"Enough!" Jane said. "You've talked enough about this Bale dude. You told me you guys exchanged numbers, arrange a one night stand already!"
"Nooooo," Ginny droned. "He's not a one night fuck kind of guy. He's a get-serious-about kind of guy!"
Ginny walked with Jane down the pavement. It was the day after the fireworks festival and she was walking home with her best friend from a class. They were both taking part-time degrees which had lessons during the weekends. It was for some psychology degree that they wanted to study for fun together.
Jane rolled her eyes again. "By the way, why are we taking this route? This way is longer than usual."
"Well…"
"Oh my god, don't tell me you're trying to find Bale."
"The fireworks festival took place at the river bank ahead. I'm hoping to see him there again."
"You're ditching me for your sex toy!"
"Jane, hush!" Ginny said as they approached the river bank. "It's not like that!"
"Hell it isn't," Jane said. "I know it's been a while since you've been laid."
"So? I've gone years without it."
"You're crazy! A woman needs to get laid every week."
Ginny rolled her eyes. "You're so dramatic," she said as she walked further down the pavement that bordered the river bank. Far down, she caught sight of him.
Bale was there!
Her heart leapt in her chest. "He's there!" Ginny grabbed Jane's arm and shook it.
"Alright, go, go. Go get laid."
"God, Jane!"
Jane burst into laughter. "Tell me all about it after you fuck him, yeah?" Then Jane left.
Ginny removed her heels and put her feet on the lush grass. Slowly, she approached Bale. He was along the river, holding onto something with his back facing her. His hands were cupping something and as she neared, he opened them. A bird was in his hands, and from the looks of it, the tiny bird was dead.
He closed his hands over the dead bird and held it there for a while. In the next second, he opened his hand and the bird fluttered lightly. It got to its claws and soon, it shook its wings free. Then it flew away.
❃❃❃
Huh. Ginny was sure that the bird was dead. But apparently not. It was probably just sleeping. She came up behind Bale and tapped him on the shoulder. Bale threw his head back to look at her, breaking into a smile when he saw her.
He got to his feet and faced her. He reached into his pockets as she stared at him with a small smile. "Hey, Ginny."
"Bale."
He removed something from his pockets and held it between them. It was a paper boat. He passed it to her.
"A paper boat," she said and he nodded. She went over to the river and bent down.
"Wait - " Bale said but did not finish.
Ginny placed the paper boat in the water and the water crept into it, soaking through and disintegrating the paper. The paper boat separated into pieces and disappeared down along with the current.
"Oh," Ginny said. "I'm so sorry. I just assumed that it was waterproof. I didn't expect - " She stared at him and he turned around unexpectedly to leave. Had she annoyed him somehow? She really wanted to be on good terms with him.
She watched his figure stop at some rocks on the ground. He bent down and soon, he was returning to her with a paper bag. He placed it on the ground and removed a sheet of paper from it to slowly fold into another paper boat. She watched him, enraptured as the paper boat took form. Reaching into the paper bag again, he took a glass bottle out, then put the paper boat into the glass bottle. He sealed the glass bottle after and handed it to her.
"I thought you were angry," Ginny said to him.
"I could never be angry at you, Ginny," Bale said, laughing. It was a breathy sound, and she wanted to hear it again. "Try it again."
She came up beside the river and bent down to place the glass bottle with the paper boat inside on top of the water. It bobbed up and down along with the current between two pieces of rock. The paper remained untouched, and as Ginny watched how unharmed it was, a sense of wonder settled onto her.
❃❃❃
It was the next weekend again, and Ginny was walking home with Jane using the route that went past the river bank. They were still quite far away from that place, in a neighbourhood with many road junctions. Jane flipped her straight hair back and eyed Ginny suggestively.
"Seeing him again?" Jane asked.
"Yeah, I want to," Ginny said as she blushed.
"What's his name again?"
"Bale."
"Like a bale of hay? Bale?"
"Yeah."
"Who the hell names their kid that?" Jane scoffed. Ginny gave her shoulder a light shove.
"Ginny…" a humming voice sounded.
What was that?
"I think it's a nice name," Ginny said as they approached the side of a busy road, ready to jaywalk.
"Ginny…" the voice sounded again and this time, Ginny was sure that she had heard it. She turned to look behind her, only to find empty roads in every direction.
"Huh," she said to herself before she turned back. She looked around herself.
Jane was nowhere to be found.