A Visit In Beauty

            Walking through the woods, the young child seemed to be searching aimlessly for something, with a small mutt of a terrier following closely behind. It was a beautiful day, and as much as the child was glad to be outside with his dog, he walked with a sense of purpose, apparently attempting to fulfill some duty in his search.

            After some walking, the child noticed a shine of light pink and one of the forests most exquisite treasures, the lady slipper. So he jumped willingly through the thorns to the flower, not minding that his legs were left bleeding, simply kneeling down next to the flower that was an endangered species. “This sure is a pretty one, isn’t it buddy?” the boy said, addressing the dog that wagged his tail loyally at his side. “I think it will look very, very pretty in the clearing.”

            The young boy then removed a small shovel from his pocket and began to dig wide and deep around the solitary plant, clearly avoiding all of the roots that could be damaged in this action. It was difficult work for such a small child, as though the flower was small, the ground was extremely tough with a top layer that was made up of the decomposed leaves, pine needles and carcasses that had been rotting there seemingly since the beginning of time. However, below this tough outer coating, lay soft, fertile soil, which was much easier to dig through and the boy was glad to have reached it after only several seconds of the more difficult work.

            Once the boy had completed digging a perimeter around the lady slipper, he slid the shovel underneath and lifted up the roots, flower and soil onto the shovel, which he balanced with skill that would have made it clear to anyone who intruded upon the solitude of the forest that the boy had done this many times before. In fact, the flower remained perfectly upright s the boy carried it through the forest to another clearing that he seemed to be perfectly familiar with.

            This clearing held a number of things, the most central of which appeared to be an old, worn down headstone. This could just have easily been simply a rock, however the boy was positive that he could see an “A” carved into it, barely visible while the rest was too worn down to see. In addition to  this, the clearing seemed to be littered with flowers. On the prospective central grave lay only lady slippers making a beautiful and unique garden.

Meanwhile on either side of the grave were two other burials, which the boy had dug himself and planted the wildflowers on. One was of a mother raccoon who had perished with one of her children. The boy was however proud that he was able to raise the babies siblings to a point where he could release them into the wild, which with the help of his parents he had done with stunning success. One the opposite side of the clearing lay a praying mantis, which the boy had kept through the winter. He was very sad when it died, much like when he discovered the dead raccoon, but he took it upon himself to cover both of these graves with wild flowers, looking exquisite next to the taller lady slippers.

The boy then took it upon himself to kneel down before the headstone, and plant this lady slipper directly in front of it, where it would look beautiful, as if sort of some sort of offering in hopes of having his favor returned with the meeting he sought.

“Chris?” the boy asked, hoping more so for some change in his own mood than any physical apparition. “I just wanted to say that we all miss you, but we’re pulling through. I hope you know and like whoever’s below here, this is a ways from where you're buried but I hope you've met somewhere. I’ve been planting flowers, not for him or you, but I wanted to make the forest prettier. I’m sorry we couldn’t catch whoever did this to you, but I suppose it’s best to forgive. I hope you’re happy in whatever you’ve become. I love you Chris.”

The boy looked down and saw a tiny mouse looking up at him, though the dog didn’t seem to mind its presence. The boy burst out into a smile, wiping the tears from his eye.

The mouse ran out of sight, happy for having been granted such a wonderful visit.

 

Reviews

[J.E. Stroud]

however the boy was positive that he could a*s an "A" carved into it

The only things that I think you could improve on is the typo above and

"I think it will look absolutely wonderful in the clearing."
"I've been planting flowers, not for him or you, but merely hoping to make the forest more beautiful."
It just sounds too intelligent to be a small child talking.
It's a beautiful story, though. I really love it. Is the part about the mouse true?
PS I am really glad that you actually got around to writing this :)

[Sound]

Very good. Maybe I misunderstood this read, but who was Chris? The only one I could think of was the racoon or the mantis? Maybe I missed something.