Chapter Text
The sun shone on the garden as the two boys ran, their mothers watching on. They sprinted up the path and across the grass, barely missing knocking a gardener and his wheelbarrow to the ground.
‘Be careful!’ one woman shouted. The children ignored her and she smiled at the other woman. ‘Boys’ she said with a smile and a shrug.
The two children ran down the path, the dark-haired boy ahead of the blond. ‘Do you want to see my fort?’ The boy shouted.
‘Yeah!’ Shouted the other.
They ran towards the end of the garden, an orchard dense with trees. There was a shelter made of sticks with a covering of leaves, a flag flying from the top.
‘Cool!’ Shouted the boy as he followed his friend.
The two boys sat on the dirt under the shelter giggling and picking at the mud. The boys had been friends since they were toddlers, had spent most of their four years on the planet together, running around the grounds of the large house as their mother’s watch.
Neither knew anything of the life around them, the tenuous relationship between their two families, the strained truce that made their friendship possible, made the friendship between their mothers possible.
‘Boys!’ A man’s voice shouted.
One boy giggled. ‘The monster’s coming’ he whispered. The other sniggered into his hand. They both fell silent as the footsteps approached.
‘Where are those naughty boys?’ a voice outside the shelter asked.
The brunet boy let out a snort of laughter.
‘What was that?’ The voice asked. The footsteps moved, leaves crunching under his feet. ‘I’m sure they are around here somewhere.’ There was a pause. ‘Maybe they are in…. here!’
The boys screamed with laughter as the man ducked his head into their shelter. He smiled kindly at them.
‘Come on boys, it’s time for Johnny to go home. His mom’s waiting for him.’
‘OK, dad!’ The boy said, crawling out of the shelter, his friend behind him, their knees covered in mud and leaves.
The man took a boy’s hand in each of his and walked back up the garden. The two women stood, watching, and smiling. As they approached, the blonde woman held out a jacket for her son.
‘Say goodbye to your friend, Johnny’ she said as she pulled it onto her son’s arms.
The boy smiled brightly and waved as he followed his mother towards the gate and car waiting for them as always.
‘Bye, Daniel!’ He shouted.