Story on a Paper

Two boys sat in the dark, narrow corner of the library, their world reduced to a single long sheet of paper, one pen, and the dim glow of a flickering light. A stern rule hung in the air: Never open your mouth.

So, they took turns writing, their words flowing silently onto the page.

Miguel: Let's play!

Sebastian: Is that okay? We're supposed to be quiet here.

Miguel: Who said we have to be loud?

Sebastian: What's the game?

Miguel: The classic one. I’ll start a story, you’ll add to it: plot, details, whatever, and we’ll keep going until the story ends.

Sebastian: Classic! Okay, let’s do it.

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Miguel: It was afternoon, deep in the forest where the canopy of leaves blotted out the sun, casting an emerald glow over the mossy ground. Two figures stood beneath the trees; one was a girl.

Sebastian: And the other was a girl, too. Two girls in the forest.

Miguel: Okay, whatever. Those two girls were searching for a sound.

Sebastian: The sound of silence.

Miguel: What? Come on, take this seriously!

Sebastian: Who says I’m not serious?

Miguel: Fine. But even in the heart of the forest, silence eluded them.

Sebastian: So, they decided to search for something else. They searched for a good smell.

Sebastian: "Like fresh bread in the morning?"

Miguel: "Or the scent of warm blankets when you wake up."

Sebastian: "Or the way the wind smelled when—" She paused.

Miguel: "When what?"

Sebastian: "I don’t know. I feel like I should remember, but I can’t."

Miguel: A smell so comforting it would tell them they were home.

Sebastian: But what is home?

Miguel: It’s a feeling of belonging, of safety, of being loved.

Sebastian: They sniffed the air, searching for the comforting scent of home—a smell that would tell them they were safe, they were loved, they belonged.

Miguel: But instead of the warmth they craved, they found something unexpected.

Sebastian: An escape door, its edges seamlessly fused into the rough bark of a massive tree, stood before them.

Miguel: The first girl reached out and tried to open it.

Sebastian: But it wouldn’t budge.

Miguel: The other girl joined her. Both strained against the door, but it remained stubbornly shut.

Sebastian: So, they walked past it, deciding it wasn’t worth their time.

Miguel: But then they smelled something.

Sebastian: Something foul and rancid, like decay and rot.

Miguel: And it was coming from the escape door!

Sebastian: But they decided it wasn’t worth exploring.

Miguel: They continued to sniff the air, hoping for a trace of home.

Sebastian: But there was nothing. No comforting scent, no sense of belonging.

Miguel: Even in the depths of the forest, the smell of home was nowhere to be found.

Sebastian: They began to wonder why they were in the forest in the first place.

Miguel: So, they decided to search for the reason they were there.

Sebastian: The forest was dangerous to them.

Miguel: But somewhere in their hearts, they felt a strange pull to stay.

Sebastian: They thought and thought, searching for a reason.

Miguel: The first girl was convinced they were meant to stay, that maybe they were born to be there.

Sebastian: But the other girl couldn’t shake the feeling that the forest held dangers they couldn’t yet see.

Miguel: And then another question arose.

Sebastian: What do we really want?

Miguel: So, they retraced their steps, searching for where they had come from, how they had entered the forest.

Sebastian: But there was no trace of their beginning, no memory of how they had arrived.

Miguel: They wanted to ask the trees, but the trees were asleep.

Sebastian: Wait, are we going into magic now?

Miguel: I don’t know. Just let it flow.

Sebastian: Fine. What they didn’t know was that among the sleeping trees, one tree never slept.

Miguel: Its eyes were always open, never blinking, hidden in the texture of the bark.

Sebastian: The girls would never know which tree was awake.

Miguel: They kept searching for their beginning until their feet ached and their legs gave out.

Sebastian: Finally, they stopped at the base of a massive tree, the one with the escape door, and sat on its sprawling roots.

Miguel: The girls began to complain about their fate, wondering what their future held when they didn’t even know their past.

Sebastian: Is this story about finding their past now? I’m confused about where this is going.

Miguel: Just let it flow.

Sebastian: Fine. As they sat there, whining loudly, the roots beneath them suddenly came alive, wrapping around their legs and pulling them upright. Before they could scream, they found themselves staring into two enormous, annoyed eyes embedded in the tree’s bark.

Miguel: “Can’t you stop making noise?” the tree growled.

Sebastian: “If it’ll shut you up, I’ll help you. Just open the escape door in my bark. It’ll lead you to the world you want.”

Miguel: “We tried,” the first girl said. “It won’t open.”

Sebastian: The tree sighed. “Maybe you don’t know what you want yet. Or maybe you do, but you haven’t mustered the effort to pursue it. Either way, that’s not my problem. I’ll free you now, but remember this: use your mind and actions, not your words.” With that, the tree released them.

Miguel: Wow. That’s deep.

Sebastian: You think so?

Miguel: Now the girls were alone again, more confused than ever. They didn’t know what they wanted, only that they wanted to leave the forest.

Sebastian: Maybe that’s enough of a desire. “We want to leave the forest. We want a place with the sound of silence, the smell of home, and the clarity of knowing what we truly want.”

Miguel: Now the girls were sure of it.

Sebastian: They ran fast toward the smelly escape door.

Miguel: And when they tried to open it,

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Ding ding! The penalty phase is done!

The boys, punished and locked in the library’s dim corner, were finally free to go. The reason for their punishment, never spoken aloud, remained unknown.

The unfinished story lay abandoned on the table, a single sheet of paper filled with the beginnings of a tale about two girls lost in a forest, searching for something they couldn’t quite name.