Weeping Willow

She woke up that morning feeling strange. Uncomfortable in her body. This was the first thing she felt when she woke up in fact, opening her eyes and feeling her toes poking out from the end of the covers, her feet almost hanging off the bed. That was odd, because she actually fit quite nicely into the old bed and frame that came from her grandmother’s house. She shook off the sleep she had just woke up from and rolled herself out from under her covers. She glanced around with half-open eyes. Everything looked the same, but there was definitely something that didn’t feel right. She stood up, missing the ceiling fan with her head by half an inch. Panic. She was not this tall yesterday, or even last night. How tall had she gotten?

Rushing to the bathroom she had to duck under doorframes that had never been that close to her head before and started sweating when she got to the bathroom and didn’t fit in the mirror that had held the same image of her for years. What was happening? Her heart beating fast, she didn’t know whether to rush herself to the hospital or call for help. At 25, a fully grown woman, she did not anticipate ever changing too much again, especially not growing taller. 

And then she felt herself stretching, her insides becoming long and pushing her so far towards the ceiling that she bolted towards the door, taking the longest strides she had ever taken. By the time she got out the door, she had outgrown her little home. She was frightened. This was not right. Not normal. Had she eaten something bad? Did someone curse her? Her bare feet danced nervously in the grass, as she tried her best to rationalize this drastic, and apparently still happening, change. But then, her toes began curling into the ground, growing long and pushing themselves into the fresh earth directly underneath her. Before she knew it, she was stuck. Quite literally planted where she was standing. She started to cry. Big full tears, helplessly pleading for someone that wasn’t around. She thought about her little cottage, which had been her home for so long, that she could no longer fit in. She thought about what would happen if she just had to stand in this spot forever. She thought about her body, a consistent place she had never questioned before. Her heart was beating so fast she felt she was close to fainting. But still, she was growing. Her head shot up towards the sky and her legs started fusing together, beginning at the ankles. She could not separate the bottom half of herself any longer. Her legs were becoming one. Her head whipping back and forth looking across the skyline hoping someone would come help. But instead, she locked her eyes onto a nearby weeping willow. A tree she had found comfort and solitude in for years. Her face fell from its tense anxiety, to wonder and contemplation. She tilted her head back and rose her arms up, stretching them as high above her as she could manage in an act of both defiance and acceptance. Leaves sprouted from her pores and bark rose up her legs and onto her torso. She joined her favorite tree, solidifying her place in the world in a way she never anticipated. 

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