Magic in the Fire

By the time the nurses got outside, the leaves were on fire.

The residents of Mountain Rest Nursing home shuffled to their front porch rocking chairs before the sun rose every morning. And this warm, muggy October morning was no different. The majority of residents’ bones were fragile, worn with age, that they needed assistance to get in and out of these chairs.

Every morning it was the same scene. The well watered trees were covered in the same green they were back in May and some time in November, all the summer leaves would turn brown and fall of as the temperature took a swan dive off the cliff and left them in six months of cold.

“There used to be four seasons!” Old Ethel whispered in the dark, waving her bony finger around. Between winter and summer, the plants gently came alive. Trees were flowers! Ya sneezed your nose off but being outside was actually nice! Same in the autumn, or fall depending on where ya were!”

“That’s nice Ethel,” one of the nurses said as they all shook their heads. Poor Old Ethel had been at the nursing home longer than any of the other residents and any of the current employees. Her mind and body were going but some how still going.

“Tell me about the trees catching fire but not dying!” Marvin asked. The didn’t even bother to react to that one anymore. Everyone was enchanted with her stories when they first came here. But after a few weeks, anyone with half a functioning brain realized she was just a ranting, old, lunatic that was better left ignored.

“In the moths where summer was turning into winter, the air was crisp. Not as cold as winter. And the leaves would have all these beautiful colors in them. So bold and bright. Reds, yellows, oranges, and golds. The fairies came to life during those two seasons. The gentle, good ones. Not the tricksters. The tricksters were the ones who cursed the land like this.” Her voice never above a whisper.

“Ethel, you know it’s not good to be telling these stories,” the head nurse says as he drapes a blanket over her and moving her walker out of the way. Old Ethel fell silent, eyes taking on a far off stare; the telltale sign that her mind was fading out again. “It’s good to recall facts though. Good for your mind and good for your health. Can you recall facts from your past?”

“You know what else is good for your mind and health?” another resident asked. “Sleep.”

“Seeing our families,” added another.

“Staying connected with society,” a third chimed in.

“Yet we’re out in the middle of nowhere and up before the butt crack of dawn,” Marvin finished. “If you want Old Ethel to stop spoutin stories, give her somethin new to experience!”

The nurses ignored the rants of the residents and stepped inside the home to enjoy a moment to themselves; leaving the residents in their regular, east-facing rocking chairs, looking out towards the regular trees to watch the regular sunrise.

“I kind of feel bad for Old Ethel,” one nurse gossiped as she sipped her coffee. “Head full of nonsense.”

“As long as she’s happy,” another replied as he takes a seat. “But keeping it in her head is a problem. She’ll rile up the other residents.” Sunlight dripped through the gaps in the closed curtains, flooding the kitchen with gold.

“The forest!” one of the residents cried. The nurses rushed outside to aid their residents who were chattering among themselves, as lucid as if they were all fifty to sixty years younger. Once outside, all concern for the residents was forgotten. There was a bigger problem. The forest was on fire!

No. Not on fire. But the leaves had changed color, just like in Old Ethel’s stories. Radiant reds, gorgeous golds, ornate oranges, and youthful yellows flooded the forest.

“It has to be a prank,” one of the nurses insisted.

“It’s magic!” Old Ethel stated with all the confidence and authority in the world and with more volume in her voice than they’d ever heard before falling silent, eyes donning a far off look as her mind went again.

“We need to call someone,” one nurse said.

“We need to get the residents inside to safety!” Another shouted in a panic, reaching for his resident.

“Get your hands off of me!”

“Would you quit freaking out?” Marvin demanded as he swatted the lead nurse’s hands away from him. “We’re old and can’t handle your excitement!” The lead nurse actually backed away at that. His own words that he had said so many times were thrown back at him.

“What should we do?” one of the nurses asked.

The wind blew gently and brought a coolness to the world. A crisp new smell graced them, like someone had put winter into a perfume bottle and given the air just the tiniest of sprays. And with the cool breeze, came dancing colorful leaves from the forest. The wind tossed them up and down, back and forth, side to side as the amazed residents watched.

“It’s like they’re dancing,” one resident noted

“Or playing,” another one offered.

“Like a child,” they all agreed as they watched. No one can take their eyes off the strange sight. Especially one resident who hadn’t had the brain function for that much focus in years. She looked alert as could be.

Old Ethel held out her shaky hand as the leaves rushed the porch, twirling around each resident and nurse. Her eyes focused on a single multi colored that seemed to orbit her. The strange breeze allows this one leaf to float gently into the outstretched hand. “Well hello there,” Old Ethel coos as she brings the leaf closer to her face. “I knew you’d come back!” The leaf is bouncing noticeably less in her hands.

The leaf takes off to join the others in the yard. “Don’t go.” Old Ethel’s outreached hand slowly lowers to the armrest on the chair, shaking again.

“How about we take you inside Ethel,” a nurse suggests, placing a hand on the old woman’s shoulders. Could someone die from disappointment? “Um… Ethel?”

Ethel didn’t respond with words but merely grabbed for her walker. The same leaf broke off from the rest and circle If they listened carefully, they’d have sworn they could hear energetic, high pitched sounds coming from the leaf. But this was strange enough for them as is.

Ethel reached the edge of the porch as the leaf rejoined the others. Ethel looked at the grass below her and then back at the other residents. Her hands let go of the walker as she stepped off the porch for the first time in… well… she couldn’t remember. She turned back to the residents and grinned, her hair just as ablaze as the forest was.

“Well come on you old windbags!” Marvin exclaimed as he grabbed his cane and hat. “Ethel says they want to play. So let’s play and be young while we can! These dusty old bones need some excitement!” He slapped his knee as he stood and shuffled off to join Old, seemingly becoming younger, Ethel who was dancing, running, and jumping with the one leaf in the center of it all. Her slippers had long since been discarded in the grass and she couldn’t care less about it.

By the time Marvin joined her, all the other residents had made it out of their chairs with a strength and energy they believed had long left them. The leaves seem to notice the newcomers and several of them leave the dance, each orbiting around a resident before bouncing off them and rejoining the rest.

Laughter and shouts of joy quickly fill the once quiet air as the residents revel in their new energy. The first change noticeable being everyone’s hair matched the color of the leaf that chose them.

“My joints don’t hurt!”

“My hair is back!”

“My hip doesn’t pop!”

“I can see again!”

“My leg is back!” The residents cheered and clapped as a prosthetic went flying through the air and landed in the grass with a loud thud.

“Should we call someone?” one of the nurses asked. It felt like a dumb question coming out.

“And tell them what?” the head nurse replied, “that a bunch of magic leaves are turning old people young?”

A roar of wind cuts off any conversation as thousands of leaves are carried into the yard and spiral around the residents who now appear to be in their twenties or thirties, younger than the youngest nurse on staff. They laughed and cried out in delight as the leaves form a wall enclosing them for only seconds, but to the nurses, it felt much longer.

When the leaves fell away, a tall leaf made woman stood in the center of a group of children. Beyond the sight, a new path had opened up into the forest, laid with smooth, colorful stones. The still floating leaves circled the woman.

“Didn’t Old Ethel mention fairies?” one nurse whispered. They all want to run, grab these now children and keep them away from whatever is going to happen, yet, they couldn’t. Shouldn’t?

The tallest fairy offered her hands out. Ethel was the first to take it. She then held out her hand to the other children, mouth moving, they could clearly see, yet sound evaded the nurses. Marvin acted first and took the fairy’s other hand. That was all the other children needed before each one was in one of two lines.

“Come back,” a nurse whispered as they made their way towards the path. No amount of yelling was able to produce more sound. The last child moved down the path and out of sight. A second roar of wind stripped the fire like leaves from their trees, charging the new path as it closed behind them. The nurses found themselves able to move again. The trees had been on fire, they’d seen amazing things from that fire. And now, it was gone.