He came again! Several times in fact. It was always the same: I'd be playing in the garden, he'd appear and we'd sit together, me talking at him, him listening in silence. I loved it! The secret boy who hung onto every word I said with such interest that it made me want to say more and more. Occassionally I'd ask him a question; who are you? Why do you come here? How do you know how to get into my garden? What's your name? Where're you from? Where's your family? But he'd always reply with a knowing smile and more silence. I quickly got used to this and decided that he couldn't talk for some reason, perhaps he was still too shy, or maybe he had some problem with his throat. I didn't really mind as such, the fact that he listened at all was a pleasent novelty that I couldn't get over, although I was intrigued by my mysterious visitor - almost to the point that I wondered if he was even real! But then I remembered the little acorn that he gave me and knew that he had to be...
It was on his seventh visit that he first spoke to me. We were sat out in the sunshine, eating apples which had fell into our garden from my neighbours tree. The day was utterly glorious! It was the height of summer and the sun was as warm as it could get with only a few gentle clouds scudding across the sky to take away its heat; insects buzzed lazily around us giving the garden a feeling of life that the absent wind had taken away. The tall grass around us gave us a little shade but we were idol and content to stay out in the heat. Our "conversation" (me talking at him) had lapsed into silence with the coming of the apples and now we were contentedly wiping our sticky fingers on our dirt encrusted clothing I couldn't think of anything to say. I was just pondering asking him if he wanted a game of dragons when suddenly a small voice piped up, "Thanks miss Sefa!" and that was that.
At first I wasn't sure who had spoken, I'd wondered if I'd imagined the voice but one look at Joran said otherwise. He was blushing furiously and had suddenly found the core of his apple to be the most fascinating thing to look at in the garden. Of course, I had no idea what his name was at this point, when I adressed him it was as "acorn boy" and we both seemed to know who I meant. During my ramblings at him he'd learnt almost my entire life so far and so it was no surprise that he knew my name, still seeing as I knew nothing about him it was a little odd to here him use my name...even odder to hear him speak at all! He must have caught the puzzled expression on my face when he glanced up at me because he laughed a little before saying, "I'm Joran!" I repeated the name several times before offering a sticky hand to for him to shake and from that moment on we've never stopped being friends.
