The Leaf That Never Wept

She wept. Come day and night, she wept. I could not say anything to her. I could not comfort her. I could only hope that one day a handsome man would come and put away all of her misery like in those fairy tales that the little brown haired boy used to read under my shade. Or a friendly handsome carriage driver would give her a ride. But I could only hope and pray.

 

For months, I have stared at the sun and danced to the winds. Little ants often caressed me as they walked over me in search of food while I prepared my own meals. I have seen my cousins ending up dead and dried up on the ground after storms or in the winter. I used to thank God I have survived so long. Since my movement is restricted to just swaying around and my hearing is not what it used to be in my youth, I spent my time cooking and caring for my guests under my shade. From young boys to old henchmen, I have been a host to various kinds of people and creatures. But since yesterday, this girl has aroused in me a curiosity like no other.

 

She was very pretty judging by the number of distant cousins who had swayed her way to get a look of her. But her incessant misery mystified me. I felt sorry for her. I remember the last time she came here. She had been in a very playful mood. She and her friend had plucked flowers and playing with their hair whose fragrance reached me. It filled me with the same joy as her. But today I was filled with the same melancholy as her’s. Life could change so rapidly even for a happy person. Cruel.

 

I leaned a little close, as much as my old stoop would allow. She had a letter in her hand. I hung close. She had opened it and begun to read. I gathered from whatever little of her mumblings I could hear that the letter concerned her mother’s death. Since I did not have a mother, I could not feel her pain but her sad laments brought me shivers.

 

They were shivers that I used to feel in the stark winter cold when I felt helpless and totally at the mercy of God. I had seen others fall. So cold in the harsh frost that all movement around me had ceased. I did not see the sun for a week. I thought I would die of starvation. Many died. Just a few remained. In my branch I was just one of the two survivors. Maybe she felt insecure, like I used to feel during a windstorm when any second I could break and pass into oblivion. An abyss of darkness and misery. What really stung me was that no one came to comfort her. I felt so close that I tried to lean more towards her. I was drawn in by the pain. But I never wept.

 

It was a dry summer day when I first saw daylight. Arising from a tiny bud I witnessed my first light. I could hear everything around me. I was a tiny leaf. As I grew up I got accustomed to everything: life, humans, animals, insects, misery and death. Today, it was again a dry summer day. I kept on leaning but my branch could not hold on to me anymore. Finally, I snapped. I drifted in the pleasant breeze and fell on her lap. My last memories as I faded away into oblivion.

 

NOTE:  the story is in the point of view of a single leaf.