Chapter 4, Into the Woods.
It’s Saturday and I’m in my room reading a comic book and listening to music, the patter of rain hitting my window with a quick rhythm. I’m enjoying my day off, when someone knocks on my door. I turn of the music. “Come in” I say.
Henri opens the door. Which is odd, as Henri never comes to my room.
“Um, what do you need?” I ask. He’s trying to look cool and leans against my door
“You’re a girl right?” He says.
I look at him “well, yes, I am a girl. That would be why I have a chest”
“So, what do girls, like?” he asks me as he twirls his hand for emphasis
“What do girls like?” I repeat. He nods. “You know, I’m not the best girl to ask, maybe you should ask Jen”
“No, I mean… what do you like?” he says pointing at me. “
Me? What do I like? Why?” I’m really confused. Is it my birthday and I missed it? Because that’s usually when we have this conversation
“I met this girl and she’s reminded me of you. She kept talking about doctor who and comic books and the kind of stuff you’re into, and she was really hot, so….” His ‘cool’ act slips up and he blushes
“Henri, if you want to know what she likes, go ask her.” I say. “Couldn’t you just tell me what she might like? You know a conversation starter!” He says. I love Henri, I really do. He’s a great big brother, but he’s just so… Awkward.
“Just talk to her like you talk to me, with less ‘swag’” I say using air quotes. He leans a bit too far on the door and loses his balance, sending him crashing to the floor. He stands up quickly, looking really embarrassed. “Ok, this is really awkward I’m just going to call her” He says as he leaves my room. “Why didn’t you just do that in the first place?” I yell at him. “I needed to use up all my awkward on you!” he yells back. I laugh and roll my eyes. It’s times like these when I wonder who is really the oldest.
I decide to check my email and see if Dad has sent me anything. I click on my email and see I do have an email. I look to see if it’s dad. It’s not. It’s an email from our internet provider who wants me to pay them extra money for better internet. I delete it. I make a new email and start writing to my dad. I tell him about my job and how his dogs are doing, but mostly I tell him that I miss him. I send it and look at the time. I decide to go check on my garden, as it’s mostly done raining. I walk down stairs past Henri’s room and hear him talking on the phone, I smile. I hope it’s that girl. In the kitchen I see mom’s left a penguin sticky note on the fridge that says “went to the grocery store be back in a bit”
It has just finished raining, the clouds letting lose a few last drops, as I reach my garden. I look around at all my flowers. It’s so pretty. There’s something about rain that makes everything change. The petals on flowers darken the leaves give of a clean smell. I like it. I walk around for a while. Smelling the flowers, touching petals, looking at the color contrast opposed to when my garden is dry. I suddenly am thinking of the woods. There’s a way into the woods from my yard. I wonder if they lead to the same woods as Haden’s. I look over to the woods, Mom wouldn’t mind if I was in there would she? I used to play back there all the time. I decide to go. I walk into the woods, and look around.
I’ve always found forests beautiful. There’s something magical, mysterious about them. How the light falls under the trees, how it’s dark, but just enough to make it intriguing. How the noises are never ending, everything is alive. How it smells like life and death, fresh and old. Looking at the ground there are small trees reaching for the fleeting light that escapes through the mature tree’s leaves. There are fallen logs, decomposing into earth, fungus growing out of them. I have forgotten why I love it in here. I love the color. Green brown. Not green and brown, green brown. I love the wild noises, the smell, and the damp coolness of a forest after rain. I keep walking listening to the sounds of the woods. Beautiful. I am so entranced with the forest that I walk until I realize I don’t know where I am. And I didn’t bring my phone. Stupid! I look around, trying to remember any land marks but I was day dreaming, and can’t recall any. I try to back track but that just makes it worse. So I just start to walk in a random direction, hoping it will lead to civilization. I keep going and come across rocks; I climb over them and slip on moss. I cry out. I scraped my ankle on a rougher rock. It hurt but it’s not that bad. A little blood never hurt anyone. I keep walking even though it hurts, in the same direction. I walk for what seems like hours, but instead of civilization, I have found a fort.
It’s really amazing. Part of it is on the ground surrounding a huge oak tree, then there’s a ladder popping up out of the top, attached to the trunk, and it goes up several feet and then attaches to a tree house, which has several wings and floors. I’m curious so I go in. The first floor is pretty empty, nothing much of interest.
I climb up the ladder to the second floor. There are lots things in it: Some bags of dried food, flashlights, water bottles, batteries, blankets, all sorts of things. I see a Penguin back pack with a journal sticking out of it. It looks like some one’s going camping in here. I keep climbing because I’ m so curious. I know I shouldn’t be in here, but… I just can’t help it. It’s beautiful. I keep climbing, when I get to the top most floor I hear someone singing. It’s a boy. I feel bad for being in his tree house, and start to climb down. At the second floor, I lose my footing and fall the rest of the way, screaming. I hit the ground hard. The wind knocked out of me I look up and a face is peaking down from the top floor. He starts to climb down and I realize its Haden.
Now I feel really embarrassed. I start to get up, and suddenly he’s already down here, looking at me. “What are you doing in here?” he asks in his quiet way. “I was wandering around and I found this tree house and wanted to see it and I fell, and… I’m sorry I didn’t know it was yours.” I say, it all was sort of jumbled and I wonder if he understood. “Are you ok?” he asks. I nod. “Um, but I’ve kind of lost my way, so if you could point me in the proper direction that would be great” I say and smile. I still hurt from falling down. “I can lead you back to your house. It’s the one with the fancy garden right?” he asks. “Yes, how did you know?” he smiles shyly, “I saw you once while I was walking through the woods.” I smile nervously. I don’t know whether to find that creepy and sweet, so I take it as both. “Well it’s a good thing you know where it is. Let’s go”