An Unexpected Leaf

Tom crawled out from under the leaf. It had fallen on him and was a complete surprise. He thought he’d never get out from underneath it. 

 “Oof,” he said as he finally got out from under. He didn’t take it personally of course, because leaves do fall and of course they come back again and that’s a great joy of living in the forest. 

 “Renewal,” he thought to himself, “That’s always the way it happens. It’s very unexpected. You come to the end of what ever it is for you and you just sort of go away.” 

 Tom had experienced this himself many times as an earthworm but it was unusual to be a portion of it and of course when the leaf hit him, unexpectedly, on the head and made him a little bit fuzzy there for a minute, he was thinking, “Is this the season?” He looked around and he said, “No, no. This is Spring.” So he was confused. 

 He looked up in the tree. It wasn’t very far up because it was not a very big tree and there sitting on a branch where the leaf may have fallen off was his friend Arnie, the squirrel. 

 “Oh”, he thought. He smiled at Arnie and Arnie laughed. They were old friends. He never thought that Arnie would be able to drop a leaf and it fall exactly on top of him since leaves like to flutter when they fall. 

 Tom laughed out loud and Arnie ran down and they laughed together. Arnie said, “I can’t believe the leaf landed right on top of you.” 

 He laughed as he said, “I’ve been trying to do that for about 3 or 4 leaves and I don’t think you ever noticed it because the leaf just flew by.” 

 “I didn’t notice it,” Tom said. “But this time I couldn’t help but notice it. I’m glad you didn’t pick a really heavy leaf. This one kind of made me a little dizzy.” 

 “Oh, I’m sorry,” Arnie said sincerely, “I didn’t realize I’d hurt you.” Arnie came up close to Tom and brushed Tom gently with his fur. “Does that feel better?” 

 “Oh yes,” Tom said. “Oh, that’s better. Thank you!” 

 “I’m sorry,” Arnie said, “I’ll never do that again, I promise.” 

 Tom said, “Can I trust you on that?” “Yes really,” Arnie replied, “I’ll never play a joke on you again. You’re my best friend. I don’t want to hurt you!”

 “Okay,” Tom said, “I forgive you.” “Arnie offered, “Do you want to go for a ride?” Tom said, “As long as it’s a short one and please not up in the tree.” “Okay,” Arnie replied. 

 “I know you like to go up in the tree, “Tom said, “but it scares me. After all, I live underground most of the time.” 

 “I know”, Arnie said, “that kind of scares me.” They looked at each other and laughed and they both said almost at the same time, “We sure are a couple of strange friends aren’t we.” 

 They both laughed and Arnie laid down and Tom got on and they took a slow walk around the forest. Tom looked around to make sure everything was safe for them and thought that it is a good thing that there are lots of trees so they could walk and be protected by low hanging branches. As he appreciated that he relaxed more riding on his friend.

 Tom said, “That’s a nice ride but I think I’ll go back home now.” “Okay,” Arnie said and carefully went over to where the opening was to Tom’s home. 

 “Arnie asked, “Come out tomorrow and play some time with me?” “Anytime, anytime but tonight I think I’m going to go down to my house and I’m just going to rest and take it easy. With my exciting friend, I can’t do this too often.” 

 They both laughed. Arnie knew that Tom was just kidding and away they both went to their homes.

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 Forgive somebody today, it’ll make you feel better and them too. Goodlife