1 | jace and calico | sitting under a tree | short story |

Instructions

| 1 | jace and calico | sitting under a tree | short story | jace and calico are resting under the shade of a tall oak tree's leaves on a hot summer's night. jace lets out a heaving sigh, his eyes closed, while calico has her head resting on his shoulder, telling him stories about the adventures she used to have with her older sister before she had gone missing. he nods his head every so often to sound like he's interested; he isn't. he attempts to drown out everything that's going on, and, for some reason, does. he can only hear the rustling of the leaves, a few crickets chirping, fire fly wings flapping, frogs croaking, and water trickling down a stream nearby. at one point, he thinks he can hear the twinkling of the starts that light up their night skies. everything is peacful, quiet, and reserved. until he comes back to his senses. "...and then she got hives because she ate a peanut. gosh- she was so allergic to those," calico chuckles quietly, and jace raises an eyebrow. "that's how you end your stories?" "mhm!" she nods, and looks up at the stars, her eyes lighting up. "the stars reminds me of another story!" jace sighs, and leans his head back more on the tree. "there was this one time..." calico's words are drowned out again, but this time, not on purpose. jace has gotten distracted by watching a little bunny hop around, chasing the fireflies. it's soft, velvety coat blow around in the cool night breeze, trying to catch a firefly in its mouth. 'i wonder how that tastes,' he thinks, chuckling a bit. calico hears him, and looks up, concerned. "what's so funny about her falling down a hill into a river?" he doesn't respond- he's still fixated on the bunny trying to get a midnight snack. she looks at his eyes, and follows where they were; the bunny. "jace, are you even paying attention?" she asks, annoyed. he shakes his head, and continues to watch the bunny. it looks over at him, and hops on his lap. he gently unwraps his arm from around calico, and starts to pet the bunny, its ears twitching a bit each time he scratches behind its ear. "how are these stories supposed to be passed down to my grandchildren, when you're not even paying attention?!" "how is that going to work?" "uh- DUH; you're supposed to tell our children about these stories, and then when i die, you tell our children's children, our grandchildren, about them!" "since when were you going to die?" "i've decided to die before you. somehow. it'll just naturally happen." jace chuckles, and nods his head, then scrunches his eyebrows. "wait... who said we were having kids?" he asks, generally confused but slightly intrigued at the idea. "uh- i did." "and you didn't think to ask me?" "of course not! i have little to no concern about what you think, which is why i've already decided that we'll have one girl and one boy; the girls name will be emily, and the boy, liam." "what if i don't like the name emily?" "too bad." "but what if i want to name my son something different than liam?" "like i said, i have little to no concern about what your opinions are and what you think." "ouch." calico and jace snicker for a bit, and soon, calico's fallen asleep. jace sighs, and looks up at the sky. "emily and liam," he repeats to himself. her eyes flutter a bit, and she blinks. "what?" "i'll be sure to tell emily and liam that everything was decided sitting under a tree," he says with a chuckle. she smiles, and clicks her tongue. "i'll be sure to tell emily and liam that you had no say in our kids' future." "hey- that's not fair!" "is too." and then the universe sits still, listening to the weird and funny conversations of jace and calico, sitting under a tree, at midnight.