A Fool's Gold

A girl risks her life to obtain a small selfish desire.

 

 

 

She screamed as the branches tore at her hair, and the wind howled in her ear. The rain poured down in sheets, drenching both her body and all her hopes in making out of the woods alive.

            She knew she never should have come. Everyone in her family had warned her that the wind and the rain would show their anger to the earth tonight. They had all seen the clouds as the formed over the farm, watching silently. The clouds made the whole family nervous; their dark forms seemed to be supervising every task that everyone did around the farm, and hating each movement.

            Yet she had still wanted to get the gold she had seen in the woods. It had winked at her the day before as she passed by on her way back from the neighboring farmhouse. She had wanted to pick it up and take it back with her; everything about the golden stone that was embedded in the root of the tree seemed to whisper to her, “Take me. I could be yours. Just pick me up.” But it was not on her property. It wasn’t hers.

            But its winking face had haunted her all night. Her thoughts wandered to its golden surface, her mind running over the contours of its surface. All other thoughts faded away into the brilliance of the one shining golden stone. Images of a happy life with many clothes and plenty of food crowded into her mind, and she imagined the voices of her family members when they realized that she had put all of their money troubles behind them.

            She had set out with those thoughts and images in her mind despite the protests from her family. She insisted that she left her bonnet in the woods, and had to get it before the storm set in. Tripping along the path to the woods, she felt like a heroine. She felt like she was shining with the glory that she had not yet gained. She breathed in the deep, pungent scent of pine, and the smell of rain.

            The smell of rain should have warned her to hurry. But she could not run fast enough to run away from the rain. It came down ceaselessly and, at first, spattered her dress, and then it came angrily. It threw itself upon her body with such persistence that in no time she looked as though she had emerged from the depths of a lake. Blindly, she tripped over roots and bumped into stumps that were taking refuge in the ground.

            Yet she would not give up. The golden stone was fixed in her mind, and the glory she would soon receive was still singing through her head, but it now the singing was faint. She determinedly blundered through the wet leaves, smelling only wet. Wet dirt; wet leaves; wet dreams.

            But it was there for her. It smiled at her in a way that made her give a cry of joy. She dug it out of the runny mud with her fingers and polished it on her dress. It was a rough stone, and it fit in her hand. She stood looking at it for a few moments, and the storm around her and her cold body seemed to vanish for an instant. She had found what she had been searching for. But then she knew she had to get home.

            Minutes of bracing herself against the storm seemed like hours. She didn’t know where she was going, but she wanted to get out of the woods. She leaned into the wind, and let it carry her wherever it pleased. All happiness of finding the stone had vanished, and it had been replaced with fear and exhaustion.

            As the wind and rain fought over her small body, she wondered if she had been wise to come to the woods and risk being in the storm. Suddenly, the foolishness of her whim set in, and she sat down in the mud and leaves. Lightning zinged above her in the sky, marking an “X” over her place on the ground. Fear coursed through her as she wondered if the storm would claim her for its own. She began to sob, and her tears mingled with the fierce raindrops.

            But off in the distance, hope appeared. A tiny glimmer of it shone like a faithful star in an utterly black sky. It was a light from her cabin window. With the last strength in her body, she ran to the only thing that mattered to her in the world at the moment: safety.

            Warmth spread over her when she opened the door. People’s voices enveloped her, and the comforting arms of her mother wrapped around her and banished the fear from her. The terror of being alone faded, and the evil of the woods that clung to her wet clothes retreated back to the dark of the storm outside.

            And with relief came excitement. Eagerly, she stuck her hand into her pocket to pull out the one reward she had claimed from the storm. It shone in her palm as she exposed it to the light of the cabin. It seemed even more radiant now that it was hers. A pang of guilt ran through her briefly as a tiny voice in her heart told her that it wasn’t hers. But her face shown as she looked up at her family.

            “I found gold.”

            Her father gently took the stone from her and lifted it close to his eye. He smiled, and tossed it up in the air. He caught it and said, “Darling, this isn’t gold. This is just pyrite. It’s fool’s gold.”

 

 

 

 

Author's Note

This is something I wrote quite a while ago.
I actually tried writing this with meaning behind it (fools gold: the girl was a fool to have risked everything), but it was only a first attempt. So...tell me what you think!