The Colour Red

The Colour Red

- Five years earlier -

A girl stumbled through the dense undergrowth, short legs tripping over the decaying logs that lay over the path. This one of the few days that her father spent with her, work was a demanding mistress. He always put aside a bit of time every few weeks for her. This time He'd taken her out to the mountains, to the hilly range that surrounded her home, its green growth undeterred by the foul airs of the city. But she'd lost sight of him, his long legs and even longer stride enabling him to get far ahead. Her eyes were reddened and showed traces tears already shed but that moment of confusion had already passed, her mouth now set in a determined line. “Papa?” she called petulantly, “Papa, where are you?” The wind scattered her words, blowing leaves across the already littered path. “Papa!” She yelled shrilly, “Pa-“ She stopped. Her gaze caught on a leaf that rested along the side of the track. It was a blood red leaf. It shifted slightly, catching the breeze and drifting off the path to a small clearing, the leaf’s restless movement seemed to beckon her to follow.  And so she did.
She watched the leaf’s slow traverse to where is stopped at the roots of a tree, nestling amongst other leaves alike in colour. Approaching the tree she circled it for a moment, taking in its gnarled branches and scarlet leaves. “What are you?” she asked tentatively touching its bark.
“I’m like you,” a voice replied, “But I am also like it.” Gesturing to the scarlet-leaved tree. She jumped back, only to be tripped by the tree’s roots. An older boy appeared from behind the tree. He looked normal in every aspect but his hair which was the same colour as the tree’s leaves.
She eyed him suspiciously. “You can’t be both.” She said with unfounded certainty that only children possess.
“I can so,” he retorted, “Try touching me.” She reached out to grasp his hand but her fingers slipped through. She felt nothing while passing through his body, no heat, no resistance, nothing... Her mouth twisted into a disapproving frown.
“That doesn’t mean anything!” She snapped back at him, ignoring the obvious contrary evidence as children often do. He smiled slightly, as if warmed by her accusatory reaction, so different from the alienation he’d expected. “You still can’t be both!”
And so the tension between them was broken as their quarrel was reduced to the familiar monosyllabic bicker of "Yes/No". She left when she heard her father calling her name, her disappearance finally noted."I'll be back tomorrow," She called over her shoulder, to the boy who waited in the shadow of the tree. She ran towards her father, eager to show him her newest discovered. "Dad, look what I found! A red leaf!" But just as she held it up to him it crumbled into fine dust.
"Don't worry, I'm sure there are lots of red leaves out at this time of year. Look, here's a new one." He passed her a rusty red leaf but it wasn't the same. "Now Emile, don't tell your mother you got lost or she just might string up my...." He trailed off, remembering how old his audience was but shivering inwardly at the punishment that his wife might inflict.
She visited him in the grove each and every day that autumn. Each day until the season passed for when the last red leave fell from that tree, he ceased to appear. A ‘sleep’ he had called it, one that all trees have during those winter months and recover from in spring and summer. "Contrary to their appearance, trees are most alive during autumn," he told her...once, "The falling leaves lifting burdens off their shoulders and changing leaves true reflections of their personalities."

- Four years earlier -

Red, she'd called him. It seemed appropriate at the time and was only meant as a joke but it stuck. They played as they had every other day of this autumn season. Sometimes he was the ghost, or a pirate, sometimes even a prince. Whatever it was, he was her companion. As they climbed up high above the ground, protected by the thick boughs of the tree, Emile heard a snap just outside the grove, followed by the brittle crunch of someone stepping on a leaf. Red turned quickly, eyes piercing through leafy foliage of the trees. "Emile, hide." His command was spoken tersely. She climbed higher into the dense leaves of the tree, until she was totally enveloped by the scarlet leaves. "What are you doing here?" Red said angrily.
"Well, taking a walk I suppose," An old, raspy voice replied. She peeked through a small gap in the leaves. She gasped, it was an old man but not like most old men, no. His hair was a cascade of leaves and his grotesque features had an almost wood-like appearance to them. "Thought I smelt some human around here though." Eyes scanning the clearing.
"Why would I harbour one here?"
"I don't know but  if you do, why not give it to me?"
Red laughed mockingly. It seemed absurd for a boy, who looked no more than twelve, to mock a hunchbacked man who had the appearance of a 120 year old. "You must be going senile, old man." He said, "There are no humans here and never will be. You should give up already and die. What does this world hold that you would ever want?"
He huffed sullenly, wandering out of Red's clearing. "Life." He answered as he left.
Red shook his head, "What life is this..." He murmured to himself.
Emile climbed down the tree. "Red, he was the same as you wasn't he?"
"Yes." He respond cautiously. 
"Then why don't you look like him?"
He sighed, "I chose not to, I chose to look human."
"Why?"
"Because..." But she looked at him, expecting an answer. He shrugged away her gaze, looking pointedly at the sky. "For you."

- Three years earlier -

She sat at her desk, eyes lazily tracing the roughly scrawled messages that defaced its worn surface. She cast a quick glance at the trees outside the windows of the classroom. All were various shades of yellow, orange and rusty red, there was no spot of green to be seen. He is back! She said to herself excitedly, he must be waiting for me. A tell-tale blood-red leaf wandered across her line of sight, beckoning for her to follow as it had all those years ago, his message to her - ‘I’m here, I’m waiting.’ 
The bell rung and she threw herself out of her chair, carelessly stuffing all her belongings into her bag before dashing out the door. “There she goes again.” She heard a girl say while she ran down the still-empty corridors, “Off to see her boyfriend no doubt.” Not boyfriend, she corrected in her thoughts, boy friend.
“Red?” she called, brushing aside some over grown bushes. Lightly running her hands over the rough bark of the tree, she whispered to it, “Red, time to wake up. I’m waiting for you.”
“Oi, I told you not to do that, gives me the shivers.” A gangling teenager lazed in the branches above, red hair flopping over his eyes in an untamed mane.  Eyes twinkling in amusement, she started to pinch the trunk. “Oi, stop that!” Giggling, she swung up to his level.
“Grown up, I see,” she commented, studying him a moment. “A bit too lanky in places…a bit skinny for my taste…hair a tad too fiery-“
“God, woman!” He exclaimed, throwing his hand up in mock exasperation, “I’m awakened from my sleep to be greeted with this? Although, you haven't improved much either." He walked around her, gazing at her with a critical eye. "Not much development in that region," He gestured vaguely towards her chest. "No taller than you were last time, so I guess you'll remain short." She harrumphed, a look of displeasure settling itself over her features. "The long hair is a nice touch though," He watched the wind catch it in the breeze and fanning it out around her like a halo made of golden thread.
She laughed, making a move to tousle his hair before stopping herself, withdrawing her hand sheepishly. “Sorry, forgot again.” He gave her a wan smile.
“Don’t worry, I sometimes forget it myself.”
“I just wish I could….” An uncomfortable silence settled itself over the small glade. Something rustled in the corner of the glade.
"Emile, go hide somewhere." She hesitated, remembering the last time he'd said this.
"A human!" The old man's grasping hands reached for her but perched on the tree's branches, he could not reach her. "Give her to me, you have no need of her." He pleaded with Red desperately.
Red, placed a protective arm in front of Emile, "You've already lived long enough. She's not yours."
"But with her I could survive on more year, another year!"
"No, you can't take Emile... because she is mine." She looked at Red, shocked but inside, happy. The old man flashed Red a dejected look and trudged away with a defeated slump to his gait.
"There aren't many of us left, you know?" Red nodded in response. "Then live knowing  that you were the death of me." Then the wind came and the leaves that formed old man blew apart, his human shape becoming disfigured as it broke up and turned into a cloud of old, withered leaves.
"Where'd he go?" Emile asked, still gazing at the place he'd been.
"He left."
"Oh." She understood, as all cultures have a word for death, and even without knowing its meaning, it is always recognizable because of the finality that it seems to carry with it. "Why did he want me?"
He shifted uncomfortably on the tree, "Well...He wanted to live one more year and by possessing you, by using your life as a replacement for his, he could have survived another year."
Emile's face creased over in confusion as she thought over what Red had just said. A heavy silence settled itself over the glade. 
“Hey, Red?”
“Yeah?”
“What...who are you?”
He paused a moment, a simple answer to such a simple question evading him. “As I said before, I am like you. Well, at least I was like you once…” He said softly. “Years ago, many, many years ago, there was a war between two cities. I will not tell you of the battles that were fought, of the massacres that occurred, but know that this war was more terrible than anything you have ever seen. So many children were orphaned during those times and I was one of them.” A bitter laugh escaped his lips, “Don’t look at me with pity because I survived where others didn’t. Fleeing the conflict, some of us hid in the groves and the trees welcomed us in. We were each given a choice, hide in fear with a high chance of being found or live in one of the trees and always be safe. I chose the latter, and I can’t say that I regret my decision but…I feel as if I’ve cheated death. I can leave and all, some of us have, but we don’t last long outside the trees.” He lapsed back into the brooding silence. She watched him withdraw into himself, longing to comfort him but unable to touch him. 
"Honestly,  the first day I met you, I was thinking of leaving, of letting go...But when you told me, "I'll come back tomorrow", I knew that if I left now, I'd regret it." He trailed off.  She wrapped her arms around the tree squeezing it in a tight hug.
“Can you feel it?” she asked.
“Yes, thank you.” They sat there, both feeling the warmth of the other and reveling in it.

- One year earlier -

The summer green had not yet faded from the leaves of the trees. She waited patiently. Only one more month, and then I can see him. Feeling lonely, she wandered up to the small clearing in the forest. She sat among the twisted roots of the tree, leaning up against its trunk, seeking the signs of the life that it held within but finding none. “Hey, Red?” she whispered to the empty air, eyes staring at the still-green leaves of the tree, “I miss you…” A tear traced its way down her face, falling onto the tree and sliding through the thin crevasses of the bark. “Hey, Red?” she said again. “I love you…” She felt a faint pulse of life that flickered for a moment before dying, as if retreating back into its sleep.
Somewhere in the darker depths of the forest, a man lit a cigarette. “Oi, rest break is over!” Another man called over the distant rumble of machinery. The man roughly snubbed the cigarette under his boot but as he walked away, the embers flared red once again.
Emile rested by the water fountain, dunking her head in a few times to cool herself. Other students did the same, PE had been particularly tiring today. A teenage boy loped over to her in the ungainly gait on someone not yet used to the length of their limbs. "Class is starting again, need a help up?" He politely offered a hand but as she reached out to grasp it, another replaced it. She looked up briefly as a boy with blood-red hair led her away from the school grounds, hand in hand. Once away from the noise and business of the school, he gathered her into a loose embrace.
"Why are you here?" She asked, fingers touching the cotton fabric of his shirt and feeling the firmness of muscle beneath..
“I came to say goodbye.” His mouth twisted in a forced grin.
“Why here, why now?"
"Look." He said simply. A dark grey cloud billowed over the horizon, red tinged at its base licked by the distant flames. "Although sweat from PE still clings to you, even though your hair still wet, now is fine."  He touched her, fingers tangling with her long hair, and pulled her into a hug. "Your lonely expression, I won't see it ever again..."
"I'm not lonely, I have you." She clung to him, eyes searching his for a spark of hope but finding none. They were dark with acceptance of what was to come. "I'll wait for you."
He cupped her face, staring at her as if memorizing her features. “Emile, don’t make the last thing you say to me a lie.” Tears fell freely from both their eyes as he kissed her chastely. Wind stirred up the leaves, the trees rustled as if saying their final farewells. Her hands began to slip through him, his image fading into a cloud of blood red leaves.
"Did you ever love me?" She said, desperately trying to grab him but instead getting a handful of leaves. . He smiled at her again, and saying something so quietly that even she didn’t hear it at first but the wind carried those words to her ear.
“I love you.”
How much? She heart called out even though she knew she would get no answer, the scarlet leaves in her hand crumbling to dust.

- Now -

A school bell's familiar toll echoed down the silent hallways, marking the passing of another day. The sharp slap of shoes burst through the silence swelling to a roar as students escaped from classrooms. Two girls paused awhile, the only stationary beings within a moving tide. They stood still, admiring the graceful dance of the autumn leaves as they traversed the school grounds. "Beautiful," one girl commented, giving them a cursory glance. The other gave a soft smile, eyes still focused on the leaves as if looking for that tell-tale leaf – a leaf the colour red.