My earliest memories, before anything I remember of my actual life, are of my dreams. I dreamed of a giant tree. A snowstorm. And something red. Despite how often I have these dreams, and how real they seem there's something hazy about them. Something I can't seem to see properly.
Something missing.
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My mom says I'm 'rambunctious.' That I'm always running off on my own. She wonders why I can't stay still, why I'm never happy staying in one place. Everyone says the way I run around looks like I'm searching for something. People are always asking what I've lost so they can help me find it.
I wish I knew, too.
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We visited a museum as a field trip a few days ago. There are four huge statues out front. The signs say they used to be able to move. That night I dreamed that there were five of them.
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I think what I'm looking for is a person. I'm sure that I'm looking for something now. Even in my dreams, I'm wandering alone, looking for it. But in my dreams, I'm not looking at stuff. I'm just looking at people's faces. Except in my dreams, they don't have them. Whenever I have that dream, I see blank, featureless faces on everyone, but I always wake up seeing green eyes, just like my own.
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I think what's missing in my dream is a person. It's what I can't remember right, the red thing under the snowy tree. Sometimes I'm chasing it, sometimes I'm leading it, sometimes we both just sit there. But when I wake up, I can't recall anything else about them.
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My mom goes walking with me a lot. I think she does it to let me search for what, or who, I'm looking for. We go all over the place, and she lets me decide where most of the time. I don't know if it's helping, because most of the time I don't feel like I'm any closer no matter what direction we go.
…
I found a picture book at a store. It was simply made, but the artwork was beautiful. The story seems unfinished. The end has different art than the rest and no words, and the last pages are blank other than a sketch that I think is of one of the characters. Even so, it reminds me of my dream somehow. I've been poring over it repeatedly.
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I think something has changed, like the person I'm searching for is clearer now. My mom says my wandering is going in the same direction most of the time now. That just makes me want to go out even more, though.
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There's a tree in the center of the city, near the museum with the big statues. It's really big, and it feels like the center of the world. It's not the one from my dream though. Even so, when I sit under it I get this feeling like things are falling into place. My dreams have trees like this one in them now, too, only smaller. The red person isn't always red anymore, either.
…
There was no school today, so we went on a really long walk, much further than we'd gone before. I even got tired out. Before we turned back though, I saw something even further into the city; a massive tree covered in flowers the same color as my hair. I told my mom I want to go there next time. I feel like what I'm searching for is closer than ever before.
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I brought the book to the tree today. It feels like I was acting out a scene from my dream, and it made things clearer than ever before. That person in my dream was a girl. Even though she wasn't the same in every dream, I know it was the same girl, always the same age as I was in a given dream.
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We finally got to see the tree! It's huge, with a trunk that seems to take up half the block. I want to see what's on the other side. It feels like it's so close I can touch it.
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A girl came darting around the base of the tree as I sat trying to recall my dream. She tripped on a tree root, breaking me out of my thoughts and causing me to look toward her in alarm.
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I tripped as I came around the tree, as I fell, something caught my eye. I turned as soon as I stopped falling, and
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Everything clicked into place at last. I saw her face, and she was the girl from my dream. Not exactly the same, there was something that the girl in the dreams had that she doesn't, but I knew it was her anyway.
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There was a boy sitting under the tree. Looking at me right as I fell, I saw his eyes. Green. The same green as mine.
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Time stood still for an instant as we gazed at eachother. I asked her what her name was, at the same instant she asked for mine. It felt like I was in one of my dreams again. We just sat there and talked until her mom took her home. I don't even remember what we talked about, I just remember her. My dreams that night weren't hazy at all. I know exactly what was missing from them now.
Her.
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We talked and talked until my mom had to nearly drag me home. She said she'd never seen get along with another kid like that. I made her promise to take me back to the tree again. I've found what I was searching for.
Him.
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I go back to the tree every couple of days. I haven't seen the girl again so far, but I know it's only a matter of time until I meet her again. I can feel it. I don't know what this all means, but I know that everything made sense finally when I was with her.
…
I haven't seen him again, even though we go back to the tree whenever we can make the time. I'm not worried though. I've found him once, I'm sure I'll find him again. Now that I know what I was looking for, it'll only be easier.
Author's Notes: I'm planning to leave this as a one-shot for now. I have and idea percolating for a full-on sequel to DitF, but I don't have all the threads pinned down enough to commit to even starting it yet, especially given that I haven't made any progress on my first fic in a long time. I think this can stand on its own open-ended nature for now, though.