Her body was shaking and raggedly taking in and forcing out air to breathe. It was everything she could do not to cry.
She was being forced on a wooden platform while speed of her heart was unbelievable.
They shoved a bag over her head and everything went dark. Her shoulders were pulled through a hole and someone started to count numbers aloud backward. Her insides clamped down and she would've wretched at two seconds left of her life.

Noel's eyes suddenly opened, and saw her room through blurred eyes. Tears came and sobs as she remembered where she just was and what had happened.
Her chest ached, but she didn't know why. She didn't even know why she'd have a dream like that. Things were lost to her for a little while, until the feeling was over.

She wiped her eyes and sat up. Her room had large paper sea gulls hanging from the ceiling, stirring with the breeze from the window. The girl with sea shells for earrings turned and looked outside, seeing a reassuring, summer-blue sky, and got out of her light covers.
She opened her other window and let the wind ruffle her hair, and smiled.

Noel got dressed, and before she left, grabbed a small object covered by a rag off of her dresser.


This seemed to be where it all began. She fell asleep here once after reading a book as a small girl, and a nightmare had ensued.
Enough sunlight had never failed to shine through here even through the trees, and it lit the water fall clear as it fell. Countless times had she come here to read or be alone. The waterfall was tall, but gentle, and it always seemed somehow quiet.

Gill had followed her here the day his family came to live in town, and he didn't go home with her until long after dark.

So finding Noel here was a familiar occurance under any circumstance; happy, content, or melancholy. He pushed through tall alocasia and resisted calling her name before coming to the small pool of the waterfall. She was lying on her back in the sunlight, one leg crossed over the other in the air. Her music box was playing; it looked like she was nodding her foot to the tune. Seeing her there made him unsure of her mood. Mostly, she was happy, but sometimes incredibly heartsick. Oddly, she always seemed to be a bit of both.
He came quietly up to her, trying to get the most out of her expression.
"Noel?"
She looked his way, not surprised to see him standing there. She responded nonchallantly, but still a little distant.
"Hey Gill."
She sat up and turned the key of the music box off. The sound stopped, but the last note it had played seemed to echo for a second.

"It's warm today", she said casually, looking into the pool of water before them.
"Yeah... You wanna go to the beach for shells?", their favorite past-time; they both collected shells together since they were little. Noel's two matching favorites dangling from her ears she had found herself.
"That sounds alright.." She still sounded a bit ethereal, but brightened.

The tiny bit of coral at the sides of the pool rippled with the pattern of the relfections on top of the water.
Noel picked up the box and stood. She looked happy now.
"Let me take this home, then we'll head down there. It's Thursday, right? That's the best day for them for some reason..."

She was never sad for long, but Gill still never asked her what was wrong. Somehow he just knew he shouldn't, and there was an understanding between them. Maybe he'd find out one day, but he was content not to know.
*******

A bright afternoon sun was high in the sky as Gill dunked Noel while having his feet pulled out from under him in the water. They resurfaced vengefully, Gill's ruby-red hair all over his face. Noel turned as if to exit the water, and when she was sure he was following her, leapt and body slamed into him.
They had both lost any shells they'd collected after the fight had started, but they couldn't even remember how many they'd had.
After they decided they'd unintentionally-swallowed enough water and the game was over, they got out of the water for real and sat on the stone hedge to dry off. Noel picked at the scallops covering the water-facing side, and Gill put his shirt back on.

A sea gull came up rather close to them, probably thinking of the connection between food and the humans sitting here. Noel remembered waking up that morning. Whenever she woke up, they were the first thing she saw. Soft grey on smooth white wings.
It picked at a tin bottle cap, but seeing they didn't have anything, it flew away, up into the sky. Noel sometimes had dreams she could fly. It had happened so many times that it didn't seem too hard to just jump off the sand and be up there.
"Hey, what're you looking at up there?" Gill was shifting his eyes from her to the sky.
She'd been caught.
"Just...Birds. Do you like them?"
"I guess so. Why?"
"They can fly. Don't you ever want to?"
"...I guess it'd be fun." Gill shrugged.
"Well, I have dreams where I can fly. It's really something.."
"I've only heard about them. They sound cool, though."

She looked at him and wondered if he was just talking to her to be nice or out of interest. She looked him straight in his clear green eyes and tried to find a trace of him being genuine.
Gill was aware of being stared at by her with an odd look in her eyes, and his expression lifted in mild surprise.
He seemed honest. He'd always been honest with her, and didn't say things that wouldn't matter.
But right now he was looking at her like she was nuts.
------

Gill interupted her thoughts. "You wanna get some lunch at the Crab Net? I'm starving.."
"Yeah, I didn't eat a whole lot for breakfast this morning." It sounded good to her.
They could see the building not far from them. Noel shoved her short hair out of her face and slipped her shoes on. Gill had bare feet; a commonplace even around the "downtown" areas of their home.

The Crab Net was a small restaurant named for the owners' hard dedication to catching all of their served food, particularly the crab. They walked inside, still a bit damp from their water play. It was an open and airy place without air conditioning, and shoes weren't required- its location was right on the beach, with the floor being soft white sand.

Gill's older brother of four years, Luke, saw them come in and came over to them. He was wearing a khaki apron with the logo of the restaurant on it, and since becoming sixteen had been learning the tricks of the trade working in different restaurants. He'd always slipped them free food while he was working, and was otherwise a dependable person.
"Hey guys. What'll it be today?" Luke really had a knack for pulling off a steward while flashing that grin. He still had a few unshaven whiskers above it, though.
Gill already had something in mind.
"Luke, what're 'crab chips'? I haven't had those."

"That's actually something new; it's crab meat in special batter. It's pretty good, I had some the other day."
"Okay." Gill looked at Noel.
"...Can I have them, too, please?"

"Sure thing. Be right back." He disappeared for a little while, leaving Gill and Noel to relax in the shade of the hut.
They picked a clean bench and played with the condiments. Gill's hair was drying and returning to it's thick, fluffy state, and Noel's shorter hair and airy clothes had dried off earlier.

"Here ya' go!" Luke showed them their plates, set them down, and turned to leave to serve some others who were coming into the bar.
"Thanks Luke!!" Gill called after him.

They started in, talking leisurely with greasy fingers.
-------

It was late that night, at least an hour after the sun had set for the day. It was just as calm a night as the day had been. Noel was in bed sleeping when she felt Gill shaking her. Him coming into her room or house in the middle of the night wasn't too uncommon.
"Wake up, Noel."
"What? What is it, Gil?" She looked alarmed.
"I have something to show you. Come on, quietly..."

They snuck out her window and he led her past other small houses to a part of the beach that wasn't lit by any artificial lights. One of his blankets was laid out in the dark, and away from the city lights, they could see everything in the sky clear as glass.
Noel laid down beside him and stared upwards.
Gill sometimes brought her out on nights like this. You could hardly make out the brightest of constallations with how many stars there were in the sky. Some of them were so tiny, hiden amongst the brighter ones. Even the different shades of blue in the galaxies were visable, as if you could realize all of the layers in the sky.

She knew why she was really here. Gill couldn't sleep. She didn't know what he was thinking of, and wasn't sure to ask, so she only shared her thoughts with him.
"Remember the day you came here, Gill?"
"Of course I do. I was about six."

"Yeah..."

They were quiet for a time. Neither of them knew just how long.

"Gil?"
"Hmm?"
"Where did you get that music box?"
"I honestly can't remember. It think I found it. I don't think I stole it from anybody. I kept it hidden, though. I liked the song it played."
"...Do you want it back? I didn't mean to take it from you."
"Nah, it's okay. Kind of an odd thing for me to have anyway. I know you like it, too."
"Thanks, Gil."

They watched the stars for a while longer.
----

She was flying around in her home town. She was very happy, and came and went with the breeze.
Later, she didn't know how or why, she was with someone she held very dear, and was quite near him. Somehow she knew that this person was making her fly. Was this a magic person?
She was very happy, and the scene gradually changed to her being beside him. She was so content she fell asleep.

Noel's eyes slowly opened. Her face was against her soft pillow, and she looked up to see her sea gulls swaying above her. It took her a few moments to remember what she'd dreamed of in her sleep, and realized she felt very unfullfilled and lonely. She stared emptily at things around her room and waited for the feeling of her dream to wear off.
---

Gillchrist was digging in a hole of sand down in the particular part of the beach that they liked when Noel caught up with him that morning.
"Noel, do you remember what we buried here?"
It looked like the only thing he'd managed to find was a black sock.
"Was it part of your bicycle? It was a fancy brand, and you were upset that it broke."
"Heh, my Schwinn? Ha, no, I can't remember where that was. I'm trying to find that box of trinkets, I may have left something important in there."

Who knows why they would have buried a box of trinkets, maybe it was just fun for their age, but they couldn't find it for the duration of the morning and half of the afternoon. Finally they dug up Gill's fifteen dollars and necklace, among other things.
They began excitedly talking about what to spend the money on.
----

The entire day Noel had been in a delicate mood. It was getting to be evening, and part of her became anxious about going home. Gil and she were walking with their feet in the water on the beach when Gil lost his balance in the sand and fell in. He gave a yell as the cold hit him. Everything was sparkling with yellow; the water, Gil's hair, the waves, the sun sinking into where the ocean meets the sky. Gil's smile beckoned her into the water, and she threw herself at him. They stayed until everything else around them was only a silhouette.

-2007 words