough to be going on with?"

[deepest_magic]

"For now, yeah. I'll probably wind up playing it by ear with Charlie, see if my accent slips or something."

[queensidecastle]

"Fair enough. Let me know if you need any help."

She checks to see that they both have seatbelts on, then pulls away from the house. Driving driving.

[deepest_magic]

Being in a car again is WEIRD.

[neverbeatme]

It kind of is, yeah. After a minute, James reaches over to hold Isabella's hand.