An Autumnal Outing

This past Sunday, I attended the Sunday Salon at the Mount Pleasant Public Library in Mount Pleasant, PA.  It was the second salon they did and the last one for 2018.  The library will begin again in January 2019, the third Sunday of the month.

The theme for this month centered around "Falling for Fall."  Three local artists displayed incredible paintings and local authors and poets read fall centric selections.  My selection that I read takes place within the same world of the World In-between Series.  Enjoy.

An Autumnal Outing

by: IE Castellano

Brenda twirled on the wooden platform, watching her lilac cloak float in a circle around her. A faint dry crispness tickled her nose. She paused to study the bundle of branches that encased her family’s chambers. Some of the green leaves looked less green.

She switched to skipping across the platform so she could watch the door. Hearing her mother and father convince her brother to leave his trucks at home sounded better from outside. Wally always tried to bring at least one truck with him wherever he went. Boys.

The door opened. Her sister emerged, rolling her eyes. Her mother ushered her brother out the door while her father snatched the truck Wally hid under his cloak. Once the door shut, Brenda raced across the bridge to the entrance of the Empire Tree’s trunk. Her mother called after her.

She waited like her mother asked, bouncing on the balls of her feet. Wally cried while their father tugged at him to walk across the bridge instead being dragged. Halfway, Wally seemed to accept that he would go somewhere without his toys from his father’s world. He stopped crying anyway.

Brenda dashed inside the Empire Tree. At the top of the staircase, she heard her father’s voice. “We do not run in the Tree.” His stern tone made her stop.

Hearing them in the hallway, she slowly galloped down the steps. She paused at the landing to glance at the Scepter. The white crystal atop white metal sitting in its wooden holder in the middle of the round room sparkled. She continued down the next flight.

Peeking through the doorway on the next landing, she imagined sitting at the Roundtable with a Council of Advisors. Her brother’s voice echoed off the wooden stairs. She hurried down the final flight, almost colliding with a column of green. Looking up, she said, “Sorry, Alfred.”

The elderly Elf chuckled. “It’s quite all right,” he said with a grandfatherly expression. “I know how you don’t want to miss it.” He patted her head, then continued up the steps.

“Are you okay, Alfred?” her mother asked.

“No harm done, Empress,” he replied.

Brenda hid behind a purple drape. As she listened to footsteps, she spied the thrones in front of the carved relief of the Sages’ Seal. The drape tore open. “Katie,” she said to her sister.

“You’re going to make us late,” said Katie.

From the dais, Brenda noticed her parents receiving packages from Theodore, the Head Tender. Spinning around her sister, she zig-zagged through the Reception Room to the central steps that led to the doors.

“Brenda Chase, go down there without us and you don’t go this year,” her mother threatened.

Brenda pretended to be a statue at the edge of the stairs.

Her mother took her hand to walk with her. “You will behave yourself,” her mother told her. “Not everyone is as forgiving as Alfred for almost knocking him down the steps. As a daughter of the Emperor and Empress, you represent the Empire Tree and all it embodies. Do you want everyone to think that you can’t go anywhere without your Fairy Godmother?”

Brenda glimpsed at Katie who no longer needed a Fairy Godmother. “Like Wally and his trucks?” she asked her mother.

Her mother smiled.

The cool morning air swept through her dark red waves outside the double wooden doors of the Empire Tree. The drying smell intensified on the ground, but it mingled with roasted fruits, nuts, and pumpkin wafting from the Sages’ Grove market square.

“When’s the Cider Master coming, Daddy?” Wally asked.

“Not for weeks yet.”

“Can I help him build the kettlebarrel?” he asked. “I’m older now.”

“We’ll see,” their father answered.

The dirt path wound to the gates of the Sages’ Grove. Beyond the wall of interconnected live trees, the forest beckoned. Once twigs and underbrush crunched under their feet, her mother let go of her hand.

“Race you there,” said Katie as she leapt past her younger siblings.

Brenda sprinted after her sister in fits of giggles. She heard her brother jump over a log, then thuwmp. The girls stopped. Turning, they saw a tree shake with laughter. Branches morphed into long arms that reached for Wally. As the tree lifted him off the ground, it became a lithe woman with dark skin, bright green eyes, and wild greenish hair with hints of yellow and orange.

“Wally, what do you say?” asked their father.

Wally’s neck cricked back to look at the Sprite. “Thank you, Miradelle.”

The Wood Sprite waved before returning to her tree form.

“Come on, silly,” Katie said, tugging on his arm. “We have to at least beat Mommy and Daddy.”

The children weaved around trees and bushes until they reached the edge of a small clearing. Katie took both of their hands while they stepped into the knee-high amber grass.

A gnarled, gray barked tree rose out of the grass. “Did we miss it?” asked Wally.

“Not yet,” replied their mother as she and Berty followed their children into the clearing. “Help with the blanket.”

After the blanket and basket of food sat on the grass, Silvia gathered her children around her. “See there? Way at the top?” she asked, pointing to the center tree.

“Yes,” breathed Brenda. Her mother pointed to the first fully golden leaf on the old ash tree.

“Watch it carefully,” whispered Berty.

Brenda held her breath.

A gentle breeze shook the golden leaf free of the top branch. The leaf fluttered in slow motion, turning this way and that, past all the branches, past the gray bark until it rested on top of the grass.

A broad smile stretched across Brenda’s face while she joined her family in applause. Autumn finally arrived.

Find the World In-between Series on Amazon.