The Leaves (6): With the changing seasons, there are piles of leaves all around Destiny City. It’s a difficult job to try and keep up with them all, and sometimes the allure of these leaf piles is impossible to ignore. Who doesn’t want to relive the childish joys of their youth? And no one’s around to see, right? So why not jump into a pile of leaves? Oh–because, when you do, you jump through one pile and come out of another somewhere else across the city. The leaves all seem ordinary, but there’s a few odd seconds between when you jump into the leaves and when you jump out; it feels like falling, tumbling, somersaulting through the air. It’s not scary, just odd. You see walls of leaves–brown and orange and yellow and red–and they crunch magnificently. Overall, it doesn’t seem menacing, just a bit of trickster fun. If you try to jump in a pile of leaves again, you might wind up somewhere else entirely–or right back where you started.
Dreama was not quite used to the seasons here. In Ireland, in Autumn, the land got only slightly colder, with some drizzling raining and it was harvest time - however Ireland for the most part stayed a brilliant green color.
In Destiny City, in the US, the leaves turned brilliant colors of gold, yellow and red, and then fell from the trees, and the people raked them up into piles, and kids jumped into them, until adults put them into trash bags and sent them to be burned.
Dreama was on her way to court today, where they were analyzing the documents she had given Ms. Brox, about her cousins (Dreama guessed that she could understand, that if two minors (that had been hurt by abandonment and all the pain and alienation that came with it) were placed with her and after years of nothing, some random stranger from a foreign country, with documents showing that she was their long-lost cousin (doesn't want custody) she'd be wary too.)
She noticed that there were so many extremely large piles of leaves out today, and their colors were fantastic. She had seen the American children jumping in them and had become slightly envious - she had never been able to jump in piles of brightly colored leaves when she was a child - there were no piles of brightly colored leaves, when she was a child. It looked so fun... And no one else was looking... She looked at her watch - was that really the time? She had a hour to get there, and she only need half an hour.
What the heck? She walked nimbly over to the nearest pile, then gave the area around her a quick look around, to make sure there was still no one around, watching her, and when she was satisfied, jumped in expecting to quickly to come to the hard ground with a thump.
Strangely, her expectations were not fulfilled. She tumbled through the air for several seconds, seeing walls of brilliantly colored leaves around her, until she popped out and landed on her feet. Quickly, she dusted herself off, knocking a few extra leaves off in the process, and muttering to herself, "I'm not sure that experience follows any sense of Physics that I know about."
Standing up, she looked about again to make sure that no one was looking and got a good shock - she was not where she had started! (and no one was around). In fact, she was right in front of the Court Building she was required to be at. She shrugged, at least being early should help her case.
She wondered if all the leaf piles were like that in America (maybe that was why kids loved to play with them. Or was it something that happened only in Destiny City on Halloween? Either way, it was something she have to speak to her friend the Mauvian about. Besides it was a heck load of fun!
She looked around again and went casually on her way up to the Court House.