I was hanging on a tree. A caterpillar chewed on me and I started to fall off the tree branch. I have been picked. I have been in leaf piles and kids jumped on me. Kids stepped on me. Kids played with me. Kids took me to their classes and introduced me. Kids put me outside and let other kids take me.
The wind breeze picked me up and I flew and flew and landed on a roof. Then a man came out of the house and pulled me down to the ground. He raked me and put me in a garbage bag. Then a garbage truck came and took the bag and put it in his trunk. Then after a long drive he took me out and put me into the city dump. Then the wind came and I flew again on a car window. The man in the car turned on the wiper and the wiper moved me to the side of the window. Then it started raining really hard and the water moved me to the ground. The car’s wheels drove on me.
Another wind came and blew me into a house’s yard. After the rain stopped a kid came outside and took me into the back of the house and put me on a few woods of fire. Then the fire lit off. I was very black. Then it rained again and turned me back into my regular color.
Then all of a sudden it started to snow. Soon I was covered by it that no one could even see me at all. Then after a few hours kids came outside and started rolling a ball and I was in it. After a month the snow melted and I was all wet. When the sun finally shone it made me dry. A small breeze came and blew me to the next door’s yard. The person who owned the house was mowing the lawn and the lawn mower sucked me up. In the bag it was quiet, dark, and crowded. Inside the bag there was a lot of other leaves and grass. Soon there was a bit of light peeking through the bag, the man was unzipping the bag. Ah, fresh air.
The man took the bag and put another bag on top of it and turned the bag upside down and all the leaves and grass went into the other bag. But I wouldn’t come out. I was stuck in the bag! The man reached in and took me out and put me in the other bag. Then he took me and put me in the garbage bin. “Not again” I thought.
The garbage truck came and took me to the dump again. But this time it was a short drive. The man opened the cover. The air didn’t smell good. The man dumped the grasses and leaves in one place. I went with it too. Then the man stepped on me for he was heading one place but didn’t notice that I was stuck on his shoe. The man headed to a building. There he took off his shoe and sock, put on a new pair of socks and shoes and put the shoes and socks I was in, in a shoe rack. The shoe rack had numbers in each box. Afterwards the man left the building. I was still stuck on his shoe.
I waited when another man came pushing a big cart with numbers on it. Then he took the shoes I was stuck on and put me in the box in the cart, which had the number one on it. After putting all the shoes in each box in the cart that had a number on it, he pushed the cart to a big laundry room. Then he took each shoe and put them in a separate washing machine. Each one had a number on it. He put the shoes I was stuck on in the number 1. As the shoe and socks were washing, I came off the shoe and got stuck on the socks. After the washing machine stopped, I felt a little dizzy. After a few seconds I was better.
The man then opened the washing machine and took out the socks first and gave a stiff shake and I flew and got stuck on the back of a man’s shirt. Then he walked and walked outside the laundry room. Before he could exit a man called him and told him that there was a leaf stuck on the back of his shirt. The man reached and got me and looked at me for a few seconds then took me outside and put me in the dump. Outside in the dump it started to get windy. Again I flew to a house.
A little kid was running back from school to the house. Before she could knock on her door she saw me and took me then knocked on the door. A lady opened the door and the little girl ran inside. The lady helped her with her jacket and hanged it on the hanger. The girl gave her backpack and gave it to the lady. Then the little girl took me and ran upstairs to her room. Then she said, “You are so beautiful that I will keep you hanging on my wall”. And when she said that I knew what she meant. She took me and took a nail and a hammer and pinned me to the wall and put a nail on the top middle of me. Then she started to take the hammer and push the nail firmly on the wall. This was not interesting.
The girl went downstairs and called her mom and the mom came upstairs and the lady looked at me then at the girl and there was a smile on her face. Then she said that she liked me very much and hugged the girl. The girl hugged the lady back and said “I love this leaf very much that I don’t want anyone to throw it away”. Then the lady said “ok”. Then the lady headed downstairs and the girl looked at me, she said to me “this is your new home and you are going to stay here forever”. That got me worried, I didn’t want to stay in one place where some one would stare at me every day. Then I thought maybe she wouldn’t give me water. That got me even more worried. A few minutes passed and the girl came back with a spray full of water. I was worried so much that I didn’t notice the girl coming towards me and suddenly she sprayed me with water. I got wet and realized that she will water me; this made me happy and I didn’t get worried anymore.
Shayma Parveen
November 30, 2010