The Forest

17 1 0
                                    


     "Why did I never explore these grounds very much?" I asked Leafhead.

     "I don't know, I guess you were too busy exploring Mars?"

     "Yeah, that's probably right," I realized.  "You know I've been thinking about writing a novel based on my experience on Mars.  It will all be posing as fiction, of course."

     "Hm," said Leafhead.

     "What do you think of that idea?" I asked.

     "I like it."

     I couldn't tell how Leafhead really felt about the idea.  He was distracted with the completion of the tree-fort.

     "Almost there," said Leafhead.  "All this needs is a layer of invisibility-spray."

     "Invisibility spray?" I asked.  

     Leafhead had what looked like a can of silver spray-paint.  He proceeded to begin covering the interior of the tree-fort with the noxious paint.

     "Hey, what are you doing?!" I said.  "That stuff is making me dizzy."

     "Be cool," said Leafhead.  "It only lasts for a few seconds."

     Miraculously, the paint began to vanish.  Then whatever was beneath the paint also vanished.  The entire tree-fort was virtually invisible.  I looked down at my feet.  They appeared to hover over thin air.  Had anyone passed by and noticed us they would have thought we were flying. 

      A flock of crows noticed us.  They were thoroughly disturbed by our ability to fly and decided to go find another forest to inhabit.  We didn't notice the birds at all and had no idea that word had already been passed among thousands of other birds to avoid that area of forest where humans are freakishly capable of flight.

     "Don't forget where the ladder is," said Leafhead.  "Otherwise you'll take a dive."

     Leafhead had built the fort very high up.  I began to feel paranoid about falling.  

     "Just use these glasses," he said handing me a pair of horn-rimmed glasses with one lens cracked.  "They allow the wearer to see a surface that has been covered with invisibility-spray."

     "One of lens is cracked," I pointed out. 

     "They still work," said Leafhead.  "Use them or not, I don't care.  I don't think the owls care either."

     The owls did care.  They were among the birds who had been warned and promptly evacuated.

     Suddenly I needed to get out of there.

     "I'm just going to explore around a bit," I said.  "See if I can find something interesting or edible."

     "Ok, good luck," said Leafhead.  "Take one of the laser-guns with you."

     "Why would I need one of those?"

     "These woods are part of my property," said Leafhead.  "Do you really think this is an ordinary stretch of forest?  I have no idea what lab experiments have escaped and taken up refuge here. There are probably creatures living all over the place.  A whole underground storage of experimental liquid chemicals once imploded in the backyard.  The nearby soil and plant life has likely soaked this up and become unpredictably alien-esque."

     Somehow this didn't detract me.  I'd been around Leafhead long enough to know what I was signing up for.  

     "I'll be fine," I said.

Dr. Leafhead: Story of a Mad Scientist, Part 2Where stories live. Discover now