Something Strange

A Boy from the Woods

On the last day of the dark and gloomy October, Ada brought something home from the woods.

She had this strange habit of bringing all sort of things back home after her forest adventures: sticks, stones, tadpoles, mushrooms, lost cats and dogs, and sometimes even wild animal babies. Sticks and stones were hardly a problem, but time after time they would have to tell their daughter to not bring home animals - especially wild animal babies, as this would only make it harder for their parents to find them later on.

But Ada hardly listened, and countless of times her parents would have to make her turn back on her tracks and return the animals to forest before coming inside for a dinner.

This time, however, it wasn't an animal that Ada brought home.

It was a boy.

He was small, light build and miserable looking with torn and tattered clothes, dirty face and dark circles under his eyes, making him appear younger than Ada, being 14 herself.

"Who is this?" her parents asked as they watched the soaked, dirty boy in front of their porch; he wasn't even wearing shoes, bare feet muddy and full of small scratches.

"I don't know," Ada replied. "I found him from the forest, hiding under a large tree trunk."

"What is your name, son?" father asked, but the boy didn't answer. Instead he would look at the floor and sniffle a little, shivering in cold. Then, finally, after an awkward silence accompanied only by the sound of the falling rain, he whispered: "My name is Rose."

"Oh, sorry, I didn't know you were a girl," Ada's mother apologized, but the boy shook his head a little, his tangled up, curly hair going from one side to another and sending water droplets on the porch.

"No, I'm a boy. Rose is the name of a flower; my parents simply named me after it," he explained with a quiet voice. "Mother was a gardener."

"Then, where are your parents now?"

"Gone," the boy answered.

Rose was then taken inside where he was offered a warm bath and a meal to shake off the cold and stiffness. The boy didn't talk much, but after cleaning himself he looked like a different person: fair faced and light in complexion. Ada and her parents couldn't help but wonder if the boy was, in fact, a runaway noble boy - there was no way a commoner would have such a light and smooth skin that had clearly been taken care of.

When he was asked about his other relatives, Rose claimed he had none: the recent flu epidemic in the nearby city had robbed the lives of all of his relatives, leaving the poor boy to fend for himself - and it didn't seem to work, given how unruly and starved he had looked upon arriving, and how unsuited his clothes were for travel.

With no living relatives and no place to go, Rose remained with the family for a while: Ada was happy to have a playmate, and Rose himself looked so weak and pitiful there was no way they could send the boy away into the wilderness again. And so, with the mutual agreement from the parents who had always wanted a second child, it was decided that Rose would join the family.

Oddly enough, when they went to the local church, no records of the boy could be found from anywhere. It was assumed Rose was an illegitimate child, born outside of marriage and thus not recorded by the church. It was certainly a setback, but only a minor one: after all, as nobody seemed to recognize the new child in the village, the family figured the boy's past as someone's love child was no real concern to them or their reputation.

And so Rose became an officially adopted son to the family.

He got adjusted to his new style of life fast: Ada liked him and enjoyed playing with him outside, delighted to finally have companion on her forest adventures, and their parents were more than just a little infatuated with this well behaving, sweet boy. He didn't have problems at school, hardly ever fought with anyone, never argued with his parents and all in all was a child so well mannered that other villagers started to get suspicious of him.