Humming a catchy tune, I steer the car into my driveway. Its very, very, long with a bunch of twists and turns. And its at least a half mile. Closed in by the forest on both sides.
You could say my home is very lonely and creepy. But I say its private and beautiful. Ever since I was a child I have loved the forest. Its so calm and peaceful. My mother bought me a professional camera with twelve mega pixels for my fourteenth birthday and I spent hours taking pictures of the nature surrounding our house. And they turned out pretty good.
But it was probably just the pictures' quality in stead of my talent that made them look nice. You could take a picture of a goat and it would look like a million bucks. Maybe that's what I can do with all my extra time. I would take a couple pictures of the new Spring flowers then go get my hair cut. Yep, that's the plan.
I push the button on my keychain to open the garage when I see my house come into view. The roof is slanted slightly inward. Windows made out of many smaller windows framed by polished wood reach the floor to the ceiling. Its a nice kitchel house. If you don't know what that is, look it up. The people that supposedly built this house copied it from this other house. But whatever. The only thing that matters is that our house looks exactly like that other house. Even the inside, which is very roomy and has almost no walls on the inside. Our bedrooms have only a wall and no door separating each of them. Only our bathrooms have walls and doors.
I drive carefully into the garage and take my key out of the car. I notice my mother's car is in the garage too. She's already back from her work? I feel my spirits falling all the way to the ground. The only reason I can think of why she would be home early is if she was fired or she quit...
I quickly open the door that leads into our house and look all around for my mother. The dish washer is running and there's a plate of last night's dinner on the wooden counter.
"Mama?"
When there is no reply, I walk up the stairs and peer into my mother's bedroom. There she is. Sleeping on her king sized bed with a content expression on her face. She's holding a turquoise paper in her one hand that's dangling over the edge if the bed.
Tiptoeing so I don't wake her, I take the paper from her figures and skim over the paragraphs. Apparently, my mother's design won. Over six thousand copies will be shipped and sold worldwide. And if all goes well and it sells evenly, my mother will get a twenty percent raise. I gasp at all the numbers I'm looking at right now. Damn, my mother has a really nice job. She now makes eighteen dollars an hour and she works from eight in the morning to seven at night. And she only gets Sundays off.
That's...one thousand, one hundred, and eighty eight dollars a week. My jaw drops. For being surprised by the amount and being surprised that I did the math with out the help of my phone's calculator. No wonder my mother is asleep. She probably passed out from the shock. Well no worries about money. Not like there was any in the first place.
I set the paper down on her nightstand and back out of her room, intrigued by how she is staying asleep with those many windows shining light into her room. I go to my room and dig around in my closet for my camera.
"Ah ha!" I found my camera under a box of old shoes that no longer fit me. I should give those to Good Will while I'm on my way to the party. You never know what good karma it could bring me. I grab the camera with one hand and drag the box over to my dresser with the other. Leaving it there, I go back to my closet for some sneakers. I find some blue and gray Reeboks, get some socks from my dresser, and put them both on.
I examine the shoes and realize that this is the first time I've ever used them. I need to go hiking more. I'm always cooped up at a friend's house or something. I put my camera's string around my wrist and pick up the box full of shoes. I exit my room and take cautious steps down the staircase. When I get to the bottom, I walk back into the garage and put the box in the trunk of my car. Good. Now that that's done with, I can go take pictures now.
I go out the smaller garage door and begin walking through the woods. I take in the scenery around me. If you just take a quick look of everything then you just see trees. But if you study one little thing at a time, you see all the details and little things that count. I gaze at a lone aspen tree. Its shorter and thinner than all the other sequoias around it. Its leaves are a light green and they are round except for the pointed tip. The bark of the tree is white with big black spots here and there. A couple of large rocks rest at the base of it with fresh moss growing on them. I notice a lady bug crawling on the moss.
Bending down, I aim my camera at it and get the right angle. I snap the picture and stand up to observe my work on the screen. It turned out better than I had hoped. I caught the lady bug at just the right moment. Right when it flew off the rock. So technically, it was an action shot. Bonus.
I save the picture and continue on my way. I hear a stream nearby so I follow the sound. I climb over boulders and rotting trees like I have every day of my life. Well that's how it used to be. I used to make my own trails, carve my name into the trees, know where every rock, cliff, and mini-swamp was.
But not anymore. I've forgotten all of that stuff. Ever since I started high school, I've acted all stuck up and prissy around my friends and have stayed away from the forests because my friends hate it. Always defying teachers and grown ups. Doing mean pranks and saying crude stuff. When in my head I'm thinking 'What the hell am I doing?' Good thing my friends don't like coming to my house. I would never act that way in front of my mother. My friends like my house, but they hate the nature. Their disgusted by it and they all claim to have 's why they always hang out at the mall in town and want to move to a city when they get older. And I act that way too, just because they do. I mentally scold myself for trying to be like them. I should be my own person. Not a copy-cat.
A fern bathed in sunlight catches my eye and I take a picture of it, not caring about angle since the light replaces the need for uniqueness. Looking ahead, I see the stream I heard. Its surrounded by algae-covered rocks and ferns. The water jumps and splashes over smooth stones. I walk to it and grin when I see fish swimming. Their salmon! The red kind.
I point my camera at one particular salmon and put my camera close to the ground so that the water will look shinier and the salmon will look blurry, and I take the photo. I look around for another thing to take a picture of. Seeing nothing interesting, I walk the edge of the stream down a hill. At the bottom, I find a few butterflies on the damp sand along the stream, probably sipping moisture from it. I recognize these butterflies. They are California sister butterflies. Their orange, black, white, and a little bit of red and blue.
Crouching, I zoom my camera in on a butterfly and snap the picture strait on. Yet again, there was no need for an angle. I stand up and back away, not wanting to disturb them. I turn around and start heading back home. Checking my phone, I see that two hours have already passed. That amazes me. I only took three pictures. I must of gotten so caught up in the nature that I lost track of time.
I hike back up the hill and stop to wipe the sweat from my brow. I'm in definitely need of exercise. The last time I went hiking was...four months ago? Yeah, four months ago with my mother. Feeling the presence of something behind me, I turn slowly and see a huge brown cat standing on a boulder. Its really fluffy with pointed ears, a short tail, and spots all over it. Its a mountain lion!
An undignified squeak comes from my throat and my hands stumble for the camera hanging around my neck. Finally, I get a grasp of it and take a quick picture of the big cat. It looks to me and hisses, showing off it's yellow fangs. And of course, me being the big chicken that I am, I turn the opposite way and run like death is chasing me. Which it very well may be.
Staggering down the sidewalk, I throw myself at the front door, open it, and rush inside. I lock the door and yell for my mother.
"Willow? Are you hurt? What's wrong?" She walks down the stairs and grasps my shoulders, looking for any sign of injury.
"I was out taking pictures of butterflies, and fish, and nature and there was this HUGE brown cat and it was on a rock so I took a picture of it and it hissed at me then I ran all the way home because I thought it was going to attack me", I say in one whole sentence.
My mother gives me a look of concern and hugs m. I hug her back, feeling queasy. "Can I see the picture if the big cat?" my mother asks. I give her my camera and she looks through the pictures. When she gets to the picture if the cat, she smiles but tries to hide it. "Willow, this is a bobcat!" She shows me the camera.
I take it from her and scowl at the picture. The 'mountain lion' is much smaller than I first interpreted it. It actually looks like a regular house cat besides the tail, ears, and spots. I look at my mother and blush.
"Well I didn't know!" I defend myself. My mother chuckles. "I know, baby. Its a good thing you ran, because bobcats can sometimes be dangerous like any other animal." She taps my cheek and walks over to her spot on the couch with her fashion magazines. It was just a bobcat? I watch Animal Planet and I think their was a special about bobcats last month. They prey on bunnies, small rodents, and birds. Not seventeen year old girls like myself.
Feeling stupid, I go to the fridge and pour myself a glass of lemon tea and slice up an apple for an afternoon snack. I walk over to the couch and sit by my mother. "So there's this party tonight. You know the linebacker on the football team? Wayne. He's throwing it and I'm invited. He had one last year and I went to it. I can go, right?" I munch on an apple slice, the sound of me chewing sounds loud in the silent house. My mother finishes reading her article in her magazine and twists in her seat to look at me.
"Yeah. I'm fine with that. And tomorrow night, lets me and you go to that fancy diner by the market in town that you like so much. In celebration of me winning the presentation today", my mother suggests.
I jump up from my seat, my bowl of apple slices spilling all on the floor, and hop up and down in excitement. I had completely forgot about that! "The Knightbell Blossom?"
My mother nods her head happily. And now we get to go to my favorite place to eat! I squeal in delight. "I'm so proud of you, mama! You worked so hard on that dress. In the end, you always win. Congratulations!" I say, giving my mother a kiss on the cheek.
She smiles and continues reading her magazine. "Thanks, baby. Have fun at that party." I pick up the fallen apples from the ground and toss them in the trash can. Going up the stairs, I check my phone for the time. Its four thirty nine. Maybe a nap, then shopping, then the party. I tug my curtains closed and plop down onto my bed and snuggle up to my fluffy green pillow. A nap sounds nice. I used a lot if energy running from that bobcat. And a lot of adrenaline. I yawn, sleep overcoming me. Yeah... Just a short nap...