On the outskirts of a town, as the colored leaves of each tree branch was stolen away by the wind, a young girl with a curly afro, who wore an orange windbreaker, could be seen raking a trail of leaves by the front of her house. Two chairs sat at the porch, a large blue one, and a smaller orange one. Both were the only clean looking objects on the property. The house itself had seen better days. as the paint was becoming weathered. It had before been cerulean, but overtime prolonged sunlight dullened its vibrancy. The fencing which led to the backyard was rather rusty, not at all secure enough to ward any potential intruders. But what was most apparent, about this unprotected, dull Cerulean house, was the row of garbage bags leading from the backyard. Some of the garbage had spilled out, leaving a trio of racoons to scavenge for any potential leftovers, though even they were discouraged from following the garbage trail any further, as the stench alone was enough to make one feel sick to their stomach.Despite the raccoons, the state of her house, and the obnoxious smell the girl didn’t seem to mind any of these things. She was intent in entrapping every leaf that so much as touched her property. And why wouldn’t she? Surely her father wasn't going to care enough about the presence of their home, even though they were the only ones on the block with a house this messy. No. Her father didn’t consider things like that.. 

“Brrr-!” She shuddered as the wind intensified. As it did, the leaves in her pile began to dance, fleeing from her! “No!” She immediately broke from the cold grasp the wind had held her in. She roughly swept the dancing leaves back into their original heap, as she did so, the wind roared in retort, forcing every leaf up in the air, causing them to brush against her face, some landing in her mouth, and finding their way in the crevices of her windbreaker. “PLEH-! HACK HACK!” As she opened her eyes, she realized all of her progress had been undone. “I HATE YOU WIND!” She exclaimed as she stuck her head up in the sky. A series of footsteps could faintly be heard from the inside of the house. The front door of the house abruptly swung open!  Causing the girl to jumpback hastily! She wielded her broom like a sword to defend herself. Her eyes met with her father, who like her, had curly hair, if not unkempt. The man looked clearly tired, though part of it was his natural expression. Years of stress and hard work gave him a wrinkled, stern face. In contrast to his daughter, he carried himself in a much more disheveled way, wearing only a stained wife beater, with miscellaneous green stains, and shorts which had a tiny cartoon turkey by his thigh.”PAIGE!” He yelled in a greatly concerned tone. “Oh.” His eyes narrowed, and his brows fell, as he realized the mundane Paige had actually been in. “I thought you were in trouble… Don’t scare me like that…” “I’m fine Dad… I’m just cleaning up a bit…” He shook his head. “No, it’s fine. You really shouldn’t.” He raised his attention from Paige, to a larger, thicker autumn tree, which stood in front of their house. The tree’s branches alone were girthier than any other trees on the block, not to mention taller, as it stood nearly 40 meters tall. Despite its monstrous size, there was a subtle mysticism and beauty about it. Its long branches allowed the sun’s ray of light to pass in tiny amounts, blocking any glare. Its sturdy figure provided a home for squirrels and birds In need. But most obviously, it shielded Paige and her father’s home from the world. “It’ll keep dropping leaves by the front. I’ll take care of it later, when it really piles up. I’d rather you be inside where it’s warm.” Paige balled up her fist upon hearing the word later. “Yeah? Well, when's later gonna be? You said that about the garbage, and it’s overflowing Dad!” She said, dropping her broom, and pointing towards the garbage. “I know… It’s just been an off couple of weeks.” He said while rubbing the back of his neck, though this answer still hadn’t satisfied Paige. She retorted, moving closer to her father, saying,” Then why don’t you let me do it for once!?” “... It’s complicated, Paige. If you want to help, I’d appreciate your help in the kitchen, with the Goose.” “Goose…?” Paige skinned up her face and shuddered upon hearing the word. “Yeah. There’s no turkey this year. It’s all sold out. Sorry.” He said plainly, as if the thought of eating goose didn’t bring any form of scorn. “But- but we’ve never eaten Goose! That’s not gonna taste good!” She said slightly stomping her foot on the floor, causing a couple of leaves to crack from underneath her feet. “What would Mom think?!” A brief silence filled the air. Paige turned her attention to her fathers long, hairy legs, somewhat regretting his words. “She would be disappointed, I’m sure.” She looked at him with saddened brows. “But… Things change. And I know you’ll like it.” He nodded in agreement with his own words. “No I won’t.” She pouted. “Oh, so you’ll eat leaves, but not my Goose?” He said playfully, while walking towards Paige. “I wasn’t eating leaves, it was the wi- HACK HACK!” She then coughed up two leaves, making her father laugh uproariously! “You little leaf muncher!” He started to pinch away at Paige’s tiny body. “Where are the leaves, huh? Huh?” ”Stop Dad! This isn’t the time!!!” She of course resisted but laughed along with him. He then entrapped Paige in a hug, while carefully extracting leaves from her hair. “Cold and covered in leaves. Come inside and relax.” He grinned, and while Paige did as well, there was still a hint of hesitation, though nonetheless, she submitted. “Fine…” 

As they both walked to the front door, Paige took one last glance out to the mess of leaves the two were leaving behind with a frown. When her mother was around, Paige and her father never allowed for such messes to remain. In fact, her mother detested a messy house, just as much, if not more than Paige. She missed her mother for that reason, though she was afraid to voice that opinion. Paige was afraid to voice a lot of things to her father, and vice versa. The two had an odd relationship in that respect. If Paige’s father were sad, Paige would never be able to comfort him as he held his feelings away. If Paige were to miss her mother, or was angry at her father, she would also bottle her emotions, leaving them to fester. As she turned her head back to her father, Paige spotted something shiny at the corner of her eye. She stopped in her tracks before entering the house, leaving her father to look back at her with a curious look. “What?” “ I… I think… you dropped something in the leaves.” She said with a much less serious tone of voice than before, clearly exposing her made up lie. “Huh? Oh, no. I didn’t bring anything. Come-” Before he could finish his sentence a high pitched blaring noise could be heard from inside the house! “Ah, Christ! Is that the Goose!?” He quickly ran into the house, not minding Paige’s stillness.  As her father re-entered the house, she turned around, slowly walking back to the large autumn tree. As Paige looked up to what her eye caught before, she had realized that there was one sole leaf hanging from the tree that had not allowed the sun's light to shine through, instead reflecting it. Its color also seemed brighter, in a metallic sense. Paige stood with her mouth widened, enamored by what she was witnessing. She circled around the tree to be sure her mind wasn’t playing tricks on her, only to be met with the same awe stricken expression. “D-dad-!” She turned to the door calling for her father helplessly, though there was no answer. “Your father isn’t very reliable, is he?” Paige's head darted from every direction trying to discover where that disembodied voice had come from, but to no avail. “It was me! I said it! Me! Me!” Paige looked up at the tree, her eyebrows furrowed, and a chill falling down her spine. She backed up a great distance, while still keeping her eyes peered on the golden leaf. “No, No! Not the leaf you silly thing! Me! The tree!” The tree’s voice was animated, as if they were reading from the script of a kids show, normally this would have come off as cheesy, or ingenuine to Paige. But because of the implications a sentient tree had on her world view, she let out a scream in terror! “AHHH-” She was then cut off by a sudden uproarious wind her way. This quieted Paige, but also knocked all of the leaves hiding in her windbreaker and hair. “Don’t call him yet! Please, I’m not bad!” “H-how did you-!?” “Oooooh, you’re curious about Mr Wind, aren't you?” The tree said in an animated manner. “I help produce oxygen, so as thanks, Mr Wind helps me out sometimes! And you’ve been bad Paige! Making so much noise…” “ I…” Paige lowered her tone in an attempt to appease the tree. “I’m sorry. Just please… Don’t hurt us!” She pleaded, with the same big, helpless eyes she called her father with. “Oh I’m not going to hurt you, no, no! It’s just that… Now that you can hear me, I just wanted your help! You see… Thirty meters below me, there's a gold deposit, which was planted by a group of people… There’s so much Gold that my roots have begun to absorb most of it! And as you can see, my leaves are becoming golden! Boo hoo! Boo hoo!” Some of the leaves from its branches fell, supposedly signaling it’s tears. “At this rate! My trunk and all will be golden, and I’ll die!” Paige stared at the tree dumbfounded for a few moments. Wind passed, filling the awkward silence between the two. “WHAT?” Paige exclaimed, as if nothing the tree said made sense. “What’s there to be confused about? I’m a talking tree with a terrible illness!” “But none of this is making sense… How can I hear you?! Am I going crazy!?” She said while running her fingers through her hair. “Don’t you know?! Anyone who ingests an autumn tree’s leaves, who just so happens to be underneath a gold deposit, during Thanksgiving can talk to trees! I thought all you Humans knew that!” The tree responded unseriously, clearly not taking the situation with any sense of urgency. “W-well.. Even if that is the truth, how can I help!?” “ It’s easy! All you have to do is tell your father that I need the Gold underneath me removed, and I’m sure one of your human operating stations will help!” 

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Paige’s father, lately, had been a slothful man. She could never discern whether or not his intentions to help were genuine in certain circumstances, or if he were to make another excuse. For him, tasks were not something to be completed, but something to hold off on until the last second. And Paige had never liked that about her father. Even if he were to get around to things, he usually did it half haphazardly. She gulped realizing her father may not care about this seemingly fictitious issue, leaving the tree to die, and possibly haunt her! “ A-and what if he doesn’t.” “ What do you mean?” The tree's leaves began to slightly turn golden. “Can’t you see I’m dying here!?” The tree said genuinely pleading to Paige. “My Dad doesn’t know you’re real… Maybe if you can get him to eat one of your leaves, he’ll understand, but…”. Paige rubbed the back of her neck, while trying to excuse her father. The tree particularly noticed Paige's embarrassment.

 “I understand Paige.” Weirdly enough, the tree’s animated accent had disappeared. It spoke with a bit more authority, and calmness. This put Paige in even more discomfort, as she couldn’t predict what was occurring in the tree's mind.”I’m sorry. To be completely honest. I didn’t want to do that with your father. He’s mentally saddened, unlike you. Emotions we trees can’t fully…” It stopped itself. “Nevermind, Paige.”  “And… How do you know my name?” “I have watched you and your father talk on your human chairs ever since you moved here. You two get along. And you both love each other.” “Yeah. We do.” Her mind began racing to dig at a more sympathetic angle, so the tree wouldn’t be upset at her. “If something were to happen to me, I don’t know what he’d do! So please don’t hurt me!” “ I am not going to hurt you. I understand, like I said.” The tree still kept up their grounded and serious tone, though this time they began to strain as they spoke, as if they were in pain. Within the tree's stump, an empty door frame appeared. “Go on.” Although she didn’t want to, feeling the wind around her ground to a halt, as if it was waiting for the tree’s command to push her, made Paige feel like a hostage. She begrudgingly tip-toed over to the door frame. “This door leads to the gold.” She then raised an eyebrow, looking up at the tree. “ But I thought you needed my help!” “I do. If you take the gold from under my roots without caution, you could destroy them, and I could die.” The tree said solemnly, with a clearly saddened voice at the concept of dying. “Then why?” For as young as Paige was, she couldn’t comprehend the tree’s self sacrifice, nor why she was giving up so easily. It had somewhat frustrated her, as some part of it reminded Paige of herself. “Because I want you to take this gold and leave your father.” Paige’s eyes widened at this request, not anticipating any of the tree’s words. “Like I said, I’ve watched you sit outside with your father, and when you are alone.” Paige’s eyes shifted at the floor in shame, as she realized what that meant. “I’ve seen you grieve the loss of your mother, and the actions of your father. You love him, but you wish he cared for himself, and this house better.” She stayed silent, not sure of what to say. “And I’m sure he reflects on his mistakes as well. When he comes back from work, I hear him talking to himself to be better. But it never amounts to much, does it?“ “Not yet.” She said, while looking down, reflecting on the tree’s insight. “As a provider to nature, I want you to nurture happiness within you. And your father. He clearly is not ready to take care of you. So, just like your mother, I think it’s time you leave your father for something better.” 

“Better?” Paige said with a hint of assertion in her tone. “My Dad is better! He loves me, and I love him! I can’t get the same love from my mom!” She regretted saying those words as soon as she mustered the courage to say them. If her father were here, he would immediately dismiss her negativity, but the truth is, she had always felt her mother was deeply unloving, and impatient with her. Even if her father was lazy, at least he never had a temper, or yelled, or belittled her emotions. For those reasons, her father was the only option. “Then you can leave with this gold and start anew. Or does he make you feel trapped?” Paige contemplated the answer for a moment, not sure on how to respond. On the one hand, her father was all she had ever known. Leaving him would alienate her to everything outside of their home, and it wasn’t realistic for a kid to run away from home and live on their own. Was it? Unless she could live with another relative. The thought alone put anxiety into Paige’s mind. “If your father isn’t reliable enough to cook a turkey for Thanksgiving, to take out the trash, care for himself, or come to your aid, how would he ever be able to ensure your happiness?” “You sound like my mom…” Paige mumbled, clearly uncomfortable by the conversation. “Perhaps you should go to her after all.” “ No!” Paige said completely affirmed in her choices.”My dad takes care of me! He loves me! It’s just that since the divorce he’s been a little depressed! But I can fix it!” “Fix it…” The tree said tiredly. “It’s up to us trees to mend wounds. Not a little child.” “ Yeah? Well how are you going to help me? You’re the one who throws your leaves all over the place!” “The temperatures are cooler, and so the bond between my leaves and branches weakens. It is my nature. Can you say your father is abiding by his nature?” The tree said with a hint of antagonism. “If he can’t be a parent to you, then the love that should be in every parent is clearly missing in him. He’s not fulfilling his role.” “It’s not that easy to be a parent. Running away isn’t gonna help, I just…” She paused, suddenly realizing something. “ Well, if you think you’re right…” The tree’s upbeat tone showed itself once more. “Then prove it to me. If your father is more reliable than I thought, then convince him to help me. Talk to him.” Talk. Talking was the last thing Paige had considered. How could she be so oblivious to the obvious? Though she was nervous to enact any confrontation. It meant her father may feel bad about himself. It might suggest she wants to go back to her mother. Would he yell at her that same way her mother had? With all of these thoughts bouncing around her head, the door once again opened, silencing every voice of doubt in Paige’s mind. 

“What are you still doing out here?” Paige turned to her father, and back to the tree. Realizing its door had disappeared. “I was… Just thinking about something.” She said while walking closer to her father. “It was…. About the garbage, Dad.” “... What about the garbage?” She held her breath, realizing how ridiculous it sounded out loud. “Why won’t you let me take it out?” “It’s like I said, it’s just complicated…” “Dad, please… Tell me. Is it because you don’t think I can do it, or something?”

She looked at her father with sadness about her, which he immediately recognized, catching him off guard.“Of course you can do it!” He quickly clarified. “That’s not what I mean. It’s something I should do…After your mom left, I started thinking about what I should’ve done… I know I mess up, and even this Thanksgiving I’m still messing up, but that’s because…” He scratched the back of his head, unsure of how to voice his feelings. “Is it because you miss mom?” “Something like that. But that’s just an excuse… I slack off so much, because I feel unmotivated to do anything…” He looked clearly uncomfortable being so vulnerable. But seeing Paige’s non-judgemental expression somewhat soothed him. “With your mother, It felt better because we were a team. Alone, It feels like something’s missing… Something I don’t think I can get back.” A sadness fell on his face as well. “ I don’t like talking to you about these things, Paige. You’re just a kid.” “… Yeah, I know. But I still want to help. I love you Dad. I wanna help out however I can.” “Cmere.”

Paige walked up to her father, and the two hugged. “I love you too...” He said, tightening his grip. As he looked up, a glare hit his eye. He watched in astonishment as…

The End.