Leaves Change

Chapter Two: Where We Began

It was a warm and bright afternoon in 1936. There was a little boy determined to complete his masterpiece. His tongue was sticking out of his mouth slightly as he pushed the blade deeper into the tree. He devoted all of his focus into what he was doing and carefully he made sure the blade from his dad's pocket knife wouldn't cut his finger. He sucked in his tongue back into his mouth and clenched his teeth together, as he applied the finishing touches to what he was doing – his concentration was interrupted by a beautiful little voice, "Vinny! Aren't you done yet?!" He shouted back at her, "Not yet!"

He retraced all that he did, just to make sure that it would last forever. The little boy took a step back and basked in his master piece. He put his hands on his hips and took a deep breath of satisfaction. He then looked around and found a beautiful little girl with long black hair, picking wildflowers.

"Hey Bean! Come look at what I made!"

As the little girl trudged her tiny feet toward the little boy, she began to bicker with him.

"I wish you'd stop calling me Bean. You know that my name is..."

"Just hurry up and look! I know you're going to like it!"

The little girl finally made it to where he was standing, and looked at what he made.

"You took forever to make letters?! We could've went home hours ago."

"No, look! It's us! V.R. is my name, and B.P. is your name. I saw them do this in a movie once. Don't you like it?"

"But my name doesn't start with a B."

"But I call you Bean... You don't like it..."

"Oh! I do like it! I like it very much, thank you!"

The little girl then stood on her tippy toes and kissed the little boy on the cheek.

"You know Bean. This is going to last forever, so you can't ever leave me."

"Huh?"

"Well, you're my best friend. And I want you to be like my mommy when we're older, and I'll be like my daddy."

"You mean... You want me to marry you?"

"Maybe... Yeah! I want you to marry me when we're older!"

The little girl then took the pocket knife from his hand with a sly look on her face, and added a line to the letter "P". It was crooked and in the wrong place, but she changed it to look like an R.

"So does that mean you'll marry me Bean?"

"Yup!"

"Okay! So you can't ever leave me okay?"

"Okay!"

The little boy and the little girl faced each other, and gave each other a big smile. Later on, a voice called out to them.

"Vincent! Come on you two! It's getting late, let's go home now!"

Vincent then grabbed Bean's hand and they laughed as they ran down the hill.

Vincent's mom dropped off Bean at her house. Bean waved goodbye to Vincent as they drove off. As the car left her view, her face grew sad. Her dad guided her inside from the front door and looked at Bean's face.

"What's wrong Pumpkin?"

"Daddy... I want to marry Vinny. I promised that I won't leave him."

"Oh Pumpkin..."

Bean's dad embraced her in a warm hug, and softly stroked her back. Bean continued to cry on her dad's shoulder.