Venture

• Jess Vandersande, Grade 11
• Short Story
• 2011

I know you always loved the brush of dew-speckled grass against your ankles as you ran, those early morning ventures you so insisted we went on. The air was always crisp and fresh and I love how it was light enough that I could see the mischief in your eyes, and yet the sun hadn’t quite made it over the distant hills. It’s the only time I ever saw you truly happy, when it wasn’t yet day and there were still a few stars speckled in the sky that hadn’t yet escaped with the passing darkness. You touched my hand in the subtle way only you could; our skin barely met and yet I could almost feel the raw excitement coursing through you veins. You led me down paths that twisted and turned, telling me that the direction didn’t matter as long as we were both headed in the same way. I grew to love our small ventures through the unkempt paddocks and ducking in and out of the thin scatter of trees that had grown in the oddest of places. We got lost in the world that you so often admitted seemed to swallow you whole. Your hair was always tied in that half-hearted bun with the loose strands framing your face. I used to love to tuck those strands behind your ear when we paused for a moment. “Only a moment though,” you insisted, because time was fleeting and you wanted to grasp every second and turn it into something beautiful.
“A memory?” I suggested, and the smile that slowly crept across your features was one of simple brilliance that never failed to render me speechless. You weren’t aware of the effect you continuously had on me and grasped my hand, pulling me forward once again and we travelled deeper into nowhere in particular. We often ventured in silence, but it was the comfortable silence that you share only with someone you love wholly and completely; the silence that wraps around you like a warm blanket on a chilly morning. It always reminded me of the feeling that flooded me when I was in your arms, or you were in mine.

You never let go of my hand, even as the dew melted from the grass and the stars faded from the sky and the bright pinks and oranges of sunrise were starting to gather. And you never failed to wake me of a morning with the promise of a new adventure and new moments that only we would share together.