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Characters: Polly, OC Disclaimer: The author makes no claim to owning the rights of anything to do with Terry Pratchett or Discworld.
Remembering Molly Piper
I remember one time, not long after my twelfth birthday, when I snuck away from the Inn for an afternoon with my friend, Molly Piper. Molly was nearly thirteen and I was slightly in awe of her, so when she tapped on the kitchen window and said "Come on, let's go swimming", I wasn't about to say no. Anyway, it was oppressively hot out. You could have cut the air with a kitchen knife, it was so humid. So I followed her down the path along the stream near the Inn, to the Krik Pond. The pond was hidden by a copse of willow trees, although everyone knew it was there. It was fed by a little water fall, and it was cold even in high summer. We stripped down to our shifts and plunged into the water, coming up gasping and shaking our sodden hair out of our eyes. Molly had been gifted by nature somewhat more than I had been, at that point (or at all, come to think of it), and a white shift offers a lot less cover when it's wet. I think that's why I remember that day so well. I'd seen plenty of boys with their shirts off. When your family runs an Inn, you see all sorts of things, including half-naked men making deliveries off the backs of carts. None of them had ever made me feel like this. At the time, I assumed that it was the cold water making shiver. Eventually, I would find out that it wasn't just the water. But not that day. That day, I simply enjoyed my time with Molly, splashing and laughing, and then shushing each other in case someone walking by heard us and told our parents where we'd gone. I think even then I knew we were both on the cusp of something. That this was one of the last chances I'd have to spend with her before she officially grew up and started courting, before I started down that road myself. One of the last chances we'd have to be kids together. |