Box # 15

Going down to the woods behind my quiet neighborhood felt like I was leaving reality into a fairytale land. To get down to my special place was a journey in itself. I would walk down the street veering off onto a thin dirt path surrounded by uncut crab grass that wasn't tainted by the construction, on the way I pass my dog's burial ground. As I enter the woods it begins with a plethora of pine trees with needle covered grounds and small sprouts of grass peaking through the brush. As I walk farther I can start to hear a faint sound of water. The sound grows louder and soon I come upon the edge of a mossy ledge and can see the waterfall. I can feel the coolness from the water on my face. I follow the creek down to a broken rusty barbwire fence that leaves a rusty residue on my hands. Over the fence leads to a field covered with mayapples and rare wild flowers that is illuminated by beams of light that shine through the trees. In the field is an old abandoned truck, rusty with chips of old faded red and white paint showing in spots. The truck almost seems placed in a position that portrays it as a holy relic the way the trees opened up to let the light shine on it. On the other side of the truck is my special place. 

My special place is a hidden creek a little over a mile into the woods. There is one place in the creek where the water reaches my shoulders and i can watch the fish scurry around my feet. The creek bed is covered with fossils, geodes, pebbles, and sandstone. Sandstone reminds me of my childhood visiting Lake Monroe and scratching into wet sandstone to make a paste that i used as face paint and pretended i was an indian princess. The geodes remind me of my mom when we would would go looking for geodes and crack them open. I remember finding one that had beautiful faint blue crystals inside. On the creek bed are stacks of limestone blocks that are place so precisely they resemble ancient Mayan ruins. The limestone blocks sit over the deep part of the creek. Sometimes I go here to think, I sit on the edge of the "ruins" and dangle my feet over the water letting the summer breeze move through my hair.