Brainroots

Chapter 2. Whispering flowers

Stepping outside of the café I am instantly engulfed in the mist. I walk down the hill on to the sidewalk and I can just barely make out the shape of a man walking towards me. As they get closer it seems to me like I may have the best streak of luck of any girl alive, or a simple coincidence that would be too good to be true. From the mist I'm once again brought face to face with the man I saw on the boat. He stopped abruptly to avoid bumping into me.

"Excuse me!" I whisper to the man. "Do you speak English?" I was hoping for a yes or at least some sign that he understood all my hand signs. He nodded. My face lit up with glee. I asked him if he was on his way to the forest. He nodded again, not saying a word. I asked him if I could tag along with him on his way there. He looked around my body looking for something. I asked him if there was something he wanted. The man grabbed my hand and reached into his pocket. I thought for a second that he was about to pull out a gun and mug me, but I didn't resistor pull away because I didn't sense any hostility in his action. He takes out another white strip of cloth out of his bomber jacket's pocket. He wraps it around my arm and ties a knot. He finally broke his silence.

"to protect us on journey, Come, the forest waits for us."

We walked for almost 3 hours incomplete silence. He just walked and I followed, thinking about my brother the whole way through. Until out of curiosity, I decided to break the quietness.

"So... why are you going to the forest? Looking for someone too?"

He hesitated replying for a second, but I felt like he couldn't help but to share his thoughts.

"I am going to reunite with family"

"Ah, what a coincidence, so am I! I'm going there to find my brother, I hope he's still there doing his research. I hope he didn't get lost"

"No one get lost in forest, you can only lose yourself to forest, but forest will always remember you"

"Ah, I get it. I heard some myths about the forest, about how god speaks in it, any truth to them? What do you know about the forest?"

"There are stories of people who enter forest but never come back out. But their voices can still be heard. Many people take their dead to the forest to be buried. They say that if you do, god accepts them into his garden, and their spirit will live on in peace. Many people go to forest to talk to their lost family. Not just family, but others who have passed away and buried there, their voices can be heard too, sometimes. Especially during the spring when the flowers bloom. During that time some even hear the voice of god walking throughout the forest."

"Wow! That's powerful stuff. So that myth about the man who ate the fruit and had dreams of his wife might be connected too?"

"I know that tale, there was rumor that one tree in the middle once bore fruit, but now the forest has grown so much, hard to tell where tree in middle is. I always wonder what the fruit taste like. If I found one i'd like to taste it."

As our conversation went on, we eventually got to the outskirts of the forest, we made our way past the debris of a collapsed fence. It appeared to have been brought down not too long ago as the wood that made up the broken posts were still clean at the breakpoints. The trees were tall and the bark was light but with a reddish hue to it, the leaves were a deep red. We both stood there waiting to go in.