Footprints on the Earth

A Flower in the Moonlight

        “I can’t wait until I’m old enough to go out and explore without my parents restricting me,” sighed nine-year-old Grace, staring out her window. “One day, I’ll change the world. I’ll discover new things and new places, and meet new people, and the world will know who I am!”
Grace loved her family. She loved her mom, Emily, and her dad, Shane. She loved her older sister, Lila, and her older brother, Ethan. She especially adored her younger sister, Marilyn, who she thought was absolutely adorable. But what Grace Pristine hated was how she was not allowed to do anything without the permission of her parents or older siblings.
        Grace absolutely loved and adored nature. She didn’t care where she was. She enjoyed every bit of outdoors, from the gorgeous landscapes you see in photos, to the seemingly most bland forest you had ever seen. However, Grace saw the beauty in all of it.
And that is why she hated being accompanied by her family when she left the house. Every day, it would be the same thing worded differently, to Grace. Her mom would tell her, “We’re not going in the woods! What if you get poison ivy? What if there are mosquitoes? What if there are creepy strangers? Stay on the sidewalk, Grace. You know the rules,” or her brother would ask, “What’s so ‘marvelous’ and ‘outstanding’ about a few trees, anyways? You’re such a weird kid,” or even, her father would tell her, “Grace, nature isn’t even that pretty. Why would you want to explore when you can stay in the comfort of a warm house?”
Grace hated how different her family was from her. She hated how none of them understood how she felt about the outdoors. Nature was so… serene, peaceful, tranquil, calm, relaxing… If she would only be able to get away from her family, off the sidewalks, into the woods nearby her house. She could just relax. Sit by a river, possibly. Listen to the birds, lean against a log, focus on the quiet sound of leaves rustling in the wind. Grace knew what awaited her in nature. Not just the woods, but all of nature. Everywhere in the world, no matter where she went, Grace would see nothing but beauty, hope, opportunity.
        Often times, Grace felt like Marilyn would grow up to be no different from the rest of the Pristine family. She was three now, but always preferred the comfort of the living room couch over the soft, vibrant green grass in the front yard. Grace never understood how no one else could see it. Wherever she looked, she always saw something that gave her hope.
Once, when she had dared to sneak out of the house in the middle of the night, only a few months earlier, she had seen a beautiful orange object sparkle in the distance. Grace was fearful of straying too far from the house, afraid of her family’s wrath, but at the same time, she was intrigued by the object, curious as to what it may be. Daringly, she dashed into the distance, where she was just out of sight from any of the windows at her home, and she had reached the orange object.
        It was a flower. Perched atop a rotting piece of wood, only visible due to the dim beams of light let off by the moon. Grace, unlike how most people would react, did not pick the flower. Grace stood there, simply marveling how stunning the flower was. Most flowers, to Grace’s knowledge, did not sparkle. However, this one did. It was very likely that this glowing aura of the flower was only due to the moonlight, but still, Grace was fascinated and swore to herself that she would remember this flower for the rest of her life.