"I'm impressed, Syb. It looks really stable; now all it needs is a roof," Jonathan said, running his hands along the wooden pieces of wood that made up the walls of our treehouse.

"And you managed to do it all without a single injury."

I looked at Barbara and laughed. "Thanks for the vote of confidence."

"You know what I mean. I had my reservations about this task, but you both appear to have done a wonderful job. Well, except the roof."

"We're working on that bit. We don't know what will be the best way to put it on," Alec said. He cleared a splatter of mud from his glasses and chewed on his bottom lip.

"It's still an excellent piece of construction, with or without the roof."

Jonathan slowly made his way down the ladder to join us on the ground, brushing off his hands and trousers once his feet touched the grass. He had insisted upon inspecting the stability of the treehouse just to make sure we hadn't done anything wrong that could lead to either of us falling from the tree. There was no doubt in either my mind or Alec's that the treehouse we had built was stable, especially since we had been walking on it every day for two weeks. If something were to happen, I'm more than certain that it already would have.

Our next steps were to construct an actual ladder so that Mr Thompson could have his back and to put a roof on it. We wanted the treehouse to be completely weatherproof, but it needed a roof first and we weren't sure how to put it on. The only feasible way we could think of was having someone up in the branches above the treehouse to put it together that way, but even for us, that felt like it would be too dangerous to try. Neither of us had considered the construction of the roof when we started.

Still, being most of the way through the work on the treehouse was an achievement itself since neither of us had taken on a project like that without an adult's help. We had done something rather spectacular in a matter of weeks, something that came from a scribble drawing on a torn piece of paper. If someone had told me two years before that I would have achieved such a thing, I doubt I would have believed them. A lot had happened in eleven months.

Somehow, through the construction of the treehouse, we stumbled into August and I could hardly believe that it had been almost a year since we boarded that train. It felt like it had only been a few months, but then August appeared and suddenly it had been eleven months. Time certainly did fly faster than I thought and none of us knew how much longer the war would go on for.

"You'll have plenty of time to figure out how to put the roof on over the next few days. The good weather is supposed to hold up so there's no danger of it getting rained on," Jonathan said.

"Fingers crossed. If it rains, I might cry." Alec pretended to wipe away a tear.

"Make sure you don't cry until I'm present, that's something I would pay money to see."

"Why are you so mean to me?"

"Because it's fun."

"That's enough, you two," Barbara said. "You squabble like an old married couple."

"We would know, my dear." Jonathan laughed and kissed her on the cheek. "We should go, I only wanted to see the progress on the treehouse."

"That dog of yours better not have chewed my furniture, Sybil."

"Goose knows better than to chew the furniture." I exchanged a look with Alec and quickly looked away. We both held onto a secret of catching Goose chewing on the corner of the living room rug and having to spin the entire rug around so Barbara wouldn't notice.

"We'll see you at the farm, Syb."

"See you later." Jonathan smiled before he and Barbara turned and started to walk hand-in-hand down the hill.

I turned back to Alec who had removed his glasses once again and rubbed the glasses against his shirt. One thing I had learnt about Alec after all that time building the treehouse was that he cleaned his glasses at least twice every hour. He had even dropped them from the treehouse a couple of times and I think we were both amazed they hadn't broken. How Alec managed to do anything remained a mystery to me, but most things did when it came to him and I never asked too many questions when it came to Alec. Not if I could help it, anyway.

Once Alec had finished cleaning his glasses - we both knew they'd be off again in a matter of minutes - the two of us scaled the ladder and stared up at the tangle of branches above us. The sun peeked through the crisscrossed branches, casting a shadow across the treehouse. Leaves rustled above us and I could hear the soft sound of birds chirping somewhere high above us, although I was surprised the birds had stayed in the tree given the amount of noise we always made when working.

"How are we going to put a roof on?" Alec asked, spinning around and keeping his eyes fixed on the hole above our heads.

"No idea. The only way I can think to do it is for us to be above the actual treehouse, but I'm not confident in my tree-climbing abilities."

"You've climbed onto roofs."

"Not the same thing. I could get a ladder directly up to the roof, this would rely on my own skill."

"Maybe there's another way."

"Like?"

Alec shrugged and took a few steps forwards until he stood in the doorway to the treehouse. It wasn't so much as a doorway and more like a large hole in the centre of the wall that meant we could get in and out. We had yet to discuss whether we'd put an actual door in or just leave it as it is, but that would be one of the finer details that weren't important until we had put a roof on top. Alec sat down in the gap and dangled his legs over the side.

I slid into the small gap beside Alec, the space only just big enough for the two of us to sit side-by-side and look out over the Thompson farm and the hills in the distance. We could just see over the tops of the trees, where the large hills rolled into one until they disappeared over the horizon. From where I sat, I could make out the spire from the church and the roofs of the buildings in the village. The sunlight bounced off everything and it all looked so calm and peaceful.

Neither of us felt the need to talk so we just sat there in each other's company and listened to the sounds of the countryside. The birds in the trees, the sheep grazing in a field nearby and the occasional groan of a cow filled the silence that encased us. Beside me, Alec swung his legs like an excitable child and sat on his hands.

"I think this place has surpassed your expectations," Alec said after a few minutes, his voice cutting through the silence.

"That's a big word for you," I said, laughing.

"Rude." He grinned. "I mean it, though. Almost a year later and I think it's safe to say that this place has grown on you, even if you tried to resist it."

I shrugged. "Maybe it has. Still hard to believe it's been almost a year."

"Dad said that the other day. It's weird to think that almost a year has passed since all this started."

"It'll be a year since Dad left soon."

"Have you heard from him?"

I shook my head.

I hadn't heard from Dad since he had been deployed in the Channel before the fall of France. Mum and I expected to hear from him once Dunkirk was over with, but neither of us had received a letter from him and I found myself almost giving up on the idea that he was still alive. That little voice at the back of my head kept reminding me that if something had happened to him, the War Office would have contacted us. I hung onto the hope that he was still alive because of that. What else did I have?

"Maybe he'll write before your birthday."

"Maybe." I shrugged, knowing the likelihood a letter would arrive in the next few days was rather slim. "I got a letter and package from Mum this morning, but Jonathan won't let me open them."

"No presents until your birthday."

"This is the same man that tried to trick me into telling him what I had made them for Christmas."

"True. Consider it a form of revenge."

I laughed, but I knew Alec was right. Jonathan had never quite forgiven me for refusing to tell him what I was doing for his Christmas present so had decided to hold my birthday over me instead. Not only had he refused to let me open the letter and present from Mum, but he kept giggling to himself and making comments under his breath about how good my present would be from him and Barbara. It had started to wear a little thin, but I only had to put up with it for a few more days.

Not only that, but Alec had taken to taunting me too, especially when he found out the actual date of my birthday. He relished in the fact that he was older than me, and by almost a year, so he didn't intend to drop the subject. Alec's birthday had been the day I'd arrived in the country, a fact that he found quite funny. Me, not so much since I had to spend all my time putting up with him and his constant need to remind me that he was older - even though I was taller, much to his disgust.

I turned away from Alec and stared out across the countryside. This would be my first birthday away from home and it didn't feel right to celebrate it when I didn't know where Dad was. Jonathan and Barbara had planned a trip to the lake and had invited Alec and his family as well as Eva, Enid and Mark, but it didn't feel right. I didn't want them to think that I was ungrateful so I'd agreed to them arranging it, still, something felt off about celebrating my birthday without my family.

"They won't mind you know," Alec said.

"Who won't?"

"Your parents. I doubt they'll want you to put a stop on your entire life, including your birthday, because they're not here to celebrate it with you. They'll probably make it up to you when the war is over and you can go back."

Something shifted in his tone when he spoke, a small, almost unnoticeable shift. It sounded like resentment, a hatred of the idea that I would go back to London and leave him and the Goodwin's. Alec knew I couldn't stay in the country, I didn't see it as my home and I knew Mum wasn't likely to pack up her entire life and move out to the middle of nowhere just because I had a friend. I would have to go back eventually and I didn't understand why Alec seemed to hate the idea.

I didn't say anything and neither did Alec. Instead, we fall into another silence and the two of us just sit there and watch the world go round from above. I watched the clouds as they moved across the sky, my eyes following the shadow they cast on the ground and the hills around us. Briefly, I glance over at Alec who has furrowed his eyebrows and appears to be chewing on the inside of his cheek, like he's thinking about something.

"I should go," I said after a little while, "supper will probably be ready soon."

Alec jumps a little, as though he forgot I had been sitting there. "Right. Time is still moving."

"Huh?"

"Nothing." He shook his head a little. "I should go and feed the animals before they get restless. An angry cow is not a fun sight."

Alec shuffled forward until he could put his foot on the top rung of the ladder before he started to shimmy down it. I followed at a safe distance and jumped off the last few rungs, the two of us standing under the treehouse in a silence that had become a little awkward.

"I'll see you at the lake in a few days then?" I said.

"Definitely. I'm not passing up the opportunity for free food."

I laughed, but it died quickly in the awkwardness. "See you then."

"Bye, Syb."

He turned and started to walk down the hill towards the farm, leaving me standing up the treehouse with no clue as to what had just happened.

~~~

A/N - Here we are! Chapter Forty-Six! I have officially started the sequel and I might move into some additional updates once I get into the swing of writing it and have a few backup chapters ready for you all.

Questions! Do you think Alec is right that Sybil should celebrate her birthday without her parents? Is there something more Alec's mind? 

Comment below!

First Published - January 26th, 2021