The first time I saw her was on the street in Munderf, New York. Munderf,
what a name for a city.
Yeah, I know. It sounds like one of the bad guys on a video game. "Watch
out for that Munderf!!!" My
high school buddies and I had always used the town's name in insults. "You
stupid, hairy Munderf."
But here's where I come from, and I love the little town. And here's where
I saw Lily, crossing dusty
Main street to Dave's Deli.
She wasn't very pretty. Her nose was a little too sharp, and I always liked
longer hair. But I had
never seen that midday shine of ashy blond, or seen such a real smile in Munderf.
She was cute. That
was it. She was so damn... cute. I had never seen real, grown-up cuteness,
and it impressed me. Does
that sound nuts? Well, that's how it felt.
I followed her into the Deli on the corner of Main and West Lane, only a
step behind the jingle of
the customer-coming-in bell. She was wearing gray-blue jeans that were too
long, and a green
tank-top that was too short. I could see the smooth, bright skin of her back
as she stretched up to grab
a jar of Mrs. Hollamund's homemade grape preserves. I walked back to the dairy
section and
watched her place it, a half gallon of two percent milk, bread, and a jar
of chunky style peanut butter
on the checkout in front of Dave.
Dave made some comment about not seeing her around before (the kind of comment
only a Deli
guy or gift shop owner could make) and she smiled. "I'm in town for a
few days taking pictures of the
local trees." I noticed her eyes, gleaming... amber, maybe.
Dave smiled that shop-owner's smile, arched his uni-brow, and asked why
a pretty young lady
would take pictures of silly trees.
Her smile became tight, and a golden eyebrow straightened. "Well, you
see, as a hopeful student
of botany, I'm traveling cross country, taking pictures of species of trees
for classification."
"What'r so special about the trees of Munderf?" My thoughts echoed Dave's question.
"The trees here are some of the oldest, especially for being so far
east. It's surprising that your
early ancestors didn't chop them all down for firewood. They left some of
the original species intact,
so I've come here to see those trees." She fingered a few rolls of film
that were sitting next to the
checkout. "Do you have faster speed film than this?"
"Nope, but Randy across the way might." He pointed through to the hardware store.
"Thanks." She handed him a credit card and looked at the brown
paper bag that carried her
groceries. "Um... do you happen to have plastic?"
"Nope, sorry... Lily." He grinned up from the card as he handed
it back. She rolled her eyes,
snatched the card, slid the bag into her arms and backed out the door.
I moved from the dairy section, aware of the goose-bumps running up my arms,
and watched her
through the window. She was on the other side of the street rummaging through
a beat up forest-green
and rust colored Bronco. I could see her pulling the food out of the bag.
She clambered out and came back towards the store, brown bag folded neatly
and tucked under
her arm. I busied myself with looking at some ladies home magazine as the
door bell jingled. She
tossed the bag back on the counter in front of Dave."Recycle."
I watched her flounce out and across the street to the hardware store. As
soon as she was out of
my sight, I put the magazine back and started out. Dave's reflection in the
window was looking at me
strangely, but I didn't care.
Lily. What a name. And now that I had seen her up close, I thought she was
beautiful. She seemed
a bit snobby, though, which made me think less of her. How much faith can
one put into trees for a
career. It seemed boring to me.
I glanced across the street. No sign of her. I jogged over and peered into
the Bronco. There were a
few coolers, notebooks everywhere, a suitcase crammed under a seat, duffel
and book bags, and
weird plastic containers. In the passenger's seat there was a cat, contentedly
lying on books. It
blinked at me lazily from its seat in the sun, then started washing it's face.
It was a beautiful soft
cloud gray, and tiger striped. It's snout was not as flat as most cats, and
actually reminded me of it's
owner's angular nose.
"Hey, what are you doing?" That voice belonged to Lily.
"I was walking by and saw the cat, and wondered how long it had been
in there, and if it was
suffocating." Wow. That was a quick one.
"Well, first of all, genius, the window is open, and I was right in
the store." She thrust a plastic
Value hardware bag at me, clacking with the sound of film cases. "And,
second of all, bright-boy, I
wouldn't leave Smokie to bake in the hot sun. If you had looked any harder,
you might have caught the
water dish." I noticed now that her eyes where more hazel then amber,
even though they were spitting
flaming death on me.
"I'm sorry, I just wanted to make sure this animal wasn't coming to
any harm." I turned around and
rolled my eyes. It's just a cat, Lily, don't be so testy, I thought.
"Well, I'm glad you were concerned, but being concerned with an animal
can easily be mistaken
for breaking into someone's vehicle." I heard the door open and slam,
heard the engine spit, and saw
the Bronco pull away from me, Washington State plates sneering at me.
Bitch. That's what she was. Plain and simple. How could I have mistaken
her for someone I could
even like? Sure. I was attracted to her, but what was her problem? I knew
a good place where she
could put her trees. I stormed off to my pick-up and ranted all the way back
to the house.
I thought about Lily all that afternoon. I paced around my bedroom, thinking
of her. I heard Marty
come in downstairs with Rebecca. I heard their murmuring voices rise and fall,
a laugh here, a squeal
there. The three of us were sharing this house, all paying rent to my parents,
but I was getting sick of
the love-birds. Oh, yes, it was fine and dandy that they were in love, but
it made me want to be sick
all over Marty's leather jacket while it was on Rebecca.
Okay, so I was jealous. I hadn't had a girl since... Elizabeth Hirley in
my senior year, and after the
prom, when we had brought the relationship to it's peak, in a sense. She had
decided that she needed
something else. Or someone else.
I threw myself on my bed, the down quilt rustling. I rolled over with a
groan and looked at
academic awards smattering the walls. So, I was saludatorian, so, I almost
had a 4.0 in my the first
two years of college. What else did I have to show? In the fall I commuted
to Syracuse an hour away.
Now, in the summer I worked for Dad, organizing accounts for the Law Firm.
Did I really want to be
a part of E. Lawrensen and Son? I guess he needed me to fill in the Son part
though.
Ahh, Lily. What a life she must have. I wondered how long she had been working
on this tree
project. She didn't seem any older than me. Younger, she actually looked.
I wondered if she was
actually from Washington.
"Eli?? Do you want some pizza? Bec and I saved you a few pieces."
Marty's little voice screeched me out of my wondering. "Just leave it in the fridge. I'll eat it later."
"Okay!! We're going out, so we'll see you later tonight."
And what if I wasn't here later tonight? What if I hopped into my pickup
right now, and pulled a
Lily, and drove across the country taking pictures of exotic cows like those
Holsteins with Mickey
Mouse ears on their sides or maps of Japan, or whatever?
I snickered to myself. I could picture that. "Dad, sorry, but I can't
be a partner in the business
because I'm chasing cows in Wyoming." Yep, that would give Dad a coronary
right there, and make
Mom have premature menopause.
Oh, Lily, how did you live like that? Where were your parents? Even if you
are doing this for
school, what are they thinking?
I sighed and sat up. Oh, well. Lily probably already snapped her pictures
and left. She and that
goofy cat, what it's name, Smokie, are probably on their way back to Washington,
or Florida, or
Mexico or anywhere more exotic than Munderf, New York.
I stood and went towards the window. I could see the rays of the drooping
sun piercing through
the tree in front of it. I squinted at the leaves. I wondered what kind of
tree it was. Maple, maybe?
Lily would know.
Suddenly one of those wicked thoughts slipped into my head. I would learn
more about Lily if she
was still around. Where could an outsider hide in the small town of Munderf?
She would stick out
like a sore, green-thumb.
I was down the wooden staircase and out of the house in seconds. I would
find her. I thought of
where the best trees in Munderf were. There were all those giant trees back
on Wafer road, that as
boys we always dreamed of climbing when we saw them from far away. Then when
we got up close,
we saw how huge they really were, and would curse each other's Mama's because
the first branch
was too high. I jumped into the pick-up and pulled off towards Wafer Road.
I could see the trees looming not far now. I turned down Bill Pullbee's
hunting trail, parked the
truck, and walked towards the trees. Up on Wafer road I had seen the old Bronco,
so I knew she was
here somewhere.
I had forgotten how beautiful it was. The rolling field with those four
huge trees right beside each
other up near the top of the hill. I saw Bill's cows down in the field below,
and wondered if any of
them had Donald Duck, or Alaska on them.
I forgot about the barbed wire. I didn't quite scream in pain as a barb
stuck into my jeans. I
grabbed my leg and cursed enough to make the nearby daisies wilt, but I didn't
scream. Good thing
my tetanus was up to date.
I climbed over the fence and neared the trees, watching the ground closely
for cow pies, seeing as
how I was getting very lucky today.
I saw her, camera on a tri-pod, focusing on the first tree. I hid behind
the last, and crept up to the
first, keeping myself out of view. I leaned against the gray-brown bark, and
was amazed how huge
this tree was. Four of me might have been able to circumference it with our
arms, barely. I peered
around the tree and looked at her, looking at the tree. She was wearing a
wide-brimmed hat, and
glasses that made her look like some weirdo archaeologist. I saw her finger
go for the camera, and I
leapt out and waved my arms like a madman.
Looking back, I have no clue why I chose to do this. I really think the woman drove me insane.
"What in the Hell do you think you're doing, you ass!!!" She seemed
less then overjoyed at my
appearance. "You've ruined a great picture. Now I'm going to have a picture
of the Jackass of
Munderf standing in front of one of the most beautiful White Oak trees in
the United States."
I nonchalantly kept calm. "Oh... so this is a White Oak. Hmmm... yes...
I see." I paced around the
tree and acted intrigued.
"What are you doing? Get out of here!! I am trying to work." She
came towards me her eyes
stabbing at me like daggers.
"Well, I just think it's a shame that Bill wants to cut these trees
down. Such beautiful things, they
are... tsk, tsk."
I felt bad about the lie as soon as I saw the look on her face. "What?
Cut them down? He can't!
These trees are... centuries old. He'd be destroying a natural landmark."
"I told him the exact same thing. He said he'd think it over, but fields
must be plowed, you know."
I put my hand on her shoulder.
She snapped away as if touched by the devil. "Keep your hands off of me, Munderf boy."
Boy? Had she really called me a boy?
"I want to speak with this... Bill person." She picked up her tripod.
"Hey, Lily, don't worry. Bill won't cut down the trees. He's a good
friend of mine, and listens to
my advice." I flopped down in the ocean of grasses and looked up at the
sky, liquid blue with blurry
strokes of white painted there.
She came over and stared down at me, her ashy hair falling to frame face.
At first I thought she
was going to spit on me. Then she smiled. And that immediately put me on guard.
"Well, Munderf boy..."
"Eli. The name's Eli."
"Well, Eli..." She pushed me with her leather hiking shoe. "...if
you're not going to leave, at least
move, so I can finish shooting these trees before your 'friend' changes his
mind."
I rolled over and watched her remove her camera from the tripod. She then
collapsed the tripod
and stowed it in her backpack that was lying in the grass. She slid the pack
on and walked towards
the last tree. I waited a moment before I sat up and followed her.
I watched from a far as she lay down on the ground and took a picture up
through the tree. She
stayed like that for a minute, eyes closed, then sat up and looked over her
shoulder and glanced
across the hill sides to see the trees scattered there. She snapped another
picture then caught me
watching her.
"Doesn't a handsome gentleman like you have something better to do
with his evenings then follow
me around? I'm sure the man of Munderf can find something to entertain him."
I decided to be truthful. "Your work interests me. I admit, I've never
met anyone who took pictures
of just trees before."
She shrugged. "They don't complain about having pictures taken, or
about lighting, and most of the
time they sit still." Snap. A close-up of bark.
"So where's your cat? What's the point of bringing a cat with you if
you're just gonna keep him
cooped up in a car?"
She stood and glared at me. Then she emitted a high-pitched call of "kittikittikittikittikittikitti"
into
the air. A bounding tuft of gray careened by me and straight for Lily. There
was the cat, purring and
wrapping itself around her legs. She smiled and petted the cat, then stuck
her tongue out at me.
She shouldered the cat, and stalked off towards the Bronco.
I thought fast. I couldn't let her leave. "Hey, Lily."
She ignored me.
"Lily, I know where there are some birch trees."
She slowed down, but didn't stop. "What kind of birches?"
"White. There's a grove of them behind my parent's place. My Dad used
to take Mom out there
before I was born. It's really beautiful. I remember once... I was back there
playing with my
buddies..."
"umm-hmm..." She slung her gear into her Bronco, barely hearing me.
"Never mind..." I mumbled, and turned back towards the pickup.
"Hey, Munderf... get in the Leaf-Mobile here. You're going to take
me to those birches, before
sunset." She sprang into the driver's seat as I hurried around the front.
I opened the door, and before I
could step up, the cat bounced in before me, and onto Lily's lap. I glared
at the cat, and looked at the
books littering the passenger's seat.
"Just toss those in the back, gently, please." Lily watched as
I craned to set all the books on the
already cluttered backseat. I caught glimpses of titles such as "The
Audubon Society Field Guide to
North American Trees: Eastern Division," and "The Root of the Problem:
Can People and Trees
Survive on One Planet?" As soon as I had moved the books Smokie flew
into the back, curled up on
them and immediately started washing himself. Typical cat.
The Bronco belched and wobbled as Lily cranked the ignition. She shifted
up and down better
than anyone I'd seen. I watched her feet dance from clutch to brake to gas,
and was impressed.
"Put your seatbelt on!" She barked as we banged down the dirt
road. "I won't be responsible for
your death, not in the Leaf-Mobile, hazard of all road hazards." I hastily
grabbed the strap and hunted
for the buckle under the seats. There. My finger tagged it, and scraping my
fingers on
who-knows-what, I snapped the belt into place.
"Which way?" She shouted over the ruckus of the Bronco. I noticed the cat was sleeping.
"Back towards town." I pointed over my shoulder in the opposite direction we were going.
She made some kind of disgusted snorting sound that I had never heard a
girl make, and mashed
her feet down on the clutch, then break, and skidded to a halt. The five and
a half point turn she made
gave me the freedom to hear myself cursed under her breath.
"I'm sorry, Lily." I tried to apologize.
"Why, Eli, you sound sincerely sorry, and here I thought you were just
trying to spend as much
quality time with me as you could." She bit her lip against any other
words.
"What's with you, anyway?" I spat. "Did you just sit on something,
or have you always had that
pole up your ass?"
Her mouth dropped open, and she stared at me as if I had just turned into
some T.V. evangelist that
claimed he could exorcise Satan. I thought she was going to stop and kick
me out, but she didn't say
anything. A red cloud spread across her cheeks and nose, and I felt like I
had won some small
victory, but I knew I would pay.
Even the Bronco had gotten quiet. We bumped and rumbled back towards town,
and I motioned
for her to turn right onto the paved road towards my parents'.
She pushed her glasses up onto her nose, and brushed a piece of hair back.
I thought she was going
to cry. I really did.
"I'm sorry..." I was apologizing? Where the hell had that come
from? She was winning again
already.
She shrugged. "I get into my work... and you got in my way. I know
I'm pretty anal about it, but it's
my life."
"I just don't understand. I was just trying to be friendly... um... turn up here."
She shifted down and fought with the steering wheel. "Well, when I
first see you sneaking around
behind me, then snooping around my Bronco, it gives me an impression that
you're some sick pervert,
and then you jump out at me... get the picture?"
I winced. "Oh... I was just curious. I'm not really a freak like that,
honestly. Their house is up here
on the left."
"Ooo. That's a beautiful place." She pulled into the drive and
I noticed she wasn't looking at the
blue, two story house, with its sun deck and pool, but at all the trees my
parent's had in the yard, and
the woods to the left and stretching out back. She turned away from the landscaping
and back to me.
"I know you're not a freak just from talking to you for this little while.
I'm partly to blame, I guess. I
don't interact with people much. I'm not very social, if you can believe that."
"Noooo! Really?" I smiled at her as I slid out of the Bronco.
She glared, but it only warmed me, instead of cooking my skin. I slammed
the Bronco door and
saw the cat curl into my still warm seat. Lily grabbed her camera, and followed
me as I walked to the
back of the house.
About fifty yards back stood the grove of birches, their leaves turning
gently in that last breath of
day. I always had taken refuge back here as a kid. When I was lonely after
my dog died, these white
birches listened to me cry, and didn't tell anyone about it. When Mom and
Dad separated for a year
when I was twelve, I ranted and kicked stones under the trees.
Lily seemed breathtaken by them, and I smiled smugly at her back as she
moved ahead of me. "So,
what do you think?"
"They're beautiful," she sighed, lifting her camera to snap the trees, "but they're not white birches."
"What!?!" I stared at her.
"They're grey birches. Not as rare, but still extremely beautiful in
this lighting and setting." She
entered the grove and took a few shots of the canopy.
I sat down on a rock, perplexed. So they weren't white birches. Big deal.
No problem. My whole
childhood spent here, and it had been a lie. Who cares. I felt a bit of burning
dampness in my eyes.
"Eli, this is... Eli? Are you all right? Did you get something in your
eye?" She was leaning over
me, and she smelled like outside. Her brow had a cute worry crinkle in it,
and her hand was on my
shoulder.
"I'm fine. I just... sometimes we take things for granted... you know?"
"Yeah. I know." Her eyes drifted over me, towards the house, the pool, the garden.
I didn't realize we were kissing until halfway through it. It was a mutual
thing, not like I jumped
the gun or anything, it just sort of, happened. I pushed her hat back off
of her head, and wrapped my
arms around her. That moment will forever be in my mind as the happiest in
my life. We looked at
each other for long stretches of moments before she broke and turned away.
"Lily? Lily! Where are you going?"
"Eli, I have to go. This isn't all fun. It's a job. I have to be in
Maine tomorrow afternoon to talk to
a EPA representative."
"But... but..." I reached for her.
"I'm sorry." She raced back towards the Bronco, leaving only her
hat lying on the ground. She sat
there for a moment, glancing at me every once in a while. Then she tossed
something out of the
window, cranked the ignition, and was backed down the drive and gone in the
most horrible moment
of my life.
I raced to the drive, to see what clue she had left me, but it was nothing
more than my own wallet,
that must have fallen out during the shaky ride. I picked it up and replaced
it in my pocket, and
clutched her hat to me as my eyes misted over again.
I haven't really heard from Lily since. And I never see her. Occasionally,
though, an envelope
comes to the house, no return address, and it's filled with pictures of trees.
The last picture in the last
envelope I got was of a madman, waving his arms in front of the largest trees
in Munderf, New York.
The End