Past the Never-Ending Field

The air was thick with fog when she found herself back at the edge of the field. Behind her, a realtor kicked around clumps of dirt describing the many benefits of the surrounding land. As the woman continued to speak, each word faded within the girl’s mind for she was already lost in the twirls of the fog and the shadows of bent cornstalks.
She stood still, careful not to take another step for she knew that if she did, she would forever be lost within the fog’s grasp. Now was not the time.
She was standing exactly where she had been that day, the day of her discovery. Two steps up from the bald headed mound between the moss-covered rocks, she remembered the exact sensation of the dirt against her bare feet.

The field had frightened her at first. The sea of cornstalks seemed to go on forever, even from the view at the very top of her house the field went on for as far as the eye could see and though it frightened her, she always felt herself staring at it. On windy days, it looked like a green ocean, its waves undulating across the land and she would find herself drowning in its undertow.
“Who plants the corn?” She had asked her mother while looking at the field through her kitchen window, “There are never any farmers.”
Her mother thought for a moment as if her daughter had made a good point. She too had never spotted anyone near the edge of that field. Then she sighed and shook her head. It was silly to think of such things.
“Maybe you’re not looking hard enough.” Her mother had said.
It was because of her mother’s answer that the girl had found herself at the edge of the field that day. She had wanted to look harder and try to ease the ominous feeling she had whenever the field came to mind.
And so two steps up from the bald headed mound and between the moss-covered rocks, she’d stood there trying to separate moving stalks from moving people, hair from tassels, and human ears from golden ears. But as she continued to stand faint from the heat of the summer’s sun, she found it difficult to recall the difference between the two.
Shapes began to drift across her line of vision. Shapes that soon melted into the form of a cornstalk. Whispers began to reach her ears, whispers that became lost in the sound of the summer breeze. Out of the corner of her eye she’d see faces but as quickly as she’d turn her head, they’d disappear. Then suddenly, one of the shapes stopped drifting.
The girl clenched her bare toes into the ground below as she stared into the eyes of a young person neither female nor male. Its eyes held onto hers, suspending her as the wind continued to blow and the sun continued to beat down upon her bare shoulders. She could feel her breath become shallow and her mind go blank. Then, in an instance, the person turn sharply tearing into the vast cornfield and like a natural reflex, the girl dove in after it.
Never tearing her eyes off of the blurred shape in front of her, the girl continued to run. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest to the beat of her feet against the hard soil. With each lift of the foot, her toes would unearth new ground and new rocks. Leaves of the cornstalks whipped by her cheeks, scraping and slicing into her skin but she did not feel the stings nor did she feel the pain of the rocks as they poked into the pads of her feet.
A yearning began to build within her, a yearning for something new. She had to continue on to the end of the field, she had to find out what lay beyond its neverending lengths. At times, a fear would crawl to the top of her throat telling her that there was no beyond and that she would forever be lost within the stalks of the field but she screamed at the fear to disappear and continued to run as salted sweat dripped down into her mouth.
The yearning continued to build, masking the fatigue that lay within her overworked muscles. It began to bubble up within her chest egging her on and pushing her to continue running to the beat of her heart. The shape in front her had become more blurred within the shaking cornstalks yet she continued to run.
She could feel her body screaming, begging for her to stop. Her face dripped with sweat and blood from the blades of the cornstalks but she closed her eyes tight and ran faster. Then like a bullet let loose from a gun, she tore out of the field and felt onto her knees, tripping over a moss covered rock. She coughed and sputtered, her eyes closed tight. With her hands planted in the ground in front of her, she gasped for air as her mouth filled with bile.
Then, as he body began to calm and her breathing began to quiet, she opened her eyes and felt her breath slip away once more. The ground she was kneeling on was a pure emerald green, tracing the edge of a thick, ancient forest. Mist crept out from between the towering cedar trees past her body and into the cornfield.
She pushed her pained body up from the ground and stood, listening. The forest was silent but behind her, the songs of crickets and wind blowing through the stalks echoed across the field. She sighed softly and without a glance back at the ever-going field, she picked up her feet and slowly walked into the woods.
She glided past the tall ferns and the waist high shrubbery. As she walked, slowly the mist enveloped her in silence, shutting out the sounds of the field behind her and before her the shrubs gave way to the moss-covered floor of the forest.
Almost like a house that’s been abandoned for so long, everything around her looked untouched and she feared that if she continued to walk forward, the delicate silence would break. Then through the silence she could hear the soft sounds of feet padding against the moss and soon small frame of the person she’d been chasing came into view.
It stood there staring with eyes wide once again. A ray of sunlight sliced through the canopy of tree tops and shown onto the creature’s face revealing the true emerald color of its eyes and hair. The creature’s mouth curved to form a smile and slowly started to walk towards the girl as if gliding across the forest floor.
When it stopped not a foot away from the girl’s body, she opened her mouth to speak but the creature raised a finger to her lips silencing any thought that she had once owned.
“It is not time for you.” The creature whispered into the girl’s ear. Its lilting and unnerving voice sent a shiver up her spine.
Another ray of sunlight cut through the tree branches above and the girl looked up to it letting its warmth flow across her face. She closed her eyes, allowing her mind to empty and the silence to surround her. Then slowly the silence began to fade and the sounds of crickets singing filled her ears. A sick feeling reached her stomach and she found herself not wanting to open her eyes, knowing that what she would see before her would disappear.
Her mothers voice shattered her feeling of emptiness and caused her eyes to flash open. Before her lay the expanse of the never-ending field, mist slowing creeping out from the shapes of cornstalks. With tears brimming her eyes, she raised a finger to her lips touching where she once felt the creature’s cold skin.
When asked where she’d been that afternoon, she’d told her mother she’d found the farmer. Her mother had looked at her strangely for only a moment then shook her head dismissing her daughter’s vivid imagination. After that day, the girl ceased to speak of what she’d seen and what she’d found past the never-ending field.

The woman looked down at her feet, smiling at the two tiny footprints of her nine year old self. She glanced back quickly at her real estate agent and laughed quietly to herself. The lady was facing the barn talking of how one could make a fortune farming the surrounding land but the woman and the realtor knew that there were no farmers. Each year the corn grew without the help of anyone, a mystery to townspeople.
She sighed softly and raised her finger to her old lips. Her skin was now wrinkled and her body frail. Her white hair fell around her body in a long silver blanket. Then looked back at the field before her, the woman stepped into childhood footprints, creating new much older ones within the dirt.
Then like a curtain opening to reveal a grand show, the fog cleared before her revealing the view of sea of stalks and the familiar face of an emerald eyed person.
“Its time.” The creature whispered with its lilting voice.
The old woman smiled and took a step towards the person allowing the fog to close behind her, enveloping her in silence and leaving her real estate to talk about the mysterious beauty of the never-ending field.