Joshua paused on the steps that led from the school bus to the sidewalk, lingering so he could catch the end of the song being played on the radio. Once he would have run down those steps, eager to get home. Now? There was no need to rush.
More than a song kept him stalling on the bus today. A rugged old truck was parked in the driveway; that meant Dad was home from work early. The boy sighed as he finally walked down the steps, preparing himself for the inevitable.
Dad would want to talk. He always did these days.
His father was sitting at the kitchen table and going through bills. The big man brightened up when he saw Joshua walk in. “Hey, sport,” Dad said with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “How was school?”
Joshua looked down and studied the worn tips of his sneakers. “Fine.”
“Learn anything interesting?”
“N-not really.” He dropped his backpack next to the couch and shuffled his feet.
“How about, what’s his name… Brayden? From down the street. You try talking to him today?”
His mouth twisted. Ah yes, Brayden. Tall, athletic, popular, talkative. He was everything that Joshua wasn’t. Nothing in the world could be harder than just walking up and saying hi to Brayden like they were friends.
But Dad wouldn’t understand that, so he said what he could. “In gyuh-gym he p-p-p-picked me f-for his t-t-t-t-t-t-t-”
“Team,” his father finished for him, and Joshua shriveled up just a little more inside. “That’s good!”
Granted, Brayden had picked Joshua last for his basketball team, only before the kid whose arm was currently in a cast. But his father didn’t need to know that.
Dad’s eyes drifted away to focus on something behind Joshua. The boy didn’t need to look over his shoulder to picture the bass guitar hanging from the pegs his father had hammered into the wall years ago. It would still be in peak condition, tuned and free of dust, even though no one was left to play it.
His father cleared his throat awkwardly. “You know, son,” he said, eyes still on the guitar. “She wouldn’t want you to spend every afternoon by yourself. I thought maybe, you and I…” he trailed off awkwardly. Of course he didn’t know what to suggest. They never had found a hobby that both of them could enjoy together.
All of a sudden Joshua couldn’t bear to be in the house for a moment longer. “I’m guh-guh-going for a w-w-w-walk,” he said, turning away and grabbing his handheld radio so he wouldn’t need to see the disappointment on his father’s face.
“Alright,” Dad said in a subdued tone as Joshua shuffled his way back towards the door again. “Don’t stay out too late, y’hear?”
The boy glanced back and nodded once. Then he took off in a loping jog, wanting nothing more than to get to the forest as quickly as possible.
The local park’s entrance wasn’t far. Joshua reached it and jogged down the trail, sighing in relief as the outside world disappeared behind towering oak trees. He moved far enough down the trail that he’d be out of sight and glanced around to make sure no one else was about. Then it was as easy as breathing to step off the path and move quietly into the forest proper.
Soon the hubbub of ordinary life faded away, leaving Joshua alone with his thoughts. He didn’t like that. When there were no distractions he always ended up thinking of her, how she had been patient when he couldn’t get his words out right and how they would sing together as they washed the dishes. Thinking of her led to a lump in his throat and tears in his eyes and, and he couldn’t.
Instead he reached over to the radio and flipped the switch on. Music immediately poured out and surrounded him in his own personal bubble of freedom. The song was familiar, a classic he’d heard a hundred times, and without thinking he started to sing along with the lilting voice and melancholy guitar.
Your eyes, your eyes
I’ve said a thousand times
They’ll see me through the hurricane
And to the other side…
Joshua grabbed a branch and used it as an anchor as he hauled himself up a steep slope of dirt, still belting out the words. A smile grew on his face as he moved forward. School, home, it was all hard, but music? Music came easy. Even his stutter went away when he sang.
If only life could be as simple as a song.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
… And yes someday your eyes will close
Then dark will swallow mine
But love, don’t fear, just hold me dear
We’ll meet our fates aligned
“You’re listening to WAST, Cyandale’s home for indie music and local vibes.” The smooth voice of the host melded with the fading sound of the guitar as the song ended. “That was ‘Your Eyes’ by the indomitable Chelsea Xiao. Let’s take a moment to talk about the fine folks who help us keep the lights on here at the station…”
The boy sighed and turned down the volume as he moved further into the forest. He was in the old section now, the part that had been left undeveloped for hundreds of years, and the trees that surrounded him were lean and tall. He had grown up hearing legends about these woods and the dangers that lurked within, but he wasn’t scared. Navigating the wild space was easier than existing in human society.
Joshua’s ears twitched and he dialed the volume up again. “... our listeners, we couldn’t keep thriving without you. Next, the last song released by local legends Fireweed Fields before their mysterious disappearance five months ago: ‘Lifeline’.”
He froze in place, one hand outstretched to push a branch out of his path. He had known this moment would come eventually; at some point he would have to listen to his mother’s music again. He just hadn’t expected it would happen so soon.
His hand moved to the radio’s power switch, but he hesitated as the first notes from the guitars thrummed around him. Maybe… maybe it was time.
How was I to know
The price was more than I could see?
I’ll fade into shadow
But will you still remember me?
(Will you still remember me…)
Most of the verse was sung by the band’s frontman, but that echoed line… he hadn’t heard her voice for five months now and it wrenched at his heart, just like he’d thought it would. Yet he couldn’t bring himself to stop. He closed his eyes and let her presence wash over him as the song flowed into the chorus and the whole band joined in.
When the sun casts dappled fingers
Over time and what befalls
As love grows, surrounds, and shows us
We will rise to meet the call
With preening gloom the centuries thought
To preach an uphill try
Come find me where the water meets the sky
As the chorus ended Joshua was consumed by the need to move. He ran forward in time with the drums, forgetting to keep track of which way he was going. Plants whipped against his face and stung his skin but he didn’t care, he just wanted to feel, and the act of feeling was more important than what was felt.
Suddenly he broke out of the undergrowth into a sunlit clearing he had never seen before. He panted for breath as he stared. A cliff three times taller than him loomed ahead, demanding all attention. A small burst of water cascaded over the cliff’s edge down into the clearing where it formed a creek that meandered about before disappearing into the forest.
Joshua took a few steps forward as the radio kept spilling music into the world. A handful of small trees bordered the creek, but otherwise the clearing was completely open, clover blanketing the ground in a thick bed of green. This place was so different from everything else in the forest.
The small waterfall caught his eye again. What was the rock behind that water? It shone like a gem, nearly as brilliant as the water that flowed over it.
When the song transitioned into the chorus he almost missed it. But something snagged his attention.
Where the sun casts dappled fingers
Over diamond waterfalls
He blinked, still staring at the gleaming waterfall but now feeling thrown off. That wasn’t the right lyric. It was ‘time and what befalls’, not ‘diamond waterfalls’. Not that he knew what the nonsense words meant, his mother had been cagey when he’d asked. He shook his head briefly and turned his attention back to the song just in time to hear:
With three and two the sentries guard
The peach and apple dry
That was definitely not right, even though the words sounded clear. Joshua frowned and bopped the side of his head gently as he walked further into the clearing. Besides, that line was just as confusing as the original, and -
He paused next to one of the small trees. A brilliant red apple hung from its lower branch. Apple trees? In his forest? That didn’t make any sense.
He slowly looked over at the second tree on his side of the creek. It also had apples hanging from its branches. On the other side stood three short trees with fuzzy yellow fruit. Peach trees. Were peaches and apples even supposed to grow at the same time?
None of this made any sense, yet here it was, like something out of a song. His mother’s song.
His mother had loved exploring the forest and didn’t care at all for rules; she’d been the one who first encouraged him to go off-trail. Had she found this place before?
For the first time in five long months, Joshua felt a small seed of hope bloom within his chest.
He sat in the clover as the instrumental interlude played. The boy tried to clear his mind, preparing himself to truly listen, and the entire forest hushed around him as the final chorus arrived.
Where the sun casts dappled fingers
Over diamond waterfalls
As luck coats the ground below us
We will rise to meet the call
With three and two the sentries guard
The peach and apple dry
Come find me where the water meets the sky
As the song faded he switched the radio off, then carefully took in his surroundings. Sunlit clearing, check; shining waterfall, check; three peach and two apple trees, check. But ‘luck coats the ground below us’? He sighed and looked down, admitting to himself that that didn’t make any sense -
A four-leaf clover looked back up at him. No, not just one. Joshua looked across the patch in awe as he realized that all the clovers had four leaves.
It couldn’t be a coincidence! He sang the chorus again under his breath, thinking rapidly. Everything pointed to him being in the right place, but what was he supposed to do with that information?
Come find me where the water meets the sky. He turned to look at the creek. It was just ordinary water, surely. But that waterfall…
He ran up to the cliff to take a closer look. Most of the rock wall shone brightly behind the rush, but there was a darker section at the bottom. He reached out a hand and flinched at the cold, then pressed forward to feel the bottom of the cliff.
It was open. There was a cave back there.
Joshua paused for just a moment before accepting that he had already made up his mind. He set his radio carefully to the side of the creek; it wouldn’t help him at all underground. He stepped into the creek, grimacing as the water immediately soaked through his sneakers, and hunched down.
Then he pushed through the waterfall and into the unknown world beyond it.
~
Musical Inspiration: “The Chain” by Fleetwood Mac