“Hey, look over yonder.”
“Hm?” Glancing in the direction Elaine was pointing, Adeline saw nothing but the edges of rooftops sticking over the stretches of gentle hills. The deep blue sky had only long streaks of clouds hugging the horizon.
“Do you see it?”
“See what?”
“The metal bird, of course!”
Looking again, Adeline did see it. A dark but glinting silhouette flying low to the horizon. Its body dipped behind a hill, then reappeared on the other side.
“Why is it flying so low?” Adeline wondered.
“I don’t know.” Elaine wiggled her toes, waving her legs back and forth in the air. “Maybe it’s too fat.”
Adeline frowned disapprovingly. “It’s going to hit a factory or something.”
“Won’t that be exciting?”
“No, it will not!”
Sinking her chin deeper into her palms, Elaine sort of shrugged as she flattened herself deeper against the stone bricks. Her legs waved even faster. “Diane is incredibly late. Late, late, late!”
“I know,” Adeline sighed. “I know.”
Tilting her head to the right, Elaine stared beyond the wall, past the forest’s edge and deep into the dark forest.
“You want to wander by the trees while we wait?”
Glancing over her shoulders, Adeline raised her eyebrows. “Over— What? On the other side?”
“Mhm.”
“Absolutely not! Don’t leave the wall.”
“Why not?”
Straightening, she dropped her elbows from the stone and spun around. “Because you’re not supposed to, of course!”
“A wall like this isn’t meant to keep out people, you know.”
“I don’t—“
“It’s— It’s for livestock.”
“I— I don’t care. Have you not listened to your mother?”
“What does your mum say?”
“Stay on this side of the wall.”
Elaine glanced about the field and slyly shrugged. “No one’s watching.”
“You never know,” Adeline hissed. “What will you do if a wolf comes along? Or, worse yet, a spirit?”
“Are there spirits here?”
“In the forest, yes.”
“I’ve never seen one. Not during daytime.”
Adeline palmed the smooth stone bricks, hunching forward and dropping her voice to a low whisper. “If your mum says there are spirits in the forest, would you not believe her?”
“What do they know?” Elaine scoffed. “They’ve never been to the wallside.”
“They would know better, of course,” Adeline chided.
Rolling her head away, Elaine did not bother to waste her breath arguing back. “What’s a little gander going to do, huh?”
“Take a gander from over here, then!”