Fawn

October 5, 2024

He loved everything about the forest. From the smell to all the shades of green - his favorite color - to the way that the light poked through the leaves - it was a place filled with magic and endless learning opportunities. Being homeschooled definitely had its perks, and this was one of them. Last year, he and Mom and Dad moved to this little cottage in the woods, with a little stream near by. After he finished his English lessons with Mom and his math lessons with Dad, the three of them would go outside for science and survival lessons. He was learning how to forage things in the area, fish from the stream, which plants were filled with poison and which were filled with vitamins; he was learning how to eat seasonally and why it was so important for the land and the body. English was fun because Mom liked to read as much as he did, so they did a lot of literary studies; and math was fun because Dad was so smart, and loved to help him solve complicated problems, but this time of day was always his favorite.

Today, they were going to go out and see what animals they could find, take a picture of them, and then go back to the cottage and look up what they eat. Mom had also told him that those pictures were going to be part of the art lesson later in the week, and he could hardly wait to see what she had in mind. They laid low in the tall grass, and the seed pods at the tops of the shoots ticked his nose as he pulled out his camera and took a picture of a small brown rabbit. He got the shot! He could not wait to see how these pictures turned out. Mom was letting him use her film camera, and she said that meant that we had to develop the photos this afternoon in her dark room. He didn’t like the dark room, but it was fun to watch the images show up on the page. They heard a tweet in the tree and out flew a robin! He knew it was flying too quickly, but still, he tried to snap a shot of it. “I think I missed it” he whispers to his parents. Mom just shrugs and puts her finger to her lips to shush him and points to an opening between the trees. His little heart flutters with excitement - he had never seen one this close before. Slowly as he can, he moves the camera back to his eye so that he can capture the shot, and to his absolute glee, as he is about to take the picture, the fawn and it’s mother turn their heads towards him and he gets the shot.