In a town where the leaves changed colors with memories, Martha’s house was an eternal autumn. Every russet leaf was a day she’d forgotten to forget, each golden frond a moment she clung onto. Her trees were the most vibrant in the whole of Hartsville, an explosion of crimson, orange, and gold, which while beautiful, was a symbol of her inability to move forward.

On a particularly brisk morning, Martha was in her garden when young Lily from next door hopped over the fence. The child’s presence always stirred something in her. With her cherubic cheeks and infectious laughter, Lily was the spitting image of Martha’s daughter at that age.

“Do you want to know a secret?” Lily whispered, drawing close.

Martha leaned down. “Always.”

“I found a way to make the leaves fall.” Lily’s eyes sparkled with mischief. “To make the trees green again.”

Martha chuckled. “Oh, is that so?”

Nodding, Lily took Martha’s hand and led her to the oldest tree, its branches heavy with memories. With a stick, she began drawing unfamiliar symbols around its base. The wind picked up, and a solitary leaf danced its way to the ground. Lily’s laughter echoed, and more leaves followed.

For hours they played, Lily drawing, Martha watching, the past letting go, leaf by leaf. As evening approached, a lone green tree stood where none had been for decades.

“I don’t understand,” Martha whispered, tears forming.

“It’s magic,” Lily said with a shrug. But Martha saw the truth in her young eyes—a wisdom far beyond her years.

They sat beneath the tree, the past around them, not as a burden, but as a tapestry of who Martha had been and who she could be. As night enveloped them, the weight that had pressed on Martha for years lifted. The past was there, but it no longer defined her.

Days turned to weeks, and Martha’s garden transformed. The town marveled at the green oasis amidst the autumn tapestry. But to Martha, each green leaf was not an absence of memory but a balance of remembrance and release.

Years later, when Martha was no longer there, the town’s children would play in her garden, the trees a mix of green and autumn hues. They would whisper tales of the old woman and the child who taught a town to let go. And in their stories, Martha and Lily’s laughter echoed, timeless, a testament to the power of letting go and the magic that lived next door.

dK