BRIONNEY & THE MAGICAL FOREST

Brionney felt her body meet the earth with a loud thud as she tried to scream but only got a mouth full of grass. She felt something hit her on the back of the head and feared she was in danger. She could hear a loud motor and wondered where she was and who was chasing her. Was she near the forest lake or was she in the green meadow at the forest’s edge? Slowly she started waking up and realized she must have been dreaming once again about trying to escape out of the dark forest. She felt like standing up and running but kept still as she tried to grasp her surroundings. She opened one eye and saw an apple laying on the ground next to her head, realizing that was what had caused the slight bump on her head. She closed her eyes again as she willed herself to forget her bad nightmare. She shook her head a couple of times to clear the sleep and realized the noise of the lawn mower had interrupted her afternoon slumber.

Brionney finally spit out the grass she had inhaled during her earlier attempted scream which was muffled when she fell out of the backyard hammock. The sandy colored hammock, which was tied between two apple trees, danced above her head as it rocked back and forth in a seesaw motion shaking the apple tree branches as another apple fell to the ground not far from where she lay. The shade from the apple tree closest to her provided relief on this hot summer day. She laid her head on the grass as she willed her heart rate to return to normal. She took some deep breaths and inhaled the beautiful floral scents coming from her grandma Nina’s garden. She reached for the locket around her neck and touched it lovingly knowing it always made her feel calm and secure. The fall from the swinging hammock had knocked the wind out of her when she fell.

Brionney’s stomach growled as she realized she hadn’t eaten the picnic lunch Ella had packed for her that afternoon. She reached for the maroon and gold velvet book that was sprawled out next to her. The sage green envelope that was attached to the front of the book had fallen off and the flap of the envelope was slowly moving in the soft wind. She reached her left arm to grab the envelope being careful not to wrinkle it as she secured it onto the front of the book. The wind had blown her butterfly bookmark up against the trunk of the apple tree not too far from her. She could hear Aaron still mowing the lawn in the front yard as she gently sat up to a sitting position using her legs to back herself against the tree trunk.

She put the book in her lap and rubbed the back of her head where the apple had hit her before it landed next to her. She grabbed the apple and wiped it off against her embroidered Capris before taking a bite. She was glad Aaron hadn’t seen her less than graceful fall from the hammock. If he had seen it, it would have been one more item to add to his list of things to tease her about. He wouldn’t reach the backyard for a few more minutes so she had time to finish the apple and make herself presentable before he came back to mow this part of the lawn. She pushed back a lock of her hair behind her ears, causing the hair that had been trailing over her shoulder to momentarily snag onto her purple and ivory pear-shaped dangling earrings. She glanced down at her favorite summer outfit, loving the cap sleeved top with its splashes of purple and ivory on a neutral beige background. The V-neck shirt had layers of short ruffles from top to bottom as they ran past her waist and cascaded a few inches over the embroidered flowers running up and down the side of her Capri white pants.

Brionney sighed a heavenly sigh of contentedness and longing while closing her beautiful deep brown eyes, causing her dark fringed eyelashes to brush against her tanned and slightly sunburned face. She could hear the beautiful birds sing the summer melody as the wind blew softly through the evergreens in the forest behind her. She could feel the shimmering sun’s rays filtering through the shade of the apple tree branches above her head and warming the top of her long, cascading blonde curls that were held back from her face by the purple and ivory braided headband she wore. Brionney adjusted her headband and crossed her legs, making sure she didn’t have grass stains on her white Capris. Thankfully, she hadn’t done more than bruise her ego when she fell. She felt warm and cool at the same time, remembering how it had felt moments ago stretched out in the hammock, enjoying the beautiful harmony of laying in the shade while soaking up the summer days warmth.

Brionney finished her apple and tossed it over her shoulder towards the garden edge next to the backyard fence. Her father would be happy she didn’t leave it to litter the grass and clog the lawn mower. She stood up and brushed grass from her outfit and hair then secured the small link gold chain holding her favorite locket given to her by her mother when she was 5 years old. She adjusted her purple and ivory bangle bracelets which had become tangled when she fell. Her summery outfit was completed with dainty purple leather sandals which were piled one on top of the other on the grass right below the hammock. Brionney picked up her butterfly bookmarker and placed it in the book to mark the place where she had stopped reading when she had fallen asleep before eating her lunch.

She grabbed her small beige woven picnic basket as she climbed into the hammock and sat both her picnic basket and the book next to her. She was starving and couldn’t wait to eat the peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich with the homemade oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. She spread out her lunch on the red plaid napkin that was folded across her lap. She laid out the rest of her picnic which included a handful of washed strawberries from her father’s garden, some grapes from the vine that covered the backyard fence and big radishes and carrots picked ripe that morning.

Brionney heard the lawn mower moving closer and saw a glimpse of Aaron as he mowed the side yard on the left of the house. Her legs touched the ground on either side of the hammock, moving it in a soothing pattern as she ate her lunch and washed it down with the gourmet lemonade. The lemonade was flavored with the Lemonade Stand Blend her grandma had bought from the Symplee Celebrations Boutique store in town earlier that day. She had made the lemonade her mom’s favorite glass pitcher by preparing a packet of Kool-Aid flavored regular Lemonade, mixing it with water and sweetener and then adding the right number of drops of Liz’s Lemonade Stand essential oil blend. The essential oils were of the highest grade and were a brand that was safe to ingest. The lemonade tasted so good with the blend of Lemon, Lime and Grapefruit oils. It was just the right mix of sweet and tart.

She had added fresh slices of grapefruit, lemons and lime picked from the citrus trees that lined the big hills in her backyard. There was a purple striped straw in the lemonade mason jar which matched her outfit and brought a smile to her face. Her mom had said she was a girlie girl and loved matching all her accessories even from her first day in kindergarten. Brionney’s smile deepened as she had loving memories of her mom who had passed away when Brionney was seven.

As Brionney sat her lemonade mason jar on a small wicker table by the hammock, more thoughts of her mom and the stories her mother used to tell her when Brionney was little filled her thoughts. Stories about how her mom loved to dance and how her mother and father met when they both competed in dance competitions when they were teenagers. Brionney lifted her arms as if she were dancing a beautiful waltz as she imagined the brilliant costumes her mother wore and the swaying of the live orchestra playing the Tennessee Waltz in the background when her mother and her dance partner Enrique competing in the annual Evergreen Mystic Lake Ballroom Competition, the same Competition that Brionney’s father and his dance partner Savannah competed in.

As she lifted her arms, the ruffles on her top swayed back and forth with the rhythm of the hammock. She heard loud laughter and opened her eyes to see that Aaron was now mowing the backyard and had seen her arms waving to imaginary music. Blushing, Brionney looked away as she packed up the remains of her lunch and sat her basket on the white wicker table. She was embarrassed Aaron had seen her being caught up in daydreams, but she had been swept away in memories of her mom and Enrique dancing like she remember from their dance competition video she watched repeatedly. Her Mom and Enrique had won the competition that year and her father had won her mother’s attention and the promise of a date at the local movie theater the following weekend. That was how it had all begun, at a dance competition on a summer day at the Circular Boathouse Club on Evergreen Mystic Lake Drive in Evergreen, Utah.

Aaron got her attention again and waved as he continued to move the lawn mower back and forth in a straight pattern. As he turned the lawn mower her direction for the next row, he paused for a minute and waved his arms as if he too were dancing. Brionney wanted to bring the sides of the hammock up to hide her completely and block her from his view but she meekly smiled and waved back before quickly drinking more lemonade and using the mason jar to cover her red face. Aaron was her neighbor and she had known him since kindergarten. They had always been close friends and had played many times growing up. Since they had both entered junior high last year Aaron had started teasing her which she didn’t appreciate. She missed having the easy friendship they once had. They were still friends but now he found ways to tease her about anything and everything. Grandma said it was because he liked her, but Brionney thought he treated her more like a sister with his constant teasing, although she wouldn’t know for sure because she was an only child. Secretly, she liked Aaron, but she hadn’t told anyone that. Liking him didn’t mean she wanted to tease him, so she was confused what it meant when he teased her.

After finishing her lemonade, Brionney licked her lips and placed the emptied decorated mason jar on the table. This mason jar had a pink and white polka dot ribbon that was tied in a bow on the front. She had decorated all the mason jars in their kitchen with different colored ribbons on the outside which made her father laugh every time he used one. He preferred the solid or plaid blue, brown or black ribbon mason jars, leaving the polka dot or chevron patterned pink, purple or red ones with a bow for she and her grandma to use.

Brionney gathered up her lunch empty containers, put them in her picnic basket on the table, laid back in the hammock and closed her eyes as she savored the last few minutes of her lunch break before she would be summoned back to the main house to help prepare the rooms and the surrounding cabins for the next group of visitors. It took an art of balance to not flip over and fall out of the hammock again as Brionney lay dreaming on this wonderful summer day. She tried to close out Aaron and the noise of the lawn mower. She must have fallen asleep again because she was suddenly woken up by a shaking of the hammock. She was confused she was dreaming again and gripped the sides of the hammock so it wouldn’t flip her over.

“Wake up, Sleeping Beauty” Aaron yelled. “I’m here to protect from whatever’s lurking in the deep, dark forest!”.

“Very funny, Mr. Lawn boy” Brionney said sweetly, knowing he didn’t like to be called that any more than she liked to be teased about her recurring dream of the forest. She regretted ever sharing Then she heard Aaron’s laughter as he finally turned off the lawn mower. She opened her eyes and growled at him as he continued pushing the lawn mower towards the shed at the back of the yard. A truck honked in her driveway, and she heard Mr. Morgan, Aaron’s father, call out to him.

Aaron yelled “Goodbye, Sleeping Beauty” over his shoulder he hopped in the truck and started to drive away with his dad. She stuck out her tongue and was glad he and his father couldn’t see her as they backed out of the driveway. The backyard returned to silence and Brionney settled further into the hammock, Soon the quietness of the summer day would be filled with the hustle and bustle of tour buses filled with adults and children scurrying to set up camp and find out their schedules at Nina’s Dance Retreat sponsored by the Evolution Academy for the Performing and Creative Arts.

Feeling melancholy, Brionney picked up the book and opened it to the bookmark. The butterfly bookmark had a picture of a gold butterfly and a quote “Follow your Dreams and Fly like a Butterfly”. Brionney’s mom and dad bought her the bookmark when she was 10 along with a picture of multiple butterflies that she hung on her bedroom wall. She, her mom and Grandma Nina had chased many butterflies in their backyard. The butterflies loved to fly between the different spattering of flowers that her grandma had painstakingly planted and maintained over the years. She closed the book in her lap and reattached the Velcro strap that protected it. She unclasped the locket from around her neck and slipped it into the velvet drawstring sack where it belonged. She put the sack into the front envelope on the outside of the book and snapped the envelop closed.

It would be a few days before she could read more of the book and be able to savor every word. She only looked at the book when she knew she could be alone and when she had blocks of uninterrupted time. She ran her hand down the maroon and gold design of the front cover and over the olive green envelop with its engraved letter W in the fancy script.

When she was a little girl, she used to pepper her mother with questions about the book that laid on her mother’s vanity. She was always allowed to touch it with her mother watching her and she was told that someday she and her mother would read it together. She smiled as she remembered the first time, they had read the book together. She remembered the smell of the book and the brightness of her mother’s eyes as they sat side by side on her mother’s emerald sofa chair in her parents’ bedroom, their legs propped up on the tasseled ottoman and their backs supported by the many decorated and multishaped pillows arranged along the back of the enormous chair.

Brionney never understood why they called it a chair when it was big enough for her parents to sit on together and sometimes she would sit between them and there would still be room left over, unlike the hammock she was laying on that would wrap around you as soon as you laid down and if one wasn’t careful they could accidentally fall out with the least movement.

Brionney looked around the yard, the many colors and different types of plants and flowers that covered every nook and cranny completing a magnificent landscape that gave off a sweet scent that was mixed in with the smell of freshly mowed lawn. Someday she hoped to be talented enough to paint the breathtaking scenery that existed in her own backyard.