Canopy

Just a little story I wrote last year. It was entered in a contest then, but never won. I still love it.

Remission. A wonderful word, if I do say so myself. When I look outside of my window, I see the trees swaying in the afternoon breeze. I think about how long it had been since I have last been out there. It actually was since I had the fourth relapse of this cancer. That ordeal was, in total, about three years worth of my life, wasted in this hospital.

  I felt like those dead brown leaves that once crunched dryly beneath my feet in late autumn, each of those days when I was under Chemotherapy. It felt like this shell of mine was being crunched, just like those leaves. When I slept, however, I saw the tops of the trees below me, like I was flying… or something like that. I belonged there, soaring above the canopy of the forest.

  Snapping back to reality, I hear the nurse come in and write rapidly, after reading the monitors attached to me. She looks emotionless. I smile and turn away from her. At least I believe that I am okay. Soon I will be able to go out and sit in the park. I won’t be afraid of the people who chose to stare. Like the trees after fire, my shell will repair itself. I will walk up and tell those people that I know it will be a long while before my fire orange hair will grow back. I know this, but I don’t mind. There is hope today.

  “Miss Caoiliann…?”, said a new voice.

  “It’s pronounced ‘Kay-leen’” I say and laugh at her inability to say my name. Everyone else takes a look at my name, and never even tries to give it a chance. Just like when they

 

look at me. It is a trivial matter, in this case. I sit up and stare at the nurse, with a perplexed look on my face.

  “This came from your school.” She tells me. I sign a paper for her, and take the item she holds.

  It is a tiny tree. A Chinese Bonsai Tree, I think. I hold it above me and laugh. This tree… it is me. There is mostly dull, lifeless bark on its trunk, but at the top, I can see little green leaves. There is life sprouting on this tree, meant to bring good luck.

  These leaves are like the life sprouting in me. Today is the last day of dead, crunching leaves.

  “Remission!” I say, and place the bonsai on my nightstand. This time, I won’t come back to this hospital. I’ll spend each day within a forest growing again, up towards the canopy just like everything else.

 

Author's Note

It's an older work; but comments appreciated anyway.

Reviews

[Ignorance Was Bliss Eve..]

This is very Nice.
I like how I can get the picture
In my head while I'm reading it.
Beautiful.

[Wildfleour]

You have a lot of great images here, but many can be connected and reworked, with some sentences combined.

Show me in class, if you'd like, next Thursday on free write day.