The Mountains

I was on a horse. It rocked and swayed back and forth. Being on it was really fun, but it was more fun to toss pine cones behind us and yell ka-boom as they hit the ground. My Aunt Dianne sat in front of me "driving" the horse. I didn't really make sense to me how one drives a horse because it's a living animal that has a mind of its own but that wasn't my problem. Occasionally Aunt Dianne would hand me a Slim Jim. Those are the best snack while on a horse. Then after we rounded a corner, everyone stopped to wait for us. How nice of them, I remember thinking. Then, as we drew even with them, we saw the real reason all of those smiling faces had stopped smiling. Aunt Sandy and Gandpa and Grandma and Uncle Jean and Mom and Dad all sat staring off the cliffs. Looking off the cliffs it seemed like the whole world could have fit into the valley between the mountain peaks. I knew better though but still, the valley was gargantuan. The valley itself wasn't what was so fascinating but it was the forest withing. Thousands and thousands of trees sat barren and lifeless. Scorched by fire the entire valley lay lifeless. How could so much death happen? My mind flashed to the scene from Bambi where the forest is on fire and all the animals are running away. It was sad. So sad I couldn't handle it. The tears began to flow and I couldn't stop them. No amount of Slim Jims could stop the tears. Aunt Dianne told me that fires can be good for the forest. Some trees could only release their seeds in the heat of a fire and that fires make the ground good for trees. She was trying to tell me that out of death, some life can spring forth. For days and weeks after that image of a dead forest was burned in my brain. Why did the trees have to die? They had been alive for lots and lots of years but now were dead. An entire world wasn't there anymore. That day, death got a face in my mind.