The House In The Forest

Chapter XV

Chapter Fifteen

Somehow, after school, me and Giselle ended up helping grandfather with chores. Shopping chores for his event tomorrow. The list was long so he actually let me take his truck for once, he seemed rather reluctant to let me drive it but Giselle didn't have a license that wasn't expired so, he had one choice.

Giselle seemed quite excited to ride though, guess it made sense, she hadn't been in a car in literal years. Too bad it was just an old truck. I don't know why he didn't buy a newer car, I knew he had the money. But, it was what it was.

I parked the car downtown, in a place where we could drop stuff off in between stores.

"Everything's frosted," Giselle spoke, stepping out of the truck to look around.

"The weather report says it might snow again tonight," I told her, taking her hand to help her up the narrow steps of the old store front. It needed a facelift, but the downtown stores weren't very fond of that concept.

We picked up the custom napkins, something incredibly important apparently. The old lady working the store knew who we were the moment we stepped in, it seemed grandfather told her who to expect. Honestly most of the shops seemed to know, small towns were such gossips.

"Albert," Giselle spoke, helping me carry the groceries we had picked up. "What kind of group is this event for? Sort of like a charity group or something?"

"Something like that, it's the hospital charity group that grandfather's a part of, I think they fund hospitals in bigger cities or something," I explained what little I knew. "It'll probably be a bunch of old people."

She nodded, looking around the town as we walked down the sidewalk. "Is this everything we needed from the list?"

"Should be, we can head back now," I told her, stopping in front of the truck to open the back door.

"Think we could maybe go driving first?" she asked, handing me the bag she had been carrying.

"Driving? Where?"

"On the other road out of town, you didn't think there was no way out of town by car did you? It goes by the lake in the valley, it's quite the view," she explained with a smile, though it looked a little strained.

I didn't know there was a lake outside town, or a valley for that matter, but I'd let her direct me. Why not? I had to spend the rest of the year in this town, might as well learn all about it that I could. And who would be a better teacher, well technically probably anybody, it wasn't like she knew the town as it was now. She knew a version I could never see, only through her words. I would have loved to see that version though, the way she describes it, seeing her as herself and nobody else.

The road was old, though it had clearly been paved in the last ten years at some point. It did go behind the town, driving by the valley I hadn't known existed, where the lake sat in the middle, surrounded by trees on every side. A valley in the middle of a forest, it was strangely peaceful.

Giselle just smiled out the window. "Ah, the lake looks exactly the same, we'd swim there in the summer months," she chuckled, leaning out the window slightly. "It's always prettiest this time of year though, when the leaves have changed colors and the ground is lightly dusted by snow."

I watched her before glancing at the valley, it was pretty. I pulled over beside the road, to get out and look over the lake. Giselle hurried out my door, hopping out of the truck to stand beside me.

"The lake never freezes, so you can fish year round," she told me with a confident nod, "There's a pond in town that will freeze though, that's where you ice skate."