The Leaf

The Leaf (revision)

It was the first summer of my retirement and found myself taking long walks and contemplating life and the day. One day, I happened upon a lonely bench and decided to rest under a stately maple. Its welcome leaves gave me shelter from the harsh summer sun and wind and reminded me of my northern home far away. Studying the tree, I noticed a single leaf perched on the tip of one barren branch; perfect in form, strong and alone. The wind tore at it and the leaf simply waved back. I spent many afternoons with my new friend sharing the summer sun, sometimes having short conversations -- after all, my friend was not a big talker. I’d laugh and tell stories about my family, make observations about the weather and relate plans I’d always thought I would have time to do. My friend quietly listened always giving me his full attention, nodding occasionally in agreement, and sometimes still in deep contemplation. Then one late summer’s day, my friend began to change. Heralding the impending autumn my friend abandoned his perfect green and donned a coat of crimson. Celebrating his life defying the wind, drinking his last ray of sunshine, he fell. The harsh wind tried to whip my friend far away but with his last strength he clung to the ground. Losing his grip for a moment he flew a short distance - regained his hold, then bereft of life was blown to come to rest in a nest of his brothers where he was buried.
It was my second summer of retirement and I found myself resting on my favorite bench. I glanced to the place where my friend rested and with joy, saw a young twig from which sprouted a single perfect leaf. Smiling, I got to my feet and began thinking of plans I needed to do.


In my revision, I wanted to personalize and develop the friend aspect of the leaf. By doing so, the passing of the leaf would generate a greater feeling of loss to the reader. I decided the best way to would be to add some conversation to the story to imply a sense of true friendship between the old man and the leaf. Even though the conversation is one-sided, it gave me the opportunity to add a touch of humor and introduce the notion that the old man has many plans he has been unable to do throughout his life and has given up on them. I removed some of the poetic echoings to try to make the story more intimate and toned down some of the repetition. I decided to change the ending to imply that the old man had been changed by the leafs friendship, death and rebirth, to the point where he decides there is more to retirement then simply growing old sitting on a park bench. There is a final decision made to act on something’s left undone. I first attempted to change this story into a poem but decided it was better suited to a flash story.


The Leaf (original)

It was the first summer of my retirement in a new place. I found myself taking long walks and contemplating life and the day. I happened upon a lonely bench and decided to rest under a stately maple. Its leaves gave me shelter from the harsh summer sun and wind – reminding me of my northern home far away. Studying the tree, I noticed one lonely leaf on the tip of one lonely branch; perfect in form, strong and alone. The wind tore at it and the leaf simply waved back. I spent many afternoons with my new friend sharing the summer sun and contemplating life and the day. Then one late summer’s day, my friend began to change. Heralding the impending autumn my friend abandoned his perfect green and donned a coat of crimson. Celebrating his life defying the wind, drinking his last ray of sunshine, it fell. The harsh wind tried to whip my friend far away but with his last strength he clung to the ground. Losing his grip for a moment he flew a short distance - regained his hold, then bereft of life was blown to come to rest in a nest of his brothers where it was buried.
It was my second summer of retirement in a new place, when I found myself resting on my favorite bench. I glanced to the place where my friend rested and with joy, saw a young twig from which sprouted a single perfect leaf.

The Right Decision

An excerpt from the Gardens of Ryepar

What has gone before -

Ray is quiet and unremarkable, the sort of person you would meet and forget as soon as the day ended. He is driving east along the highway north of the Colorado River when he is enveloped in a dust storm. He is forced to pull over and hears a call for help which he answers. He finds himself in a strange place called Ryepar, an amazing place where he can understand the animals and the plants and soil have healing properties. Ray saves a small donkey whom he names Balaam and then Balaam saves Ray from the others, a cruel people who kill for enjoyment. Ray travels back with Balaam where he meets some of the other animals and is invited to the marriage of two otters who he names, Joy and Happy. The Others raid the village and they escape with the help of Happy who is captured. Ray promises Joy to find and return Happy.

“A right decision sets a true course.”

Ray crouched behind the rocky burn at the top of the waterfall, the sound of the cascading water hiding him from unwanted ears. This was the location where he had first seen the others and was the best starting point to begin the search for Happy. The steep slope had left him a little winded so he took a quick look across the open area to confirm he was alone and sunk back to catch his breath. What was he doing here? He did not have to do this! Everything his life had taught him was to play it safe, do not get involved, do not go chasing after someone you have known only for a day. This course of action was not logical – but this whole place was not logical. Animals did not talk. Forests do not grow in the desert. This place, what had the ancient one called it? Ryepar… should not exist. But here he was. Ray looked down and saw a small plant with yellow flowers growing by his left hand. He grasped one of the blossoms, plucked it and brought it to his nose. The aroma was intense, a sweet citrus fragrance that reminded him of Christmas mandarins and calmed him. He reached down and felt the warm earth, felt a hidden power surge through his fingers giving him renewed strength; so much for logic. Ray laughed to himself and thought, “I know what I need to do. I can feel it, it feels right!”

Ray took another look to examine the area and saw how the stream cut through the middle of the open area continuing past the point where he had seen the others before and cascading over a small waterfall where it was lost from view. The rocks that sheltered him continued to his left almost to the woods. There was no sense in taking unnecessary chances by walking through the open. Ray would stick to the rocks and the edge of the forest for cover then follow the stream. That was the direction he was going when he first started searching for the highway, yes – he might even find the highway, but something deep inside told him no. The clearing was much larger than he had thought and it took him a while to work his way around to the smaller waterfall. He began to climb the rocks using the sound of the water to drown out the occasional rock he dislodged and soon found himself on the top. The forest grew close to the stream here and the trees gave him much appreciated cover. He continued for about a quarter mile and came to a break in the trees and glanced into the open to a site that made him sick.

The charred remains of a vast forest stretched out before him as far as he could see and beyond that, in the far distance, tall majestic bluish-grey snow-covered mountains hovered. A number of questions popped into his mind all at the same time. The cliffs he had been following had been a reddish plateau, not bluish-grey and certainly not snow covered mountains. Where was he? The air was different here too; he could see the sun as the air here was not so dense. There appeared to be no living trees, plants, flowers, animals, anything before him! Wait… there at ten o’clock… just about good hours walk was a hill with some green. Ray continued, following the stream, heading toward the hill following his heart and his faith. As he slowly approached the hill, his doubtful mind and fear began surfacing again. “What am I doing this for?” he thought, “It would be so easy to turn away, after all it’s not my problem.” As he slowly walked forward he began to rationalize his decision, “You made a promise, and you must always keep your promises. And ….” He tried to think of more reasons but his rebelling mind would not let them come. Then his heart spoke. With a smile he remembered Joy’s and Happy’s promise to each other. The sacrifice Happy made to save all of them must not be in vain. From the depths of his being he knew that this is what he was supposed to do. With this revelation, Ray felt the fear subside, the doubts fade. “This is faith”, Ray thought peacefully.

Ray looked ahead and could make out some ancient looking buildings of stone and wood. They skirted the bottom of the hill spotted with greyish green trees clinging to life. Directly in front of him was a cage and pacing to and fro in that cage was Happy!

“A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeleine L’Engle

“A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeleine L’Engle begins with the clichéesque “It was a dark and stormy night” but quickly develops into a character study of the Murry family, a family put under stress by the lengthy absence of the father, Dr. Murry an eminent physicist experimenting with a tesseract, enabling one to travel from one place to another utilizing the fifth dimension. Meg Murry is constantly living under stress of other people’s expectations living in a small rural climate of reverse intellectual prejudice - the daughter of two brilliant scientists. Sadly, Meg lacks the necessary social skills to fit into her school; frustrating her, since her younger twin brothers Sandy and Dennys flourish these skills so effortlessly and make it look so easy. Meg’s lack of confidence and poor self-image is put to the test when she meets Calvin O’Keefe, a popular and bright boy at school; but unhappy because he lacks what Meg has, an unconditional loving family. Meg’s youngest brother Charles Wallace is special. Thought by most of the community to be an idiot, due to the fact that he did not talk until a later age, and then in complete intelligent sentences, Charles Wallace possesses not only great intelligence and a keen wit but additional gifts he will develop and use throughout the story and the stories to come.
This story quickly develops from a mystery into a rescue, then to suspense, all being intermingled and coalesced into a fantasy adventure. The trio of Meg, Charles Wallace and Calvin are enlisted to save Meg’s father. The gifts each of the children possess are crucial to their success, as well as their teamwork, courage and most important – their love for each other. Throughout their quest they meet both friends and foes, in surprising forms and places locked in a battle spread throughout the universe. They learn that their own home planet is endangered of being engulfed by an ominous shadow of evil and are being recruited to aid in that fight. They experience firsthand the results of submission to evil, as they rescue Mr. Murry from the fallen planet Camazotz, a place where utmost order is upheld, apathy expected and sickness is battled by euthanizing citizens with any type of infirmary.
“A Wrinkle in Time” lets us examine ourselves and our society through a child’s eyes and recognize elements within us that we seldom see. One of the most amazing gifts of a story is the ability of the reader to identify with one or more of the characters, their weaknesses and strengths, their dreams and fears but mostly how they treat and are treated by others. The importance of acceptance, values, family and most important, love, shows how we can overcome fear, apathy, ignorance and evil. We all suffer from these from time to time. Madeleine L’Engle reminds us through her imaginative characters that there are choices we make every day that influence us and others positively or negatively. We need our friends, we need our families, we need our values but most important of all we all need to be loved and accepted.