Sally Jinks kept her eyes trained on a wide, green leaf as it drifted across Malis lake.

Maybe it’s a frog, she thought. Something was sticking out of the middle of the leaf. Sally was nearly twelve years old now with thick lensed, metal framed glasses.

She squinted her eyes against the summer sun to catch a glimpse of the opposite end of the small lake.

A gray-bearded man was sleeping on a bench under an old oak tree. The green hills that surrounded Malis, California rolled on behind him. The reflection from a necklace made her wince as it slipped from his hand to the ground.

When she looked down, the leaf was nestled against the bank on her side, trapped between a few stones. She set her book next to her favorite reading tree and knelt by the leaf.

It’s definitely not a frog, she thought. She adjusted the shoulder straps on her blue overalls.

Besides the spherical growth in the middle, the leaf looked ordinary. The growth was the same color and texture as the rest of the leaf, but there was a small slit in the middle of the sphere. As she grabbed each end of the leaf, the middle sank. It sloshed as she set it next to her book and scrounged for a stick.

Did it just move? she wondered. Her hands shook as the stick hovered inches away from the leaf.

The lids moved back from the slit in the middle of the growth, revealing a radiant blue eye. It blinked a few times before Sally reacted. She was frozen with the stick pointing at the eyeball.

Finally, she belted out a screech and dropped the stick. The pupil dilated on the eye as it peered up at her shrieking face. She still hadn’t moved. Couldn’t move.

The eye whipped around, soaking in its environment until it settled back on Sally’s face.

Move. Run, she thought.

As she tried to stand up, she slipped and fell on her back.

Glancing back at the leaf, she could see that it hadn’t moved. Her little legs flung her away from her reading tree, away from the eye.

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At least it doesn’t have legs, she thought.

The breeze picked up as she looked over her shoulder. She expected to see the leaf flying behind her. Once she jumped over a small wall into the park playground, her feet kicked up dredges of sand and mud.

She almost tripped over a playground springy horse as she bolted. She could see her house just across the street. Just one more look. The leaf hadn’t followed her. How could it have, anyway? It was still in her head though. The way the eye widened when I screamed… she thought.

“Mom! Dad!”

She was still feet away from the door and yet she screamed. As she was about to grab the handle, her slight father opened the door and caught her.

“Honey, what’s wrong?” Mr. Jinks said.

“Dad! A leaf… eye! It saw me!”

He picked her up and laid her on the couch. “It’s okay. What happened?”

He muted Bill Clinton blabbing on the T.V.

He’s not going to believe me, she thought.

“Show you.”

She jumped off the couch and ran into the street. Her father’s mouth opened and closed. “Honey…”

After she didn’t stop running, he darted after her. They had the same exact build. Gangly and frail. His arms waved awkwardly at his sides as he tried to catch up with her. “Sally! Stop!”

His leg caught on the springy horse and he tumbled into the sandpit.

“Daddy!” she yelled.

She grabbed his hand and pulled until he was standing up. While holding her grip tight, she led him to her reading tree.

“I hope you’re happy,” he said. He looked at the rip in his Björk t-shirt.

She pointed at the leaf next to her book. The eye on the leaf was closed. Her dad rolled his eyes. “It’s a pretty big leaf dear, but it’s nothing to be scared of.”

I’m not getting close to it again, she thought. She stomped her foot on the ground, which woke up the eye. Because it was flat on the ground, it had to look down to see Mr. Jinks. He held Sally back. “Wait for me in the playground,” Mr. Jinks said.

She took a few steps back, but she didn’t fully obey. She was too scared to leave. As Mr. Jinks approached the leaf, it tracked him. He stared into the eye for a moment before smashing his heel into it. It popped and oozed like an overripe grape.

Was it alive? Did that hurt? she thought. Her arms shook.

After he kicked the leaf back into the water, he cleaned his shoe against the tree roots. He turned back and saw Sally.  “You were supposed to be in the playground.”

“I wanna go home, Daddy.”

Her lips quivered and she started shaking. He picked up her book and slung her in his other arm.

“Come on, let’s go read your book at home. That was just some weird plant.”

Just a weird plant? Seriously? she thought.

“Let’s not tell mom about this. You know how squeamish she is,” he said.

As she bobbed up and down on her father’s shoulder, she could see that the old man was still lying on the bench on the other side of the lake. The necklace he dropped was gone. Maybe he picked it up, she thought. She closed her eyes, but the visions of the eye were all she could see.