A story about special moments, geometry homework, and oak trees
“Meg!” I hear my best friend Tony screaming my name, so naturally, I ignore him, smirking at myself. He hates it when someone doesn’t give him the attention he wants. “Meg! You better stop right there, right now!” I roll my eyes, even though I know he can’t see, and stop for just a couple seconds. “And stay there while I catch up!” he adds just as I’m about to start walking again. Oh darn it!
He approaches me and I glance at him as we both start walking to our apartments. We live right next door to each other and often walk to and from school together. Today, I left without him since he got caught messing up the boys’ bathroom with toilet paper because he was bored. He had to stay a few minutes after school, since it’s around the fourth, or maybe fifth time he’d done something principal’s office worthy.
Most of the time, Tony would go around getting in trouble, and I would be there to lecture and scold him afterwards, but today I happened to be a bit busy, what with the new geometry topic I couldn’t get into my head, and also that weird assignment our English teacher, Ms. Brown gave us about finding a special place in Boston, and writing about why it’s special. Middle school in my school district really is tough, but sometimes the homework is just plain useless.
Speaking of useless assignments, that is apparently what Tony wanted to so desperately talk to me about. “Do you have any ideas about the ‘Special Place’ thing? I heard Angelica Stone was going to the Boston Public Library, so I’ll be heading over there later,” he says excitedly. Oh yes, the famous Angelica Stone. She’s this really ‘popular’ girl in my grade, and Tony really likes her. It’s quite amusing, actually.
“I don’t know, Tony. Have fun with Angelica Stone, though. Hey, could you tell my mom that I’ll be home before dinner, and that I’m at the park?”
Tony has a mischievous smile on his face when I finish my first sentence that I can recognize instantly. “No, Tony, we are not making this a competition,” I say slowly.
“Please, Meg? It’ll be fun!” he responds, making a puppy face. I roll my eyes, while he continues, “I’m not gonna stop making this face until you say yes!” He says the last word in a sing-song voice.
“Fine! Whoever gets the higher grade wins. Loser gives ten bucks to the winner, and gets called Egg-head for a week!” I only agree because honestly, Tony’s terrible at making puppy faces. Besides, a little challenge won’t hurt.
We part ways as I head over to the park. Something about the park just helps me concentrate when I’ve had a hard day at school, or if the homework the teachers gave us is really difficult. The latter is true today, and I sit on a bench as I try to brainstorm ‘special places’ in Boston while simultaneously reading about Ancient Egyptian Civilizations. I wouldn’t really care much about the English assignment if I didn’t want those ten dollars to help me buy the latest Trials of Apollo book.
When my head starts to hurt, I take a small five minute break, placing my books next to me to just sit there and people-watch a bit. To my right, there’s an elderly couple strolling around, laughing and holding hands. It looks sweet, but there are other things to look at.
A little far off, there’s a huge oak tree and under it is a middle-aged lady with two younger than 6-year-olds that seem to be twins, and a baby. I laugh, quietly, because the mother is chasing around the baby, who keeps crawling away from the tree, and the twins are wrestling because one of them picked her nose and was now trying to make the other smell it. The mother looks extremely stressed, and while I feel bad for her, I sure am enjoying the scene.
After a while, I head home, which isn’t too far from the park, just in time for my mom’s amazing grilled salmon dinner, all thoughts about useless English assignments escaping my mind.
The next morning, before leaving home, I tell my parents I’ll be back right before dinner again. I know that there are plenty of historical landmarks in Boston, and that I can obviously pick one of those, but something tells me that most of the kids are going to think of that, and that Ms. Brown secretly wants us to pick a place specifically special to us. This was going to be fun, and seeing Tony’s face when he finds that I cracked the hidden assignment will be awesome.
After school, I walk over to the bench at the park, hoping to maybe see the family from yesterday again, and have a couple fun people-watching breaks. This time, however, I see an older girl sitting under the tree doing what looks like homework to me. I shrug. This isn’t nearly as interesting as yesterday, but then again, I’m supposed to do homework here, not watch mothers try to tame their kids.
At one point in my study sessions, I get thirsty, so I go to get my water bottle from my bag, and happen to glance over and see a much older man slowly sneaking up behind the teenage girl. I immediately assume the worst and get ready to call for help if anything bad happens, trying to make myself believe that something bad wouldn’t happen out in an open place like this, but another part of me keeps saying that anything is possible.
The man touches the girl’s shoulder, and she turns around jumpily, dropping the things in her lap. A smile creeps up on the man’s face as the girl stares at him for a good thirty seconds, and suddenly, the girl throws herself into the man’s now open arms, screaming, “Dad!” I stare in shock and confusion as the two people under that tree cling to each other extremely tightly, and then I grin widely in realization. The man is her father.
The scene that just played out in front of me was beautiful! I can’t stop grinning at the two complete strangers who I have never seen before, and I feel so happy for them, and I don’t even know why. The ginormous oak tree surrounding them just makes it even better.
I decide to go home early because with what just happened, I’ll definitely not be able to concentrate on homework for the rest of the day. I go over to Tony’s place and tell him all about it, and he looks happy, but not nearly as excited as I am, probably because he didn’t get to see it happen right in front of him. He thinks I’m being a bit over the top (he might actually be right for once, but hey! I can’t help it!), so he changes the subject back to the challenge.
“I already have my special place ready! I’ve even started writing my ‘why is it special’ part,” he tells me smugly. I for one, am extremely surprised by this. And a bit ashamed.
“O-oh! Wow, me too actually!” I lie. Yes, yes, I should’ve just said ‘Good for you, I’m still looking.’, but my competitive streak got the better of me. I’ve got absolutely no clue where in Boston to choose, and I only have three days left, since the assignment was due this Friday.
The next day I head to the park again, as usual, but this time I don’t see anybody underneath the tree. I shrug to myself, sitting on the bench, and really thinking very hard about all the places in Boston that are special to me. The cafe down the street from here’s pretty cool. Maybe the mall? Out of the corner of my eye, I catch a glimpse of a girl, sprinting across the grass. She lands on the grass right under the tree, but sits on the other side, so her back is facing me. She’s totally hidden by the thickness of the tree trunk, and to get a better look at her, I would have to get closer. So I do.
When I get close enough to the girl, I see that she’s about my age, and has wavy brown hair. I see that her entire body is shaking, but I don’t think there’s anyone else near her, so I don’t understand why. Until I come even closer and hear her sobs.
When I realize that the girl is crying, I frown slightly, and quickly jog over to her, slowing down when I’m close enough that she can see me clearly. She looks up and the moment I see her bright blue eyes, I recognize her. It’s Angelica Stone, from school. But what is she, the most popular, and maybe even smartest kid in the grade, doing here, crying underneath a tree?
Angelica hastily wipes her eyes and gets up, plastering a small, but definitely fake, smile. “Hi Meg. Nice to see you here,” she greets me. We may not know each other very well, but Angelica pretty much knows the name of every kid in the school.
“H-hey Angelica,” I respond. I tend to stutter a little when I see something that surprises me. I don’t like it much, since it makes me sound like I’m a bit scared, or that I’m not genuine, and neither of those are things I want Angelica to think in this situation.
“Are you alright? D-do you need someone to talk to?” I ask. I’ve never been one to beat around the bush, always getting straight to the point.
Angelica gives me another small smile, and this time I think it’s actually genuine. “Yeah,” she says, “There’s just… a lot going on I guess.” I nod, thinking that’s all she’s going to say, but she continues, “I-I’m just a bit tired, of, you know, school. I come to this tree to calm myself down every once in a while. My mum used to take me here when I was younger, and we would just hang out and have picnics and stuff. Ever since, there’s just been something about it---it’s hard to explain it.” She looked around at the branches above us, waving at it all as she spoke.
And from that moment, I knew what my special place would be. This tree holds special memories of multiple people, not just the ones that I’ve seen in the last few days. And people all over the world have different, beautiful memories under trees, or in parks, or anywhere, really. If we don’t take care of the earth, none of it will ever exist in the future.
Many years later:
“Thanks for the files Laura, I’ll be seeing you Monday,” I say, waving goodbye to my colleague. I sigh as the cold air blows in my face when I step outside. Being an environmental lawyer sure was hard, but as my dad says, “Nothing is ever easy in life.” And besides, no other job would make me as happy as I am right now, helping plants and animals around the world. I smile to myself at the thought of how it all started with that one tree. The tree that changed my life.