They Were Cast Aside

“We must unite together! We weren’t made to just hang out, shooting the breeze and looking pretty!”

The leader roared like a drill sergeant.

“You mean we have a practical, hands-on use?”

A less sure one, toward the bottom, asked.

“Of course we have a practical use! Look alive! You never know when we might be deployed for some extra important mission!”

The drill sergeant was naturally toward the top.

“We seem to do a good job waving and dancing in the breeze…”

A third one commented nonchalantly.

“Yeah, you need to workout more and follow my orders! Shape up! I’ve gotta’ keep you guys in tip top shape. Now give me fifty!”

The drill sergeant barked.

“Fifty what?”

The nonchalant one asked.

“Fifty pushups! You thin headed airhead!”

“Oh… right. Whatever you say, I guess…”

The nonchalant one pretended to move and then got distracted by a butterfly flapping by in the garden.

“Does anyone ever just feel like you know things? Like an intuition or knowledge of good and evil and stuff?”

One, usually quiet one, asked out of the blue. There was an awkward moment of silence and no one responded. They could quite literally hear crickets in the not-so-far-off-distance.

The drill sergeant eyed the clusters below. He was less strict on ordering the clusters for whatever reason.

“Hey there, ladies, don’t mind these pansies below and their ‘intuitions.’ We’ll be sure to protect you with all of our resources! Not to worry!”

He saw one low hanging cluster member who was looking quite flushed and rather ripe. He winked at her, smiling, then looked back at his subordinates with a rough expression.

“You all better tighten up or else you’re gonna be unprepared for the Beings.”

The drill sergeant tried to shake the whole tree vehemently but then stopped when the clusters seemed startled.

“Brah, have you ever thought about the fact that maybe we’re just here to throw shade for the animals and hang out and stuff…”

This one thought he was the coolest of them all, though this had never been overtly stated.

“Yeah, maybe you could chill and be happy and stuff…”

This one was closest to the coolest one. The two always seemed to agree with one another.

The drill sergeant fumed, huffing and puffing. He was angry with the others’ lack of respect, attention and seriousness to the matter at hand.

“We are just leaves after all…”

Another one, who was the most sarcastic leaf on the tree, said. Continuing…

“Maybe you could leaf us alone. This is supposed to be a stress free environment… remember, sergeant?”

The banter between the leaves continued but then, very suddenly, one of the, rather soft and voluptuous, Beings walked over and grabbed the ripe cluster member that the sergeant leaf had been flirting with earlier. The Being took a bite and then offered the rest of it to the other, more angular, Being.

“Nooooooo!!!!”

The sergeant leaf toward the top of the tree yelled, as if his world and purpose to live had just ended.

“Hey, relax… she’s serving her purpose. Let her live a little!”

The cool leaf smirked in amusement.

“That was unexpected… completely unexpected!”

The sergeant bellowed. Looking away from the two Beings with disgust, he added with a sigh,

“Alright, regroup! Those Beings are far more unpredictable than I ever would have guessed. Not to worry, clusters! What’s left of you, we will do better and protect you!”

The evening faded and night fell with a different heaviness than they’d ever felt before…

The next morning sergeant leaf seemed to possess fresh green vigor for barking more drills to the rest of the leaves on the tree. None of the other leaves seemed to care much as they’d grown tired of his yibber-jabber and doomsday urgency to be ready for action. The Beings appeared.

“Cover and guard the clusters! Brace yourselves!”

Sergeant instructed. The rest of the leaves froze. The Beings weren’t interested in the fruit clusters today, but instead, they hurriedly grabbed the fig leaves.

“Shoulder to shoulder! Stay together now!”

The sergeant yelled as he was plucked from the tree.

“Now this is totally different, man…”

The cool leaf said as he was bound together near his buddy who always agreed with him.

“Yeah, talk about adventure!”

His buddy exclaimed trying to go along with things.

“The Beings are now tying us to their bodies? They must be… desperate?”

The unsure leaf who seemed to always be doubtful asked the group.

“Guess we’re living our true purpose now… for sure!”

One other leaf said with positivity.

“This feels a bit freaky… but alright… I’m open minded…”

The nonchalant left shrugged.

“At least we’re being sewn together… we’re all closer than ever, right?”

The doubtful leaf tried to reassure the group, as he settled in close to the navel of one of the Beings.

“Now we are sightseeing different parts of the garden! This is like a grand tour!”

The most adventurous leaf of them all chirped.

“Steady now!”

The leaf sergeant yelled from behind the back of one of the Beings.

“It feels like we’re being strung along… I wanna go back to the other leaves on the tree!”

The doubtful leaf moaned woefully.

The leaves heard murmuring from the Beings. Without warning, there was an animal that called itself a mink that ran in front of the Beings.

A flash of light split the sky and hit the mink, who shot up into the air, and fell to the ground dramatically with its tongue hanging out. In an instant, the mink on the ground was transformed into items with just the fur from the mink.

The Beings ripped the leaves off roughly. They had been cast aside to the ground.

“That wasn’t called for!”

One leaf, who had been ripped, said spitefully.

“What? They’re trading us in for the mink fur instead? To think! After all we did for them! We totally had them covered… or part of them anyway… and now this?!”

The cool leaf said, as he was actually visibly disgruntled for the first time ever since he’d been created.

“Yeah, not cool at all!”

The cool leaf’s buddy added.

“But look, they seem more comfy in the mink fur wraps instead…”

The nonchalant leaf said from the ground with a shrug.

“Ohhh nooo, braaaacccceeeee yourselllllllvvvvveeeessss!!!”

The sergeant leaf yelled, as the army of leaves were scooped up from the ground and quickly eaten by a random hungry goat.

The Beings didn’t seem to care, they just walked off into the scorching sunshine…

~~~~~~~~~~

Genesis 3:6-7 says, “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.”

Genesis 3:21 says, “Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.”