1991
1983 Words
Anna turned ten years old, and she was very happy living with the Simones. She had her small hiking backpack and pink water bottle ready for her expedition, and Annette was in the kitchen with her, putting away the freshly washed dishes.
“What is on the agenda today?” she asked her daughter.
Anna smiled at her and gave her mother a confident look.
“Well, Mom, I have decided to go on an expedition.”
“That sounds like fun, honey, but just remember, don’t go past the fence line.”
Anna nodded and ran out the back door without another word.
*****
Anna headed out into the field and walked along the fence line. She couldn’t see the big deal if she wanted to explore a bit past the fence line. She got excited, finding a hole in the fence wide enough to fit through, and decided to go a little ways away from the fence, but not too far, so she wouldn’t get lost.
She slipped through the hole, not realizing that her water bottle had fallen, and straightened. She looked at the hole in the fence, her house, and the windmill and decided it wasn’t far from where she was. It wasn’t that far for her to go, and she would just come back the way she came.
Easy peasy! She thought.
She came to a clearing and a fence she could easily hop over. She was proud of herself for reaching the windmill and looked back, realizing that there was no way she could find her way back.
She blew a breath, felt frustrated, and sat down at the base of the windmill as tears pooled in her eyes.
“Great!” she yelled.
“Now I am lost, and my parents won’t even know where to find me.”
“Sure they will!”
She looked around but didn’t see anybody, and jumped to her feet.
“Hello?”
“Up here.”
She looked up and saw a boy’s face peering over the platform. How did he get up there?
She looked at the boy and gave him a thoughtful look.
“How did you get up there?”
“The ladder, come on up, maybe we can see your house from up here,” he said, pointing.
She saw the ladder and climbed it. The boy was the same age as her, shaved head, in a suit with sneakers and a ninja video game t-shirt.
“Hi, I’m Alexander, but everyone calls me Xander for short.”
He pulled her onto the platform and smiled.
“Hi, I’m Anna.”
“Hey, instead of Xander, can I call you Xan? It sounds so much cooler,” she asked, and he thought momentarily.
“Sure.”
Anna grinned, and Xander chuckled. She looked around, and he was right, she could see her house from there. She also saw what looked like a castle in the distance and wanted to explore there too.
“Look, Xan, there’s a castle. Maybe we can go explore it sometime!” she said as she pointing.
Xander looked at where she was pointing and sighed. She looked at him oddly and tilted her head.
“What’s wrong?”
“It isn’t a castle, Anna. That’s my house, and it’s called a Manor. Maverick Manor.”
The name Maverick sounded familiar to her, but she didn’t say anything.
“Even better,” she said, and he laughed.
Even though Anna could see her house, she wondered if her parents could see her. She sat on the edge of the platform and dangled her legs.
“They will never find me here,” she said sadly, and he looked at her oddly.
He shook the thoughts from his head, sat next to her, and put his arm around her shoulders.
“Yes, they will. I always run away and come to this spot. My parents and the sheriff always find me here,” he said with a smile.
“So, how does that help me?”
“Well, when they find me this time, they will find you too.”
******
“I found her water bottle out by the hole in the fence in the west field,” said Johnathan as he came back into the kitchen from the backdoor and caught his breath.
He was about to say something when they were interrupted by a knock at the door. Johnathan and Annette looked at each other in question, walked to the front door, and opened it. It was the sheriff, and Annette gave Johnathan a worried look.
“Sheriff Watson,” he said, and the sheriff nodded.
“Johnathan, Annette.”
“What can we do you for?” asked Johnathan, and Sheriff Watson sighed.
“Well, it’s the Maverick kid. He is missing again.”
“So is Anna,” said Annette.
The sheriff thought momentarily and gave the couple a knowing look.
“I wonder if they found each other.”
“But where would they run off to?” asked Johnathan.
Annette walked into the kitchen and to the sink. She looked out the window and saw two kids on the windmill.
“The windmill!” she exclaimed as she pointed to the old structure.
Johnathan and the sheriff walked into the kitchen and looked out the window, and sure enough, it was the kids.
“The windmill, of course. Glee’s little explorers always find their way to my windmill,” said the sheriff, and the Simones chuckled.
“Great,” said Annette and grabbed her purse.
“I’ll call the Mavericks. Let’s head over there and get the kids.”
They nodded and left the house.
*****
Anna and Xander were laughing and playing when they saw the Sheriff and their parent’s cars pull into the driveway of a nearby house. They watched their parents get out of their cars and head their way.
“Anna?” called Annette when she reached the windmill.
Anna poked her head off the side of the platform and smiled widely.
“You found me!” she exclaimed, and her mother grinned, nodding.
“Xander?” called Lilian Maverick.
Xander rolled his eyes and then poked his head over.
“Yeah, I’m up here,” he said flatly.
Anna looked at him strangely. He wasn’t too thrilled that his parents had found him, and she wondered why. She was ecstatic that her parents came to find her. The kids climbed down the ladder, and when their feet touched the ground, Johnathan scooped up Anna and hugged her tight with Annette.
“Anna, what were you thinking?” scolded Johnathan, and Anna hung her head.
She didn’t mean to make her parents upset. She didn’t mean to get lost, and they had to come looking for her.
“I’m sorry, Daddy. I saw the windmill and had to see it for myself. I thought I could find my way back, but I got lost,” she sniffed.
The sheriff gave Johnathan a clever look and chuckled.
“Aw, Johnathan, don’t be so hard on the kid. She saw the windmill and got excited,” said the sheriff as he winked at Anna, and Johnathan sighed.
He didn’t mean to be so hard on her, but she disobeyed a rule. So she did have to have some kind of reprimand. Anna looked up at her parents with an apologetic look.
“I’m really sorry,” she said, and Annette smiled at her to let her know that everything was okay.
“Alexander, why did you run away?” asked Lillian.
Her long brown hair was tied up in a neat bun, and she had a formal dress on, and Xander’s father had a suit on.
“Those friends of yours! Well, their kids treat me like I have cancer and pick on me, and I told them to leave me alone, and they wouldn’t,” Xander stated.
“Well, son, we have to face our enemies and not run away from them,” said Leonard, and Anna rolled her eyes.
She then thought of a perfect idea. She looked up at her parents and asked,
“Can Xander come over and play before they go home? He is my new friend.”
Xander and Anna both looked at their parents with pleading faces.
“Oh, okay, but when we get home…” Xander cut his dad off.
“I know, I know, I am grounded till the end of time.”
He rolled his eyes and followed Anna and her parents to their car. The Mavericks got in their car and followed the Simones to their farm.
****
The kids played while their parents talked downstairs in the living room. After a while, it was dark, and the kids had school the next day.
“Alexander? It’s time to go home,” called Lillian, and there was no answer.
The four parents looked at each other and walked to the bottom of the stairs.
“Anna? Alexander? Time for Alexander to go home,” called Johnathan.
There was still no answer. The parents looked at each other in question and headed upstairs to Anna’s room, where the kids had been playing. A smile spread across their faces as they reached the bedroom door. The kids were asleep, with their arms around each other, and there was a movie playing the end credits on Anna’s TV. Annette walked over to the TV and switched it off.
She noticed there were drawings and art supplies all over the floor by the bed, and Annette and Lillian picked up a few of the drawings the kids did and smiled. The picture Annette was holding was of two stick figures, hand in hand, and the words Xan and Anna were scrawled across the top, and BFF scrawled at the bottom.
Annette showed Leonard and Lillian, and they smiled. Leonard walked toward the bed and gently picked Xander up, and Anna rolled over, not waking up. Leonard sighed in relief and took Xander downstairs. He carried him out to the car as Lilian and Anna’s parents followed him.
“Thank you again, I think our little Xander has found a true friend. I’ve never seen him so happy,” said Lilian.
“Of course, he is welcome anytime to come over, even when he runs away. You can find him here,” said Annette, and Lilian and her both giggled.
“Anna is always welcome to come to the manor. She is a beautiful, bright young girl, who I think will be good for Xander,” said Leonard.
Annette and Johnathan agreed, and the Mavericks got into their car and drove away. Annette looked at Johnathan, and he grunted.
“Of all the kids she could have run into, she ran into the Maverick kid,” he stated, annoyed, and Annette sighed.
They knew that Leonard was the one who took care of their adoption and knew that he was a very dangerous man.
“We will just have to keep our guard up and put our differences aside. This is about Xander and Anna. Not us and the way we feel about Leonard Maverick,” suggested Annette, and he looked at her for a moment.
Jonathan nodded, and they went inside the house for the night.
*****
That was the day that Anna decided to be a police officer when she grew up. There were other kids out there, just like her and Xander, who probably ran away and went exploring and got lost, or even when she saw the news the other day when another kid her age was kidnapped.
Kids get kidnapped too! She had thought.
So she decided she wanted to make a difference in someone’s life, as the sheriff did for her when he brought her and Xander’s parents to the windmill.
- Writer
