Chapter 7
Hendricks
“You want to roll all the way down to the bottom?”
“Yup.”
I peer over the ledge of the flat expanse of grass we’re sitting on.
The bottom is waaay down below. So far down that Honeysuckle Lane looks like a narrow path, the sheep are fluffy white balls of cotton wool, and the tractor in the distance is smaller than my Lego.
I can see the fountain on Valentine High Street and The One True Love, but it’s all so tiny.
“It’s so far.”
“You think we can’t do it?”
I shake my head. “No. I dunno. We won’t get all the way down.”
“We will. I’ve done it already.”
Sophie’s eyes are as wide as her grin, and it makes me frown. Sometimes I can’t tell whether she’s making up a story or telling the truth.
“You have not.”
“I have.”
“When?”
“Last week.”
I peer back down the slope. Maybe it’s not as steep as it seems even though looking at it is making bubbles pop in my belly. But if Sophie’s done it, it can’t be that bad.
“Did you get sick?”
Her long braids flick around when she shakes her head, and I notice the ends of them are tied with bands in my favorite color. “Only a bit dizzy.”
“How long did it take?”
She shrugs. “Maybe fifteen minutes. I had to keep stopping.”
Whoa. Fifteen. It would easily take us twice that to get back up to the top.
“How did you get home after?”
Sophie’s smile grows across her face. “Walked, silly.”
I peer down to the bottom again and back to Sophie.
She’s as excited as I’ve ever seen her, and if this is what she wants to do, then I want to do it too.
Even though I’d be just as happy sitting here with her for the rest of the afternoon.
Normally, when it’s just the two of us, I listen to the latest story she’s made up, but today, we’ve been telling secrets.
Hers is that she hates working on the farm with her dad, and mine is that I heard Lando crying about being nervous to take over Burlington. He’s eighteen now, and everywhere we can see belongs to him. Even the hill Sophie wants to roll down.
“I don’t think he wants to be in charge of people.”
“I love being in charge of people,” Sophie replies, even though I already knew that. At school, she’s always the one to put her hand up for group leader when we have to do activities.
“I don’t.” My nose scrunches up as I think about it. “I only want to help animals. I want to work at the vets.”
Rolling back onto the grass, she jumps up and holds her hand out to me. “Come on, we’re doing this. More fuel for the plot.”
I don’t know what that means, but I go with it anyway and let her pull me to standing. “Okay, fine.”
She points down the hill. “You have to stay on this side because the other is more bumpy, and it stops halfway.”
I nod. “Okay.”
Following her lead, I line my feet up with the edge of the grass where it drops down. On second glance, it’s not as steep as I thought, but the bottom is really far away.
“I’ll go first, so you can follow me,” she says, lying flat on her belly and easing herself down.
She doesn’t roll very far. She also didn’t stick to the left side and ends up in the middle, plus her braids keep getting stuck under her shoulders.
Rocking forward gets her moving again, and she giggles the whole way. It’s so fun listening to her that I forget I’m supposed to be rolling down too, until she gets stuck again and waves up at me.
“Hen, come on.”
Getting into position, I manage to make it all the way to where Sophie is waiting and laughing her head off.
“You have to stretch your arms out like you’re Superman. It makes you go faster,” she tells me, lying down again. “Are you ready?”
I peer down to the bottom again. It doesn’t seem any nearer, and this next bit of the hill looks way bumpier than the one we just rolled down. But I don’t say that out loud, especially because Sophie’s staring at me.
I lie down flat behind her. “Ready.”
She goes first again, and I follow. I was right about it being steeper and bumpier than the first. I’m not sure I like it, but Sophie’s laugh gets louder with each roll. When I reach the bottom, she’s still lying down, and I bump into her.
“That was the best one I’ve done so far.” She turns to me on the grass. Her cheeks are pink, and her smile almost reaches each ear. “C’mon, let’s do it again.”
“Okay.” I grin back. There are twigs in her hair, both of us are covered in grass and mud stains from the ground, and I know we rolled over some sheep poo, but I have to admit that it was really fun.
It’s not so fun walking back up to the top.
“This is much higher than it seemed when we were going down.” I puff.
“I know,” she groans, scrambling up a particularly hilly bit.
“Let’s do it from here,” I suggest when we reach halfway. “The roll will still be as good.”
Her eyes move to the top of the hill. “Yeah, okay. Great idea.”
But instead of lying out, she just sits. “It’s really pretty here, isn’t it?”
My eyes glance over the valley. I mean, I guess.
It’s just fields of grass and trees, which is kind of boring.
But I can see the Burlington herds of cattle, and I can see a couple of ponies trotting down the lane with their riders, and I do love animals.
One of my favorite things to do is go out with Lando on the four-wheelers and check on them.
So I smile at her and say, “Yes.”
“I love our adventures.” Her shoulder pushes against mine, and I nudge her back.
“Me too.”
“Come on. We’re not done.”
Sophie starts first again. “Don’t forget to stretch your arms,” she shouts back, because she knows I did forget.
I should stop rolling, but instead, I push my arms out and keep going.
It’s when they’re fully stretched that my left arm suddenly hurts so much I scream.
The pain makes me jerk and twist on the hill, enough that I roll again, right over where it’s hurting.
By the time I manage to stop myself, I know I’m crying. I can’t help it.
Sophie’s way in front of me, almost to the bottom.
I try to move, because maybe I can walk down the hill, but it hurts too much, so I stay where I am and sit down.
I’m trying so hard to keep still because even crying hurts my arm.
The jerking movement as I catch my breath makes it feel like I’m being stabbed.
When she finally gets to the bottom and stands up, she turns to find me. When I don’t return her wave, she looks confused. And when I still don’t move, she’s worried enough that she comes back up to find me.
“Hendricks . . .” she puffs. “Are you okay? What happened?”
“I hurt my arm when I stretched out.” I let out a big sob, and it’s so painful I squeeze it to my body tighter, but that hurts too. Everything hurts.
I just want to go home to my mum.
Sophie kneels opposite me and stares at my arm. She doesn’t even blink. “Can you move?”
I nod. Doing my best to wipe away a fresh set of tears. “Yes, but it hurts.”
“Do you think you broke it?”
When I try to shrug, fresh pain shoots down my arm. “I don’t know.”
She looks up the hill and then down, then back at me. “When my brother broke his arm, the doctor said he shouldn’t move it at all. I think it’s too steep to go up because we had to use our hands sometimes, remember, but we can go down, and I’ll help you. Then we can call my mum to get us.”
“Okay.” I sniff.
Scooching to sit beside me, I feel her arm gently cup my shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Hendricks.”
“It’s not your fault—”
“It was my idea.”
“I could have said no.”
Her arm drops from my shoulder. “Do you need help getting up?”
“No, I think I can do it.”
Sophie helps me anyway. She doesn’t pull my arm, but she grabs my T-shirt when I try to stand and nearly fall over.
“Oww, ouch. Owww.”
“Let’s try to walk, and if it’s too steep, we can shuffle on our bottoms,” she says.
My arm hurts too much to think of a better idea, so I nod and follow her when she carefully steps forward. The pain in my arm is getting bigger, and it now feels like a drum is banging loudly inside my body, making my entire arm shake.
We go slowly. Every step I take is careful, with Sophie holding me so I don’t fall.
She doesn’t stop talking the whole way, which is good because the pain in my arm is too much for me to speak.
Sometimes it’s too much for me to listen.
I hear words like dragons, witches, and magic, and know she’s making up one of her stories.
It takes us much longer to walk down the hill than it did to roll, but when we finally reach Honeysuckle Lane, I realize her stories have stopped the pain from getting worse.
“I really want my mum.”
Sophie’s hand slips into my good one. “I know, we’re going to call her.”
“Thank you.”
Luckily, the cow gate is open. Otherwise, I’d have had to climb over it. We walk onto Honeysuckle Lane and follow the curve of the road up into Valentine Nook until we reach the fountain.
“Why did we stop?”
“I’m thinking who we ask first.”
“First for what?”
“To borrow a phone.”
I don’t reply. I’m trying not to panic, and I don’t want to make Sophie feel bad by telling her I don’t feel so good. But I really don’t. And then she screeches, “Eddie.”
When I look up, he’s walking toward us. Eddie is the landlord of The One True Love. He has a big mustache and always looks grumpy, but we like him because he always sneaks us a glass of Coke and a packet of crisps.
“What are you two doing? Up to no good, again?” he grumbles, but he’s also smiling, and when he winks, we know he’s not being serious. But then he sees that I’m crying. “What’s happened? Hendricks, you don’t look so good.”
“Hendricks is hurt. We need to call his mum.”
“What did you do?”
“We were rolling down the hill.”
“What hill?”
Sophie turns around and points. “The one on Honeysuckle Lane.”
Eddie’s lips disappear into his thick mustache. “You were rolling down the hill? From the top?”
Sophie nods. “And Hendricks’s arm got caught—”
I sniff loudly. I know there are still tears running down my cheeks. I can feel them.
“Okay, get inside, you two. Hendricks, I’ll call yer mum.”
We follow him into the pub, past all the people sitting outside enjoying the sunshine, and over to the big squashy chairs by the fire. It’s not lit during the summer, and it’s super quiet inside, so no one’s staring at us.
“Stay put. I’ll be back in a minute,” he grumbles, though it sounds less grumbly than usual.
When he returns five minutes later, he’s holding two glasses of Coke and two packets of crisps. One plain for Sophie, and the salt-and-vinegar kind for me.
“Thank you.”
“Yer mum is on her way,” he says, pulling over a spare chair and sitting down. “Now you want to tell me what you think you were doing?”
Sophie shrugs and takes a big gulp of her drink. “We just thought it would be fun. And I’ve done it lots. We both did it once to the bottom before Hendricks hurt himself.”
Eddie shakes his head in the way grown-ups do when they’re disappointed. And I can tell Sophie feels bad because her eyes aren’t sparkling like they do when she’s happy.
“It wasn’t your fault.”
She doesn’t reply because that’s when my mum rushes in, followed by Miles. She’s moving so quickly she almost passes us by, but the second she sees me, I start crying again. Miles pushes between Sophie and me, until he’s hugging me too.
“I knew something was wrong.” He sniffs.
“Oh darling, what happened?”
Sophie answers because I’m crying too much. “He hurt his arm when we were playing on the hill. It might be broken.”
She nods. “Okay, we’re going to get you to the doctor. Sophie, where’s your mummy?”
“I called her too, Your Grace,” Eddie replies. “She’s coming. She can wait with me while you get Hendricks fixed up.”
“Thank you, Eddie.”
Miles stands and takes my good hand to help me. When I turn around, Sophie’s crying too, and I feel so bad because it was an accident, but I know she thinks it’s her fault.
“Mummy, Sophie helped me all the way down. She didn’t let me fall. And she told me stories, and we got down safely because of her.”
Sophie’s lips rise in a small smile, and I feel a little better. I hate seeing her cry even though I’ve seen her cry loads.
“More stories, eh? Why doesn’t that surprise me?” adds Eddie. “As you’re quite the storyteller, you can tell me some while we wait for your mum to arrive.”
When we get to the doctor’s, he tells me my arm is broken, and I have to go to the hospital so they can fix it in surgery.
Miles and Mummy were both given an extra bed next to mine because I have to stay overnight.
In the morning, I’m allowed to have jelly and ice cream for breakfast, which Miles has too.
When I get my cast put on, Sophie is allowed to come over and visit, and she’s the first one to sign it after Miles.
Sophie The Storyteller to the Rescue.