Serenity Among the Leaves

It was Lina Clover’s favorite season of the year again, Spring! She always disliked the sharp cold of winter as it slowly sneaked in to ruin all of the outdoors time. She loved it more than any television series, or all the “indoor” activities the other thirteen and a half year old teenage girls at school do in their spare time. Growing up in northern California, Lina was cursed with not only warm springs and summers, but frigidly cold winters as well. She did not look forward to the leaves changing, or having snowball fights with her brother Paul. He did not hold back when it came to his chubby left pitching arm. He was so proud of it too, and constantly showed it off by curling up his T-shirt sleeve to flex its pale, flabby, hairless bicep . Then ending it all with a wet kiss at the summit of his shapeless muscle. Lina took solace in the birth of spring. She absorbed all the colors that every blossom and flower pedal produced when in bloom. The energy outside gave her a welcoming sensation to the world in which there’s so little.The bees gliding from plant to plant pollinating the wonders of the Earth while enjoying the returned sweet gifts of nectar as they work day in and day out. Lina would attempt to get as close as possible to them with her disposable cameras that she used to capture all the beauty that is the simple life of a bumble bee. She loves taking pictures, but being her age, her parents did not think she was ready for a cell phone just yet. Lina didn’t care too much about it though. In fact, she actually liked the disposable cameras, because there was more to it than just point-click-look-delete, it was a process in itself. She liked the challenge of having to maneuver her body every which way in order to get the angle she desired. She had little lighting tricks she used with aluminum foil, and had to practice patience and determination to get close enough to her subjects considering the fact that the disposable cameras don’t have a zoom function on them. After a camera was full, she would give it to either her mom, or her dad to drop off in town for development. The excitement of receiving the photographs days later was a mood lifter for Lina, especially days when she wasn’t feeling well. She would go through each one of them describing her experiences in detail with her parents, and sometimes Paul would join in as long as he knew he got to star in one of the photos as well. Usually ones of him making an obscure facial expression, or attempting to be “clever” once in his life. Sometimes if the whole family agreed as a group that a photograph was “frame-worthy” they would have the picture blown up in size then take Lina to the art shop to pick out a frame that really spoke to her. The house had some of her best work on display throughout the hallway, and in their living room. Her favorite is a close up of a decaying log she found in the woods behind their house. It was laying on its side with bright-green moss flowing all around it. She had to be more proud of that photograph than her parents were. Photography was not as much of a hobby to her, but more of a tool to capture her true passion, nature.

Lina was diagnosed with autism at a very young age. Her parents April and Scott Clover both try their best to give Lina, and her brother Paul a normal life, and not revolve their entire existence around Lina’s disease. Lina was treated no differently than her brother growing up. She was enrolled in an ordinary public school. She was disciplined for misbehaving the same as her brother, there were no exceptions, because of her autism. April and Scott did not want for her to think of herself as delicate, or more special than their other child. So far Lina and Paul have had a quite ordinary and eventful childhood. The typical sibling bullying and rivalry took place on a daily basis, but a lot of the crude jokes, and taunting came from one side; which was Paul towards Lina. His sense of humor sometimes made Lina feel small and cowardly that, in turn, made her depressed at times, but when she had had enough of his mean heartedness she would grab a camera from the drawer of a blue, crudely painted desk in her bedroom, throw on a “knock-around” T-shirt and jeans, strap on her white generic Keds and head off to her safe space, the woods.

Today was one for the books when it came to Spring. The temperature was at a comfortable seventy degrees with a slight breeze running through the tops of the trees making it seem as though the branches were waving at Lina like a kind neighbor saying hello. The sky was cleansed of any pollution thanks to a heavy rain that visited a couple of days before making the air pure, and elevating with every inhale. The blue tint of the atmosphere burst vividly through cotton white puffs of clouds that seemed close enough to touch; you could almost see them moving if you stared at them long enough. She gazed at the heavens above and pinpointed where the sun was at that moment. It appeared to be slightly angled towards the western hemisphere, so she knew it was around one or two o’ clock in the afternoon; which meant she had great lighting, and plenty of time to fill up a camera; maybe even have enough time to run back to her room for another camera before the sun says farewell for the day. She was at her limit with Paul today. He had said one too many “Yo Mama” jokes, and learned way too many curse words in different languages that he’d say in front of their parents while smirking for Lina to handle in a twenty-four hour period. She got dressed, checked her camera’s film count that tells her how many pictures she can take before maxing it out. Then went to her parent’s bedroom to check on her mom who was sleeping before her shift as a nurse at the hospital. Unfortunately, it was rare for both of their parents to be at the house at the same time. When their mom wasn’t working her late nights, their dad, Scott, who works as a fireman, was at the station, or traveling to put out wildfires in the south; which has always been an issue in California. They always made sure to line up their work shifts so they at least saw each other a few hours every other day in the week, and had weekends as well as holidays together as a family. Lina knew that her parents loved her and her brother very much, and she understood nothing in life comes without a price, but she did wish there was some way they could be secure in the world without working so much for it. Lina crept up to the cracked door leading to the bedroom where her mom laid sound asleep, and still wearing her blue scrubs along with a floral patterned sleep mask strapped around her eyes in order to simulate night time. Lina could never tell if her mom was still wearing scrubs from the previous day, or if she had put on new ones since that’s all she saw her styling most of the time. Clothes shopping was a rare occasion for the Clover family. Between nurse scrubs, socks and thermals for Dad, and school clothes for Paul and her, they didn’t have closets overflowing with outfits, and attires. Every now and then, Lina and her mom would take a trip into town to pick out a few cute outfits together. That gave Scott and Paul some “guy time “ as well. Lina stood at the doorway giving her mom one last glance and advanced to the kitchen. She went to the fridge to get a bottle of water. Before heading out the back kitchen sliding door she stopped to grab a pen and piece of paper to leave a note. She always leaves a note after the day that she went down the road following a butterfly that would not sit still for a photo op. She wandered a little too far away from home that terrified her parents in the process. After that, her dad bought a twenty pack of notepads, and required her to leave one every time she went venturing off. She took a yellow sticky-note and wrote, ”Going to shoot nature with film, not BULLETS, haha be back for dinner. -Lina xoxo”. She stuck it to the front of the white refrigerator door. Double checking the camera’s battery and film count, taking a swig of water then a deep breath while recapping the plastic bottle, Lina put her camera in her pocket, and headed out of the kitchen door into her personal world of happiness with adventure in her heart, and inspiration in every corner.

Lina set off through her backyard. It was grassy and flat with random weeds and plants growing at their own will throughout the property. She scanned through the greenery for signs of life. She did not let opportunity slide past her when it came to capturing a specimen of any kind. Whether it was a bird, insect or even a horrifyingly large spider creating a very intricate web for catching its lunch, she was there, ready to grasp that moment in time forever. Taking one step after another through the large field that is her backyard, she motions her eyes left to right looking through the blades of grass. She gets further away from the house as she searches for subjects to photograph. With a slight sense of disappointment, she stops in her tracks and sighs wanting something new to appear. She looks up straight ahead where the grass ends, and the woods begin. She has always been fond of the mystery behind a forest. The best quests ,and epics she’d read always contained one segment which took place in a magical forest of some type. One story she was not too fond of though was Little Red Riding Hood by Charles Perrault. Lina had read only that version growing up, and did not like the eerie sensation she got after the girl’s encounter with such an ominous character such as the “Big Bad Wolf”. She did not like to imagine that there was such an evil being in such a beautiful world, but then again you can’t have sweet without bitter in life; which is something her mom always said at the dinner table when their dad would be complaining about something someone had done, or said at work. Lina kept it in her mind that that story was simply the imagination of a sad soul, and rationalized that it was called fiction for a reason, meaning it was not real. She gathered her thoughts, and took one last glance back at her house before lifting her left white “Ked” over a bundle of thorned branches poking out of the thickets, and launched into the clearings of the California wilderness.

It was not a quiet day in the woods, that is for sure. The branches sang songs with the help of the cool wind running through the new blooms and glowing green leaves; every leaf making their own sounds based on the size and shape of them. Some leaves even bounced off a fiery transparency of yellow tint with the power of the sun peaking through the canopy of trees. The birds were conversing about their newborns complaining, and wanting their berries before their worms, others were chirping, presumably just to pass the time. It was quite alive in Natureville as she put it. Lina paused in an opening only a few feet away from the entrance to admire the area. She started with the ground at her feet. It was covered with chocolate-brown colored dirt mixed with dead leaves, bark pieces and broken twigs that were strewn throughout the forest floor naturally from the elements, and from animals trafficking through. The soil was smoothed out from the rain pattering down on it over the days passing. Lina saw what she liked to jokingly call her “first victim” of the day; which was a baby sapling with only two leaves growing on its trunk with the thickness of a toothpick. It stood a whopping three inches off of the ground, and stood strong with the confidence of a century old Sequoia tree. Lina saw a little of herself in this young plant. It stood alone, surrounded only by soil as if the other plants did not want to grow near it, but then she thought what if that is not the case? Lina said encouragingly to the sapling, and to herself, “What if you’re just so special and important to nature, that all the other plants and animals around you want you to have plenty of space to grow, and become the strong tree you were meant to be in life”? She smiled at the thought of all these plants being this little one’s family, and that they were here to protect it. She reached into her pocket for her camera, and got down on her knees next to the sapling. She got extremely close, crawling around it to get the right angle then focused in for a perfect shot. Click!

Lina took one more photo of the sapling before telling it to keep its trunk held high, and good luck on surviving the winter. She stood and dusted her pants legs off. She wound the camera film to have it ready for anything that might cross her path during this venture into the unknown. She wiped her hair away from her face, and pulled out a small purple hair band from her pants pocket. She made her hair into a ponytail, and secured it with the band. She learned how to put her hair up from her mom. She always put it up into a bun before work, or while she was cooking. Lina always learned the quickest by watching others do something. For example, she learned how to sew from watching her dad sew his thermal pants he wore for work. Apparently he refuses to buy new ones, because they are his lucky pair. She hasn’t learned much from her brother, Paul, except how to dump a cookie in milk with a fork, or how to make fart sounds by putting a straw in your armpit, and blowing through it. “He may be annoying, but not completely useless”, Lina thought. She saw what seemed to be a worn out trail through the shrubs and bushes that was more than likely created by animals passing. A “ Critter Freeway” she called it. Lina looked around for anything else interesting, or at least “frame-worthy” then headed further into the woods.

A few hours had passed, and Lina was getting restless. She had been walking for what felt like forever. Her feet were beginning to hurt, and her camera only had five pictures left before it was maxed out. She stopped at a fallen tree, and sat on the horizontal trunk to rest, and accumulate everything she’d taken pictures of so far. She kept reminiscing about that little sapling she came across when she first started shooting that day. She began imagining how it would feel to be stuck in the same place her entire life. Would she be okay with the same view from dusk till dawn? She continued this thought until she made herself feel that dreaded feeling of being “small” again. It was the same feeling she was trying to escape from by coming on an adventure into the wilderness in the first place. She felt a wave of insecurity begin to rush over her mind and body as she sat there, alone. Panic sat in! She felt her heartbeat pick up in pace, her hands started shaking uncontrollably, and she lost all clutches on how she’d gotten where she was. She stood up and put her camera in her pocket. Her eyes widened as she did a full rotation of her surroundings, nothing was recognizable. She looked at the sky for the sun, but it had already passed the horizon, and was on its way to Japan. The atmosphere had changed from an illuminated light sapphire to a deep ocean blue, it was getting dark soon. Lina took off in the direction that she believed she came from then stopped. She turned 180 degrees, and ran back to the log. She started off in another direction in hopes to spark her memory, but she realized she was so focused on what she wanted to photograph, that she’d forgotten which way she came from. While she started hyperventilating, Lina began shouting out for help. “Help”! She yelled at the top of her lungs. “ Somebody help me! I am lost”! Not a single soul answered her. The birds had stopped chirping, the wind died down and silence sat in for the evening. She sat on the log and tried to calm down her breathing. “ What do I do now”? She said to herself. She took out her camera, and looked at it as if there were instructions on how to get home if she ever got lost, but nothing. There were only instructions on how to operate it, and how to get digital copies of the photos you’ve taken with it. Lina sat there for a few minutes then tears started swelling in her eyes, she was scared. Everything that could happen to her out there ran through her imagination constantly. “What if a Big Bad Wolf is real”? She thought. I would easily become its dinner without a doubt”. She could not control her tears, and it was getting dark. She took her camera, and turned it around on herself with the lens facing her. She took a picture of herself just in case something bad would happen to her. That thought alone made her terrified, and she was too anxious to even move. “ I’m too young to die”, she whimpered to herself. There is so much more to photograph in the world, and I haven’t even made it past my backyard”. She laughed at her own desperate words, but it only made her more anxious with the fact that she could really be in trouble.” Help!”, she screamed two more times before giving up. Lina sat there in silence with no idea how to help herself when she heard some branches move above her along with what sounded like a linen sheet flapping in the air, then silence again. “ Hello”? she said out into the woods. Is someone there”? No one responded, and she bowed her head back into her lap where she continued worrying and crying. The silence was broken with what sounded like a young man saying,” Who Whoo”!

This startled Lina, and sent a chill down her back.” Hello, I hear you, I’m…I’m not alone, my dad is right there and he’ll hurt you”! Lina said doubtfully. Another “whoo whoo” came from above her as she trembled with fear. Lina stayed quiet, waiting for her assailant to show themselves, and do whatever they intended to do to her. She heard the flapping linen sound again, but it was getting closer and closer until Whoosh!There lands at her facing, a foot and a half standing brown owl with yellow circular eyes staring straight at her. Lina screams, and falls backwards over the log she was sitting on. She lands facing the canopy of trees right on her back. She gets up on her knees peeking over the log at the majestic bird balancing itself on an eye-leveled branch only a few feet away from her. She slowly gets up, and stares at the owl in amazement at what she’s witnessing with her own teenage eyes. She climbs over the log, and sits back upright in the position she was before this massive beast dropped in for a surprise visit. Lina sits with her mouth open as the shock subsides while the owl sets in its haunches for the moment. “ Hello”, Lina says to the owl. The owl responds with a slow blink, and a shifty head spin around and back forward facing her.” Wow, I wish I could do that with my head, I also wish I could fly so I could get home”, Lina said while observing the owl’s multicolored brownish black feathers. “ My name is Lina, what’s your name”? The owl used its beak to scratch an itch under one of its wings then continued to stare at her. A dead leaf fell from a tree above them and gently landed on the owl’s head. Lina laughs as the owl shakes its head around trying to remove the nuisance that perched upon its dome. “ Hey, come on it’s just a leaf you big wuss…hey that’s what we can call you, Leaf. It’s short and sweet like me”, Lina said. “That’s what my Dad always says about me, that I am short and sweet, and my brother is wide with pride”. “That’s a fat joke”, Lina responded. Leaf gazed into the wilderness as if it was not amused by her attempt at humor. “ I know, I don’t like them either; I wish you could talk so you could help me find my way home, I’m lost”. Leaf spun its head 360 degrees as if it was in the same situation.” Are you lost too, Leaf”, Lina asked? “Well at least we’re lost together”. They sat there for a moment until Lina remembered that she still had a few photos left on her disposable camera. “Hey, I wonder if you’ve ever had your picture taken; you’re a very beautiful owl ya know. The world should know something as lovely as you exists “. Lina wound up her camera again, and took a photo. Click! Lina thought the flash from the camera would have scared Leaf off, but it stood there as if it knew there was no danger. “ Well that’s something, you are quite photogenic aren’t you”, Lina said. She wound the camera up again, and took another. Click! Leaf remained in its spot as though it knew what she was doing. Lina finished up her roll of film, and maxed out the camera on Leaf, even taking a “selfie’ with them together. “Smile”, Lina said. Click!

Darkness had taken over the entire forest, yet Lina and Leaf stayed put where they were at. Lina took one last swig of her water bottle, scrunched it up, and stowed it away in her pants pocket.” I don’t want to litter in your home; I am not a rude guest like that”. Leaf continued keeping Lina company. She told Leaf about her family, how her brother got on her nerves, and her favorite subjects in school. Lina had forgotten all about being lost in the woods, and had gained a companion during a scary situation. She didn’t even worry about the “Big Bad Wolf” anymore, because she didn’t see any wolf winning in a fight with Leaf’s gigantic build. “I don’t have many friends at my school, I don’t know if it’s because of my autism, or just that I am awkward, but I get lonely a lot; it’s nice to have someone other than my parents, and brother to talk to”. Leaf sat with its eyes pointed towards a direction to the left of Lina. She looked in the same direction, and saw what looked like flashlight beams coursing through the thickets and bushes. That’s when Lina heard a familiar voice calling her name, “ Lina”, the voice yelled! “That’s my Dad”! Lina said to Leaf. She yelled out in return at the voices, and she heard footsteps running towards her in the dark. She began smiling from ear to ear, but when she turned to receive Leaf’s reaction to the good news it was gone. She calls out,”Leaf, where are you”? But no answer. Lina and her dad are finally together again along with her mom and brother. “Oh my God, we thought we’d lost you Lina”! Said Scott. Her mom, April, was crying, and hugging Lina tighter than she’d ever before. Paul was using his flashlight like a lightsaber from Star Wars around some trees behind them during this miraculous moment. “ I met a friend, Dad, his name is Leaf, and he kept me safe from the big bad wolf”. Her dad thanked the unknown friend for their service, and led the family back out of the woods.

Lina was back home safe the next day, and life was back to normal, but no more going into the woods alone was a new house rule now. Lina gave her camera to her mom to take for development as usual. Lina told her family about Leaf at dinner the night she was rescued, but they took light to the story, and thought it was an exaggeration at best. Lina got upset at them for not believing her, and left the table. Lina waited for four days to get her photos back from being developed, because it was the weekend. They finally came on a day when everybody was home. She called everyone into the living room to show off her photography skills during her quest into the wilderness. They opened the envelope containing the pictures, and right on top of the photos sat the “selfie” Lina took of her, and Leaf. The parents’ jaws dropped in awe at the photograph as Lina said out loud,” there we are, I told you Leaf never left me alone”. The family was in shock at what they saw. Lina’s mom turned to her, and said,” This is definitely “frame-worthy, Lina”. Leaf is now in a beautiful blown-up frame sized photograph along with Lina hung in their living room guarding over the Clover family, forever.

The End,