In the wee hours of the morning, the leaf dropped. It had been wilting for several weeks now, but it had not wanted to give up so soon. The temperatures had dipped, rains had come, the plants around it had dried up and gave their bodies so new things might grow; the leaf had still desperately held on.
In the morning, the doorman was sweeping the sidewalk as he always did. He did not notice this particular leaf, only that their were very few leaves to sweep away anymore. A few weeks ago, his dustpan had been filled many times over by all the colorful organic sheets. By today, he’d only need to empty the dustpan once or twice to rid the sidewalk of all the little bits of dirt, dust, and torn up bits of life discarded by accident.
The leaf lay on the sidewalk as the doorman swept. A small breeze swept the street, and the leaf shuddered. The broom swept dangerously close to the leaf, and the leaf let itself be picked up by the resulting breath of air, bumping right into the heel of a women’s size 7 chunky, sensible, red boot.
The woman walked quickly with long, powerful strides. She did not notice the leaf, of course, as she rarely looked down as she walked, choosing to usually keep her gaze confidently forward. The leaf approved of the pace; in just a minute, it thought, it would get to see more of the world than it had in its entire existence so far!
The woman had adventures of her own to attend to, and the leaf rather liked this. It had not been its choice, of course, of which boot to stick to, but it was grateful it had landed on this chunky red one nonetheless. Over sidewalk and marble and carpet they walked, the smells of food carts mixed with children’s babbles and cloth rustling all reaching the leaf. The leaf wondered why it had ever held on so tight to the plant from which it had been born. There was so much one missed out on by being rooted!
A firm step mixed with a little gust of wind from a car passing by dislodged the leaf from the woman’s red boot. Up, up, up the little leaf soared, delighting in the oppositeness of this feeling to its past experience when it had finally let go of its stem! Why, what kindness that lady had shown, to bring the leaf so many things it had never known. The leaf looked down as it fluttered down again, ready for one last novelty-filled walk around a block.
Very nicely written