Nature's Message

When Diane was a child, she climbed everything. She climbed her uncle who was a startling six-foot-seven like a jungle gym. When her mother took her to their favorite diner, Pickles, she climbed the railing instead of the stairs. When waiting for the bus home, she climbed the streetlamp on the corner. Diane's mother yelled, she was worried her sweet daughter would hurt herself. Diane however had the confidence of a person who has never fallen. The confidence only young children and crazy people have. The kind that is beautiful and on occasion, inspiring.

When Diane's mother got remarried, they moved to an old house in the country. It was nicer than the house they had left behind. The basement was finished with carpets and furniture. The bathroom was an obnoxiously bright yellow color with huge windows. It was Diane's favorite room. Outside, the backyard stretched for acres and there was a whole forest of trees; a land full of small green and brown ladders waiting for their climber.

When she went outside he mother told her to stay close to the house and, "Be careful!"

Diane ran and passed tree after tree. She stood in awe beneath one that was thirty feet tall. She had to climb it immediately. It was sticky where her hands fell and the leaves began falling off of it already. The trunk was as big as her body and the branches she climbed were so long she felt like she could jump out of one branch and fall into the mitt of a nearby tree.

She reached for her next branch and felt the dust of an old cobweb. Every piece of bark left its own indents in her hands. It was the language of nature to imprint on its people's hands. She gained towards the sky as easily as dogs walk; one branch down, two branches, three branches, and she's fifteen feet off the ground.

The view showed the top of some of the trees surrounding her. Diane stared up towards the overcast sky and dreamed of how high she could go. She thought she could reach something beautiful at the top of that tree, she had the strongest feeling something unexpected was there waiting for her.

Perhaps there was a strange paradise full of muffins and gardens. Maybe it was the entire view of the world and all the excitement it has to offer a young person. She imagined she was the superhero she read about. She thought maybe she could fly just like those other animals. Those birds that can truly feel freedom, that can feel the grass and the air and the trees and the water.

She thought she could do that if only she got high enough. Another five feet behind her, the mountains were painted in the background of her view. It seemed like if she had legs as tall as trees it would only take fifteen minutes to walk over to them. She was huge in her mind, a mighty god of nature, half girl-half tree. And yet more than she could ever be but less than all that she wanted to be.

Her hand gripped a branch that broke off into two. She slipped for a moment but luckily her feet were quick and found balance. The chunks of twigs that fell made musical notes as they cracked and tapped every branch below. Her hands rested on the sides of the tree trunk while she extended for the next branch.

Just then she heard cracking, it snapped and popped, leaves ended up making the most sound. Leaves shaking and sliding off one another and the sticks that had no leaves tapping everything else. She felt it in her feet, she felt something leave her feet.

The mountains went first, then the treetops. They all vanished into the air she wished to soar in. Well, she soared and had little freedom in her choice of direction. Diane flew swiftly towards her beloved nature. The strong tree trunk legs gave out and dropped her weight to the bottom. The twigs scratched her forehead and pulled her hair. She was cast out of her godlike nature and thrown back into her fragile growing body. The blue sweater she wore got caught up in those pricks and she felt how they tore her arms. Nature was using its language to give her a message she had never received.

When she woke up she was in a hospital bed. She looked out the window and saw other buildings. Not a piece of greenery was in sight. It was a punishment for falling from the sky. In the corner of the room, her mother was sitting, talking to a doctor. Her mother's bright cheeks were red hot and her eyes had black scattered bits of messy mascara.

She turned then to see her daughter laying in that sad white bed. It looked like styrofoam under her, hard and crunchy. "I was so worried baby." Her mother whispered while she rushed past the doctor to grab Diane's hand. The man in a white coat walked over with a pen and asked Diane to follow the tip of her pen, she did what he asked. "What were you doing in a tree anyway? I hope you learned your lesson." He warned her.

As the man was leaving the room he spoke to her mother. Diane took a look at her foot, it hung in a white cloth and was a variety of colors it had never been before, like black, blue, and purple. It was fat and misshapen like a second foot was trying to grow out of it. "You fractured your foot. You were very lucky. Your injuries could've been much words."

Diane's eyes felt strained. A thumping was felt radiating from the back of her head. Her right wrist was hot and she turned to see it was wrapped in a white cloth. Her mother watched her examine it. "It's sprained, should heal in a few weeks."

Diane's eyes watered now, for uncontrollable reasons. She was fourteen and never had fallen before. She was so young and already a failure. "I didn't know, it looked like it was safe."

"It's okay sweetheart, you just need time to heal. You need to be more careful, you won't be able to climb for a while."Her mother brushed her hair back with her hand.

The next day Diane was on her way home. Her mother's husband helped wheelchair her to the car. "Gotta be more careful on those trees. Call me old-fashioned but it's not very ladylike to do that anyway." He helped open the door for her, then he gave her his hands to lean on and awkwardly lifted her to the seat in the car. He flashed a smile then shut the door.

On their way home Diane stared at her feet the whole time. She tried not to look at her foot that would stop her from climbing. She tried to ignore the cast around it with the hard plastic. When they entered the driveway to her house, she was helped into a wheelchair then taken to the living room while she waited for her mom to carry in her medicine.

Diane stared at her room and her mother saw her daughter's face that contained no expression at all. She was defeated. So, her mother took her out of the room and wheeled her outside on the back patio. "Want a blueberry muffin? I just picked some up yesterday." And Diane smiled at her mom.

When she returned Diane's face changed a bit. It was more puzzling rather than bored her eyes darted back and forth through the acres of land in front of them. When Diane's mother handed her a muffin she smiled. "Thank you."

They took bites in silence and listened to the birds serenading them. It was about five in the afternoon and they were a choir in the sky. Diane and her mother closed their eyes. When the birds seemed to stop in between their rehearsed songs, Diane turned to her mother. She pointed at a tree in the field that was much closer than all the ones in the forest. It was a pear tree that was fifteen feet tall at most. "I'm climbing that one next," she said.

Her face was pleased with the excitement of a new journey and a chance to prove herself again. It was a look children can get more easily than most. The innocence that the world will only knock us down once. The thought that her godlike nature was merely tested and she would never have to face that again. Few adults carry this thought, whether they have failed many times or not. Children and the crazy believe they can always get back up, yet those people seem to always be right.

She looked at her mother with a smile and bright eyes painting her face. Her mother sighed and grinned, taking a silent bite of her muffin. They listened as the birds sang a new tune.