“I remember when you popped your shoulder out too when you fell off Jake’s horse,” he said. That had been scary. She’d fallen awkwardly when the horse got spooked.
“And you popped it back in,” she said. “That hurt like a mother.”
“But then it was okay.” The trees became thicker and for a moment he wondered whether he’d come the right way.
“It was. It was sore for a few days afterward. I remember the paramedics being impressed with your skills,” she said. “How did you know what to do?”
He started to see the trees clear and the glimmer of glass catching the faint rays of sunlight. They were in the right place. “My dad knocked his out one afternoon, I can’t remember how. Zack and Alex were somewhere with my mum and there was no one else about, so we’d have had to call an ambulance. He told me what to do and I followed what he said. Popped his shoulder back in.”
“Tell him thank you for letting you practice on his first,” she said. “And here we are. I haven’t been here for years. Is it still used?”
“Rarely. The woodsman doesn’t spend as much time out here now. He’s concentrated on the other side of the forest. I need to put you down while I unlock.”
“That’s fine.”
It wasn’t. She winced as he placed her down, waiting for a moment while she held his shoulders to find her balance.
The hut was pretty much just that, a wooden shed that had been set up by one of the woodsmen when they were all still kids. It had a padlock, but Scott knew the code, like most other residents of the town who hiked up here. It was a good place to shelter if the weather turned and, when he was a teenager, had been used as somewhere to hide out with a girlfriend on a couple of occasions.
Inside was just as it had been when he was last there. Wooden flooring, palettes with a cheap mattress on top and a couple of very dubious blankets. There was also an old sofa, brought on the back of a truck when the area around the hut had been clearer and there was more activity going on the other side of the path.
Some genius had installed a wood burner and there was wood there ready for it, plus kindling. He had a flask of coffee still in his bag and a hip flask with whisky in it, just in case it was needed for medicinal purposes.
“How safe is that sofa to sit on?” Keren said. She had followed him in, walking stiffly, and he could see she was in discomfort.
Scott shrugged. “It’s probably clean. I don’t think this place gets used by the high school kids now. There’s no phone signal here and definitely no WiFi.”
“Not even as a somewhere to escape your parents?” She looked at the mattress. “That’s got Jake written all over it.”
“I believe he lost his virginity in the hut on the other side of the forest, not that I ever asked for details.” He’d avoided Jake as much as Keren had avoided him this week, not knowing what to say based on what Zack had told him. He hadn’t known Jake liked Keren. It hadn’t been gossip and there had been no stories fed back to him about her shooting down his pick-up lines. Thinking about what Jake had told him made him want to at the very least put his reproductive organs out of action for a few months.
But he didn’t know what to say. Yet.
Keren sat down tentatively on the sofa. It didn’t collapse.
“How are you feeling?” he said, opening the door of the cast iron stove and starting up the fire. He vaguely recalled someone working on a house renovation, and the stove was going to be skipped. One of the men working on it had been occasional labour for the woodsmen, so he’d installed it here, safely, else the whole forest would be up in flames.
“Sore,” she said. “Shaken. That could’ve been so much worse though.” The possibilities were beginning to dawn on her. “I haven’t fallen like that for years. And I bike a lot.”
“I know you do. Rayah tells me.” He pulled his flask out of his backpack and poured out some coffee. He knew he looked like he should drink it black and strong, but actually he made it with milk. He added some whisky and handed it to her. “Drink this.”
“Thank you,” she said. “I’m good to walk down. Honestly. It’s only a couple of miles.”
It was four miles back to town, and would take them just over an hour to walk. When he had phone reception, he’d call Alex if he was back, and see if he could come out to meet them.
“It’s more than a couple of miles, Key,” he said. “And you’re hurt.”
“I’m tough. It’s fine,” she said, sipping the drink. “This is good though.”
He gave a nod.
“Thank you for looking after me. After avoiding you all week, I’d have understood if you’d have just walked round me.”
“Keren, you know me too well for that.”
“I know.”
She stared at the floor and he wondered how much pain she was in and wasn’t telling him.
