“Don’t feed the fear.” She’d read my mind.

“I’m trying not to.”

We were halfway across before I looked at the water, it was deep.

“Oh, man.” I began to freak out and lost my balance. I almost fell backward into the water, but Mel was stronger than I gave her credit for. She yanked me back onto the tree.

“Be cool,” she said. “Regain your balance, pay the water no mind.”

So I tried, and we made our way across, one step at a time, together.

“See, look, we’re almost there. Jump!”

Mel let go of my hand and jumped down onto the muddy ground. I had nothing to lose, so I jumped, too. I landed ankle-deep in mud.

“Okay, maybe we should have gotten you boots,” Mel said apologetically.

“Maybe.” I lifted one mud-soaked shoe to see. We both broke out into laughter.

“Come on.” She grabbed my hand again. “Just a bit further.”

Mel pulled me out of the mud and onto a path. The path led up a hill that oversaw nothing but a clear sky. I was out of breath and low on energy.

“Eat this.” Mel smiled as she pulled an apple out from her backpack. I took a bite, and it was good. Maybe eating wasn’t so bad. I wanted to do that more.

Mel tightened her grip on my hand to help me. We made it to the top of the hill as the sun went down. Night began to fill the air as I was catching my breath. “Why did you bring me out here?” I asked.

“The place should be close by,” she said while gazing into the distance. She looked anxious and worried.

“There!” She pointed.

Down the hill, a short distance away, there was a small cabin with a fire pit just off of a lake.

“There it is.” Mel had a smile that was fuelled by nostalgia.

We made our way down the hill toward the cabin. There was a sign that said, “PROPERTY OF MARTIN WOODS.”

Mel rolled her eyes at it.

“Is this the place you told me about that night we sat on the roof of the school?” I began putting the pieces together.

“Yeah. Yeah it is,” she replied.

It was beautiful. The cabin was still in great shape, although Mel told me she hadn’t been there since she was a kid. There was chopped up firewood at the side of the cabin, and Mel threw some pieces into the fire pit.

“Let’s set it ablaze in a bit. I wanna show you something,” she said.

Mel brought me over to the lake. The night sky reflected on it like a mirror.

“When I was a kid, my mom told me that I was magic because I could skip rocks across the stars,” she recalled as she threw rocks that bounced on the lake.

“I don’t feel so magic lately. I feel really alone. I feel like a lot of people hurt me, intentionally or not. It really sticks with you. But this place, it reminds me of happy. Well, at least the formula to happy.”