The whole class, except for Phillip, erupted in laughter and snickers. Cedar snapped back to reality and looked around. Phillip caught her eye; his face was tight with worry. She didn’t remember the last few minutes at all. The only thing she remembered was bright, searing pain.
“Cedar, where have you been? You haven’t done a lick of math in the past twenty minutes,” Mrs. Doneaway said. She towered over Cedar, her body looming in crisp clothes.
Cedar felt the blood draining to her toes. Her head felt heavy, like it might roll around without her knowing. A dull thumping pain throbbed at the base of her neck.
“I . . . I don’t feel so good.” Cedar said.
“Well, you could’ve said something sooner, Cedar. Go to the nurse.” Mrs. Doneaway turned her back and walked up to the board.
So much for sympathy. Phillip watched as Cedar made her way slowly out of the classroom, the normal fire in her eyes dimmed.
The phone rang in the Montgomery’s little cabin in the Worcester woods.
“Cedar?” Phillip asked.
“Hi Phillip,” Cedar said, walking to her room.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I’m fine. I just came home and slept. But I never do that. I really have no idea what happened.” Cedar sat on her bed, stroking DaVinnci, her cat, lazily.
“You looked so pale, and so … different.”
“Phillip, how long was Mrs. Doneaway saying my name?”
“For a while. She probably said it seven or eight times.”
“Wow, Phillip,” Cedar said, leaning back on her pillows.
“What?”
“I only heard the last one.”
“What do you mean? Were you just spacing out?”
“No,” Cedar said, her hand stopping in the middle of DaVinnci’s back, “no, I was just not there.”
“You must just be sick. You should make up some of your herbal mumbo-jumbo to fix you and go to bed.”
“What about the Order meeting?”
“What about it? You shouldn’t go out in the woods tonight. It’s cold out there.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“I really don’t think you should,” Phillip said. He waited.
“That was rough today. Those girls.”
Phillip hesitated. The line was quiet.
“I’ll see you there at 5:00,” Cedar said, and hung up.
Under a blanket of slate grey sky, the forest was dark. Cedar sat, leaning against Stella, thinking. What happened to me today? She thought. She remembered the bright white light, the climbing, searing pain, and shuddered. She curled up closer to Stella’s deep, dark bark, waiting. In the cradle of Stella, her body relaxed. Cool night air filled her lungs, and she was grateful for it.
“Hi,” Phillip said, approaching in the twilight, “You okay? You look out of it.”
Cedar pulled out of her thoughts. “Oh yeah, I’m fine.”
“I told you, you shouldn’t be out here tonight,” he said, settling in on the ground beside her.
“I’m fine, Phillip, stop worrying!”
He smiled his small smile, pushed his hair from his eyes.
“I’d like to call this meeting to order,” Cedar said. They settled in for the second meeting of the Order of the Trees.
After silent session, and a visit from the screech owl, Phillip and Cedar leaned against Stella.
“Were you born here, I mean, actually born? What do your parents say?” Phillip said.
“They tell me I am part of the forest. They say I was magic. That I was given to them by the tree. They get a starry, far-away look when they talk about it.”
“Do you think that?” Phillip asked quietly. He didn’t want to upset her.
“Well, I do love these trees. My trees. Especially Stella.”
They were quiet. “I like them too,” he paused, “but what do you think really happened? You know, I’ve taken health class…”
“You can just stop right there. I have no idea. I have two great parents and some enchanted woods. It just matters that I’m here, right?”
“Right,” Phillip said. He smiled into the night. This girl, he thought, is of the trees.
Later, during the inspection of the trees, Phillip called to Cedar.
“What do you make of this?” Phillip gestured to bright orange tape wound around a small maple tree.
Cedar’s face fell. “Someone else has been here recently,” she said. “Did you see this the other day, during the last inspection?”
“No, and I did walk over here because I remember that large boulder. I would’ve noticed.”
Cedar fingered the ribbon. “It looks new. There’s no wear on it, no dirt.”
“Why would someone be marking the trees? Our trees?” Phillip asked, his eyebrows pushing upwards.
A cloud pushed over the last of the twilight, sending them into sea of deep grey forest.