Rochelle L. Sharpe

Note: Akubra is an Australian version of a cowboy hat.

Prologue: The Girl Next Door.

I met Ashlyn Sorrows almost two years ago, on New Years Day. The first New Years I had woken up sober since I was seventeen. No more partying for this city boy. I had been reformed. Shipped off by my father at twenty-four to live with his brother on his farm in the middle of nowhere. To learn how to work.

It was a rough initiation, and I hated it at first, but eventually the sun and soil got under my skin. Three months in, I finally ran into our elusive neighbour whose farm bordered ours. She usually kept to herself.

One look at her and I was a goner.

Heart racing, sweaty palms, not able to talk. All things that had never happened to me before. Her hazel eyes hooked into me, and I swear that as I looked at her, she glowed, like an angel.

She was polite but stand-offish. Guarded.

Being a retired teenage heroine would do that to you. You know, like the ones you read about in young adult novels.

Other worlds exist, or at least one other world does, and Ashlyn saved it when she was seventeen. But it broke her, and at twenty she chose to leave that life behind and retire to Earth, where her father was from, to live a quiet life, keeping a farm in the middle of nowhere Australia.

My uncle hadn’t seen much of her in the three years she lived there before I arrived.

We’ve become friends, the closest of friends, but I long to be more. I’m hoping this Christmas it will finally happen.

*

Chapter One: An unexpected invitation. 

I saunter into Ashlyn’s barn and spy her standing in the middle of it, looking at something in her hand. Belle, Ashlyn’s blue cattle dog, looks at me but doesn’t leave Ashlyn’s side to greet me like she usually does. Something must be wrong. Ashlyn lifts her head. I dip my Akubra at her. It usually makes her smile. This time, it doesn’t, confirming my suspicion. My smile drops at the forlorn look on her face.

“What is it?” I ask, taking my Akubra off and running my hand through my hair.

“I received a message from my aunt, my mother’s sister.”

“Oh,” I say, recognition dawning. Her mother’s sister. The one from the other world. The world she hasn’t visited since she left over five years ago.

“She wants me to visit for the holidays. Says it’s important.”

I spin my Akubra. I know this is the last thing she wants to do. Her aunt knows that too. “I guess she wouldn’t have asked if it wasn’t important.”

She closes her eyes, letting out a heavy sigh.

Ashlyn had lost her mother when she was fourteen, and her aunt had stepped into that role. She stayed by Ashlyn’s side through the hardest days of her life while her father buried his grief in work. Ashlyn had grown up on Earth and didn’t even know about the other world until her mother’s death triggered a long-foretold prophecy, drawing Ashlyn to it.  

She bites her lip, eyes firmly on the barn floor.

“Sam…what if—” she begins and stops. She is choking up, probably thinking the worst.

I move closer, taking the message from her and scanning the contents.

We spent the last Christmas’s together, and I have no interest in spending this one without her. Have no intention of letting this Christmas go by without telling her how I feel.

“I can come with you,” I offer. “My uncle will let me have a few days off.”

She looks at me with surprise. “You’d really come with me?”

“Of course.” I can’t believe she really thinks I wouldn’t.

I have been pining over this girl since I met her, I’d go to the moon with her if she asked, or another world. She wasn’t looking for a hero to save her, and I’m not interested in saving her. But I do want to walk by her side, supporting her in any way she needs.

“I guess I could get Issy to watch the farm for a few days,” she says.

Her cousin on her dad’s side. She’s currently at university in the city but grew up on a farm and knows how to look after one. The perfect solution. Except.

“What about Thistle?” I ask. No one on Earth is supposed to know about Ashlyn’s unicorn. I discovered her by accident. It would be a disaster if Issy saw her.

“She will have to come with us.”

Belle barks, and Ashlyn rubs her head. “Sorry girl, you’ll have to stay.”

Belle whines her objection.

Ashlyn takes the piece of paper back, looking at it one more time.

She lets out a sigh. “I just pray it isn’t something bad.”

The note crumbles to ash and Ashlyn drops her hands. A self-destructing note to ensure no evidence of the other world is left in this one.

“It will be snowing,” Ashlyn says. Her brow furrows like it always does when she is anxious.

I smile. “I’ve never had a white Christmas before. This is going to be fun.”

Still no smile.

“I’ll order a snow jacket online,” I tell her.

She rubs her face. “I’ll have to get you a pass with border control.”

“Border control?”

She nods. “Trust me, it’s just easier that way.”

I place my hand on her upper back and rub slow, gentle circles. “It will be fine.”

She leans into me. “I hope so.”

*

I’ve just finished making our tea when Ashlyn hangs up her phone. She places it on the table, looking up at me as I hand over her cup. It’s lemon and ginger. She can’t handle caffeine.

“Issy is available to look after the farm.”

“That’s great. ” I sit opposite her, placing my mug down next to my Akubra.

“Now to deal with border control.” She takes a sip of her tea.

A small knot forms in my stomach. “They will let me come with you, won’t they?”

“I’ll be able to pull a few strings.”

You’d think so, since she saved the world and everything. I nod and sip my tea.

Her eyes flick to the top of my head. “I’ll need some of your hair.”

I raise my eyebrows at her over my mug. “My hair?”

“They don’t take passports. Your hair will tell them who you are, and if you are a threat.”

“Righto.”

She stands, grabbing an envelope out of a draw and a pair of scissors. Taking a piece of my brown hair between her fingers, she snips it off, placing it in the envelope. She returns the scissors, pulling out a pen and a bit of paper. She quickly writes something, placing the paper in with the hair and sealing the envelope.

She opens the window above the sink and lets out a long, low whistle.

A magpie lands on the windowsill.

“Please take this to the border tree and place it in the branches for me.”

Ashlyn places the envelope in the magpie’s mouth, and it flies off.

She returns to the table.

“How long does it take to get a response?” I ask.

“We should know by tomorrow morning.” She reaches over, taking my hand in hers and giving it a little squeeze. “Thank you for doing this, Sam.”

“Course. You know I’d do anything for you.”

She nods, withdrawing her hand. I instantly miss the warmth of her fingers.

I drain my tea and stand. “I have to get back to work. I’ll drop by in the morning to see what border control has to say.”

She stands, walking with me to the door. If only she was mine, and I could lean in and kiss her goodbye.

I place my Akubra back on. “See you tomorrow.”

“Bye.”

(Stay tuned for chapter two!)

© Rochelle L. Sharpe, 2025.