From a Great Height

Dear Ethel,
I’m dreadfully sorry to inform you that your submission has not been chosen by the producers. In my opinion, I thought it would at least make the finals in the district. Well, I hope you keep on writing and I bid you a farewell. No more is allowed in our corporation.
Sincerely your adviser,
Georgia L.

The girl perched, slanted on the tree branch read aloud, respectively. There was no fault in her dreary tone and mockery was not picked up on. She let her hands neatly fold the letter into what is had been moments ago and her eyes frequently wander back to the apple sitting in her basket. She knew her wants and needs, but eating her apple was not to be fulfilled. The reason it was there was for celebration, not for the disappointment that washed over her so suddenly.

Dear Ethel,
Our apologies to you are great! We are displeased to inform you that your story will not be accepted into our publishment and forever without our label, in the case of your submission this year. We’d like to see you accept this letter of not faulty, but encouragement to strive harder and next year bring us something much more enjoyable!
We look forward to hearing from you again!
Best wishes for future,
Uphill Publisher.

The girl felt her heart sink lowly in sadness but anger was clogging her brain. If they had not wanted her story, why couldn’t they just say so in one statement? Why did they have to elaborate in such a counseling way?

Her breathing heaved slower and slower until her eyelids fluttered shut with a last glimpse of the apple with just one bite mark from it.

Ethel fell into a deep slumber where in her unconscious, little bright colored creatures walked by her like in a game. They fleeted on a highway and she was to make her way safely across to the next level. It took only 4 tries until Ethel finally got hit by one heavily glowing, purple monster with shards of neon green teeth.

The girl awoke in gasps that lasted a minimum of a minute. Her green eyes in perspective of a drunken haze with jittery sensitivity stayed strictly on this one huge blur that sat opposite from her with obnoxious slurping and crunching emitting from it. Ethel’s nerves began rocketing and to think that her minor headache couldn’t get any worse, it did, while her hands begun shaking.

“Wow there, steady yourself…” A voice said, slurring.

A touch of wetness fell between the toes of her sandals. Then it was gone that instant it came.

“Hey, are you gaining conscious?” The same voice muttered, but more clearly.

Ethel finally began counting in her head for this madness to stop, and when she reached her destination number, everything cleared and there was just him… and the core of the apple.

The young man laughed gently to himself while waving a hand in front of her face. The girl was drawn to how hip he looked with the multi-colored rag in his light brown hair and the bell-bottom jeans. There she could see that no socks covered his ankles or feet. He was barefoot.

“Are you there, sleeping beauty?”

Much clearer, she thought.

“Who are you?” Those words stung her ears since they sounded so dull coming from her mouth. It made her sound like a robot… but certainly after the strangeness that just happened, it could have been possibly that she transformed into her… true being…

The man bit his bottom lip and kept the mere, happy smile on his face. “I’m Andrew and you must be Ethel, am I right?”

Their surroundings were misty, not that the girl reminisced, and the air was chilling to the bone. It reminded her slightly of Jurassic Park… with gutsy dinosaurs looking to feast at her flesh. Now she had a reason to stay sat next to the stranger up in the tree.

“Yes, I am Ethel.” She doubled in bravery to ask the next question. “Why are you sitting there? This is my tree.”

“Oh, really? I don’t see a post with your name on it, claiming this is your tree.” His attention got drawn to his hand rummaging in his jean pocket. His face was scrunched in a funny, sort of way, making Ethel form a little smile on her face.

Then, he pulled out a wrapped piece of Slim-Jim in which he opened and began tugging at with the teeth on the right side of his jaw.

After chewing and swallowing a bite he took feverishly, his eyes rounded back to hers, the grin settling immediately back on his face. “I read the letters right there.” He pointed out. “Why do you think you weren’t accepted?”

“I don’t know!” she exclaimed. “It’s not that it matters anyway. I will just contact another company to see if they’ll publish what I wrote.”

“No,” he shook his head closing his lighter green eyes briefly. “It does matter. I can tell writing is your passion and not being accepted had put you down. I’m trying to help you right now to think why you weren’t accepted and how you could improve into what they would like better.”

“So in other words you’re trying to do what the Uphill Publisher letter said to do.”

His short chuckle lingered in the air. Then his voice broke off the silence between them. “Not entirely, no. Think of it more like an offering to help. Besides you already paid me with the apple.”

His mouth opened to place the stick of beef into it and again he took a strong tug at it ripping the piece from whole instantly. Ethel had to admit he was very attractive and luring enough to have her watching his lips with eagerness to kiss them.

“Wait,” she muttered becoming slightly overwhelmed. “You ate my apple?”

“Maybe I did, or maybe I didn’t know it was yours until you woke up.”

“That was my apple though! You shouldn’t have just eaten it!”

“Is everything maintained to be yours too? Because I’m getting the idea that you’re turning out to be spoiled by nature.”

Ethel gawked at him easily amused by his playful words and actions.

“No, everything is not mine, but still—“

“—you shouldn’t have fallen asleep.”

“What?”

Andrew suddenly silenced himself with more Slim-Jim, but was caught off-guard when he bit down and pulled back too much that he was falling off the tree.

Ethel’s eyes widened like saucers before leaping to grab his arms held freely in front of him, wiggling in a frantic manner. He was wailing down below as was Ethel crouched strangely on the tree branch trying not to let her clammy hands pry free her dainty hands from his.

“Are you going to pull me up or not?” He almost bellowed out in tears. “I can feel the blood rushing to my head!”

“I honestly don’t think I’m strong enough to pull you!”

“Well, don’t drop me to my death!” He exclaimed breathing much heftier. Ethel’s grasp almost failed to hold on any longer with the swinging of Andrew’s body.

Ethel chose not to say anything but instead begin her squirming as her muscles started operating in attempt to pull him up. With one great pull he was already halfway sitting his bottom on the branch. His stomach strengths had the honor of drawing the rest of him to his original sitting position.

The girl was abruptly enclosed in a great hug from Andrew.

“I thought you were going to drop me!” He swallowed, allowing himself to venture further in her comfort zone, though not exactly welcomed.

“I almost did, that is until I proved to myself I was stronger than I knew…” Ethel sighed, closing her eyes and subtly breathed in the scent lingering so fresh off him. Her hands were still clutched feverishly to his clothes and she could almost feel the warmth of his skin through the material of it all.

Andrew, who clenched his teeth together before whipping the stick of meat towards the shrubs distant from him, canceled his immediate signs of aggravation and replaced the frown with the smile Ethel found adorable. It was just the way he bit his lower lip and stared on so innocently made her want to squeal of approval.

“Are you proud of yourself now?” He asked simply.

Ethel prodded her tongue into the side of her cheek before answering with a great breathe released, “I’m happier than I was, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“That’s good—I’m glad to hear that. You’re making progress already, you see.”

“But,” She averted her eyes. “I don’t want to make any progress. I want to be accepted without renewing everything.”

Andrew let out a small chuckle before changing the position of his hands that lay on her knees to the skin her sweater revealed. It was burning hot to the touch that Ethel felt; almost like electricity leaving his palms like an alchemist and pouncing to take down her skin cells. Her eyes slowly made their way to his green ones that had flecks of light brown like cinnamon almost. She was scared now of what would happen considering this new position they were in. It was not like she was never held this way, but figuring she let him have his fun already, now she didn’t find it very appropriate for this.

“What are you doing?” She asked out of mind. He looked dumbfounded for a split second before gathering his wits and kept at the smooth pace he started.

“You don’t find my friendly gesture friendly, do you?” The smile enlightened his face again.

“It’s just… I guess, I mean, it was so sudden, maybe, that I kind of just had to ask…is all.” Ethel squeaked the last part out with the squeezing of her eyes shut. Why did he have to have this effect on her? Why was she allowing his affection?

A brush of his 3 fingers stung at her already flushed cheeks.

“You fascinate me, you know that?”

Ethel’s face contracted into a more relaxed look with her eyes still shut for her own satisfaction really. “I do?”

“Yes, you do—a lot actually. I never thought meeting someone in a tree could be as entrancing as you are to me right now.”

The words floated around in her head and poked at her brain all at once that she reacted in an odd way, but would have seemed natural to others.

Her lips were brushed so gently against his that it sent the current of electricity in both directions. He made the move to respond and sighed back with the graceful motions of his lips. His hands slithered to her neck like a snake and fingernails skated up and down at the right moments.

Ethel made way to play with the ragged string from the bottom of his jeans that was caught so lightly against the bark of the branch they sat upon.

Much to her displeasure, Andrew pulled back with a saliva strand still brandishing the midst of their lips. His sweet smile accidently tugged on it and it no longer kept them composed in the so say “web”.

“Do you have a new inspiration for writing now?” He asked in a mere whisper.

“Definitely.”