Nature listens

“It’s over. I’m done.”, read the message she first saw when she woke up that day. It was 6:45 in the morning on a warm 19th of August. The girl was up in the mountains of the French Pyrenees with her parents. She was there against her will, though she was trying to make the best out of the situation. She had set up the alarm the night before at 6:50 to see the sunrise, the sun was set to rise at 7:03 that morning, and she definitely wanted to enjoy it. After all, she was in a beautiful and magical place, and despite the conflict she was having with her parents, she wanted to enjoy the stunning landscape, the beautiful lights and the fresh air those mountains would give her. She wanted to fall in love with that magic only nature can give you, as much as she was in love with her kind of new boyfriend. 

“It’s over. I’m done.” She couldn’t believe it. How could he be leaving things like that? After the summer they just had? After promising he would always be there? After assuring he would come and get her out of there the next day? 

They had gotten into a huge fight the night before over a now too recurring silly argument. He stopped answering in the middle of those angry messages, and she finally realized they weren’t going to solve anything that night, so she sent “Good night. We love you.”, along with a picture of her and her favorite teddy bear, with whom he and she have slept every night since they met. She sent that text as she always did whenever they were apart; that argument they were having wasn’t going to stand in the way of that sweet little tradition she started. Then she set up the alarm. At 6:50. To see the sunrise. To try and make the best out of a bad situation. To try and keep her spirits up despite the fight and the loneliness she was feeling. But she woke up unexpectedly five minutes early, trying to shake off the nightmares she was having. 

And then she saw the text. “It’s over. I’m done.” She panicked. She didn’t know whether to cry, shout or throw the phone into the mountains. She stepped out of bed shaking, she tried calling him, but of course there wasn’t an answer. She then, now in tears, crawled into her parents' bed and woke them up, trying to find some comfort in any alive soul she could find. Even if it was theirs. She managed to be still for just a minute, and then she jumped out of there with a clear idea of what she was going to do next.

“To hell with them”, she thought, “to hell with them all”. She started packing her bag as fast as she could, just throwing her unfolded clothes and unread books into the inside. She was out of there. She was leaving, and hopefully, this time, for good.

“I’ve got only myself now”, she thought. 

She was so done, so done with the unkindness humans seemed to have these days, she was done trying to fit into her parents' standards, she was done fighting for her relationship alone. She was done.

She found her arts and craft pencil case in the middle of the chaos she had in that small but cozy little cabin she had filled with tears and nightmares that night, and her body stopped for a moment. It was time, she thought. She grabbed her scissors and stepped out into the wildness with her bare feet. She ran to the river she tried to bathe in the day before, decided to manage the cold water this time. 

It was about time, it was about time she managed to do something for herself. 

She undressed herself, still crying, and immersed herself into the deepness of that cold river. Her brain froze for a second. Her body turned blue for a minute. Her heart skipped a beat. Her soul finally took a fresh breath. 

Slowly, she swam to the surface to get some air. She was shaking, but the tears were gone. She surprised herself with a genuine and pure laughter coming from her now purified insides. She stepped out of the river, reaching for a big rock that was now warming up with the risen sun, and carefully sat there. 

She looked at the scissors laying on the side of the water. It was about time, she thought. She braided her hair while the sunlight painted her tired eyes. 

She took her arts and crafts scissors, and gently, she started cutting her braided hair as short as she could reach. 

It was about time she did that, she thought. And what a way. What a magical and mystical way of doing that. 

She carefully left her braid in a small rock as an offer to the magic nature and started whispering into the river and the goddesses she knew lived there. 

She stayed there for a minute, still, just hearing the water run, the birds singing and the wind blowing in her neck. 

Suddenly, something broke that harmony she was hearing, something was in the water behind her. 

She turned back, scared but curious of what she would find. 

It was an otter. A baby otter swimming towards her rapidly and joyfully. 

The girl couldn’t believe what she was seeing, it was the first time in her life she saw one of these cute animals she loved so much. 

The baby otter looked at her eyes for a second and disappeared again just as she magically showed up into the river, and the girl started crying again, now in tears of joy and happiness. 

Nature listened to her crying. Nature answered to her soul’s call. Nature brought that beautiful baby otter to her to restore the faith in love and magic she had before that terrible day. 

She dried herself with the warmth of the sun and started walking back to her cabin, now ready to leave for a better life. A better life she would create, a better life she knew she deserved. 

And as she drove away from those mountains the girl thought of the baby otter again, she knew it came to save her soul and calm her pain, she knew it was her spiritual animal trying to take care of her, she knew it wasn’t a coincidence, she knew it was fate. 

After all, thought the girl while driving, the otter was her Patronus, and never mind where she was heading, she would forever be a Potterhead.