It was a windy day. The mailman barely made it to the front door. When the
door opened, Mrs. Pennington said, "hello", but, before she had a
real chance to say "thank you", the mail blew out of the mailman's
hands, into the house and the front door slammed in his face. Mrs. Pennington
ran to pick up the mail.
"Oh my," she said.
Tommy was watching the shutters open and
then shut, open and then shut.
"Mom," he said, "may I go
outside?"
"Be careful," she said.
"It's so windy today."
Tommy crawled down from the window-seat
and ran to the door. He opened it with a bang. The wind blew fiercely and
snatched the newly recovered mail from Mrs. Pennington's hands and blew it even
further into the house.
"Oh my," she said again. Tommy
ran outside and the door slammed shut.
Outside, yellow, gold, and red leaves
were leaping from swaying trees, landing on the roof, jumping off the roof, and
then chasing one another down the street in tiny whirlwinds of merriment.
Tommy watched in fascination.
"If I was a leaf, I would fly clear
across the world," Tommy thought and then ran out into the yard among the
swirl of colors.
Mrs. Pennington came to the front porch.
"Tommy, I have your jacket. Please
put it on."
However, there was no Tommy in the front
yard.
"Tommy?"
Tommy was a leaf. He was blowing down
the street with the rest of his play-mates.
A maple leaf came close-by, touched him
and moved ahead. Tommy met him shortly, brushed against him, and moved further
ahead. They swirled around and around, hit cars and poles, flew up into the air
and then down again.
"This is fun," Tommy thought.
The maple leaf blew in front of him. It
was bright red with well-defined veins. The sun-light shone through it giving
it a brilliance never before seen by a little boy's eyes.
"Where do you think we are
going?" Tommy asked the leaf.
"Does it matter?" the leaf
replied. "Have fun. Life is short."
"I beg to differ," an older
leaf said suddenly coming beside them. "The journey may be short, but the
end is the beginning."
Tommy pondered the best a leaf could
ponder.
"Where do we end up?"
"If the wind blows you in that
direction," the old leaf said, "you will end up in the city
dump."
"I don't want that," Tommy
said.
"If you are blown in that
direction, you will fly high into the air and see things that no leaf has seen
before."
"Follow me to the city dump,"
the maple leaf said. "Most of my friends are there."
The wind blew Tommy and the maple leaf
along. Tommy thought of his choices. He wanted to continue to play.
"Okay," Tommy said, "I
will go with you to the dump."
The winds shifted and Tommy and the leaf
were blown in the direction of the city dump.
The old leaf didn't follow. He was blown
further down the block and suddenly lifted up high into the air.
"Hey," he called out,
"the sights up here. They are spectacular. Come and see."
Tommy and the maple leaf ignored him.
"I see something. I see the dump."
The old leaf cried out. "I see smoke. Come up here. I see fire."
"I see nothing," the maple
leaf said.
Tommy saw the fence that surrounded the
city dump. He was happy to be with his friend. They would have fun in the dump.
Suddenly, a car pulled up. It was
Tommy's mom. Mrs. Pennington wasn't about to let her little boy run into the
city dump.
"Not so fast," she said
getting out of the car. "You are not allowed to play in there. Don't you
see the smoke?"
Tommy watched the maple leaf blow
against the wall and struggle to get over. He ran over to get it but was unable
to reach it.
Mrs. Pennington walked over and took the
leaf. She put it in her pocket.
"There," she said, "it
will be safe until we get home."
Tommy
smiled, ran to the car and got in. He rolled down the back window and looked up
into the sky. He wondered where the old leaf had gone. Perhaps one day he would
see what the old leaf had seen - perhaps.
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