Forest Door

 

            Mary’s chest ached as the moving van pulled away. There went any chance of going back home. Now they were officially stuck in this new house. Tears threatened to fall and her throat constricted when she thought about her old house. Why did they have to move? Why did Dad have to get a new job? What was wrong with the old one?

            The house they had moved to was nice enough. It was built almost 100 years ago, but the inside had all been modernized. Their new backyard bordered a wooded area, which Mary was actually almost excited about. That was the one redeeming quality about this place.

            Staring at it now, she decided to go do a little exploring. She was supposed to help unpack and organize her new room, but that could wait. She darted off toward the trees before anyone could stop her.

            Their new house was already outside of town and the countryside around it was pretty quiet, but it became silent when Mary stepped into the tree cover. The breeze didn’t penetrate the interior, and the sounds of her family coming from the house were gone.

            Feeling slightly intimidated by the absence of sound, Mary carefully made her way forward. The air smelled a little musty as she trod on last year’s leaves. The sound of crinkling leaves seemed deafening in here.

            A path appeared through the gloom and Mary breathed a sigh of relief. Here was proof that civilization wasn’t totally absent. She walked along the path until she reached a small stream. The clear water flowed silently by. The path continued over a small log bridge. The sight of the water brought calmness to Mary, even though the woods continued to grow darker around her. The stress of moving and leaving everyone she knew seemed to melt off of her. She knew she should be getting back, but something kept pulling her forward. As she did, the silence lessened. She heard birds chirping off to her right, and the snap of a twig made her turn around to see a fox darting away.

            The further Mary walked, the happier she became. Beams of light filtered down through the trees to land on patches of wildflowers. After being so dark, the area grew vibrant with different colors of flowers. The birds that she glimpsed were brightly colored also.

            The path ended suddenly at a great big oak tree. It was absolutely enormous and looked ancient. Knots grew all along the trunk to surround what looked like a door. Curious, Mary reached out to touch it, and the wood beneath her fingers changed to become a door. A silver doorknob appeared, and she was just about to open it when a loud snap sounded behind her.

            Whirling around, Mary was startled to see a wolf sitting and staring at her. Her mouth suddenly dry, she took a few involuntary steps backward away from the wolf. How could there be wolves in this forest? They weren’t that far out of town, were they? Her imagination ran wild with stories of big bad wolves eating girls traveling alone through the forest.

            This wolf, however, didn’t move. It just sat calmly, watching Mary as she continued to move back along the path. The wolf wasn’t surprised when the girl finally turned around and ran as fast as she could back to wherever she had come from.

            The wolf sat there waiting until a bright blue bird landed on a branch near him and said, “The girl has gone all the way back to the stream, Maximus.”

            The wolf finally moved and nodded his head at the bird. “Thank you, Lancet.”

            “How did she get here in the first place?” The bird, Lancet, cocked his head curiously.

            Maximus took a deep breath. “She is different from the others. Did you feel it?”

            “Do you think she’s the one then?”

            “Hmmm. Maybe. If she had opened the door, she would have been.”

            Lancet ruffled his feathers. “Do you think she’ll come back?”

            Maximus didn’t answer right away, thinking. He stood up and walked to the place where the girl had stood a few minutes before. “If she is the one, she’ll definitely be back. Have the others keep a lookout for her and inform me the minute she crosses our stream again.” He darted off into the trees, leaving Lancet to fly off and spread the word to the other birds.

            The door on the tree was left cracked open, a bright light shining behind it, waiting for the one who would be brave enough to enter and face what was waiting within.