Aurora 2021 Mag

Ally Groves

Move On

It was hot—more than hot, really—the sun so searing I wore a jacket to protect my pasty skin from baking up and peeling off my arms. But despite the sweat and fatigue I kept walking, kept going on; I had to. Mason grew up in a military family and was planning on joining himself, the Navy I think; his uncle was in it and he adored him. He was used to the walking, the bleeding scabs on his feet that made him limp the second he thought about them, and he was also used to the need to keep going, the need to walk on and on as to not think about what could happen if he stopped. So we walked, we sweated, and he led us in candances. on her hair she wore a yellow ribbon We found a path leading down to a river and the second we felt its icy breeze we took off at a sprint, the cold air washing over us, cleansing the sweat from our bodies. Mason ripped off his shoes and started edging his way into the river, screaming at every inch of water that touched him. Lucas and Chris wandered around the rocky bank, grabbing the biggest ones, hitting them together, trying to make arrowheads. Daniel started searching for a stick to carry. I stuck my face in the water, drinking from the stream. The water froze a trail down my throat, chilling me from the inside out. It was amazing. she wore it in the springtime, in the early months of May Cars would pass us every once in a while. To where? I had no clue. We supposed there was some sort of village nearby, or maybe there wasn’t. After the earlier reprieve, the heat burned with a vengeance. I could feel two things: my brain baking, and the skin on my heels peeling up. Still, it was better than the alternative, better than stopping. Lucas thought it would be funny to try to get the passing cars to honk, so we tried. We’d walk along the road until a car appeared on the horizon. Then we’d run to the side, and pump our arms in the air like we were pulling a whistle in a train. The cars didn’t understand, maybe it was because they weren’t trains, maybe their trains don’t honk, or maybe it was their clear minds with the protection of the metal roofs and air conditioning. One car even pulled over to ask if we needed help; they had barely pulled away before Daniel fell to the ground in laughter.

and if you asked her why the hell she wore it

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