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Paige Estep

Mrs. Jackie Burr

ENGL1010

10 September 2018

The Woods

An old railroad track ran right through the middle of an old town. Divided it right

into two, paralleling it was a concrete bike path. The path reached every neighborhood,

strip mall, and school in the surrounding area and the threshold to the surprisingly deep

woods that was sequestered by the homes and businesses of the residents. The woods was

a different experience every time, seeing the new ways people try navigate dense foliage.

Ribbons and spray paint decorating the trees scared with remnants of teenage romance,

phallic artwork, and tags made shortcuts to get from place to place. Finding shoes and

target bags long forgotten hanging from trees and drifting down the small creek

concealed by the large oak and maple trees entangling with each other to make it seem

like dusk in the hot and humid afternoons. Unconventional landmarks dotting the land

guiding you through the network of dirt path created by deer. Walking over logs over the

pond with a flipped over a shopping cart residing in it weighing down the numerous

black trash bags beneath and a powder blue coffin laying on a thick carpet of moss

overgrown with poison oak guarding whatever inside. Sometimes I try guessing the

manner of how they came to call the woods home.

The woods has an aura, a melancholy spirit haunting it through the years and

every time you visit it gets stronger, more potent. There are no breezes, buzzing bugs or
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chirping birds only silence to the point that you feel alone when walking next to

someone, giving you that feeling of hopelessness and only going away once you exit. The

only animals you saw were bloated lifeless sacks of flesh or remnants of animals

engaging in great wars of survival with a clear loser. Maggots and flies infecting the

corpses the only sign of life. At times it was uncomfortable, but others you feel safe

almost comforting that death was a nature thing, and it was more common than it

appears, slowly teaching you how the world works and easing you into the idea of death.

The woods made you forget the stress of your life and make you feel better about

whatever was happening was small in the big picture of your life.
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In other less dense parts of the woods have a light, playful aura that was joyous and

almost euphoric.You start to see foxes and deer and hear sometime than the loud train

horn in the distance. In the lighter parts of the woods, playgrounds were build, tucked in

the most inconspicuous place, rarely seen or used. Each playground having a different

color scheme, shades of red and green being the most common. Lonely swing looking

into the thicker less friendly woods waiting for someone to come and play. In the winter

snow would pile up on the hills dotted with trees, sledders would pact down the snow to

make tracks that weave around the trees, twisting and turning until reaching the bottom of

the hill where snow has been piled up on a park bench to form a ramp, launching you into

the woods or possible a thorn bush. Making the track slicker each time you travel down

the hill, making the sled faster and more uncontrollable. Walking up the hill over and

over again hoping no one else will come until you leave. Snow piling up more each day

until you don’t have school for months because of the mass quantities of snow that are

becoming too much for the snow plows to handle. Snow only melting until april has

come and gone. Going to school on holidays and weekends to make up for time lost of

the four months of apocalyptic weather conditions.

House laid on the edges of some parts of the woods, tucked along side roads and

having trees be the sound barrier between them and civilization, covered in moss and

water damage. Looked out the windows and seeing nothing but trees. They had no

backyards or fences only trees and shrubs. Sitting in one of the houses you can forget that

down the street is a busy road or the school is a short five minutes drive away.
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The secondary school was surrounded by trees, you needed to walk through the

wood to get there. Twenty maybe thirty students would walk through the woods together,

Stoners would stand and smoke in what was dubbed “stoner alley” , an alley that went

through the woods. On one end of the school there was a small lake, the school was

named after the lake, many teachers would walk around the lake at lunch or after school,

gossiping or talking about their weekend plans.

The lake was surrounded by homes and playground, almost alway filled with

children, it was different from the woods more people came, talked, laughed. The lake

was different because it was friendly and welcoming to everyone and light shown

through more easily making it brighter and warmer. Everywhere was different in the

woods, the lake, homes all have different feeling and they all serve different purposes,

make you feel different things.