Two tiny explorers. A very juicy neighbourhood.
The Secret Way
Pippa appeared between two grapes and waved.
“I found a secret way,” she told Finn.
Finn crawled across the broad leaf towards her. Pippa slipped between the dew-covered grapes, and he followed.
On the other side was a little space beneath the vine. A curling tendril hung like a spring, and a folded leaf made a patch of shade.
“Does anyone else know about it?” Finn asked.
“Only us.”
“What about the grapes?”
“They’re keeping it secret.”
Pippa leaned against one. It moved, and she stepped back.
“Perhaps that one nearly told,” Finn said.
They laughed, then looked for the leaf where they had left their basket. It held two pebbles and a cloth.
Finn peered between the grapes. “Which way did we come?”
Which Big Grape?
“Past the big red one,” Pippa said.
Finn looked around. Red grapes surrounded them.
“That may take some time,” he said.
“The one next to the dark grape.”
He moved to her side. From there, one grape did look darker than the others. But when he leaned the other way, sunlight reached its skin and turned it red.
“Does it change colour?” he asked.
“Perhaps we changed places.”
Pippa looked back at the space beneath the vine. She remembered ducking under a stem, but she could not remember which one. Finn thought they had passed a curled tendril, though there were several curls above them.
They sat down on the leaf to think. Its veins made little ridges beneath their hands, and a drop slipped from a grape onto the leaf’s edge.
“We could each look for something we both remember,” Finn said.
Pippa pointed to a stem that divided into two. “That looks familiar.”
Finn crawled beside her. “I remember it. You went under the lower branch, and I nearly went over the higher one.”
“You said you were taking the scenic route.”
“I saw a great deal of grape.”
The Curling Vine
They crawled towards the forked stem and stopped beneath it. From there, Finn spotted a leaf with one edge folded over.
“Did we come past that?”
Pippa touched the fold. “I don’t remember it.”
They moved to the other side. From there, the folded edge was hidden, and the leaf looked smooth.
“That’s how it looked when we came in,” Finn said.
“Then we can look for the fold on the way back.”
Beyond the leaf, the curling tendril hung low over a gap. Pippa peered through it and saw a pale loop behind another leaf.
“Our basket!”
Finn followed her gaze. The loop was its handle. They crawled through the gap and found the basket exactly where they had left it, with both pebbles and the cloth inside.
Pippa picked up one pebble. “I thought we might need these.”
“For the secret way?”
“For sitting on the cloth if it blows away.”
Finn considered the heavy, still air beneath the grapes. “We were very well prepared.”
Back to the Basket
They carried the basket to a leaf where its handle could be seen from the forked stem. Pippa spread the cloth, and Finn placed a pebble on each corner, just in case.
Above them, grapes cast round patches of shade.
Finn looked towards the gap between the fruit. “Is the way still secret now?”
“Of course.”
“But we both know it.”
Pippa handed him a pebble that had rolled off the cloth. “Then we can both keep it.”
He set the pebble back on its corner. For a while, they sat and watched the tendril move gently in the morning breeze.
Livora Gracely ♥
Leave a Reply