“You shouldn’t be drawing on the walls, we’ll be in trouble again,” Dani said, while focusing on her own scribbles on a colourful piece of paper.
“We won’t, if you don’t tell mum this time,” Ella replied.
“I didn’t tell mum! It was there, on the wall.” Dani scrapped the paper and threw it to the bin but missed. She dragged herself to the failed attempt of a ball and picked it up.
“Rubbish,” she said to barely-ball shaped paper and put it into the pink flowery bin.
“My darling, are you talking to the bin again?”
“No, mum. I was talking to the paper. — I’m hungry.”
“Good, the pasta is ready! Come down now.” Mum left the room as she entered it, in a blink of a quick, busy eye.
“My favourite!” Dani followed her mum.
“I hate pasta.” Ella resumed her drawing on the wall.
After lunch, Dani took her plate to the kitchen, “Mum, can we go out to play now?”
“Yes, darling. Ollie, why don’t you play with your sister?” Mum asked Ollie.
“Mommy, I don’t like Ella,” Dani’s little four-year old brother said.
Their mother froze, started grinding her teeth; then took a deep breath. She held her youngest child in her arms and whispered in his ear, “She will soon go away.”
Dani loved her garden: it had different flowers, a handful of tall trees and even a pond. She would go to the geraniums and smell them carefully. Sit in front of the lilies and imagine their hat-shaped flowers on top of her dolls.
“Why don’t you go back inside and play with your toys or something?” Ella questioned Ollie.
“Mum, says you will go away,” he replied.
“Oh, did she? Well, if I ever go away, I will take you with me!”
“No!”
“What are you going to do?” Ella asked. Ollie threw his dinosaur at her but it ended up sinking in the pond.
“Go get your toy,” she pushed him into the water. The cold took over his little body; it was sunny but not enough to have warmed the pond that much. He managed to come out of it and cried, uncontrollably, so loud that his mother heard him from upstairs.
She flushed the toilet and washed her hands as fast as she could. She caught her reflection in the mirror, passed her fingers over the bags under her eyes and sighed.
“Ella, what have you done now?” Dani jumped out of the back of the garden to hug her brother. He ran inside the house.
His mum followed the loud crying and found him in the kitchen, “Ollie, sweetheart, what happened?”
“Mum, you have to believe me this time, it wasn’t me, it was Ella.” Dani explained.
“Really Dani? Snitches get stitches!” Ella yelled at Dani from the pond.
“STOP! You must stop all of this now,” mum shouted. “Please, go . . . .go for a walk.”
Dani ran through the front door, “Stop following me!”
“I can’t. We made a promise. Remember?” Ella said.
“Don’t talk for a while then, please.”
Dani followed the path that always took them to different places each time. After awhile, Dani lay on the grass, her small hands stroked the green smoothness, squished between her fingers. She smelled the wet soil, the refreshing smell that tells you a big storm is about to pour. Yet Dani didn’t move, as dark clouds were nowhere to be seen, instead a bright sun warmed the fields, their skins. Cotton-like clouds were scattered across the immense blue sky; Dani wondered if they were as bouncy as they looked.
“It’s almost time.” Ella interrupted Dani’s thoughts. Almost time for what? Dani was about to ask when an unexpected drop of water fell onto her forehead, and another one, and five more followed the first drop. “We should go back now, it’s raining.” She said instead.
“That is not rain.” Ella left the grass and went to climb the closest, mossiest tree; its perfectly horizontal branches made it easy to climb.
“Is it a bird then?” Dani looked up looking for an answer and saw green trunks nearby, trees she didn’t notice before.
“Neither. It’s The Lake inviting you in.”
“What?”
“Come on, Dani, come, climb with me.” Ella stretched her hand to hold Dani’s.
After few minutes of climbing up, they reached the tangled, almost impenetrable top branches. Leaves, twigs and moss together formed a massive square above; the amount of green made everything looked darker from up there.
“Dani, if I jump, would you jump with me?” Ella asked.
She looked down, noticed how far away she was from the floor and held on tighter. “If I jump from here, I will break many things in my body,” Dani finally replied.
“Is that what the doctor said?”
“I’ve been told to stand up for myself,”
“I see,” Ella looked up, “would you like to be my tribute then?”
“Yes,” Dani didn’t know what that meant but she was embarrassed to ask.
“By the way, before we dive in, remember this: don’t hold your breath,”
“I still don’t see a lake to dive in from up here.” Dani looked down searching.
“We’re not going down, we’re going up.” Ella leaped up straight to the tangled branches and was gone. Her stretched arm reappeared moments later and pulled Dani towards The Lake of Leaves.
Dani experienced what anyone does when jumping into a pool, a big splash. Like being in a warm, green bath, comforting water surrounded her. Her body automatically stopped breathing, she knew if she opened her mouth, water would fill her lungs and she didn’t like the idea of that. Ella, however did open her mouth and gestured to Dani that it was ok to breath in. She was reluctant but couldn’t hold her breath for much longer; eventually, Dani breathed under the lake. To her surprise, no water came in her nose, instead she breathed in the ordinary way that she had always breathed. The bubbles, that came out of her mouth and nose, turned into living creatures. She looked closely at the fishlike creatures and saw something familiar, she had seen them before, all of them, somewhere. A four-eyed spider-fish swam straight into her face and waved three of her legs, Dani then remembered that she had a drawing of that same spider in her home’s fridge. All these fishes were drawings of her, bits of her imagination that came to life and swam along with her. Ella was a metre or so away and swam towards a cave unimpressed by the new fishes in display.
A rock blocked the entrance of the cave; Ella got near it, rested her forehead and stretched her arms on it. Two crabs walked over the top of the rock; from Dani’s perspective, it looked as if these crabs suddenly were the eyes of the rock. Ella bowed and, as in any of their adventures, Dani followed her lead. The two girls were looking at the crabs and their pincers, they both bowed one more time. After a moment, the rock rolled, the guardian of the cave allowed the girls to swim into its depth. They kicked very close to each other, the darkness closed in gradually, it engulfed them. The girls swam towards a fluorescent luminosity they saw. Dani and Ella reached the light, a slim string dancing along with the movement of the water, floating. Ella held it tightly and pulled as hard as she could but nothing happened, Dani joined in and both pulled the string from the sandy bottom and soon enough it gave in.
Down the plughole the water drained, at first, in small quantities. The lake shook, the swimming creatures sped up and fled. Then, more and more the water flow pulled the girls down the plughole. Dani didn’t let go the fluorescent string from her fist. Their small bodies went with the current and ended up at the bottom of the mossy trees. “Let’s do that again!” Dani jumped up ready for more.
“We can’t. We just drained The Lake,” Ella replied.
“Shall we imagine another one?” Dani asked hopeful.
“You know it doesn’t work like that. Besides, you already got what we need,” Ella explained and pointed at Dani’s hand. She opened it, the fluorescent string dried out, slowly wobbled and its texture changed; it wasn’t a straight string anymore. Her open palm was now holding a sturdy key.
When they arrived home, Ella went straight away to run the bath. Dani went to the kitchen to say goodnight to mum; she waited for her to put the phone down.
“I understand.” She held the phone between her shoulder and cheek. She needed both hands to chop the veg. “I have seen a slight change, yes.”
“A milestone she’ll have to eventually reach.” She repeated.
“Ok, then, Dr. Freya, thank you for taking the call. She’ll be there for the next appointment.” She put the phone down.
“What is a milestone, mum?” Dani asked.
“My goodness! How many times have I told you not to creep up on me like this?! Her mum replied.
“I’m sorry.”
“Why are you so wet?”
“We went swimming in the lake?”
“Which lake?”
“The one among the trees….” Dani got interrupted by the sound of the door, her dad was home. Every evening was the same, she would stop doing whatever she was doing and run towards the door. “Daddy!” She hung her arms around his neck.
“My sweet pie, did you have a good day?”
“Daddy, what is a tribute?”
“Oh, crumpet, you always welcome me with the strangest questions,”
“Are they?”
“Come on, let’s say hello to mum,”
“She is mad at me,”
“What did you do this time?”
“It wasn’t me, it was Ella!”
He went to the kitchen still carrying his heavy seven-year old. He saw his wife’s exhaustion which didn’t let her smile properly. “We need to talk about that, hun,” she poured red wine in two glasses, “Dr. Freya says it’s getting better but I disagree,” she sipped her glass. He put his daughter on the kitchen counter, took her rainbow elastic hair band and left it in his wrist. “Sweet pie, go and have your bath. After supper I’ll read your favourite book. Is that ok?”
Dani went upstairs to have her bath. Ella was already there, waiting for her. Dani didn’t say anything, she just wondered what her parents were talking about. She was tired. She didn’t notice for how long she was left alone in the bath. Dani went to the bedroom and found Ella pushing some toys away from the wall, examining her drawings on the wallpaper. “Dani, bring the key,” Ella whispered.
Dani opened her hand and it was still there, “what is this for?”
“To unlock the door.”
“Which door?”
“This one.” Ella put the key in one of her drawings and turned it to the right. A bright light shone through the cracks of the wall, it formed an arch just tall enough for a seven year old to walk through.
“Come with me. You’re going to love where we’re going,”
Dani, for the first time, wasn’t sure. She really wanted supper and wanted her dad to read her favourite book. “I don’t know, Ella, I don’t think I want to go,”
“Where are you going?” A tiny voice was behind the girls.
“Oliver, you were right, I am going away and I’m taking Dani with me,”
“NO!” Oliver yelled at Ella.
“I don’t want to be your tribute anymore!” Dani said.
“But you said yes, that’s why The Lake of Leaves gave you the key!”
“I don’t care,”
“If you don’t come with me, I’ll take your little brother,”
Dani sighed, she knew Ella too well. She knelt down in front of her brother and hugged him, “It’s ok. I will come back. I promise,” then she whispered, “go get mum and dad.” Ollie ran away.
“You’re so brave, that’s why you’re my best friend. You will love it.” Ella pushed the door and both girls went in. It was a quiet night, the undisturbed bedroom remained silent and empty for a little while.
Gabriela Belard 