The Meadow

By M.L.

A rotting yellow post stands amidst a meadow. The wind pushes the tall grass back and forth in a swaying motion. The moon overhead cools the soft soil and the leaves of the apple trees that edge the meadow. Their children lie ageless at their feet and their roots run deep.

Small hands reach for an orb that takes two hands to support. “Wow,” says the little girl whose eyes bulge at the largest apple she has ever seen. Her stomach groans with pangs of hunger. She sinks her only two teeth into the apple and juice splatters all over her face.

At the sound of laughter, she abandons the snack and takes off. She weaves in and out of the tall stalks, looking for another human being. Her light sundress ripples as she runs. She nearly rushes right into the wooden post in her flight. With curiosity, her hands begin to prod at the knots and holes in the wood. Children singing ring around the rosie, pockets full of posie seem so close. She whips around to see a circle of children skipping along to the tune. Ashes, ashes, we all fall down!

The children fall to the ground laughing as the little girl skips toward them. One by one, the laughter stops. As if a trigger has been set off, they all stumble to their feet and into the cover of the grass. “Wait!” she calls after them, “please wait!” Not a sound comes. “Please, I want to play and laugh, too.” A small boy peeks hesitantly into the clearing. He looks no more than four. “Hi,” she says apologetically.

“What do they call you?” he mumbles shyly while staring at the ground.

“What was that?”

“What do they call you?” he repeats a little louder.

“Umm,” she falters, “where am I?”

The boy looks at her curiously. “This is the Meadow.” He pushes dirt around with his big toe, hesitating. Whispers come from the grass around them. “Umm…”

“Yes?”

“Did you know him, too?” Children emerge slowly from their hiding places.

“Did I know who?” she asks as her forehead wrinkles.

“Vic, of course,” the boy explains like children do when it’s obvious. “You must have known him if you’re here.”

“I—” she breaks off.

“Oh, you know… Vic?” the boy presses.

“I don’t know. Maybe.” She bites her bottom lip, concentrating.

The children rush to crowd around her. “All of us knew him,” says a carrot-top girl. “I’m Charlotte.”

“Hi, I’m—”

The boy cuts her off, “Oh, I’m Nikolai. I forgot to mention that. What did you say your name was again?”

“Um, I didn’t.” she answered quietly. “But, um. My name’s Rae.”

Everyone bursts out in hellos to greet her. “Here, let’s sit,” says Nikolai.

“So, how do you guys know this guy, Vic?” Rae asks.

Charlotte gives her testimony first, “Well, Vic bought me a little doll when my mom didn’t have enough money on my birthday. He said he was buying it anyway, for another little girl; but it was my birthday, so I deserved it.”

“Wow, that was nice of him. Nikolai?

“Well, you see, my mom kind of—” he drags the words on.

Charlotte cuts in, “his mom left him to fend for himself because he was making her lose valuable money on the corner.” Nikolai cringes at Charlotte’s last word.

“So what does this have to do with Vic?”

“Well,” Nikolai speaks this time, “Vic found me sleeping by a dumpster near the hospital where he works. He brought me some soup and water on his break and found a nurse to take me home for the night. By the next day, he had found me a good foster home. My foster mom was one of his patients. You see, she couldn’t have children of her own, and I was only four.”

“Oh, he was a doctor?” Rae wonders.

“Yeah, but he wasn’t burnt out, like most of the doctors at the hospital.”

Other kids stepped forward to share their stories, all of a similar nature:

“Vic made me a splint when I broke my ankle playing soccer. He brought my dad and me to the hospital to put me in a cast and paid all the fees, ‘cause we didn’t have insurance at the time.”

“My bike had a flat one night when I was late getting home. He followed me in his car to make sure I got there okay after he pumped air into it.”

“I wonder if—” Rae starts and the children look intently at her. “Um, never mind.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll help you figure it out,” comforts Charlotte.

“We all needed a little help remembering,” agrees Nikolai.

“But how?” There is defeat in Rae’s voice.

“From what we’ve discovered from each other, you must have known him when you were just a kid.” Nikolai explains. “We think that’s why we’re all children here.”

“Because he helped you all when you were children?”

Nikolai nods and the rest of the children mimic him.

“What else?”

“Well,” another little girl gets up to plop right next to Rae, “we also think that we’re supposed to be waiting here.” She scratches at the barrette in her hair. “I’m Lena, by the way.”

“Waiting? Waiting for what?”

“Umm,” the little girl continues, “we really only have one thing in common among all of us outside this meadow.”

“And that is?”

“Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it?” Rae shakes her head at Lena.

“Vic,” says Nikolai, “we’re waiting for Vic.”

“Oh,” replies Rae. “Does anyone know Vic’s last name?” Most of the children shake their heads, but Nikolai doesn’t move. “Nikolai?”

“I’m not sure, Rae.” He pauses, building the courage to speak, “I think I met you once. At least, I remember your name.”

“What? Why didn’t you say something before?”

“I wasn’t sure before. But I definitely know your name. I think he used to talk about you a lot.”

“Well, if his last name was Greene, then I did know him. Quite well, actually.”

“Oh, tell us more!” the children cry excitedly.

“Well, how do I say this? He never helped me like he did you guys.” They look at her expectantly, not knowing how to react. “But I knew him.”

“How?” asks Charlotte.

“He was my dad.” The children look awestruck as she continues. “He used to call me “Rae Bird” ‘cause when I was little I said I was going to fly all over the world and see everything. When I turned thirteen, he stopped calling me Rae Bird and wasn’t really around much. I never knew what could be so important that he didn’t come to my sweet sixteen, the night of my prom, my graduation.” She pauses, gathering her thoughts. “You see I’m nothing like you guys. I had a comfortable home, parents and a relatively easy life growing up. But I didn’t appreciate it. In fact, I hated my dad those nights that work was more important than seeing me act in the school play. I was half-surprised he took my wedding day off to walk me down the aisle.”

“He loved you, you know,” recalls Nikolai. “He used to visit me once or twice a year after my parents took me in, just to check on how I was doing, you know?”

“Sound like something he’d do.” Rae replies nonchalantly.

“Well, whenever he’d come to visit, we’d talk about the usual stuff like school and baseball, but then he’d always talk about you.”

“Really?” She’s afraid of the answer.

“Always, my little Rae Bird,” a male voice comes from behind her. It startles them all until they see that it’s who they have been waiting for. He strides up to them, wearing green scrubs that are worn through and stained. He stops just behind Rae ad addresses her as she turns her head slowly to see him. “Now what’s this emotion? After everything I taught you, what is this doubt?” He pats her head and she stands to face him fully. She prods his forearm just to make sure she isn’t dreaming.

“No, you always told me never to doubt anything that was good. You raised me to think for myself and taught me how to help people, especially children.” As she speaks, the apples begin to sink into the earth at the edge of the field.

“They are the future, even here,” he gestures to the meadow around them.

“Yeah, you always said that, too, especially when I began to doubt myself.” A tear trickled down her face. “Dad, I never knew. Why didn’t you tell me about all these kids?”

Vic’s smile fades. “Little Rae Bird, I did what I could to help them, just as I taught you to do. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t need to.”

“I never knew what to think when you missed so many important things.”

“A prom is not as big a milestone as you might have thought at the time. There were more important things to tend to.”

“I know that now.”

“Rae Bird, do you want to know why this place exists? Or at least why I think it exists?”

“Sure, Dad.” Rae looks up and watches as the jade sky seems to fade into the facets of the moon.

“This is a lot like where I grew up. There was a vast meadow in my backyard when I was young, with a great, long yellow fence running through it.” He gestures for her and the rest of the children to follow him as he walks toward the post. “You see this post?” The children nod. “I imagine this fence used to be a lot like the one from my childhood. Now, I believe that whenever someone enters this place and discovers some kind of truth about their life, a chain reaction begins.” As he speaks, the trees also sink deep into the earth to join their roots.

“A chain reaction?” Rae asks.

He places his hand on her shoulders, covering the whole of it with his palm. “Yes, little Rae Bird, a chain reaction. Notice there is but one post left. What do you think that means?” Strands of the meadow slowly dance into nothingness.

She ponders for a moment. They all do. “Um, that one person still needs to discover the truth?” His smile spreads to the wrinkles in his forehead and he nods. “Me?”

He nods again, “Yes.” The souls of the listening children start to disappear into the skyless moon one by one until all that remains around the Healer and Rae is the dirt beneath them and the rotting, yellow post. “It is when every person who passes through here, connected by some string of reality, discovers who they are that the last post will disappear.”

Rae thinks for a moment, “I am your Little Rae Bird. I didn’t see everything in the world, like I wanted to, but I did what I could to help the children.” She says this as if anything else would have been ridiculous.

“Because they are the future.” Proud, Vic turns to his daughter with more pride than he has ever been capable of. With his last smile, Rae too begins to whisk away into the soft ripple of the wind with her father, seeing only the remnants of the vibrant, yellow post disappear before her.