The honeyed aroma of fallen leaves wafted with the algid wind, accompanied the crisp rustle of perished leaves as they scampered down the street. Summer had departed a few weeks ago, leaving the modest town of Havenwood in Autumn’s company. A gradient of colors loomed overhead in the sky, shifting from soft cobalt to a vibrant rose as morning transcended into dusk. The leaves aforementioned soon found themselves waltzing past a young girl, causing her lengthy chestnut hair to momentarily dance with them. She brushed her hair behind her ears, revealing beautiful emerald eyes and freckles on her cheeks. What she also exposed was some dirt on her face, which oddly complemented the dirt on her dark jeans – as if she fell on the ground somewhere recently.
Her name was Esther Everett – a nine-year-old girl attending third grade in Havenwood Elementary. Reaching her house, she began her ascent up her driveway, looking down at her hands as she did so. Her palms were enflamed and stung, making her painfully remember how her hands were the only things that prevented her face from getting scrapped on the concrete when Rosa Brennan shoved her. It was during recess, as usual, when Rosa decided to propel Esther off her bench and onto the ground, laughing at her despair as she left Esther there. What seems like an abysmal, rare incident became a ritual part of Esther’s school day; being bullied by Rosa.
Esther stepped on the porch of her house, reaching for the doorknob as she approached her front door. Stepping inside, she was immediately in her kitchen. Her house was above average by normal standards; three bedroom, two bathrooms, a beautiful living room and kitchen, and a decent size yard large enough to eventually place the swing set Esther’s father promised her in.
Speaking of her father, he was sitting in the kitchen, typing away on his business laptop while he simultaneously ate a ham sandwich he threw together. Esther approached her father, placing her white backpack on the chair across from him. Not looking up from his work, he began to say the words he always greeted Esther with after school.
“Hey, sweetie! How was school?”
In return, she responded the same way she did every day.
“Horrible. I hate it here, Dad… Rosa always picks on me! Everyone does!” Esther wiped the dirt off her face with her sleeve, wondering if today would be the day her father would finally help her be rid of Rosa. Or, better yet, if this was the day her father decides to move back down south to Belham, the country town where she grew up. Being too engrossed in his work, he once again failed to notice the severity of Esther’s situation.
“Don’t worry, Esther. It’s just because you’re new. Things will get better.”
Things will get better…
That’s what he has been telling her everyday for the last five months, when they moved to Havenwood and left all of Esther’s friends behind in Belham. He even told both her and her mother that when they realized they faced financial difficulties living here in Havenwood Instead of moving back to Belham, her mother and father wanted to stay in Havenwood for “Esther’s sake” because the education offered here was better. So, her mother took on a full-time job to help her father pay the bills, leaving both of her parents too busy to even notice that Esther is in fact miserable here in Havenwood.
The doorbell rang, cuing Esther’s father to rise from his seat, closing his laptop. “Thank god! The babysitter’s finally here. I was afraid she was going to make me late for work!” He hurried over to the door and opened it, more ecstatic over seeing the babysitter than speaking with his own daughter. Esther sighed and grabbed her white backpack off the chair and made her way to the steps, passing the front door as she did so. She peered past her father and saw Jennifer Bell’s familiar face, smiling at her father. Jennifer is their seventeen-year-old neighbor who babysat Esther when they first arrived in Havenwood, and has been doing it ever since. While Jennifer was nice, she tended to stay downstairs and watch TV while Esther remained upstairs in her room. Turning her back on the both of them, Esther made her way up the steps and into her room, closing the door behind her.
The night seemed to blur by, shaping into morning sooner than she wanted. Before long, Esther soon found herself sitting under a tree during recess, away from the other children. The school itself sat on a spacious piece of land that ran alongside the forest in which the town was named after, Haven Woods. During recess, the children were able to play outside on the field, where a small jungle gym stood away from the fence and tree where she sat. They were all watched over by the “Lunch Monitor,” an older woman who ironically had cataracts, which forced her to remain closer to the jungle gym to be able to see all the children without difficulty. On Esther’s lap was a book, entitled All About Birds, which she used as an excuse to help convince the Lunch Monitor to give Esther permission to sit far away from the noisy children, under the illusion that she is allowing Esther to read in a quiet place. In reality, Esther hoped that being away from the playground would prevent her from running into Rosa today.
The book was actually given to her by her old best friend in Belham before she moved, as they both found birds fascinating. They used to walk around the farms and try to find all the birds written about in the book, like the mockingbird and cardinal.
As Esther watched the children, she made a horrible mistake: she locked eyes with Rosa, who was searching for her from the top of the jungle gym. Rosa began her descent down the slide and towards Esther, causing Esther to hold her book and clench it slightly out of nerves.
Its okay…Maybe she won’t shove you today. She thought to herself as the gap between her and Rosa closed. Rosa was an overweight child, with short, unruly and frizzy copperwire hair. Her clothes tended to be disheveled and ragged, making her appearance almost as frightful as she was herself. With each step Rosa took towards Esther, Esther’s heart pounded.
Rosa’s eyes narrowed as she reached Esther, towering over her as Esther sat on the plush grass. Esther slowly stood up as Rosa glared at her, hugging her book slightly for comfort, waiting for something to happen. At this moment, she wished was able to magically turn into one of the birds in her book and fly away.
“Whatcha got there?” Rosa said, pointing brutishly at Esther’s book. Before Esther could respond or react, Rosa pushed Esther aggressively on the floor with her large hands, making her fall into the cold dirt. The book flew from Esther’s grasp onto the ground beside her as Rosa looked over her shoulder, making sure the Lunch Monitor didn’t see. Some children came to witness what was happening, and out of fear of Rosa, they laughed at Esther’s easy defeat. Esther tried to stand up, but she was shoved once again with Rosa’s bodyweight, causing her back to hit the tree painfully. Rosa grabbed the book off the floor and looked at it before she laughed. “Really? A book!? During recess? Are you THAT much of a nerd that you actually WANT to read during recess?” The children laughed as Rosa ripped the book in half down the spine, obliterating Esther’s cherished momento. To add insult to injury, Rosa took the remains of All About Birds and flung it over the fence into Haven Woods. “There, this is where your dumb birds belong!”
Rosa left Esther leaning against the tree, departing with the group of children that chose to stand by and watch Esther’s misfortune. Tears filled Esther’s eyes as she hurried over to the chain-link fence, seeing some of the pages of All About Birds get picked up in the wind and blow away. In a desperate attempt to save her book, she slipped her hand in one of the holes in the fence, reaching for the book that remained just out of her reach. Giving up, she removed her hand from the fence and wiped her eyes. Out of a burst of frustration and hurt, she kicked the fence, causing it to rattle and creak. Unintentionally, Esther’s kick on the rustic fence caused the bottom corner of it to detach slightly from one of metal poles it was attached to. At first embarrassed that she broke the fence, she immediately turned around to see if the Lunch Monitor noticed. To her luck, the Lunch Monitor was yelling at two of her classmates for one reason or another, resulting in her shrill voice masking the sound of the creaking fence. Esther faced the corner of the fence and pushed on it slightly, making the fence bend further away from the metal pole until a gap formed. Carefully, she successfully squeezed through the gap, making sure the rusted metal didn’t cut her while doing so. Esther hurried to scavenge the remains of All About Birds. Eight of the twenty pages were missing.
Tears began to roll down her face as she looked back at the school. Recess would be over soon, but she didn’t want to go back. Why should I? She thought sullenly. No one cares about me. Not even my parents would know I’m gone. With that thought, she walked off deep into the woods, leaving the school and Havenwood behind her. Her roaming led her to come across a massive fallen tree, forming a tree bridge over a three-story fall that was carved into the earth by a river hundreds of years ago. Wanting to persevere and flee her troubled world, she courageously climbed on top of the mossy, decaying tree. Walking slowly, she crossed the tree, making sure she didn’t look down all the while.
Past the tree bridge, she came across a glade. It was silent and spacious, which complemented an enormous tree that sat the glade’s edge. Towards the base of a tree was a tree hollow, which was small enough for a child into comfortably. Esther ran to the tree, as curious towards the tree’s grandeur as she was upset. Looking at the tree, she began to hear the laughter of other children. Startled, she turned around and looked through the wall of trees surrounding the glade from where she stood.
What if Rosa followed me? She immediately thought, turning back to the hollow. Instinctively, she crawled inside, trying to hide from her offender. The inside of the hollow was damp and cold, but large enough that she could sit inside comfortably. Esther looked through the hollow hole from the darkness as she brought her knees up to her chest, hugging them as tears began to fill her eyes. The laughter deluged her ears again, causing her to tense up, dreading that the school kids were closing in on the hollow. However, instead of hearing it from outside the hollow, the sound emerged from beside her. She looked over to her right, at the back wall of the hollow. To her amazement, the bark of the tree seemed to shift, changing into something else before her eyes. Afraid, she slid back, away from the wall as she watched it turn into a small door.
She stared at the door for a moment, trying to process in her mind what she just witnessed. Am I imagining this…? She thought, slowly reaching out to the face of the door. As her palm touched the wood, streams of amber light appeared in the grains of the wood, making their way through the woodwork and to the center of the door, forming three words: The Asylia Glade. The amber doorknob illuminated softly in the same golden light, as if beckoning her to open it. Esther’s curiosity soon overcame her, driving her to open the door.
After making her way through the door, she found herself blinded by sunlight. Once her vision adjusted, she took in her surroundings with awed eyes. In her wake as a vast glade, filled with children laughing and playing together. The grass was plush and warm, and what seemed to be magical clouds drifted overhead, changing their shape to different animals and objects. At the center of the glade was a playground, consisting of swings, slides, bridges, and monkey bars. It shone beautifully in the sunlight, appearing to be made of pure silver.
“Hello,” said a mysterious voice from behind Esther. She turned around and saw a boy, slightly older than her, leaning on the bark of the tree. He had short, golden shaggy hair and cerulean eyes, making him appear lion-like as he looked at her. “Welcome to Asylia Glade, my name is Leon Brandt.”
Esther smiled at him, but felt awfully confused. “Hello….Uhm, the Asylia Glade?” She briefly looked over her shoulder, studying the kids before looking back at Leon. “Are these kids from Havenwood Elementary…? I don’t know any of them.”
“Havenwood Elementary?” Leon raised an eyebrow, standing upright off the tree. “I never heard of it.”
“Aren’t you from Havenwood? Or Belham?”
“I’m from Altenroth, Germany.”
Esther looked dumbfounded, staring at him with no response. Germany? Leon noticed the confusion on her face and decided to continue speaking.
“Let me explain. This glade is a magical place that children can access from all around the world… For me, I can come here by crawling into a rock crevice by my house.” A shadow of a kite darted past them, causing Esther to instinctively look up at it in the sky. It was a Chinese dragon kite, making it seem as though a red serpent was waltzing against the clouds. A young Asian girl, about six years old, was holding onto the string of the kite as she ran around, being followed by three other children – attempting to catch the kite they knew they could never reach.
Leon pointed to one of the dragon’s pursuers, a brunette boy slightly older than the Asian girl. “See that kid? He’s from Australia. Supposedly he comes here by entering a closet in some abandoned house near his school.” He shrugged his shoulders, “Regardless, this place somehow allows us to all understand each other, and we all come here when things get tough back home.”
That’s when she noticed it. Whenever he spoke, she could very faintly hear the German pronunciation underlying his English, as if the glade magically translated his words so she could understand. Leon pointed up above the door where she emerged from, making Esther realize that the way out of here was back through the door, which was connected to the front of the enormous tree she saw back in Haven Wood. This tree, however, had words written in its trunk, written in the same amber light that engraved the door before. As she looked at the words, the letters constantly shifted languages until they remained in English, allowing her to read. It appeared to be listing three rules, which the first one mentioned the glade allowing the children to understand each other. Before she could read the others, Leon already started explaining them.
“These are the guidelines of the Asylia Glade. The first one I explained but, not the other two. Simply put, time flows slower here, so you can stay here for hours and only minutes will go by back home. It allows us to kind of enjoy our time here without having to rush back home… and the last one is the most important. ‘Only those who are child at heart may enter,’ meaning, well… Eventually, we won’t be able to come back here anymore.” He walked up to Esther and smiled warmly at here, “So, why not go have fun here until then?”
Esther returned a smile once again before looking back at the glade. The children with the dragon kite were far off in the distance now, near another group of kids playing Duck Duck Goose. Colored balls flew into the sky occasionally, as a result of a few British youths playing kick ball. Esther wanted to play with them, but her shyness kicked in. “Sure, but… I don’t know anyone here besides you.”
Leon took Esther’s hand and began to lead her deeper into the glade, away from the tree. “That’s okay. I didn’t know anyone at first, eithers.” A few moments later, she found running around the playground, playing tag with two Mexican sisters, a Russian boy and Leon. As they played, their friendship grew, as well as Esther’s happiness. She felt safe here and a part of her didn’t want to go back home; this place was a paradise to her. After playing for what seemed like hours, meeting kids from all around the world and enjoying their company, she knew it was time to return home. With Leon following, she made her way over to the door.
“This was fun!” she announced, spinning around and facing Leon. “I think I need to go home now, though… I think recess is over by now.”
“Aw, really?” Leon frowned, putting his hands in his pockets with a playful pout. “You sure? It’s probably only been five minutes in actual time…” Esther nodded her head, frowning a little too. It was difficult enough to leave already; now she definitely didn’t want to leave, knowing Leon couldn’t come with her.
“Well…you’ll be here tomorrow, right?” Her voice was hopeful and slightly curious – what if she couldn’t see him again?
“Of course. I come here all the time. But, remember that last rule, Esther.” He removed a hand from his pocket and pointed at the guidelines again. “Only a child at heart may enter.’ So, you know…Try to come back a bunch, okay? So we can hang out more.”
“Durr! I’ll come here all the time!” She smiled and waved at Leon, saying her goodbye as she turned around. She left through the door she entered from, which placed her right back in the damp hollow. Just like Leon said, only a few minutes went by back in her reality. With the Asylia Glade as her escape, she felt somewhat hopeful and returned back to the school, knowing that she could always come back to the Glade.
For the next month, she did just that. Whenever her parents left her alone with Jennifer, or when Rosa was searching for her at recess, she fled to the Asylia Glade. Her hourly adventures in the glade only existed as minutes to the rest of the world, allowing her escapes to remain unnoticed. With each visit, she grew closer with Leon, looking at him as her best friend.
Fall soon came into full swing, causing the air to dampen as rain attempted to wash away the remainders of summer. The air became colder, making her trek through Haven Woods more difficult. Her jacket would sometimes get caught in the fence, making her almost get caught by the Lunch Monitor one time. The boots she wore to keep her feet warm would occasionally lose traction in the mud of the forest, making her slip when she wasn’t paying attention to where she stepped. With perseverance, she continued to visit the grove despite Mother Nature’s warnings.
One morning, it began to rain. The earth became drenched with the tears of the sky, but it stopped just in time for recess, allowing the children to play outside in the puddles with their rain boots. Naturally, Esther made her way to the fence, slipping through the gap with her new, yellow rain boots. The smell of petrichor ticked her nose as she soon reached the tree bridge. Climbing on top, she ignorantly overestimated her ability to cross the bridge, as she has done it countless times by now. At about halfway, her right foot slipped on the damp, mossy tree, causing her to lose her balance.
Frantically, she screamed and grabbed onto the tree as she fell, managing to cling to the bark just before she fell into the depths of the dried river. Her feet kicked around in the empty air as she tried to pull herself up.
“Help me! Someone!” Esther yelled, her arms growing tired of supporting her body weight. After two minutes of clinging for her life, she realized that she was too deep in Haven Woods for anyone at Havenwood Elementary to hear her. Then, she heard someone running, approaching her off in the distance. To her surprise and bewilderment, it was Rosa.
Rosa, instead of leaving her there, quickly climbed on the tree bridge and made her way to Esther, pulling her up just in time. As they safely climbed off the tree bridge, Esther looked uncertainly at Rosa.
“Why? How did you know?” She said, curious to why Rosa out of all people would come to her rescue. “You pick on me everyday! You’re practically the reason why I’m here to begin with!”
Rosa listened to her and bit her lip, “Well… I saw you a week ago squeeze through the fence. I was wondering where you were going.”
“But, why? Did you miss shoving me or something?” Esther responded bitterly. She couldn’t believe she was finally standing up to Rosa, but it felt good doing so.
“You won’t understand, I didn’t mean to pick on you.” Rosa looked down at her hands, which were dirty from climbing on the tree bridge. “Everyone was mean to be before you came along. I had to. It was either me pick on you, or me still get picked on. I hated it, but once I knew the other kids stopped making fun of me for bullying you, I couldn’t stop.”
Esther looked at Rosa, who began to get teary-eyed at this revelation. “Why would they pick on you?”
“Because, I’m dumb...” She shrugged her shoulders, embarrassed to admit it. Feeling like she had to explain herself for picking on Esther all this time, as if explaining to a teacher why didn’t do her homework, she continued on. “Everyone used to make fun of my clothes, too. My Dad doesn’t buy me nice things, though... He hasn't been the same since my Mom went up to heaven. So I just wear my old clothes and keep to myself. I never told anyone about it though...” She wiped her eyes, “I’m sorry, Esther. I didn’t mean it…”
Esther smiled and hugged Rosa, who hugged her back. They returned to Havenwood Elementary together and used their growing friendship to help tolerate the struggles they faced at home. Rosa even brought Esther a new bird book to replace the one she destroyed. With her new friend, Esther soon forgot all about the Asylia Glade, as she had no need for it now.
Two years went by, and Esther and Rosa were now in middle school. The days of playing on the playground were soon replaced with talking about boys and makeup. One morning, Esther woke up and oddly remembered the Glade, and went there the following evening. Along the way to the hollow, she thought about Leon and wondered if he still remembered her. She knelt down and peered into the hollow, which was darker than she remembered. Trying to fit inside, she attempted to squeeze into the hollow multiple ways but couldn’t. Finally, she simply reached an arm into the hollow and felt the back wall, trying to find a doorknob. Nothing.
She sat up, removing her arm from the hollow as she stared into the darkness. A twisted feeling filled her gut, remembering the last guideline of the Asylia Glade: Only those with a child at heart may enter.
Esther smiled halfheartedly, feeling somewhat bittersweet as she stood up. Even though she could never enter the glade again, perhaps it was a good thing. It meant she was grown up now and didn’t need the glade to escape her problems. After her father was promoted about a year ago, the money troubles seemed to vanish. As for her friends in Belham, Rosa became one of the best friends she could ask for, replacing the friendship she had with her old friend. Lastly, now that she was almost twelve and proved to be responsible, her parents allowed Esther to stay home by herself, ending her days of being babysat by Jennifer.
Esther touched the bark of the tree, whispering “goodbye,” hoping all those who may still venture into the glade would hear her. She turned around and left Havenwood for the last time, taking her memories of the Asylia Glade as she left her childhood behind her.