Playground Zero by Sarah Relyea

Author:Sarah Relyea
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: She Writes Press
Published: 2019-07-14T16:00:00+00:00

Interlude

ONCE UPON A time at the edge of the forest there lived a girl. In the household were her father, stepmother, and stepsister. The father was a fur trader, often away from home. The stepmother and stepsister made jewelry of small shells they had found in the garden, selling the jewelry in town; though they were never rough with her, there was a household to run. So they found few moments to spare for the child, who would amuse herself by wandering among the wildflowers beyond the garden. Everyone called her Flower Child.

Flower Child could scarcely remember her own mother, who had passed away before the girl had reached the age of three.

Every Wednesday, the stepmother and stepsister would journey to town to sell the jewelry they had made. Then they would use the money they had earned to buy meat and vegetables. In the yard, Flower Child mended her father’s clothes or gathered twigs for the evening fire. Sometimes, though, she would wander away through the woods. One day, as the stepmother was preparing to leave for town, she commanded, “Never go to the woods, Flower Child. The woods are full of dangerous animals, such as foxes and wolves, that feed on the flowers. Keep to the house and yard. By dark we will return, and then comes your father, too.”

Flower Child pledged to stay by the house. But no sooner had the two gone down the path to town than she opened the back door and wandered down an unruly path into the forest.

Vast groves bordered the path. Tree branches rose densely, obscuring the sun. Under the branches sprouted wildflowers of red, purple, and blue; as she passed them, Flower Child thought sadly how they would soon be devoured by foxes and wolves. But she had never even seen a fox or a wolf, and because the wildflowers she found on the path were far more marvelous than the animals conjured by her imagination, she soon forgot all about foxes and wolves as she gazed on the wonders of the forest plants. A wild rose reached over the path, and she leaned to inhale its musky perfume. From the upper branches of a beech tree came birdsong; she paused to hear the honeyed sounds overhead. “What a lovely song!” thought Flower Child aloud to herself, for there was no one to keep her company. She had begun to feel lonely in the deep forest, and so she sat down beneath the beech tree in the hope of hearing the bird. “The song was for me,” she thought; “I’m the only one here. No one could sing so beautifully for herself alone.”

As soon as she had spoken, there came a rustling by the path, under a lilac bush, and a small, red-furred creature came gliding smoothly forth until he stood before her, sniffing her foot. She withdrew her foot, too startled to speak, for she suddenly knew he was a fox. The red fox crouched low to the ground and turned his eyes toward her.

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