Willow Wonderland

Willow Wonderland
Some people like winter, I am a small petite woman forever looking forward to spring, a foraging foray into a place that inspires ripples of memory that lick the shore. My favorite place to read and meditate is a place the locals called Willow Lake. I am a newcomer to the United States. I am from Vietnam. My father was one of the soldiers that were stationed at a base close to my village. Those were the days that soldiers were just looking for a little fun. My mother fought them off as best she could. Her heart was captured and captivated by a man named Grover. He had many stories about his life in the swamps, fighting off the enemy, wondering if he'd be killed by a snake or a gook. My mother told me the stories over and over again. Grover would go back to the States leaving my mother to fend for herself.
A letter sent to my mother came when I was approaching my fifteenth birthday. I was dressed in my red button down sweater that was draped over a body that was growing like a yellow orchard flower on the verge of being hatched. Many of the women in the village laugh at me and say one day I will become a butterfly and men with rock hard muscles would seek me out attempting to catch me in their net. My mother came up to me with open arms her face drawn up in a whimsical smile, reflecting through squinty eyes that frolicked in the breeze. Wong looked up at her mother in a tentative way that contrasted with her mother's ebullience. She was much more calm and peaceful. Her short coiffed black hair blossomed around a face that looked like a cupie doll. Her lanky body filling out, communicated that courtship could not be far away.

"Good News Cricket (a name mom chose, because of the way I talked, chirpy). Your dad wants you to come to visit. You will be in a better place". Your father has lots of money and a big house. He will take care of you. At first Wong felt sad. She had never left her home. She loved the landscape; Light fleshed rock greeted her as she began her day. She knew her time had come to explore the bigger world. She wave toward the stones and they waved back. They let her know that they would never be far from her.
When she got in the plane, she felt like she was being swallowed by a big bird. It was a lot different than the songs of the birds and aromatic smell of lilac and roses she was leaving behind. She took a deep breath and braced herself for whatever might come next. The place landed in a place known as Georgia. She could remember her mother's description. It was just like she thought it might be only more smog and wall to wall buildings. When wondered if it would ever end. Grover greeted Wong with his son Cale. Cale was seventeen years old, a quarterback of his high school team. They did the best they could to make her feel at home. Wong was not happy. She felt lost in this concrete jungle. She hoped her Dad would understand and let her go back home.

A voice inside her said to stay--it whispered out of the depth of her being-paradise was not far away. On a Wednesday in the month of May she decided to take a walk. It was early in the morning and no one was around. The voices of morning were calling out of the green grass and the blue molted sky above to journey to a place that had been calling her even before she was born. She finally saw for herself what paradise looked like. She saw the weeping willows crying with sadness and joy, there was a forest of them surrounding the crystalline surface of the water that seemed to flow out of the simple white dress that adorned her body up to the ankles. Wong had never felt so happy. She was glad to have taken the book that Grover had given her as a present. It was rectangular with red that matched her sweater. She would cherish this moment forever. With flesh colored rock by her side and willows being caressed in the wind. She was glad she was able to be patient. The frogs signed with her as the jumped off a lily pad, croaking; "There is no place like home.

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