“Aunt Mattie, could I go out and explore around the house?” Brady had been at Mattie’s for several days now, and he was getting cabin fever. Even his books were not enough to keep his interest when he looked outside at the beautiful forest that was only a few steps away from this cottage. He was itching to go have a look.

“Why sure, Brady. Gosh, I should have mentioned it to you before this. It’s wonderful back in those trees; they’re old growth, been there for decades and decades. Come here to the window.” Brady walked over to where his aunt was standing by the big window over the sink in the kitchen. “You see where I’m pointing? Over by that big pine and the oak next to it?” Brady nodded. “You can’t see it good from here, but there’s a trail that leads into the forest. It’s where I go when I need a dose of real nature. You go on and explore. When you’re hungry, come home.”

“That’s all?”

“Yup. Dinner can wait until you’re back. Just don’t go to far off of the path while you’re on your own. I’ll go with you one of these days soon, and we’ll explore other parts, but I have some work to do today. You go on your own and enjoy it.”

Brady grabbed his jacket from the hook by the door and headed out the back door and across the field to where his aunt had pointed to the trail. It was a gorgeous day, cold but sunny, and Brady took long strides as he walked next to his aunt’s garden and onto the trail. It was well worn and Brady figured his aunt loved wood walking as much as he did. He set off down the path, taking in the tall trees and undergrowth that sprouted all along the path. His aunt was right; these were very old hardwoods stretching up into the sky. Brady had read a book about trees that somebody had left in one of the motels he’d lived in, and he had been fascinated by the research the author had done about the interconnectedness of trees. Brady saw them as real living things that were able to clean the atmosphere of the planet.

As he moved deeper into the woods, he spotted a lot of mushrooms, and made a plan in his head to check out a book on fungi from the library so he could figure out which of them were edible. Of course, his aunt might know, too. She seemed really smart about stuff and had an amazing garden of vegetables and herbs. There were also a lot of varieties of ferns and wildflowers in patches everywhere, and when he walked quietly he could hear the rustle of small creatures.

Brady, who mostly had only read about forests and trees and such, was fascinated. There was so much to learn about all around him. His life had been spent on highways and seedy hotels or sleeping in the van, and this was so new to him. He found a fallen log and sat down on it, looking around him and taking mental notes about what he wanted to learn about. His mind was always seeking out knowledge; he know how weird that was for a kid of only twelve, but it’s somehow the way he just was. He sat for ages, just thinking, and suddenly he was aware that he was cold, his rear end was wet from the moisture of the log, and the sun was setting fast in these short days of fall. He stood up, looked around, and set off on a run back to the house knowing his aunt would already have something hot for him to drink. She was just like that.

He had landed in a good place, he thought, a really good place.