Stumbling through the forest blinded by long streams of tears Lola’s hard heavy pants grew louder as she continued to run in large circles in the woods. Concentrating on dodging trees Lola tried to keep her mind full of happy blissful thoughts, but knew how futile it was to avoid coping with the inevitable. She was lost. The tears were now coming in heavier more steady flows, dripping off of her checks like meteors falling from a crying sky. It was dark and she knew that it was already late into the afternoon. Why did Jordan have to race her home from school? Jordon just had to take the short cut through the woods even though he knew as well as anyone else, how easy it was to get lost in this place.

 

Crying even harder Lola collapsed onto the pine needle covered ground. Her shoes were caked with mud and she attempted to rub her eyes dry, but failed because her tears were coming out faster than she could dry them. Maybe if she stayed here Jordan would come back for her. Remembering her brother’s promise of making sure she wouldn’t get lost Lola became angry and bitter. He had promised! Moaning, and rocking herself back and forth with a lullaby that was running through her subconscious attempting to calm her, she buried her head into her hands and wept heavily.

 

What if Jordan never found her? She was going to die in this forest! They were going to just leave her to…to starve! Lola screamed in her head as her stomach growled. Suddenly she heard a crack of some twigs behind her. Who was there? Was it Jordan? Lola twirled around with hopeful eyes that changed from hope to downcast in seconds after seeing nothing behind her.

 

Another crack of a twig. Her breath became heavy again, and her eyes grew wide with fear. Recalling the ‘stranger danger’ speech Mrs.Ligum had taught all the second graders this year, Lola stood up clutching onto her own sundress for comfort. It had sounded as if someone was trying to sneak up behind her. The same sound came again from behind her and that was all it took to cause Lola to dart up off the ground and sprint away trying desperately to escape the sound.

 

She would have screamed if she had a voice, but there was a lump in her throat that would not leave. Her snuffling inaudible moans and cries for help were heard by her ears alone. Sprinting as fast as she could, she felt a presence behind her. The soft taps on the mud padded ground and the occasional snap of a twig kept was kept fresh in her mind tormenting her, mocking her. She was being followed. She wasn’t going to live long enough to allow herself the opportunity to starve, Lola thought as more tears began to choke her.

 

While she was fleeing the sound a squirrel jumped out from behind a tree startled by Lola’s persistent wailing, and zipped out in front of her to find sanctuary in a tree. Letting out a small scream Lola felt the a wave of shock enter her body temporarily paralyzing her because of the squirrel who was cowering from one of the branches far above her praying that Lola wouldn’t below such a retched scream again. Forcing herself to move again she mimicked the squirrel’s speed and scurried off fleeing from a sound which nobody could hear.

 

Tripping over a root that was jutting up out of the ground Lola fell with her face     into the dirt. Choking on her tears, Lola struggled to get up, and in the end she decided not to. Instead she put herself in the fetal position, and waited to be snatched up and taken away by the mad man who was following her…but she was not snatched up. Once regaining her breath, and after she worked up the nerve, she peaked through her fingers and looked around. Nobody was there, no one was chasing her. Had she imagined it?

 

Everything seemed so intensified, magnified. Every sound, every sight, everything seemed like it was out to get her. Lola longed to be in her soft warm bed, to listen to her mom tell her stories until she fell asleep, for her dad to sneak in and give her, her nightly glass of warm chocolate milk. Lola’s strained eyes began to tear up once again in frustration. She wanted to go home!

 

“Help.” Her voice was weak and it took a few moments for her to strengthen it, “Help!”

 

No reply. Lola stood up slowly, brushing the dirt off of her once white sundress, and attempting to calm herself. Her mother always told her to take deep breaths when she was frightened. Breathe in…Breathe out…Breathe in…Breathe out….Twenty breaths later she was still terrified.

 

It felt like ages since she saw another human figure. Even Jordan’s face would seem like an angel’s right about now. If only she could see him again, just one more time. How sorry she was for ever being mean to him. For annoying him when he had friends over, for taking the last dounut when she was full just so he couldn’t have it, and even for blaming Jordan for the broken lamp so that she could have the television all to herself. All of that seemed silly now, Lola took another deep breath and prepared herself for the death that was looming over her.

 

“Lola?”

 

“Jordan!” Lola rejoiced thanking the heavens for sparing her.

 

Jordan emerged from behind a tree and Lola tackled him with a hug. He looked down at her with his stupid grin. He was mocking her. Lola then went from hugging him to punching him in a fraction of a second.

 

“Why did you leave me? You promised you wouldn’t. Do you know how long I’ve been here? I could have starved. There was a guy and he chased me and then-”

 

“Lola, Lola, slow down. I saw you a few minutes ago; you haven’t been in here very long at all.” He chuckled.

 

“It was hours!” Lola insisted, “Look how dark it is.”

 

“The sun is just blocked by the trees stupid. Don’t start making up stuff now.”

 

“I am not! There was a guy and there was a monster to, a big creature who-”

 

Jordan laughed at her and took her hand, leading her out of the forest in two minutes flat. He always told her it wasn’t a real forest, just a mob of trees behind an apartment complex, but he was wrong. Lola knew how big it was, and the only reason it was light outside was because she had stayed out all night, and it was the next day. Yeah that’s it!

 

Lola smacked his hand away and strode out of the forest with pride, taking large steps and marching to a rhythm only she could hear. She could hear her brother’s laughter behind her; she didn’t care, because by this time tomorrow everyone in the second grade would know all about the Fearless Lola. 

 

The Fearless Lola who outran and outwitted a devious kidnapper. The Fearless Lola who conquered starvation. The Fearless Lola who dominated the creatures of the forest. The Fearless Lola who braved the gloomy murky darkness, who vanquished all the evil and found her way out of the forest, bringing with her the peace that she then returned to the skies for all of man to cherish.

 

Comments

Search RSS

3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."