Tom still remembered these woods.
Past the memories of Huck were the memories of coming here, of calmly hiding and pretending he had died. Pretending he could just leave his home and his town. A comforting thought, but he wasn't quite sure why.
Tom continued through the woods, hearing the lapping of the Mississippi river nearby. Hearing the leaves and twigs crunching under his footsteps. All of it calmed him, making him forget for a moment or two about Becky and about all of it. It was like he was a little boy again, in these woods. Like he was sitting and waiting for Huck and Joe to come along and play pirates, or waiting to talk with them, or just being, sitting in these comforting woods.
Tom stood for a moment, staring and listening. He could hardly see through the deepening dark of the middle of the night, and so it was like his eyes were closed.
The forest breathed around him. The sliver moon had replaced the gas lights' glow, and the stars were like pins of morning sunlight falling onto him. The air was fresher than in the town, and with every breeze, the trees ruffled and shook and messed his hair. And the silence around him echoed like a vacuum, sucking every bad thought from his breaths.
There were fireflies, lightning bugs. Plentiful and fading with their green-yellow light like their own type of star and like he was floating and surrounded.
It really felt as if he was now back in time. And the ache in his heart was replaced with a longing for the past, for the calmness that came with it and the stillness that it had.
He heard a tune in the forest.
Filling the air with its vibrating, metal sound. With its light, buzzing noise, and Tom stood, listening. A fire started in his bones.
He felt something bump into him, and suddenly he got chills, and suddenly he was falling to the ground with an exclamation and a thud.
"Oh! Ay, uh," A boy's voice, sounding around the same age as Tom. He could hear the boy's feet shuffling on the leaf-filled ground, and saw through the dark the boy's hands reaching for air. "I reckon that ain't no tree."
"No, it's not a tree." Tom said, looking up but unable to see their face.
"Lemme help you up, then." The boy's hands touched Tom's shoulders, then felt down his arms to his hands.
"Thank you." Tom said. The boy's grip on him was rough. Calloused hands slid against Tom's, pulling him up. Tom brushed himself off. "What're you doing in the woods so late?" Tom asked with barely a breath, struggling to see the boy's face. The lightning bugs glowed in and out, showing flashes of a cheek, a shoulder, the edges of hair. But he still couldn't see, and he gave up, just listening to his voice instead.
"Oh, just walkin' around. And I can't see much in the dark, so figures I'd wander into these woods." The boy's voice was warm. Dark. A nice, soothing, pleasing sound, familiar and comforting despite never meeting this person before.
"I bet you're lost, then?" Tom asked, running a hand through his hair. He'd never met a person wandering the woods at night; he hoped he hadn't run into a killer or something.
"Nah, I ain't ever lost, just always on my way. I'll right myself around when the sun comes up." The boy said. Tom nodded, though he wouldn't be able to see that.
"I know my way around-- I can walk you back towards town, if you like? It's all lit up over there so you can see where you're going."
"Nah, that's 'aight. I'm fine here with the trees. Ain't nowhere to go this time of night anyways, besides to rest."
"Yeah, you're right." Tom nodded, running a hand through his hair.
"So why's you not in bed?" The boy asked. Tom shrugged, the motion unseen.
"I had to be alone. I have some things to think on." Tom said.
"Well, I ain't you, but I can give you perspective, I bet." The boy said. "If you want, I can listen." Tom thought for a moment over this.
"I don't want to be any trouble--"
"Nah! Let's sit us down and you can talk the night away. I ain't got nothing to do but listen, anyways." The boy said, and Tom nodded.
"Alright... I could use a talk." Tom said, and sat down on the twigs and roots and leaves, and the boy sat down beside him, invisible in the dark. For all Tom knew, in this dark, the boy could be a murderer or just in his imagination, but... it didn't really matterâTom just needed to sort things out.
Despite this, Tom didn't know where to start. He thought and thought, looking up at the stars obscured by the leaves. Under this forest, it was dark as a fresh chalkboard, the deepness in it so black it looked like an ocean in the sky.
"What're you thinking on?" The boy nudged him. The warmth and the suddenness of it took him out of his thoughts.
"Well, you see," Tom just decided to start anywhere. The boy wouldn't know any of this anyway, and the night would be running short soon.
"...Amy Lawrence, um... kissed me, and my girlfriend wasn't there," It felt strange saying it outright, that Amy really kissed him. That Becky was his girlfriend. But... it also probably wouldn't be like that for much longer. "And I told Amy off and she told Becky we kissed and that I kissed her back, but that's a lie. And my girlfriend believes her!" Tom said. It all sounded so simple coming out of his mouth, but the feelings inside of him were all mixed, all turned together and tangled.
"Yikes."
"And what am I supposed to do about it? She won't have a word with me!" Tom said.
"Have you gone and talked to Amy about it yet?" The boy asked. Tom went quiet, his stomach turning. The simplicity of the boy's answers made Tom almost laugh, almost cry.
"No, but... it isn't something I'd like to do. I've been avoiding Amy since it happened." Tom said. He ran a hand through his hair. "And when it happened, I told Amy I ain't ever gonna like her like that."
"Well, there's your problem. You went and broke Amy's heart!"
"What?"
"My years of travel, I ain't ever met a person who'd respond well to that." He said. Tom blinked through the dark.
"How am I supposed to know that!" Tom exclaimed, putting a hand up into his hair.
"Man," He could hear the boy shaking his head, an almost-laugh in his voice through the dark. "You best go apologize before she makes it worse for you."
"...Well what about my girl?"
"Fix it up with Amy and I reckon she'll help you out. Shucks, was that it? I expected somethin' a bit worse than that for you to be stayin' up in the dead of night."
"Hey, you make it sound like it's not a big ol' deal!" Tom said, frowning. "It's really shaken me up for days now."
"Well, glad I could fix it!" He could hear the smile in the boy's voice now. It made Tom lean back, looking up at the black leaves against the navy sky, sighing. It made Tom smileâeverything might be okay.
"Yeah, alrightâ Say... thanks for talking to me. I, um... I ain't had anyone to talk to about that whole thing." Tom said, looking over through the dark. He wished he could see the boy's face. "I, uhâ I'm Tom." He said, and then felt a change in the other boy's breath, in the way he sat.
"Tom, huh?" There was a strangeness in the boy's voice, now. A sort of revelation, recollection, but Tom didn't really notice it that far. He didn't have enough time to think on it, either.
"Yeah. What's your-- Oh, darn. Sun's coming up. My Aunt'll whip me good if I don't get home." Tom said, getting up and brushing himself off. "See you sometime?" Tom asked.
"Yeah, I bet so. Bye, Tom." The boy said, but Tom didn't look back to see the boy's face in the rising airâhe had too much to think on. He could see a bit more around him now, and so hurried on home before Aunt Polly noticed he had gone.