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 Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 1:30 pm
'Bill, bill, junk, credit card application...' Sayuri talked to herself as she carried the morning's post from the mailbox onto the verandah. She sat on the sun-lounger, looking out as the morning autumn mist was slowly being burned away as the sun rose higher. She sipped on her orange juice before looking at the mail that was more interesting then the mundane.
'Hmm discount on long-distance calls,' she frowned. Silly misleading looking letter. Finally she picked up the padded brown envelope, turning it over and looking at the odd stamp on the back.
'I recognise that I'm sure,' Sayuri pulled open the gummed flap and up-ended it. All that dropped onto her lap was a brilliant and, considering it must have been a few days since it was picked, very healthy looking leaf.
'Umm okay. Who would send me a leaf?'
Then it was as if a lightbulb lit above her head. Could this really be an Eden? She remembered that when she had first heard of the Project she had sent in an application to be a prospective parent, and had met a couple of the children...who came from leaves! This is had to be, didnt it? Or was she just getting her hopes up.
But really she couldnt think of any other explanation to be sent a leaf. She picked up her opened mail and took it and the leaf inside. The mail she put in her desk cubbyhole, and the leaf she placed on the table in the living room before taking a seat near it and just watching it.
'So little leaf...what will you become?'
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Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2005 11:11 am
Journal entry:
So I had the strangest piece of mail delivered to me yesterday. It was a leaf in a padded brown envelope. Yup a leaf. And stranger was the fact that it was a healthy, green leaf. Okay no I dont believe that is the strangest thing. Strangest of all is that leaf appears to be possessed of life; it moves around, but only at night. And I admit that if anyone were to read this I would probably be sent straight to a nice institute but its the truth.
For instance the first night after I received it, I left the leaf on my living room table. In the morning it was in the kitchen. And no I dont have any pets that could have moved it, nor were there any windows open downstairs that would have let in a draught to 'waft' it along. So I can only conclude that it moves itself. And it has continued to do so every night, as every morning it is in a different place.
I am hoping that at some point it will move when I am around to see it...
Otherwise I may simply come to think of myself as having lost my 'marbles'.
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 8:26 am
Sayuri settled into a chair from the kitchen, having bought it into the living room. The leaf was immobile on her living room table and she sipped strong coffee from a mug, looking at it in the faint light from the one candle she had lit and left on the mantelpiece. It was past 2am, and she was sitting up, waiting for the verdant trickster to make its move. She put the mug down, rubbing her sleepy eyes and yawning, stretching her arms above her head.
'So are you going to move?' she said out loud, shooting the leaf a dirty look. It was trying to drive her round the bend! She was sure of it.
'Or maybe I am already crazy,' she muttered, shifting in the uncomfortable chair.
'I am sitting here at after 2 in the morning, talking to myself and waiting for a leaf to move!'
Sayuri tapped her fingers on the arm of the chair, getting up and pacing, her vision away from the leaf for a moment. It rippled slightly, and there was a distinctive sense of mischief about it as it fluttered along the table, coming to a halt before Sayuri turned around. She blinked, walking swiftly to the table.
'You moved!' she knelt down, prodding it with a fingernail and it finally moved when she was looking at it, the edges of it twitching as it twirled on its stem. Sayuri laughed;
'I knew it! Thank god,' she muttered then. At least she didnt have to see a psychiatrist. Well not to tell one that she thought a leaf was moving around on its own at any rate. She held a hand out, open and palm up and the leaf sort of 'skipped' into it.
'Right...time for bed for me, and you can stay on my bedside table tonight.'
With that Sayuri left for her bedroom, only pausing to blow out the candle.
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 1:16 pm
Journal entry:
Well I am not crazy, which I am pleased to note down here. Although staying up at night with only a strong cup of coffee and a lone candle for company to watch a leaf for life does veer on the insane but well it paid off and I actually caught it moving!
This must also mean that my hunch was right and that the leaf was sent by someone at the Eden Project. But what will the child look like? I can already see its personality forming, given the tricks its been playing on me in its first form so I can guess that I will need my wits about me when the child does arrive!
So I should visit the Eden project shop and confirm that it did come from them...after all it's near Hallowe'en so what if its a possessed leaf...nah I think thats the lack of sleep talking. Well anyway I think I shall leave this and make myself some breakfast.
Maybe the leaf...does the leaf even have a gender? Well it can oblige me with moving some more so that I can know that last night wasnt just a dream.
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 5:03 pm
Life was unfair, really. Why did she have to be the one chosen by her mother to deliver the flowerpots ? Tyyne moved quickly towards the new house and sighed. Finally there was something going on at home and she had to leave. So unfair ! An orange pot, a package of soil and a note were quickly put down and the blonde girl didn't allow herself to be lazy and dashed off as fast as possible.A letter from Eden
Dear Sayuri,
You registered for a leaf and so I sent it to you last week, because I didn't have enough time to come around myself. I hope it didn't cause any trouble, but to me it seemed quiet during daytime. We sadly can't say what kind of Eden it will be, but perhaps you can make suggestions by yourself regarding it's behaviour. Anyway, here I send you the necessary items to plant your little one.
Experiences have shown that it will help the little one to grow. And that's what we all want, right ?
Feel free to visit us at the project's house and meet other owners and ask questions.
Have a nice day
~Lena
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Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2005 9:27 am
Sayuri approached her house carrying her shopping purchases, her kimono skirts draped over one arm. She blinked at the items on the front step, stooping and picking them up before entering her house. She put down her shopping, removing her geta in the entranceway before shuffling inside in tabi-covered feet. She carried the orange coloured pot, the soil packet and the note into the living room, placing the pot and the soil next to the leaf on the table. The leaf was once more still.
She opened the note, reading it quietly. So she had been right; the leaf was an Eden and it had been sent to her by the people who were running the Project.
'So apparently I am supposed to plant you in this pot,' she addressed the leaf. Which was kind of odd to her but if it was what the leaf needed to grow then she wouldnt be the one to ignore advice. After all it wasnt a cutting or seedling but a leaf. She shrugged, opening the plastic packet of earth and up-ending it into the pot. Pushing her fingers into the soil she made a hole and then plucking up the leaf, gently inserted it into the indent she had made before pushing the soil together around it and patting the surface smooth.
'Hmm well it doesnt say anything about watering but that's what you normally do when you pot something soo.'
She stood, going to get a beaker of water and sprinkled it in the dirt around the leaf.
'Well I hope you like your new home..this also means no more nightly wanderings for you,' she chuckled a little, folding the note up. She left the leaf, and went to put her shopping away.
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Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2005 1:11 pm
Journal entry:
Well it really is official. I was sent an Eden. Although the note that accompanied the pot and bag of soil wasnt explicit on the nature of the soul that inhabited the leaf, from it behaviour so far I have made an educated guess that it could be some sort of cat. It is nocturnal, fast and pretty mischevious. But I shall see, if that is this whole potting of the leaf thing does what the note suggests it might.
It says that it will help the leaf grow. If it were any other type of leaf I would say this is impossible as it doesnt have any roots..and how does the leaf 'grow' into a child from a pot? Well if I keep thinking about it I'll send my head a-spinning again.
I'm hoping that when the child arrives, he or she will fit in okay here. I so want this to work as I have been hoping to be a guardian to an Eden for a long time.
Well life, or leaf! is what you make of it. I shall try my very best..
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Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 10:54 am
'How is it going?' Sayuri cradled the cup of green tea in her hands as she looked over at what the garden landscaper was doing.
'Everything is pegged out and the soil is coming up pretty easily,' he said, leaning on his shovel a moment to look at her.
'So ball park time on completion?' she asked, swallowing a sip of her drink.
'Two weeks and you should be watching the koi swim,' he smiled.
'That's good. Well I shall let you get back to it,' Sayuri swept away, her kimono sweeping the ground as she did so. It was an everyday kimono in muted autumnal colours. Walking back into her house, she sat down in her living room and looked over the plans. She had decided after receiving the instructions to pot the leaf that she wanted a koi pond in her garden. If the child really was a feline one then the sooner she taught it about respecting life the better. She smiled to herself; as the sharks in the film 'Finding Nemo' said - fish are friends not food...it was something she hoped to instill into the child, saving difficult times if the child ever got a taste for hunting.
Sayuri looked at the potted leaf on the table before her. It had been still during the day as before, and moved as much as it was able at night, shifting in the soil. She was curious as to how long it would remain a leaf, and she had already set a room to one side for the child but had only decorated it very sparsely as she wanted the Eden to stamp its own personality in its bedroom. There was only a bed, chest of drawers and a wardrobe, all made of a dark wood. She folded the plans away, getting to her feet. She would get in some shamisen practice; she couldnt leave the house really in case the landscaper needed anything. Moving to her room, she unpacked the instrument, tuning and plucking the strings before settling into a tune, eyes closed as her fingers danced along the shamisen, coaxing a plangent sound from it.
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Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2005 9:08 am
At night something strange happens. The leaf doesn't just twitch like it usually does, but now it moving around in a strange dance. It swiftly moves it's top and tries to free itself from the soil, which makes the pot rattle slightly.
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Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2005 9:55 am
Sayuri had carried the potted leaf into her room, placing it on the bedside table. She had read until her eyes became heavy, then flicked off the lamp. In the early hours of the morning she was awoken by something although she wasnt sure what. An odd tapping noise near her head, that's what it sounded like. Sitting up, she groggily reached for her lamp, flicking it on and turning in the bed. The pot was..moving? Was the leaf trying to escape?
'What do you want?' she asked, stifling a yawn and eyeing the leaf curiously.
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 7:50 am
As the light is turned on the leaf twitches slightly and starts to swirl around even stronger so that it's surface can barely be seen any longer. The pot starts to rattle even more and the leaf slowly makes it way out of the soil as it suddenly starts to glow in a faint yellow and a black streak, which makes the leaf almost look like an eye, appears on it.
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 8:07 am
Sayuri shuffled back in the bed; possessed leaf! Her mind was too sleep addled to process this properly obviously - maybe this was supposed to happen? She watched as the leaf moved faster then emerged from out of the soil, its surfaces colours changed. Was that an eye? She moved closer again to the pot.
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 8:45 am
But the leaf just startsto spin faster and now it finally jumps out of the soil. The eye blinks several times ( or at least it looked like it does ). A loud hiss can be heard as it slowly floats onto the bed and the glow intensifies. It gets so strong that you can't even look at it anymore, but as the light fades out again two yellow cat eyes stare at you.
A young toddler girl is sitting on the sheets.
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Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 3:53 am
'Holy..' Sayuri stopped herself. Now then, she managed to think through her shock. Let's not teach the Eden child profanity just yet. She looked at the little girl who was looking around the room, her feline eyes taking everything in, the pupils contracting and dilating. Her tail lashed a little, then calmed, her ears flicking as she moved across the bed. The girl finally saw Sayuri, and crawled across the bedspread, seemingly sniffing at Sayuri. She held her hand out to the girl, who hissed and backed away again hurriedly.
'I won't hurt you,' Sayuri said softly, moving a little in the bed so that she was kneeling. The girl tilted her head; she was really pretty young Sayuri noticed, and was probably scared at suddenly appearing here. The girl moved forward again, cautiously crawling forwards and she took Sayuri's hand with her own, turning it around and looking at it. She blinked at Sayuri, then suddenly clambered into her lap, curling into as a tight a ball as she could managed. Her tail curled around in front of her, and her breathing went slow as Sayuri sat there, tentatively stroking the girls long hair.
'Odd,' she whispered. It was really strange. The girl had distinctive cat traits but as she used her hands she was obviously human as well. Well it was too early in the morning to have logic, and so she carefully moved the girl, sliding under her covers and putting the little cat girl in the crook of her arm. Sayuri fell asleep watching the Eden.
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