The Forest
Summer 1920
For years, I’ve watched their friendship blossom in my embrace. Secret meetings, laughter echoing under my canopy, their footsteps a familiar rhythm on my soil. Now, at sixteen, something shifted in the surrounding air.
One sunlit afternoon, she felt his gaze linger on her. Turning, her heart skipped erratically. “ Why are you staring? ” She raises her eyebrows.
“ You are beautiful, ” he said sincerely.
Her cheeks flushed, and her eyes widened. Then she turned and ran. Her breath came in sharp gasps as she darted behind my trees, her heart racing like never before.
He stood there, frozen, his eyes wide with confusion.
When they met again under my leaves, he asked, “ Why did you run? ”
She looked down, her fingers twisting nervously at her dress. “ You shouldn’t say those words to me ,” she whispers softly.
“ But you are beautiful, ” he said as he stepped closer. His hand shook as he reached out. He leaned in and pressed his lips against hers.
She flinched, her eyes widening in shock, her lips parting but producing no sound.
“ I am sorry, ” he said, seeing the panic in her eyes. She turned and vanished into the depths of my shadow, leaving him standing there once again.
Silence hung between them for days, heavy with regret. When they finally met again, he opened his mouth to apologize, but she cut him off. “ I liked it, but we cannot. My mama says we cannot cross those lines. Our worlds do not belong together. We should not even be friends. But here I am, my heart racing when you are near. I cannot stop thinking about you, missing you… ” She trailed off. Tears spilled from her eyes, and her hands clutched at her sides as if to hold herself together.
His eyes softened as he gently wiped away her tears. “ Please do not cry. ” His lips gently brushed against her forehead. “ When you cry, it is like my heart is being torn apart. I would rather hear your laughter, see your smile—that is what fills my thoughts, day and night. I do not care what anyone thinks. ” He pulled her into her arms, and she leaned into him, their affection a complicated, forbidden tangle. Her hands gripped the back of his shirt, holding on as if he were her lifeline.
He kissed her again, and for that brief instant, their kiss became their universe. It was as if they’d sprouted wings, lifting them above the complexities of the world, letting them soar in a sky made only of love.
When he pulled away, her eyes remained closed, savoring the fading magic of their kiss. When she opened them, he was smiling. “ You did not run away? ”
“ I did not. ” Her own smile breaking through the tension.
In that instant, it seemed as if all the societal lines that should have separated them blurred into insignificance, overwhelmed by the undeniable love they felt for one another.
“ If only we could stay like this forever, ” she sighs, nestling into his arms.
“ I know. ” He pulled her closer and kissed her forehead. The air around them seemed to shimmer, and I felt their love infuse every part of me.
They didn’t say their wish aloud, didn’t carve it into one of my trees. But I felt it—a secret yearning, hidden deep within their hearts. That night, under the full moon, something miraculous happened. Their secret wish, their hidden love, her magic transformed me. My stream surged, its water swirling faster and faster until it leaped off the cliff in a jubilant waterfall.