All too soon, I made it back to that house. Fortunately, there were no sounds of a fight to be heard. But that also meant one of them may have died since it wasn’t uncommon to see kitchen knives being brought into their fights. Something I’ve seen since I was a little kid. Not that I would mind if I was killed, it would end everything.
I quietly opened the door and sneaked upstairs to my bedroom in the attic. Time to do some homework- an escape from reality. Or so I hoped.
I was drowning in mud, or quicksand. It was too dark to tell. I was suffocating as I somehow felt myself sinking deeper and deeper. I was pushed in from all sides as I tried to escape from the sinking agony. Just when I thought all hope was lost, I heard a voice speak.
“You have the ability to save yourself.”
What is he talking about? If I could do that I would have done so a long time ago!
Suddenly I felt extremely irritated at the voice, right before I fell off my bed.
Ow… I clutched my aching head, and then looked at the wall clock. It was 6:30 a.m. I might as well get up now and make breakfast. I made my bed before going for a quick shower in the basement bathroom. When I came out, another clock indicated that it was only 6:43 a.m. If I made breakfast now, it’d be cold before those two woke up.
As I walked up the stairs, I noticed that the lights were on in the kitchen. However, when I went into the kitchen, I discovered that the light was from the rising of the sun that could be seen through the windows. I stood there for a while, and closed my eyes against the blinding, yet warm sunlight.
Somehow, the sun reminded me of the boy I met yesterday. Annoyingly glaring and irritating if I looked at it. But I needed that drawing back. How else do I buy the weekly groceries when my parents forget? 95% of the time?
I got dressed and trudged into the chill of the early morning air to the clearing. A problem arose when I arrived: how do I break a branch off the tree?
It wasn’t that I couldn’t break off a branch; it was because the branches were too high and I couldn’t climb a tree.
“Where’s that idiot when you need him?” I muttered.
“I don’t like being called an idiot.”
I was so startled I stumbled over my own feet and fell over backwards.
“Clumsy.” What an irritating guy. I pushed myself back up and noticed he had his hand in a position for a handshake with the grass.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Apparently nothing.” He muttered before straightening up and holding out a stick to me. “A branch for you; I figured you wouldn’t be able to reach with that short stature of yours.”
Irritating and rude guy. “You haven’t changed at all.” I said as I snatched the branch out of his hand.
“What do you mean?” He asked curiously.
“I’ve heard of bad first impressions, but you just leave bad impressions every time.”
“Is that how you speak to your elders?”
“Elder? That’s rich coming from a guy who’s even shorter than I am. Shouldn’t you be in elementary school, kid?” Okay, I held a grudge against the short thing.
He kicked my leg, causing me to fall again and loomed over me. “Listen little girl, I’m a 67 year old tree who has passed many winters. Don’t tell me where I should be when you don’t even know what to do yourself.”
That last line stung. I didn’t know where I should be, but that was my business and my business alone.
I grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him close to glare into his eyes. “Let’s just go to school to prove you’re not a tree spirit, so you can give me my drawing back. You have no right to talk about my personal matters.”
I released him and turned around to walk back to the house. Before I walked into the house, I shoved the stick at him.
“Wait here, I need to go get my stuff and be back in an hour. That shouldn’t be a long time for a 67 years old tree to wait, right?”
The shocked expression on him face was so worth it as I walked back inside humming slightly. That should teach him to mess with my art. I took a glance at the clock on the oven and it was already 7:00 a.m. Time to make breakfast.
More specifically, I warmed up the meal I prepared last night before I got ready for bed. I finished in 10 minutes, ate breakfast, brushed my teeth quickly and put my hair up into a ponytail. I grabbed my backpack and left before my parents could notice.
“Sorry I took so long…” I trailed off looking at the sight of him holding a branch with his left hand and gingerly touching the old, log house with his right hand. He had a look of utmost sadness in his eyes as he looked at the rotting wood.
“Spirit?” I really had no other name for him, but he turned his head at the name.
“Yes?” He grinned cockily, but I could still see the underlying sadness in his eyes.
I suddenly remembered the quote, “Eyes are the window to the soul.”
“What?” His eyes went wide. Oops I must have said that out loud!
“Er-nothing. Come on, it’s time for school!”
I grabbed the branch out of his hands and ran towards the bus stop just before it left. I swiped my card and took a seat at the back with a branch in hand. Strangely enough, rather than talking about me in loud voices, everyone just turned to their seating partners and talked to them. It was strangely unnatural, like they were purposely turning a blind eye without taking the chance to make a snide remark.
I took my seat at the back and the tree spirit in army clothing made himself comfortable in the spot beside me.
“What’s different about you?” I suddenly asked. If he could come up with differences between him and other humans, I’d definitely prove him wrong.
“I wonder…” He muttered and looked out the window of the empty seats across from us. “I guess the fundamental difference is that only you can see me.”
“What?”
He kept his eyes locked with mine as he straightened up. “Haven’t you noticed anything strange? This is a school bus, but the driver never asked me for any identification. None of your classmates asked why you had a tree branch in your hand either. It’s my energy that’s keeping all this hidden from their eyes and minds.”
“That’s impossible.”
His eyes turned lazy. “It’s up to you to believe if I’m telling the truth or not. Though you will be treated like a mental patient if you believe otherwise.”
I tapped the shoulder of one of the girls who sat in front of us. It was the first time I initiated contact with someone else in years, excluding this strange boy. She turned around and I recognized the popular girl who used to be my best friend.
“Chelsey, there’s a guy sitting beside me, right?”
She gave me a strange look. “Jean, I think you need to get your eyes checked. There’s no one beside you.”
She turned back around and I slumped down in shock. There’s absolutely no way that this boy was telling the truth. Spirits didn’t exist.
“No way…” This couldn’t be happening.
“But magic doesn’t exist…”
“I never said I had magic. I just said I’m the spirit of the tree and that my energy is keeping that branch hidden from sight. I’m just helping those humans turn a blind eye to the branch like they’ve been doing to the harmful effects of many things they do.” He purposely coughed. “Air pollution.”
Something seemed off in what he said.
“Then why can I see you?”
He looked back to the windows again. “Because you never turn a blind eye to anything for any reason. That and you’re a weird girl who hangs around a tree as you get home from school and stay there until the sun sets. Geez, if I was a human guy, I’d think you fell in love with me at first sight.”
“Keep dreaming.” I scoffed. “There must be another way to tell you’re not a tree spirit.”
He sighed. “You’re denying the inevitable.”
I gave him a look and he reluctantly answered. “Since I am the spirit of a tree, if my tree is dead, I will disappear.”
He looked so serious; I thought he was telling the truth. Then reality came crushing down. That simply wasn't possible.

Throughout the day, no matter how many times I tried to point him out to my classmates, the teachers, and even the principal who passed by, not one of them could see him, though they had no problems leaving a space in the crowd for him.
“I told you, they can’t see me.” He drawled with his head resting on his palm and looking at me out of the corner of his slanted eyes.
Ding.
Three more stops before my stop, and I still couldn’t prove he wasn’t a tree, but he might slip up in a conversation.
“Hey, how do you know that my drawing was made from your tree?”
He perked up. “So you’re admitting that I’m a tree spirit?”
I shot him a glare. “Answer the question.”
His eyes glazed over as he looked out the window. “Rather than knowing it was from my tree, it’s more like an instinct. I just feel that it was once a part of me.”
Seeing him looking wistfully at something only he could see made me feel insignificant. He knew what he was doing and what he was going to do. I yearned for that kind of certainty; nothing was stable in my life. I had to sell my drawings just for the money. It’s not like my parents would buy the groceries or anything that we needed.
Ding.
Two more stops. He glanced over at me as I looked out the window, wishing I could see the same thing as him. If only I didn’t have to go home, if only I could run away. Then, I could live in this moment forever. I wish time would just freeze right now. This bus felt more like home to me than that horrible place ever did.
Ding.
Once this bet is over, he’ll leave and I’ll have no one to talk to again. I don’t want that. If only I could stay a little longer. With that thought, I found myself tightly gripping the tree branch.
Ding.
It was over and it was time to go back once again.
“Thank you.” My voice was barely audible as I stepped off the bus. Then I heard something similar to the sound of lightening in the direction of the clearing.
My hands were shaking from fear of the unknown that was taking place in my sanctuary.
“Hey-” A pair of forest green eyes looked at me with concern. “I don’t think you should go over there.”
There was no way I could stay quiet and act as if everything was normal. “Thank you for the concern, but I can’t ignore this.”
I took off and ran through the forest. Countless branches grazed my arms and face, but I kept pushing. I tripped and fell several times, but I kept going as moisture gathered in my eyes. The shadows danced around me and made patterns on my skin, as if saying everything was still just like before, but it wasn’t.
I saw the cause of the sound at the end of my pursuit. My father was holding an axe in his hand as he chopped the remains of my dear, beloved tree into timber. I looked behind me, and the strange boy with forest green eyes, reddish brown hair and tanned complexion, dressed in army camouflaged clothing, was nowhere to be seen.
This was the last straw. I walked silently back to the house, opened the back door and entered the kitchen. There, I picked up the phone and dialed a familiar number.
This time, I couldn’t hesitate and my voice came out clearer than I thought it would. “Aunt, can I live with you in Canada?”
…
I walked through the new school halls, with my new books and a new look. Aunt Alice came the day after I called her to pick me up, and I left that place with only my sketchbook and pencil. My parents didn’t say a word as I finally left, not that I expected them to. She immediately took me to a huge mall despite my protests and bought me everything a person could ever need. She was going to buy more, but I managed to convince her not to. Her warm hug afterwards was worth so much more than any bought item ever would, I couldn’t help but cry a little. Even then, she only gave me a napkin with a smile. No screaming, scolding or chiding ever happened to me at her apartment. She was a truly kind person who had touched my heart.
The teacher led me into a new classroom, with new classmates. This was a fresh, new start for me.
“Everyone, this is our new student: Jean Woodsworth. Who would like to show our new student around at the Canadian Academy for the Arts?
The door suddenly opened with a loud bang. “Sorry I’m late! I just finished a photo shoot and-”
His familiar forest green eyes met mine. It was the same reddish brown hair, the same forest green eyes, the same tanned complexion, the same short height, but in different clothing. He laughed dauntingly at me and held his hand out.
“It’s nice to finally meet you, Jean. My name is Skipper Donnas, an aspiring actor, but you can call me Spirit.”