My eyes glance over the valley. I mean, I guess. It’s just fields of grass and trees, which is kind of boring. But I can see the Burlington herds of cattle, and I cansee a couple of ponies trotting down the lane with their riders, and I do love animals. One of my favorite things to do is go out with Lando on the four-wheelers and check on them.
So I smile at her and say, “Yes.”
“I love our adventures.” Her shoulder pushes against mine, and I nudge her back.
“Me too.”
“Come on. We’re not done.”
Sophie starts first again. “Don’t forget to stretch your arms,” she shouts back, because she knows I did forget.
I should stop rolling, but instead, I push my arms out and keep going. It’s when they’re fully stretched that my left arm suddenly hurts so much I scream. The pain makes me jerk and twist on the hill, enough that I roll again, right over where it’s hurting. By the time I manage to stop myself, I know I’m crying. I can’t help it.
Sophie’s way in front of me, almost to the bottom. I try to move, because maybe I can walk down the hill, but it hurts too much, so I stay where I am and sit down. I’m trying so hard to keep still because even crying hurts my arm. The jerking movement as I catch my breath makes it feel like I’m being stabbed.
When she finally gets to the bottom and stands up, she turns to find me. When I don’t return her wave, she looks confused. And when I still don’t move, she’s worried enough that she comes back up to find me.
“Hendricks . . .” she puffs. “Are you okay? What happened?”
“I hurt my arm when I stretched out.” I let out a big sob, and it’s so painful I squeeze it to my body tighter, but that hurts too. Everything hurts.
I just want to go home to my mum.
Sophie kneels opposite me and stares at my arm. She doesn’t even blink. “Can you move?”
I nod. Doing my best to wipe away a fresh set of tears. “Yes, but it hurts.”
“Do you think you broke it?”
When I try to shrug, fresh pain shoots down my arm. “I don’t know.”
She looks up the hill and then down, then back at me. “When my brother broke his arm, the doctor said he shouldn’t move it at all. I think it’s too steep to go up because we had to use our hands sometimes, remember, but we can go down, and I’ll help you. Then we can call my mum to get us.”
“Okay.” I sniff.
Scooching to sit beside me, I feel her arm gently cup my shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Hendricks.”
“It’s not your fault?—”
“It was my idea.”
“I could have said no.”
Her arm drops from my shoulder. “Do you need help getting up?”
“No, I think I can do it.”
Sophie helps me anyway. She doesn’t pull my arm, but she grabs my T-shirt when I try to stand and nearly fall over.
“Oww, ouch.Owww.”
“Let’s try to walk, and if it’s too steep, we can shuffle on our bottoms,” she says.
My arm hurts too much to think of a better idea, so I nod and follow her when she carefully steps forward.The pain in my arm is getting bigger, and it now feels like a drum is banging loudly inside my body, making my entire arm shake.
We go slowly. Every step I take is careful, with Sophie holding me so I don’t fall. She doesn’t stop talking the whole way, which is good because the pain in my arm is too much for me to speak. Sometimes it’s too much for me to listen. I hear words like dragons, witches, and magic, and know she’s making up one of her stories.
It takes us much longer to walk down the hill than it did to roll, but when we finally reach Honeysuckle Lane, I realize her stories have stopped the pain from getting worse.
