Falling Leaves

Falling Leaves

Autumn brings change. Summer turns to fall, green turns to brown, and suddenly every vacant building has been converted into a costume shop.

I sighed as I walked past the third "Spirit Halloween" store so far on my journey back to my house. I had just stopped at a food bank to pick up my weekly grocery allowance, which was completely contained in the four small plastic bags I carried in my hands.

An elderly woman hobbled next to me, heading towards the large gated woodland directly ahead of us. For her age, she appeared surprisingly spry and eager to get where she was going. When she got to the large gate, however, she halted, seemingly confused. Since I had to go through the area to get home I casually told her, "I got this," and punched my three five digit access code into the keypad, unlocking the large iron gate and allowing both myself and the woman to enter.

Once inside, I lost track of the old woman, but a young boy no older than seven years had snuck in right behind me. I smiled at him, but he seemed frightened, so I did something I hardly ever do once inside the forest: I talked to him.

"Hey, kid, you alright?" I asked. The boy appeared visibly shaken, so I walked over to him, trying to be comforting. "What's your name?" I asked.

The boy looked startled, but answered regardless. "My name is Merry." He refused eye contact but I smiled anyways.

"Nice to meet you, Merry. Are you new here?" I asked politely, shifting the weighted bags in my arms.

Merry noticed my awkward shuffling, and offered, "I can help you if you want me to carry some stuff back to your house. I don't know the way, though, so you'll have to show me." He seemed like the kind of person who would normally be helpful and outgoing. I decided to let him cling to that for a while and handed him a bag.

"Haha, yeah, everyone here is lost," I said as we started waking deeper into the woods. The pathways were clear, but numerous, and it was easy to forget where you were going.

"You don't seem lost."

I chuckled at that and replied, "That's true, but I have been here the longest."

A cold wind blew from behind us, rattling the trees and sending leaves scurrying across the ground. I sighed and finally decided to ask the inevitable.

"Merry, what's a kid like you doing in a place like this?" I had been observing him for a while now, but he didn't appear to have any sort of trauma on his body that I could see... Clean as a whistle, actually. Maybe even a little too clean...

"I've been sick for a long time," Merry replied. "Doctor said a lot of things that made mommy upset. Then one day, I didn't wake up for a real long time. But now I'm here!" He seemed almost chirpy at that last sentence, and my heart ached for him.

"Do you even know where 'here' is, Merry?" I asked sadly. Surely he wouldn't be happy if he knew where he really was.

"Sure I do! This is the Spirit Woods!! Daddy said Mama would be waiting for me here!" The boy looked at me for the first time, and I could see nothing but a childish dream behind his eyes. But I knew.

I knew what had happened to his mother. I knew everything about everyone here. I didn't have to ask Merry what happened to know he'd died from leukemia; the minute he crossed through the gate I had known. As much as I wanted to tell him, I couldn't force myself to. So I faked a smile and continued walking down the twisting path through the forest, dead leaves falling to cover the corpses in my wake.