Forest's Fortune

Nila spots her face in the buzzing crowd a distance away. Her heart leaps and she launches toward her favorite human as she turns to walk the opposite direction, leaving only her dark curls visible.

“Mom! Wait, I’m coming!” Nila shouts after Sama as she fades into the crowd.

She loses sight of her warm silhouette but continues moving through the sea of bodies. Here and there she catches a glimpse, but the distance between them seems to stretch ever further.

“Mom, please! Come back!” her cries echoing into space.

The woman stops, reaches into her bag. Nila howls and charges forward, closing the gap between them. Just as the swarm opens, Nila watches a small black diary fall from her mother’s purse as she closes it to continue onward. Just feet away, she lunges to retrieve the book, but as she lifts her head, her mom along with the entire horde vanishes. She closes her eyes and clutches the journal close.

Awakening, Nila takes in the low clouds shrouding the landscape, masking the Sun’s first rays shining between the peaks—a joyful sight coming in through her windshield. She didn’t have to live in her car, but nothing she could afford was footsteps away from the untouched wilderness that surrounded her now.

She pulls in a deep breath and sighs, “Well Jack, it doesn’t get better than this.”

The furry old man wags his tail and flashes his toothless grin, paws pressed on the door ready to go on their morning hike.

“I’m coming boy,” she sings and looks down at her phone.

CAN YOU COME IN AT 9 INSTEAD?

“We’ve only got an hour before I need to leave for work—we slept in!”

Of course, it was only in her dreams that untouched wilderness was within 30 miles of the city and her life was an endless forest adventure. Back to reality, she slips on her pair of pants and the duo hit the trail.

They knew this canyon all too well, but no matter where they’d been it would remain their favorite. These trees watched her grow, but to this day she still struggled to build the endurance to run up the three mile mountain. That feat was accomplished only by her younger brother when Sama would take them after school. This was years ago now, and as they approached the summit she wondered to herself if he still could.

“We gotta get Nate back up here huh boy?” she asks, taking a seat on the bench that awaited them both. Jack paws her foot. “Yeah I miss him too.” she murmurs as she pulls him up on her lap to rest.

Nate only ever joined them here on days like Her birthday, or to honor the day She’d said goodbye to them all. Nila knew exactly why he struggled to get out here. Their memories called out from every corner.

Sun higher in the sky now, still peeking through the clouds, Nila looks up.

“Hi Mom, thanks for being with me today.”

Nila’s eyes already wet at the corners, she wondered if it was possible to remember Her without crying in some way. Nila reassured herself that She was never really gone. She knew the best of Sama was alive within her, and with more coming through each day she questioned how much of herself was truly her own. Lost in daydream, she makes her descent to the car.

Coming to a stop in front of her Uncle’s, he waves to her from the garage and shuffles her direction with a dusty box. Nila rolls down her window to greet him with a smile, lifting Jack to hand him over for the day as usual.

“Hey Nini, hey Jack,” Brad coos as he cradles the already exhausted old pup. “Look what I found!”

“Hey that’s super cool but I reeeeally gotta get to work,” she glances at the clock screaming 8:54, “can you show me later?”

“I think you might be interested seeing what’s inside, I’m gonna put it in the back” he says, already halfway to the trunk.

“Okay, not sure I’ll have time but thanks, see you later!” Nila speeds away the moment he swings the door closed.

9:01, her tools are out of the Escape, ready to plant the first twenty trees in the garden for the client eagerly expecting her. They’d been preparing for this day for a few seasons, designing the layout, establishing an efficient composting system, increasing soil fertility through cover cropping, and of course selecting the fauna most adapted to their SoCal climate. Nila smiled at the thought that one day there might even be chickens in this backyard system. The landscape had already changed so much in such a short while. It was only a matter of time before it would become completely unrecognizable. This was her first solo design, finally confident enough to take off the training wheels of her mentors to ride on her own. She was intent on doing this for the rest of her life.

“I could NOT sleep last night Nila, this is like Christmas!” Tasha squeals, her eyes alight in a way she’d never seen.

“Well with the way we’re working today you might just pass out before dinner.” Nila jested with a smirk.

“That’s the hope.” Tasha giggles.

The dusty box catches Nila’s attention in her periphery as she closes the trunk.

The women share a quick embrace, a prayer, and make their way to the growing paradise.

At the strike of 2 she’s loading the shovels back into her little beast, the soil so healthy now that they dug the holes with ease and had already completed what they set out to do.

“Gonna catch a nap out there Tash?” Nila asks her droopy-eyed friend.

“Oh you better believe I’m about to lay down with the worms…wake me when there’s fruit on the trees?” Tasha jokes.

“I’ll see you in two days, the fourteenth,” Nila smiles. “Same time?”

“I’ll need the early bird to come peck me out of the ground, so yes. Whatcha got going for the rest of today?” Tasha queried.

Nila’s thoughts immediately shift to the box sitting to her left.

“Not sure, I don’t have anything else on the books. Maybe I’ll head to the spring to cool off.” she considered.

It’s exactly where she would go.

“Ah, sounds like a dream. I’ll have to join you one of these days.” Tasha purred.

“Please do.” Nila blew a kiss as she drove away.

After a quick stop to grab Jack, she navigates down the winding canyon to the secret oasis she happened upon last year—the only nearby place she knew of that still had flowing water midsummer. Knowing they’re an hour’s walk to the spring, Nila packs her bag lightly once they park the car. Her curiosity grabs her again. She senses something in the chest calling out to her. She tentatively approaches the dust-draped cube, hands frozen on the lid, unsure of what she might find but feeling a shift in some far away place.

“What am I so apprehensive for?!” she huffs and looks to Jack, who is turning his head with concern at her vexation.

She maneuvers herself to sit on the curb, clutching the box now in her lap, hastily removing the lid. Met with the scent of plumeria, she stops. Allowing the fragrance of Her perfume to permeate her senses, she finds ease once again. Of course this is her mother’s.

“Jack! How did I—? I should have known.”

She looks inside at long lost treasures not yet shared with her, untouched by the dust that blanketed the outer shell. She gently sifts through relics of what looks to be Her adolescence. Purple shades, photo booth strips, seashells, dried flowers, friendship bracelets, love notes, a glass pipe filled wish ash, and peeking out from underneath is the corner of a little black book. Nila’s breath stops short.

“This.” She looks around in disbelief that she is now holding the journal she saw behind her eyelids just hours before. “My dream.” She sounds as if she’s floating away.

Hugging it close, she sees a flash of Sama’s smile.

She opens to the page bookmarked by an Oak leaf.

03/12/90

My forest fortune. Today I went to the canyon and

found a stream I chased along to a spring. The cooling

waters enlivened me as I drank and bathed. A flute song

whistled through the trees. Following the sound, I came to

a man hidden in the cliffs he’d made his home. We walked

and talked, climbed and danced. I wasn’t afraid for a

moment. I told him I’d come every day. He said to return

a wiser woman on the same day in 2021, for a gift. I’ll be

48. Well, here’s to wisdom.

34.106676, -118.566802

“March twelfth…” her voice floating further away now, “of twenty…” she swallows. “This year? Today?” The wind picked up around her.

Now she was in the Twilight Zone, but this was nothing like the TV Land marathon mornings she had with mama Sama during Winter Break. Nila knew those coordinates. Nila knew this is where she was going now. She slipped Jack into her backpack and took her bike off the car’s rack. This was not a walk anymore.

She shred the trail and arrived in 20, setting her bike to the side and letting Jack free. He immediately took his drink from the spring and Nila followed closely behind. It was only the two of them, no other in sight, no flutes sounding from the cliffs.

No one.

A quick chill ran through her body as the breeze hit her fresh perspiration. She went to sit on her favorite sunning rock. Jack followed to snuggle by her side.

Hours later at dusk she awoke to an elderly man sitting near a small fire, little Jack in his lap enjoying the warmth of the flames.

“I have something for you.” he stated plainly.

She stayed quiet, unsure of what to say, but joined him across the apricot glow.

“I’m,” began Nila. “I’m not Sama” she faltered and dropped her head.

“She’s here. And the gift is yours.” he maintained.

“I don’t understand. Who are you?” she puzzled.

“Unnecessary. I am giving you something.” he insisted as he reached into his bag, removing yet another dusty box.

He placed it on the earth, opening the lid to reveal a ten ounce bar of gold.

“I’ve lived here fifty years, it’s all I ever wanted. I vowed never to return there” he motioned to the distance, “but you live there and you can help me. I know you will.”

“What do you want me to do?” she probed with uncertainty.

“I am unsure what this is worth today. I have a plot of land, and the deed is here. Please take them both and do what you will.” he gestured to her bike now beside them on its kickstand.

Subdued to silence, she slips the bar and deed into her pack and finds her way on the shadowy trail, the new moon giving her no assistance this night.

Though she rested for hours already, all she could do was fall into deep sleep upon returning.

Nila feels the embrace of a familiar hand with hers. Opening her eyes, Sama is before her, and a densely fruiting forest surrounds them with the enchanting melodies of birdsong. The bouquet of scents from the world in bloom envelop her entirely, and the sweetness of this atmosphere brings salty waters to her eyes once more.

Sama caresses her face, allowing her tears to fall to the ground.

“This is your gift Nila. This is what you will do.” Sama hums as she guides her to a mammoth apple tree.

“You will plant this for me.” she beams, “and grow this forest for all our departed loves.”

Nila knew this was the truth.