The little girl blinked at me "I'm not Junie. I'm Audrey" she mumbled shyly. "Oh sorry, I thought you were someone I know" I said sheepishly. How stupid I was! Of course it wasn't Junie. She was dead and buried six- feet under. "I am Christina" I said. "Hello Christina." Audrey said without even looking at me. That's odd, I thought. "You can call me Chris" I went on. She began to wring her hands nervously. This was also strange.

"Chris" she said experimentally still not looking at me and wringing her hands. She was slowly rocking herself on the swing. "So where's your mother?" I asked.

"She's sleeping" she said not looking at me.

"So you're here by yourself?" I asked rhetorically.

"Yes"

"So... what topics most interest you?" I asked politely.

"Um… Dragons" she said quietly still not making eye contact and she was still wringing her hand and rocking herself on the swings.

"Dragons?" I said incredulously.

"Yes. Like did you know there are two types of dragon folklore European and Asian and the word Leviathan is likely meaning dragon in the Bible." She went on and on about dragons until I was heartily sick of dragons. I tried dropping hints to change the topic, but she would not take the hint. Finally I changed the topic myself.

"So, what are your hobbies?" I asked. I sure heck hoped it had nothing to do with dragons.

"Reading, embroidery, beading, oh and drawing" She was certainly starting to get over her shyness.

"Yeah, I like reading too. And writing. I want to be a writer one day."

"What do you want to be one day?"

"I don't know" she shrugged.

"My sister Junie wanted to be a ballet dancer" I said without thinking. My voice was very thick and before I could stop myself a single tear rolled down my cheek.

"Are you crying?" she asked. Damn it why couldn't she look at me when she spoke. And why did she have to wring her hands?

"Mind if I swing with you?"

She shrugged and I took that as a no. I had developed a phobia of swings since Junie's death, but I still loved them dearly. I told myself it was silly to be scared of swings, people went on them every day at the park. What happened to Junie was a freak accident. But I still shuddered as I clambered onto the swing.

"So how do you see yourself in the future Audrey?" I asked her as I swung rhythmically.

"I don't know" she shrugged.

"I see myself writing dozens of books. All bestsellers of course. I shall be independent raising my two adopted children all by myself. No husband. It's not that I'm not a man-hater like people assume. I like men ok. Just not in the romantic sense. People think I'm gay. But I don't like women either. At least not in the romantic sense. I'm aromatic."

I didn't expect her to take interest in what I was saying. I thought maybe all she liked to talk about was dragons. But to my surprise she had an expression of great interest on her face. Although she still didn't look at me. I played with her in the park. We played tag, ringa ringa a rosies and some pretend game. I had to stay at the park until school finished. I shared some of my delicious munchies with Audrey. I gave her a hug as I said good-bye. I could tell my gesture surprised her. I went home in a much better mood even though I hadn't done what I had come to do.

"You can't tell my mom Kim, but I bunked school to go to the park"

"Whatever you say to me is in perfect confidence" she said flashing me her advert smile.
"But you will never guess what! I met a girl there who looked just like Junie!"

Kim nodded.

"But I don't know what was wrong with her. She wouldn't look me in the eye and she couldn't stop wringing her hands and rocking on the swing."

"Perhaps, she has Asperger's syndrome" Kim said knowledgably.

"What's that?"

"It's on the autistic spectrum"

"Please speak English Kim"

"Alright, autism is a mental condition in which someone has difficulty in communication and socializing."

"That make sense"

"Alright back to what we normally talk about" I said.

A/N I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Sorry it was a bit short. Please review as it gives me inspiration to write more.