“Mr. Gruffums ran away.” The sheepish voice pulled me back from the daydream I had long since fallen into. I pulled my head away from the open palm in was resting on and turned to the source of the small intrusion.
The sun peeking through the window cast a glow around the little girl standing in the doorway still wrapped in her sundress. My little girl. I sat up in my seat and swiveled the chair until my back was facing the typewriter placed on my work desk. “You can't find him?” I replied with a smile across my face.
I thought I was in for another game of hide and go seek, where she would place her favorite stuffed animal “Mr. Gruffums” in a hidden location. We would pace through the house and Caroline would giggle and I would pretend I didn't see the bright green bear right away.
“I didn't lose him, he ran away.” She retorted to me, in that tone children take when they can't believe you accused them of something so childish. I was supposed to be catching up on work but I was happy for the interruption as I wasn't getting anything done so I decided to humor her.
“Well, where did he run off to?” My words were playful, inviting the possibility of a new game we could play together. Instead of vocalizing the answer I saw her hazy blue eyes shift their gaze to the window the sun was flooding in from.
Sitting back in my chair, hearing the creak of aging metal I too shifted my focus towards the window. Outside of the window was a direct view of the woods that sat behind our house, the woods that were the very reason we live in that house. Why we moved from our old one. The imposing line of vibrant green trees belonged to the Garland Woods.
“Are you sure?” I imposed, for a moment forgetting that I was talking to a child. She quickly replied that she was positive. My sights narrowed at the forest. Garland had a reputation of inspiring artist with its nearly magical properties. When I started struggling to write my third novel my publisher suggested a change in setting.
I had seen work from those who visited the woods and I figured if just one trip could make art like that, then what could living near the woods do? We were lucky to find this place and decided it would be ours for the summer while Casey was out of school on break. “Well let's go find him,” I said almost mesmerized by the treeline. Like the woods had plucked the words from my mind.
After making sure Casey was properly dressed for a trip into the woods I pulled a few “Just in case” supplies and we headed out the back door. I kept catching Casey skipping over the blades of grass as we drew closer and closer to the woods.
Even when the wind rushed out of the woods and pressed against our faces I could tell there was something special to it. Something untouched. Casey asked me questions about the woods the entire short walk there. Asking what kinds of animals and how long it would take to find her adventurous stuffed friend.
“Will we get lost?” She asked when we finally reached the line of trees that signified we were here and no longer there. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a shining round compass I had gotten back when I used to fish.
Kneeling to meet her eye level I held out the compass in the palm of my hand. “Nope, see these arrows?” I said pointing at the red arrow that was pointing in Casey's direction and the white arrow pointing behind me. Casey excitedly nodded her head, rattling her brain no doubt. “Well, they always point me to the two most important things in the world?”
It took her a moment of observing the arrows before she connected that the red one was pointing at her. She gave a large toothy grin in response and then pointed behind me. “The white one points to mommy!” She shouted as if she had just solved one of life's great mysteries. I envisioned my wife still curled up in bed. Then remembered I forgot to write a note that we would be gone.
I let out a sigh. She would kill me if I took Casey into the woods without really knowing what was in them. I wanted to scold myself for almost doing it. “I'm sorry baby-” I spoke looking into her eyes. “You're going to have to sit this one out.” I continued, I expected tears to start forming in her eyes but instead, her expression became solemn.
“What if Mr. Guffums doesn't know his way home?” That question, however, acted as a dam, if I didn't respond carefully the tears would certainly begin to flow. I looked down at the compass for a moment, red arrow firmly planted towards Casey.
“I'll do my best to find him, you go play with mommy.” Giving children false hope is a dangerous game to play, I knew that but I wanted to at least try, no matter how silly it was.
I watched as Casey ran back over the blades of grass until she disappeared beyond the backdoor shutting. Then, compass in hand, I stood up and began to make my way through the woods. Since I had zoned out at my typewriter I guess I hadn't realized how late it had become.
Shifting through pockets my fingers finally landed on a small plastic flashlight, the sky was still swirling with orange and purple but hardly any light was making it through the canopy. The beam of my flashlight gently fell upon the patterned grooves of bark running up the trees around me. Every tree seemed to be larger than the last as I made it deeper into the woods.
With the distance between me and the treeline growing with every step, it was easy to grasp why people were so enamored with the place. It was quite, even the scurring on animals felt muted and only the whistling of wind forcing its way through the forest was evident. I felt alone but no isolated, I was still surrounded.
My mind must have begun to wander once more and before I knew it the colors in the sky above had become dull and my flashlight was the only source of light I could count on. I was becoming pretty accustomed to how the soil and hard branches felt under my footsteps so when I took and step and felt something squish I halted in my tracks.
The beam of my flashlight lowered to the ground revealing the various colors of discarded leaves and the thing I had stepped on. I could feel the confusion on my face as I pulled my foot away from it. Caked in mud was a brown stuffed bear with bits of white fuzz peeking out from where it had been damaged.
Quickly I moved the light to observe the surrounding area but couldn't find anything other than the bear, until I looked up. With the beam of light ascending those rigid lines pressed onto the trees I momentarily thought my eyes were seeing something that wasn't there. So I stood still and let my vision adjust but no matter how long I stared the scene didn't change.
Above my head, further, than I would be able to reach, were dozens of stuffed animals tied to trees and hanging off branches. No two looked alike, there were giraffes and dragons, red ones and white ones. Soon after I accepted what I was seeing, I laid eyes on the most important stuffed animal of all. Mr. Guffums, he was hanging high in one of the trees but his bright color and pattern were unmistakable.
It was him, Mr. Guffums had made it into the woods. I was going over all the explanations in my head but came up short every time. There was no way Casey or even my wife would have been able to put all this together. And to what ends, then I considered that there might be some maniac living in the woods.
My racing thoughts crashed when I noticed a new source of light appearing out of the corner of my eye. Instinctively I clicked off my flashlight and ducked behind a tree, the “Maniac” option still fresh in my mind. Fingers pressing into the bark I slowly peeked out from behind the tree to observe the new light source. There were two of them, each a dim orange, a similar color to the flimsy flashlight I was using.
They were hanging next to each other with a small gap between them, it almost looked like headlights were closing in on me. There was no roar of an engine and I couldn't help but notice there was no light coming off the orbs. If I were to turn on my flashlight it would illuminate the area I was pointing it at but the light from the orbs was self-contained.
The orbs got far closer than I was comfortable with, if I tried to make my exit then I would have made way too much noise. Plus Mr. Guffums was so close, I was hoping the lights would just carry on and I could find a way to get him down.
Yet the orbs continued to linger, once they got close enough I could vaguely see what was carrying the lights, or rather what was producing them. A mass, not much larger than Casey is, was crunching leaves under it as it moved along. After several extended minutes, the thing paced its way over to the teddy bear on the floor.
Shrouded in darkness the thing bent over and with unnervingly thin hands it picked the teddy bear up. My weight shifted beyond my control and a clump of dry leaves sounded off like a siren declaring my location. My grip had become so tight on the tree that my fingers nails were almost pried off by the bark. I loosened my grip and decided I would just come back during the day.
Turning around to flee from the thing picking up the teddy bear I came face to face with a much larger set of lights. Merely inches away from my face I could see the lights were made up of hundreds of fireflies all tightly packed together. The mass of fireflies all squirmed around one another and every so often one would separate from the pact, trailing off into the dark.
With so little distance between me and the new and much larger being in front of me, I was able to make out more details. The grains on the trees I had become so acquainted with also made of the being in front of me. The things 'bark' was much darker though and the groves were denoted by lines of gray.
It was covered in a moss-like shroud. It was like a large root had lifted out of the forest floor and gained sentience. Before I had time to react the thing lifted its arm and with a surface the size of my chest I was pushed back and pinned to the tree I was hiding behind.
In my peripheral, I could see the smaller tree thing slowly stepping towards the one holding me against the tree. I started to feel the thing putting pressure on my chest and I feebly attempted to claw at the thing's arm. It felt just like the bark that my back was being grounded against.
My body started to sink into the tree behind me like I was starting to merge with the woods, or was being imprisoned. I looked around, the anxiety of everything starting to settle in I desperately fought for a way out. I didn't know what was going to happen first, either my ribs would puncture my lungs or my heart would give out.
With one last act of defiance, I threw my arm forward flinging the object I had been holding out of my hand. The small metal compass collided with the thing's face and bounced off without so much as a noise. I watched it roll across the soil before falling over revealing the white arrowing pointing towards my girls.
I followed the line established by the white arrow and began thinking of my family as my body fell more and more into the tree. When I followed the imaginary line long enough I looked up to see the small tree thing hiding sheepishly behind the larger one and I thought of Casey.
Everything was still for me at that moment, the thing that was pinning me to the tree, the thing made from the Garland Woods. I knew what it was at that moment. I stopped clawing at the being's arm and pushed my hands forward with open palms. Spreading my fingerers wide like I was waiting for my wife's fingers to fill the gaps.
The pressure from the thing, that I have since come to refer to as Garland Folk, began to lessen at my show of peace. With my right hand, I pointed at the larger Garland Folk and then at myself, wagging my finger between use, establishing a connection. The Garland Folk tilted it's head curiously at me, I could see the clump of fireflies shift as several tried to catch up.
Then I pointed toward the smaller Garland Folk, I could feel a hot sting in my eyes as I peered at the little one. I just wanted to get back to Casey. The Large Folk turned to face the smaller one and then looked back to me. That's when I pointed upwards, the Folk followed my finger and stared at the bright green bear sitting high in the trees.
The Folk stared at it for a moment and then shifted it's gaze between me and the bear several times, putting the puzzle together. We were the same and when it realized that, the pressure on my chest lessened and I was pushed out of the tree I was merging with.
I fell to the forest floor sitting among the leaves as the larger Folk walked over to the tree with Mr. Guffums in it and pluck the bear from its resting place. The Garland Folk lowered its harm and thin branches sprouted from it offering me the bear. Reaching out I clasped onto the plush and tried to breathe but felt a harsh pain from the compression.
That's when several of the fireflies drifted away from the Garland Folk's eyes and hovered over my chest. There was a warmth to them and as they illuminated the rips on my shirt I could see the small scrapes I suffered begin to diminish.
I'd like to say we had some moving conversation but that didn't happen. The larger Garland Folk grabbed the smaller one's hand and I watched them walk away until they were out of sight. Once I was alone again I grabbed the compass and used it to make my way back to the house.
My wife greeted me and scolded me for making me worry and questioned about the state of my shirt. I just told her I tripped. It was late and she just wanted to go to bed so we both decided that we'd talk about it later.
Casey was already fast asleep in bed, curled up in all her blankets I softly tip-toed into her room and placed Mr. Guffums under her arm. After checking for bugs and cleaning him up of course. I didn't tell her that I found him. Just that he must have found his way back home after all.
There's nothing wrong with a little magic.
Submitted August 09, 2019 at 03:27AM by AuthorJoJo https://ift.tt/2OHFMxt
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