Edward rolled his eyes and sat back on his stony space. "I told ya it's fine for twisting."

He hugged his knees to his chest and looked at the hole. "Fairies? Sounds dumb, what do you do? Spin around in circles? And I brought you here cause I'm great and your brother stinks. I thought you could use a private space. It's why I got so many. Older people stink."

Mable frowned.  "Fairies aren't dumb, they're cool.  They have magic and can turn people you don't like into frogs forever.  And they can fly."

She didn't argue his point about him being great and the boy called Edmund stinking.  He was right about that too, even if she didn't want to say it, or explain that he wasn't her brother.  Instead, she sat up and fixed him with a curious look.

"Older people do stink.  Do you have older siblings?  Is that how you know they stink so bad?"

Edward rose a brow. "Turning people into frogs and flying is witches. Fairies like... dance in the woods and make people sleep a hundred years."

He had already forgotten all about the lie he'd told her of the giant estate and horses. "Ah, I am the oldest. Got loads of little bothers and sisters. They just scream and cry all the time. But my parents and the teachers and constables and stuff all are dumb."

He rest his hands behind his head as he looked at the stars. "Hey. Mable... if you could be anywhere in the world right now. Where would you go?"

"Maybe fairies can dance and make people sleep and turn them into frogs.  And witches fly on brooms!  Fairies have wings.  Its different."

If Edward was the oldest sibling in his family, then that meant he was the stinky one, along with his parents and teachers and constables.  But Mable didn't say that, because she knew Edward and she didn't think any of that was true at all.

His question made the girl sigh sadly.  "Pennsylvania."  She didn't even need to think about it.  "Back to the farm where I grew up on.  I - sometimes I forget how much I miss it, but I miss it so much."

Now more than ever.  She missed her brother, and she missed climbing trees and jumping from branch to branch, bathing in the creek and rolling down hills and eating wild berries.

"What about you?  Where would you go?"

Edward folded his arms. "Maybe witches just pretend to be fairies."

He was quiet and then turned his head to her. "You wanna go back home? Sounds boring. I wanna sail the ocean or go someplace amazing like a jungle. But then I never been some place I wanna go back to. " and he hated whitby.

Edward really didn't know what he was talking about, because Mable's home was the opposite of boring.  It was actually the best place in the world, mostly, but she didn't want to say that for fear it would sound like she was bragging.  Then again, Edward had horses, so maybe she should brag a little.

"Like a ship captain?  Of your own boat?"  That was a much more exciting answer than hers was.  "How many places have you been?  I bet if you came to my home, you'd wanna go back all the time.  And if you had your own boat, you could!  You could go anywhere in the world!"

Edward stared at the sky for a moment. He scratched his cheek and then rolled onto his side. "Yeah. Captain of my own ship. I'd call it something like.. the tidal terror. And I'd be a scary captain like.. pirates. " He was just sure if Bram heard him he'd run away with it. But Edward was smart and realistic.


"Maybe. I don't know what your home was like. If I had a big ship I could take you home though. Philadelphia is across the ocean right?"

"Pennsylvania," Mable corrected with a laugh.  "Yeah, its across the ocean.  It's in the United States of America, super far from Whitby.  But we could sail there on your ship and I'd show you around, and I bet you'd like it a lot."

The girl scooted closer to where Edward was laying down, tilting her head to look at him properly.  "It had tons of grass that was super soft, and trees that had a million branches each, so they were super easy and fun to climb.  And there's no adults there anymore, since my dad passed, so it would be just us!"

Edward oh'd and nodded. "Yeah, Pennsylvania..'He said though he didn't know the difference. "Well, all the good places are far from Whitby. It's a shit hole where people get trapped. It stinks here so much. I'd love to take a boat even if it wasn't mine. Your place would have to be better than here."

He turned slightly so she wouldn't look at his bad eye and stared at the wall where he saw some sort of bug crawling along the dull grey wall. "Yeah? If your dad is dead that means the place is yours." That's how it worked, he was sure. "We got grass and trees here, though it isn't so good." He didn't waste his time climbing trees. Messing with people in town was so much funner.

The boy caught her in the corner of his eye. "If you got back. Would you stay there and do what your dad did? Farm or whatever?"

Mable didn't think that Whitby was a shit hole at all.  Really, it was quite nice!  There were lot's of people, yes, and not nearly enough green, but that didn't make it bad.  Just different.

"My dad didn't farm, he just drank all day and got angry at everything."  Mable picked up another handful of dirt and tossed it so she wouldn't have to look at Edward as she spoke.  "If I were there, I would totally farm, and garden, and have a hundred animals and take care of them super well.  And when I wasn't working, I'd climb trees and play fairies like I used to do!"

It was a nice thing to imagine, petting cows and riding horses and feeding chickens and then getting to play like she always did.  Like would be so easy and simple, she'd never be mad at anything like her dad was.  That was a perfect life as far as Mable was concerned.

"If you had a boat, you'd just sail around all the time?  You'd never want to get a house and stay in one place, ever ever?"