The Dead Maple

“Bye mom! I’m driving to writing club!” 

“Bye, love you! Drive safely!”

“I will! Love you too!” I walk out of the house relieved to be away from my mom. I mean I like spending time with her and I love her to the ends of the earth, it’s just that I need a break sometimes and ever since this horrible quarantine, I've hung out with no one but my mom and trust me, that would drive any teenage girl insane. 

Anyway, I’m going to book club for the first time. I’m kind of scared because I feel like all of these people that are going to be there are going to be nerds and really smart, which I am not. I just want to fit in because I feel like I don’t anywhere anymore. Sense quarantine no one has texted me other than people asking me for the link to our zoom classes or a question on homework. The point that I’m trying to make is that I have no friends and I need to make some, that’s the only reason I’m going to this book club. Once things start opening up again, I’m probably never going to come back to this club but I had to get out of the house. 

Tenachly spring just ended but it doesn't feel like it, the weather is perfect and everything is still in bloom. I love driving past all of the beautiful flowers and all of the birds and trees. As I was looking out the window when I was stopped at a traffic light, I noticed something weird. I was driving in the city but then there was a long piece of land, about as big as a football field with people picnicking on it, but that wasn't the weird part. In the middle of this whole green space was only one huge maple tree, but it was dead. I don’t understand why someone would think that something that is dead would be so pretty. “BEEP!” the car behind me honked and I realized that the light was green. I kept driving and tried to completely forget about the maple tree. 

I finally arrived at the park where the book club was meeting and I saw three girls and a few guys sitting in a circle who looked like they were discussing something very educational. I walked over to them and said, “is this the book club?”

A guy who looked to be about my age answered, “Yes, you can sit down and join our conversation, we were thinking about writing a book together.”

"So, this is more like a writers circle than a book club? Because I’m not much of a writer, sorry.” I think that sounded rude but I was already half way through my sentence before I realized that. Well, nice try for making friends, but I failed.

I was about to start walking back to my car when a blond girl said, “It’s okay. None of us are very good at writing, we just wanted to brainstorm to see if anyone had any ideas so that maybe we could get a rough draft for something. Please feel free to stay even if you are not good at writing at all. My name is Samantha but everyone just calls me Sam. ”

She seemed nice and not a nerd at all. “I’m Elle, and thank you.” I think I liked her. 

Sam then said, “It’s completely okay if you don’t but do you happen to have any ideas for a book? Even if you think that it’s the worst idea in the world, still throw it out there because it could turn into something good. All the great stories started out with a silly idea”

“Well, I don’t have anything at the moment but I’ll keep thinking.” Sam smiled and from that moment on I knew that we were going to be friends. I smiled back and truly meant it because I was very happy to get to know somebody. One of the boys started talking about aliens and how that would make a terrific story and how they could take over the world but I decided to use that time to think. I just need something simple like...like oh! I got an idea, it’s really bad but I think that I’ll throw it out there like Sam said to. I waited until the alien boy stopped talking then said, “On the drive here I saw something that I thought was odd.” They all seemed to be focusing on every word that I was saying with all of their might so I continued. “There was a field that was pretty big and in the middle of it there was a huge Maple tree. The thing that caught my eye though was that it was dead. I didn't think that anyone with any sort of eye for beauty at all would put a dead tree there.”

“Keep going,” urged one of the other girls who seemed captivated in every sound that came out of my mouth. 

“Well, I had the weirdest thought that a criminal put that tree and the field there, so that people would come and play and he could steal their stuff. I was thinking that he was trying to make it look like a good spot for families to come and play but of course because he wasn't perfect, he put a dead Maple tree and he hides in it every day so he can take peoples wallets when they are not paying attention. I know it’s a really weird idea, but I thought that I should throw it out there.”

“I think it’s brilliant!” a guy with black hair said. “What do you think we should call it though?”

“I mean, this might sound stupid but I was thinking just, The Dead Maple.” I think that I’m fitting in pretty well with these people and on the plus side, none of them are acting like nerds. 

“I wrote that all down as you were saying it Elle. That was an amazing idea!” Sam said. “It’s been an hour already so we should all start heading home but it was really nice to meet you Elle and thank you for your wonderful ideas! Can I have your number so that I can text you when and where we are going to have our next meeting to try to get more ideas on this book of yours?”

“Of course!” I said and I gave her my number. I told everyone goodbye and then walked to my car. You know what, I think I might go to another book club meeting; I think I actually enjoyed it.