What Is That?

by TheStoryMaker

Chapter Three - The Undergrowth

How do, how do I begin? The forest has been there for as long as I remember. I even remember asking my mom if she remembered if it has been there since she was born and she said, "Yeah, it has." Ever since the 1980s when my mom was a teenager, the forest had remained there. The radio tower was there, but you know less decayed than it was before.

It got me so curious that I remember in the Summer of 2016, Jeremiah and I went to the 'explore' the forest. I think we wanted to it was because nobody really did enter the forest. Except for the people who go out and hide in the forest to smoke, drink, skip school, drugs etc... Again, this was during the Summer when it is hot, humid, sweaty, and that only made it worse was that it was in the afternoon when we decided to set out to adventure into the mysterious place.

"Are you sure nobody enters?" Jeremiah asked. We were a year younger than what we were today. This was during early to mid-June so really sleeping in and staying up playing video games were starting to be a thing.

"Uh, yeah I'm positive," I answered, again we were a house down of the shortcut toward the left into the forest. Saquan, Alex, and Aaron really didn't care for this type of stuff. Jeremiah only joined because of a 'Why not?' I'm pretty sure he had nothing better to do and just wanted to get away from his little brother or family.

"Alright, but if we see somebody smoking or some shit like that," He started pointing his right thumb to the back of us. "I'm running," Jeremiah joked, I chuckled as I saw him towards the left of me.

"Yeah, but I don't really think anybody is gonna be here," I replied. "Hell, I don't even know why anyone would be there in the first place," This was true I don't know why anybody would visit here in the first place, the only reasons could be if two people were playing catch and a person did an overthrow and it went over the brick fence, making one of them having to run to receive it. Or someone having to get pecan wood or any wood to burn during winter would have to go out and fetch some.

He sighed, "Yeah, but if it happens we're gonna have to make a run of the ages," I looked at him then looked into the forest, followed by a sigh.

"And let me guess," I stopped to make a joke. "You want to stay alive to see the Olympics in Brazil, huh?"

"Wait, how did you know?" He asked tilting his head in the process.

"Um, oh I dunno... because the Olympics happen every four years?" I guessed-answered to him. "I mean, four years ago was what...?" I did the math in my head, using my hand to scratch it. "2012," I answered. "Yeah, the Summer Olympics in 2012,"

"Wow, has it been that long?" He asked.

"Yeah, it has been," I answered and looked at the trees with grass and other things.

The place looked beautiful, the ferns, grass, flowers, and the trees as they swayed and the leaves on the ground painted with green and brown of course, with Lake Eric on the right side of it all reflecting the light from the Sun.

"Don't worry, I'll tell you if that happens," I said. As I tilted my head toward what seemed to be a trail into the forest. I stood for a long time, looking down one as far as I could.

To where it bent, twisted and turned in the undergrowth. "Okay, let's just get this done before Alex, and them wants us to get online," We knew for a fact they would want to get us online so they can get their comedy entertainment.

"Let's just hurry it up, real fast," I said and began to walk. There were two paths that took almost slightly left and right turn, undecided I asked Jeremiah, "Wait, which way do we go?" I turned back to see him for his answer.

"I dunno, um whichever you want," He answered with his undecided matter.

"Alright, okay let's just go um..." I looked at the left side of the trail. "That way," I pointed toward the direction and soon took off walking stepping into a gravel-like trail with leaves and other twigs and branches in the way.

"Okay," Jeremiah replied. He stepped on the leaves with a crunch not purposely, but soon the sound of two teenage boys walking can be heard.

We started to walk with a question in mind, we really didn't know what we were doing, however, one thing that did concern us was getting lost again we could use our phones for a compass app and find the way toward the East. Other than that we walked and looked around, in what seemed to be the Hundred Acre Woods from Winnie the Pooh. I don't know how exactly how big it was but it was kinda big, Google Maps really kinda did answer my question using satellite images.

"Look a stream!" Jeremiah exclaimed and pointed with his right arm. I looked toward my right and saw a stream of blue clear stream of water, with a small waterfall carried by small pebbles. By now we were a little into the forest where we couldn't see our houses anymore and was covered by trees and plants. Followed by the sound of bird calls, crickets, and other mother nature has to hold.

"Oh my God, dude this is cool!" I said and walked closer to it, crouched down and stared at the water movement, moving along the small river it had created. I placed my hands in front of me to keep hold of my balance. In it was small organisms with green moss on the ground, but the only thing I could figure out in that stream was tadpoles.

"I didn't know there a stream in the forest," Jeremiah said, looking around at his surroundings. At me, he saw my reflection and as I saw his I stood up right beside him. "Looks so bliss,"

"Yeah, and I think we're the only ones who discovered this place first," I replied dusting off my hands from the ground for support to keep me up.

"Do you wanna keep on going?" He asked.

"What do you mean? Like, going into the forest?" I asked about what he meant in his question.

He nodded and looked at me. "Uh, yeah sure, why?" I asked again.

"Oh, because you know... Alex is gonna bug us about getting online and Saquan is going to tell us to get online..." He tilted his head toward his left and right side when he made his points of view about Alex and Saquan.

"Yeah, I know you told me already..." I repeated his knowledge of Alex annoying us to get online. "Let's just um, explore for a bit then we'll return back," I said, about the plan I was waiting for his facial expression if he agreed with me. "Sounds good?" I asked him.

"Yeah, sounds alright," He said we then ran or walked around wandering just having fun, moving around with it being much quieter than it was at home. It was better than it was with my mom shouting our names to come to eat dinner.

"Man, it so quiet," I said to Jeremiah, ever since we had left the stream a couple minutes ago.

"I know right?!" Jeremiah said to his own excitement, as far as I can tell he seemed to be enjoying himself I can only smile at his enthusiasm. "It's so much better,"

To come to think about it, I don't we were looking at our phones, maybe because we would have to use our Mobile Data to surf the web and secondly we don't have to WiFi to connect to.

During that time in 2016 we started to meet each other, remember I kinda meet Saquan a year ago and so the others. I started to talk to more of Alex's friends and the friends that Nathiq showed me. We were just almost starting off, with our teenage years I guess for me, Jeremiah and Aaron. We were starting to bond and get to know each other better. I remember when we celebrated our first holidays together.

"So Jeremiah, what would you in your spare time?" I asked him again I wanted to get to know him more.

"Oh me? Uh... Play basketball, play 2k, play video games... Go to Aaron's house every once in a while," He stopped talking as he walked moving deeper into the forest with me avoiding bumping into the trees as he went along. "And you? What do you do?"

"Uh, oh I dunno my uncle picks me up to take me to the movies to see my grandparents, go to see my little cousin, uh, play video games obviously, play baseball at a baseball park..."

"Do you play for your school?" He asked me, during this time I was at another school. Transitioning from 7^th Grade to 8^th Grade. "Nah, I don't," I answered placing my hands into my pockets sighing, looking at the ground as we continued to walk.

"Why not?" He asked again in his confusion.

"I just don't have the time for it, I guess," That wasn't true. In reality, I was failing during that time but I got my grades up before I could flunk the grade.

"Oh okay," He replied, the tone of his voice sounded like he was turned down by the answer.

We were quiet for about a minute or so. I don't know why I guess it was suspicious that we were in a place where we shouldn't be. I don't know why they haven't built more houses and make room for other properties, it remained a question to us it seemed. "Wait, Jeremiah has the forest ever gotten to you?" I asked him, as an out of nowhere question type of deal.

"What do you mean?" He asked me.

"What I mean is that did..." I thought what I was going to say to him. "Have you ever thought about the forest like, has it ever crossed your mind?" To be honest, I didn't know if it was only me who thought about the forest, and I guess I didn't want to feel different about it.

"Yeah, sometimes," He said, looking back then continuing forward. "I don't know why though," A sigh of relief came to me as it did.

"Yeah same here, it's like so weird to have a forest next to a suburb neighborhood," I chuckled or scoffed. I looked at Jeremiah as we continued deeper.

"Wait, do you know why nobody visits this place?" I wanted to know if he knew the answer I've been questioning myself.

"No, I don't know why they do," He answered, he went off stepping over a bump of a root sticking out of the grass.

By now we were starting to sweat, the heat was horrible without the shade. Again, we were located in the woods, therefore, the shade helped us cool off from that heat, but it was still hot. "You know what I shoulda brought some water with me," I said.

"Yeah, I know right?!" He replied and sat down to relax his body on a large rock located on the right side of a tree. He wiped off the sweat from his forehead and sighed.

"You alright?" I asked him and wanted to make sure he was good in his self-being.

"Yeah, but it's hot as f," He said as he got up to his feet.

"Do you want to go back?" I asked him, he seemed to agree with me.

"No," He answered.

"Wait, what? You don't want to go back?!" I asked him, he took off and I followed behind him.

"Nah, fam I'm fine,"

"You sure because you know... I don't want ya to... you know..." My words quickly trailed off as I searched for the correct words to say. "Pass out," Passing out was all I can think of so far other than that.

"Nah, I'm fine just needed a break," He replied.

"Alright," I said in agreement tilting my head in the process.

We continued to walk on the ground and pass the hundreds of trees and other things. Every once in a while we would see a tree that had fallen with the trunk of the tree in place and the huge beam of wood next to it with fungus-like mushrooms growing on top of it. "Jesus, what happened here?"

"A tree fell down," He responded. "Damn..."

It showed no interest to us and we just continued to go down our paths of nowhere just following as we continue along, there was nothing to be said about many things in the forest. I thought more of a hike or nature walk, but it didn't really seem like it would be one.

"So, Jeremiah, " I wanted to start a conversation and stop with the awkward silence. "So, how was your school year?" I asked him. "You know in 5^th Grade?" I looked at him as he turned his head toward me.

"Loved hated it, it's school," He answered. "One thing I hate about it that the teachers get mad at you!" He exclaimed.

"What do you mean?" I asked him.

"The teachers get mad at you easily because you're talking to your friend like asking for a pencil then bam! You're sent to the principal office!" He exclaimed furthermore. "JC are you a bad kid at school?" He asked me.

For his convenience, I wanted to say no because I wasn't but no to get him angrier than he was I replied. "Yeah kinda,"

"Then they talk to you about discipline and things like that." He continued. "They act like as if you killed somebody!"

I laughed at Jeremiah's statement. "Yeah, they do they actually do-haha!" It was true on what he said. He smiled at his joke and continued.

"Then they think you're talking back smack about them because you only asked you're friend for a pencil!"

"Did you actually get sent to the principal's office because you just asked for a pencil?" I asked him there must be something that made him bring this up.

"Yesss-a!" He exaggerated. "I actually did and it was so stupid!" He continued to walk through the forest dodging the trees and tall plants. "The only reason why I actually went to the principal's office was because that I was 'talking in class' for the past three days."

I chuckled. "Damn bro, that teacher must've hated you," I remarked on his. "Got sent to the principal's office because of a pencil."

"I think he did hate me," Jeremiah continued. "For a stupid pencil,"

"Hey I had my bad experiences in 7^th Grade," I said.

"Like what?" He asked.

"Oh- um, I dunno," I thought about the past school year. "There was a dog lost in the school that belonged to nobody so some volunteers decided to wash the dog so before class started I climbed up the restroom window to take a look at the dog,"

"Why?" Jeremiah asked. "Who would do that?"

"Dude, it was a huge crowd. I couldn't get a good look at it,"

"Oh, wow okay, continue,"

"Okay, yeah so anyway, I climbed up a restroom window to get a good look at the dog and a teacher caught me and I got a detention." I finished up my story and looked at Jeremiah. He was in confusion as far as I could tell as he kept moving his head toward me and in front of him so that he wouldn't bump any trees. "What?"

"That's it?" He asked.

"Yeah," I answered.

"Well, at least it wasn't as stupid as asking a friend for a pencil." He remarked. I laughed.

"Cheer up man, at least it's over," I said.

"Yep, at least it's over," He quoted.

We continued to explore the beautiful scenery, it was just us getting lost in the green-land of plants. But the only downfall of this trip was the heat, the heat was unbearable. Damn, now if I think about it we should have gone to the store and just window shop,"

Jeremiah stopped and look at me, oh God he's probably gonna get pissed at me for coming here in the first place. "Damn, we should have but I don't have any money to buy a game," He replied.

I chuckled, "Jesus, I only have sixty dollars that's about it, to be honest," That was the only type of money that I had during that time from my birthday and Christmas. Only $60 was the average amount of a video game of any type or else we could have gone to the arcade with nothing but quarters and play some 1980s video games like Pac-Man or Galaga.

"It's alright, it's better because it's so calm..." Jeremiah's voice trailed off by the sounds of our breathing. It was like he heard something.

"Yeah, the only thing we need is some hunters, and hope is not hunting season," I said with my dry humor.

Jeremiah laughed. "Yeah, but no hunters come to this forest though,"

"Yeah, I guess," I said.

"Same here now all I'm wondering is how this place came to be," I started. "I'm starting to wonder why not much people come here, you know? It's been here since my mom was a teenager! And that was like..." I thought of her age and tried to think when or which decade it was when she was in her teenage years. "30 years ago!" I finally answered. "In the 1980s!"

"Damn that was a long time ago," He replied. "I don't even think my mom is that old,"

I would think due to this information Jeremiah gave me, her mom would probably be a 90s teen. I really don't know but the way he said it did. "Yeah, but she soon will be," I replied followed by a sigh. "Man..."

"What?" Jeremiah asked.

"Jeremiah do you think there is a reason there is a forest in here?! Like, why it is so out of place and is surrounded by other neighborhoods?" I asked him, looked down at the soft ground to rest my legs.

"And that long boring road next to the highway?" He added, he leaned against a thin tree on the other side of where I was sitting, next to the grass ferns and such things.

"Yeah, I mean there's gotta be a reason why this place exists right?" I asked him, I wanted to know what he thought about the whole idea of it.

"Well, isn't there a reason for anything?" He looked at me with his question, handheld toward me.

"Uh, yeah I guess," I replied, I kept looking down at the soft brown dirt, and the green natural uncut grass.

"Then there's a reason for it to exist," He said in an obvious voice. "Damn, I thought you knew that already," He leaned down and grabbed a twig to mess with to snap it's small branches or pick off the dead leaves. "Like that shooting in the nightclub in Orlando,"

"Crazy motherfucker," I replied. "So, why was there a reason for that anyways?" I asked him, confused. Why do things happen without an explanation of reason?

"I dunno," He replied. "He's just crazy," He looked at me with a frustrated face. A face of trying to reason with such disbelief and things. "Maybe he had a bad life, I dunno,"

"A reason for anything to happen, huh?" I asked him, he nodded. One thing I didn't know that could happen was that he gave me some advice that I should have known. "So why the hell did we come this the Hundred Acer Woods then?"

"I dunno because we just wanted to do it," He answered, still messing around with the twig.

"So there's a good reason for things to happen... alright," I thought. "So wait, if I did something really stupid like an idiot then there's a reason for it right?" I asked him to see if he knew where I was going at.

"Yeah, I'm sure," He said, dropping the empty twig and looked toward his right direction, pulling out his phone to check the time.

"Alright," I said in agreement tilting my head in the process. "Just remember Jeremiah if I do something really stupid, or do some dumb shit like... whatever. Just remember that I did it for a reason okay?" I asked him for his reply.

"Okay, I'll remember," He replied, placing his phone back in his pocket then, using his short sleeve to wipe the sweat from his forehead. I took note of this, he was hot and so was I.

"I think it's best that we head back to our houses," I said, getting up from my position.

"Do you even know where it's at?" He asked in a serious almost worried tone.

"Yeah, of course, it's located ahhhh... Ah shit, um," My head went blank, I really didn't know where which direction we came from.

"Oh my God," Jeremiah looked at me. "You waste-man," He said frustrated his voice went from calm to angry. "You actually didn't know where we came from!" He exclaimed.

"Oh I'm sorry, do you know which direction we came from?!" I asked him in a sarcastic matter. "Freakin' dude don't expect me where we went!" In reality how we got 'lost' was because we didn't go down one straight path. We made up our own paths, and God knows what. We went to curves or maybe circles, losing our direction.

"Okay, if I had to guess then we went..." I thought of our walks and our paths thinking what we saw. "This way," I pointed toward the direction of where we came from or at least I hope.

"Alright," Jeremiah sighed. "I thought we were lost for a second," He started to go towards the direction to where I pointed to. "Remember about the hunting season," He said as we started taking off in a jog, joking about if we made a move or anything hunters would think we would be deer. Even the thought of it seemed unlikely.

"Uh-huh, whatever," I said as I saw a yellow butterfly flutter its wing in front of us going from right to left.

We only 'explored' for about an hour and a half and that's about it. We went back with our legs starting to get tired, sweaty and hot then headed home and simply started playing video games on the PlayStation 4 and taking a good shower of course.

It was alright I guess while it lasted, with Mother Nature with her toll on life itself, and animals moving, doing it natural way in its natural habitats. The animals moved and played with each other, with that one butterfly moving along with the gentle wind it can glide on being good with the animals it meets.

Wait, a minute I already met that butterfly who is good with animals.

Fluttershy.

Author's Note:

Okay, guys so I made some improvements to this chapter, however. I don't know if I can make it better so guys tell me if this chapter could be better or just to leave it like this.