You Found Me

Fifteen

15

       Oh, I wonder if there are words on paper, perhaps there also must be in a tree.

      I know immediately the answer to this clue the moment I read it, and I'm ready to claim it now.

      I stand facing the big, old, tree in front of our house. The tree that I just realized had done a lot of help to me.

      My eyes fall close at the rush of cool wind. I could almost feel that I'm floating above air.

      Everything around me feels surreal. How fast the turn of events happened. How I am here at this exact moment.

     All that we had been working on for the last couple of months is right in front of me.  It all comes down to this.

     It would've been better if he's here with me. But he's right. I need to face this one on my own.

    We need to accept the fact that there are some battles that we need to fight alone, because not all the time someone's going to be there to join us.

     It all just made sense to me that one of the clues has something to do with this tree.

     It stands here ever since I can remember. I'm not really fond of it when I was younger. I'm the kind of person who likes to see things from her bedroom window and this tree is always getting into my way.

      I've been vocal with it and I actually remembered asking Mom why can't we just cut it down. But she would just say that this tree was already here long before we bought the house. Basically, it came first before us. So she said just let it be.

     Mom always saw the goodness in everything that she even took the tree's side over me. Meanwhile, I just saw it as a stupid tree that shouldn't have grown in front of our house in the first place. No wonder she saw something in it that I couldn't seem to understand.

      Before she was sick, she used to sit under the shade of this tree while reading a book. She would even make sure to regularly sweep its surrounding or remove the wild grasses around it.

      Sadly, I just started seeing its use when she's gone, the way I climb on it whenever I feel like escaping. It lets me hide myself from the world around me.

      I move around it as I run my hands on the rough trunk, feeling it, just like how I usually do with the spines of the book that I encounter for the first time.

     The closer I look, the more I notice that there's an arrow carved on it, almost invisible and fading.

     I follow it with my eyes until I see that it goes down below.

     I bend down and tuck my knees under my chin.

     I trace the mark that forms a rugged square shape. It's barely visible since it just looks like the natural texture of the tree bark.

     I never notice that these marks have been here the whole time. Guess I didn't really pay much attention and this is actually the first time that I took an effort to have a closer look.

     That's when I found the little words carved on it. It says,

     You found me.