I was thinking… where did the dandelion seeds go once you were done with blowing on them? Did they float to the top of the sky and into the never ending vortex of space? Or did they all stop some where, all together… all together?


It was a very windy day, blustery in fact. The clouds were racing across the sky, Grey and white, forever competing, yet the sun managed to stay out from behind them. I stood in the cool shadow of my home, sipping a glass of lemonade. The wind whipped my hair in front and behind my face, so a face full of blonde hair could be seen from miles away, it had become so white with the sun. My straw hit the bottom of my cup, and made a gurgling sound. I set it down onto the porch table; a little ant ran up to investigate the sweet smell.
Without warning I ran across the field that was by backyard, the white paint slowly disappearing the more I ran. My feet seemed to fly up so fast the ground wasn’t being touched at all; my body seemed to laugh at gravity. I felt like I had joined the wind, and I too had become invisible.


Soon enough, I collapsed, in a spot that could not be more perfect. The grass was not concealing any rocks, or bees, and I sprawled myself out as much as I could. My hair framed my head like a fan, and my bangs slid back to join it. I lay there for what could have been hours, waiting, watching, wondering. A million thoughts running through my head, a million questions to help with that.


Out of the corner of my eye I saw this white glint, I turned my head there was a dandelion puff, sitting there, waiting for me. I lay there for a couple other moments, wondering if my theories would really work, or if I would have just wasted the perfect moment for nothing? I decided to take the chance but I couldn’t get my limbs to move properly, they seemed rusted to the spot. I stared at the sky more, the clouds engaged in an endless dance, blissfully unaware that a tiny human from the earth was staring at them, and wondering.


Suddenly before I knew what had happened, the puff was held in my hand, it felt almost sticky from the broken stem. It was perfectly round, with a million little parasols that caused an etched out design to blossom above the dead flower. I held it to my face inhaling, getting ready for the final blow. I blew out, and all of the seeds broke off without any effort, most disappeared into the sky, but one blew off into the woods.


I had to run to keep up with it, and darting through the trees, never letting the seed out of my sight. It danced around much more effortlessly than me, creating complex bobbling patterns in the air, dipping and dashing, but it never stopped. Suddenly, a gunshot popped out of the air, startling me, and what seemed to be the seed. Everything stopped; something must have died, because the woods seemed to mourn. The seed continued to bob up and down in the slight breeze, everything was still, my breath felt heavy from the running I had just done.


The gale started up again, suddenly the seed blew off, and I had to start up again. My vision funneled in front of me, the seed seemed to become my focus, it was kind of lame, but my curiosity had the better of me.


Time got away from me, I couldn’t tell how long I had been running, let alone where I was. The woods were now oak, near my house they were pine, and I must have traveled very far. The leaves were orange, for it was almost fall. Some hints of green peeked out from behind to make it known that summer was still here.


The gale had stopped, not eerily but calmly, and the little dandelion seed started to sink. I held out my palms, but before I could hold it, another pair of hands reached out.


I couldn’t believe it! They were the hands I had been watching all week, the hands of the person I might love. They were Hunter’s hands. My face pulled itself up, and he was staring down at me.


“I always wanted to do that…” he muttered “Chase after a dandelion seed, you’ve got guts Ava.” I felt like he knew what I had just done, like he was the eyes of the forest, and his eyes had followed me the whole entire way. His hands opened up and the tiny seed blew away.


I wanted to respond, but my eyes fell on the rifle slung over his back, and the deer being dragged behind him, the poor deer’s eyes were still opened but glassy and a bullet wound in its stomach. I wanted so bad to cry but crying was a sign of weakness, so I bit my bottom lip shuddering. My fingernails dug into my palms, I thought I would draw blood.


I could hear him talking but I didn’t care, I ignored him. Suddenly I felt myself pivoting. I started to walk away, my feet creating footprints in the forest floor.


Soon enough I was alone, the only sounds were the rustling of my feet through the leaves. I continued to fight back tears, but my hands started to unravel, leaving deep contours in my palms where my fingers had dug in. The imprints were turning red and sore, but I didn’t care, my only thought was to get out of there, and get out of there and fast.


Hunter was calling me, as if he had no idea about what he had done, that he had taken a life, a life that that god had loved before. Why should I be kind to him if he had no mercy himself? My ears started ringing and I kept on walking, always walking.
The woods opened up, right into the green rolling field behind my house , the trees lining it seemed to mourn as well, the tall pines were able to conceal the oak forest… they were able to conceal a memory, and a bad one.


When I walked into my house, it smelled like floor polish, my mom had been working. As I looked around the corner into my living room, she was sleeping on the couch with some disinfectant spray in one hand, and a rag in the other. I stifled a laugh, so I would not wake her; the dark circles around her eyes told me that she had been awake for quite a long while, cleaning the house.



I made it up to my room in what seemed like a blink of an eye, I couldn’t tell where I had been in the past few minutes. I threw myself on my bed; it smelled like detergent, mom had been able to clean my room as well.



I wondered why I had seen that, had god wanted me to see that, or was it just some freak thing? I turned onto my side and from the top floor and out the window, I could see some oak trees poking out from behind the pines.