9. A Study in Solitude

Walking slowly with her eyes closed, Emery tries to calm her constantly racing heart for just a moment. She takes everything in: the soft blades of grass running along the bare soles of her feet, the tiny rocks poking out of the shallow dirt and gently scraping across her skin. There's hardly any sound here, only the soft rush of the stream. No birds. No signs of any wildlife. Nothing.
Emery always hated quiet.  She could never concentrate when it surrounded. She just wasn't the kind of girl who found peace in silence. So she does as she always did in situations like this and relies on electronics.
She grips her iPod classic tightly with one hand, reaching up with her other to fit the buds into her ears, one at a time. Then with a slight pressure against the play button, the music ripples into her head. She stands like this for a long time, gently swaying to the familiar but oddly distant rhythm. Where had she heard it before? She doesn't care. At least, not anymore. She no longer has anything to worry about.

Not far off in that same garden, a young man watches the swaying girl.
"So young," he says simply to himself, as if he's ignoring the other boy standing behind him, who shrugs.
"They don't choose to be here, Ethan. You didn't."
"No," Ethan replies, "but some do."
He tugs some blades from the dirt and rubs them between his fingers, leaving green stains on his skin.
"She doesn't know we're here," he says, letting the blades slip from his fingers.
"No," his friend replies, "I don't think she wants to. Perhaps she wants to be alone."
"Why?" Ethan asks, "Who would want to be alone in a place like this?"
He looks up and meets his friends pale grey eyes, and he shrugs. "This may just be her solitude, Ethan. Everyone has different interests. This must be hers. She's getting what she never had in her life."
Ethan glances back at the girl, who keeps her eyes shut as she listens to her music.
"Perhaps."
His friend moves to walk away, but Ethan stays where he is on the ground, watching as the girl starts to slowly spin in circles around one of the garden fountains.
"Solitude," he says to himself.