The Tree of Ticket Leaves

By Larry Good

Meri's parents cannot take her on their trip to England because she suddenly gets sick at the last minute. She's devastated. But, going for a walk the next morning, at the Practice Field she meets the Tackling Dummy, who---by a startling coincidence---also needs to go to England.
But Meri cannot go with him. She's staying with her Aunt Am, and she knows it wouldn't be right to simply leave on a trip to England with a Tackling Dummy! Her aunt would worry too much.
He needs to go ahead, though. Meri decides to accompany him just a little of the way. They climb over the fence at the far end of the Practice Field and begin to walk. She doesn't want to say goodbye to her new friend!
On the grass near a woods they see a strange and attractive ticket---or is it a leaf? Curious, they both reach for it at the same time. They have no idea it's from The Tree of Ticket Leaves!
When they turn around, Meri almost jumps out of her skin and the Tackling Dummy almost jumps out of his canvas! They're in The Autumnforest. And standing right behind them is a huge, colorful, and whimsical Buffalo Unicorn. His name is Jethro, and he speaks first.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Larry Good
• Release date: Dec 22, 2013
• ISBN: 9781310445736

Larry Good

Larry Good grew up in Nottoway County, Virginia. Blackstone High School awarded him a diploma, the University of Virginia a B.A., and the College of William and Mary a master's degree in Education. He played football in high achool, both offense and defense, as number 66. The team won a Regional title. He met the Tackling Dummy on the Practice Field of Blackstone High School. The first thing after college, he became an English teacher, and before long he had spent most of his time in classrooms. When The Tree of Ticket Leaves takes Meri to The Lands, the first one after The Autumnforest is The Land of Upsidedown Learning. You learn through your feet. (Meri takes off her shoes and socks.) The one after that is The Land of Handwriting Speech. There's no sound when someone speaks, but you can read it. The air of this land is unforgettable. For a while the author went to work for the C & P Telephone Company. The business office was a large room filled with service representatives at their desks talking to customers on telephones. When the man of the house called, the service representative wrote "mr cld" on her records. From these five letters came The Mistercald River which flows right through the middle of The Lands. You can see it from The Tree of Ticket Leaves, which is in The Land of Pink Windmills.

Book preview

Chapter I:

SUDDENLY!

Aquamarine oranges.

Standing in Aunt Amelia’s front yard, Meri spoke out loud to herself in the bright sunshine. At the same time, she glanced at the fields and forests around her aunt’s house.

She liked the way they made a green circle.

However there wasn’t an orange on any of the trees so plentifully placed around her—much less an aquamarine orange. There wasn’t a single visible reason for anyone to be saying, Aquamarine oranges.

There was lots of air—pleasant sunlit space—because she was in the country.

She liked the words she had just thought of, and she repeated them softly again to herself as she began walking along the country road toward the small town just ahead.

Aquamarine oranges.

Soon she was approaching houses.

It was Amelia. She smiled, as she always did when she remembered that her aunt had the same name as the town—and also the county.

But she was no longer paying that much attention to what she could see.

She was playing the new game she had made up. It was called Suddenly!

The bright words lifted her spirit.

Glancing to the side appreciatively at the fields and pastures and woods going by in the warm sunshine, suddenly she spun her head around and looked straight ahead.

Another idea had just come into her mind!

The sudden motion made her light brown hair fly up briefly.

She said these words aloud, too, to imagine them better.

"Aquamarine apples."

Seeing the strangely colored apples in her mind, she continued to walk.

She liked them just as much as the oranges!

No, a little more, I think, she said out loud, because she knew there are apple trees in Amelia County, which she was very fond of.

Small bright bubbles of tar were oozing up here and there from the country road in the warm summer sunshine.

I’m glad I didn’t come barefoot, she thought, looking down at her new white tennis shoes.

She always enjoyed the short walk on this road between her Aunt Amelia’s house and the street where she and her parents lived. It wasn’t that far away.

Today, though, the walk was the least enjoyable that it had ever been—and that was why she was playing her new game. It helped her to feel better.

Then she remembered something.

She remembered that her father had once explained to her that aquamarine means sea water. Aqua means water and marine is a word referring to the ocean. She had never forgotten!

She also remembered thinking it’s especially nice in just one word to have water, the ocean, and a beautiful color.

She loved that word.

But this time it sadly reminded her that, at that very moment, while she was walking along, her parents were on a voyage to England—on a whole ocean of sea water. The day before, they had sailed out onto it in a pretty white passenger ship called the USS Steady.

By this time, she knew, the ocean was all around them, in every single direction!

The problem was that Meri was supposed to be on the ocean too. She was supposed to be with her parents! That was why this walk to town was the least enjoyable ever!

*

In fact, just then her mother and father were standing at the stern of the USS Steady, looking out at the seemingly unending water behind them moving steadily away.

The wake, several moments of bubbles and whitened water, quickly blended into the ocean.

As it slowly disappeared, Meri’s parents were both thinking the same thing. As the wake floated away, so did their daughter. Every second, Meri was a little more distant.

But they didn’t talk about her out loud. Neither one dared to mention her. It was too hard. It was hard enough just thinking about what had happened the day before.

*

The three of them, Meri and her parents—and even her Aunt Am who was staying behind—had all looked forward to this trip for months. And then, on the very morning they were supposed to drive through the early countrysides—by all the forests, by ponds drifting up mist like fragile fountains, through busier and busier traffic—yesterday morning—Meri had suddenly gotten sick!

Or at least, she had all the symptoms of being sick. They seemed severe, and her parents were dismayed. Meri was also frightened at the unspoken thought that she might not be able to go.

Aunt Amelia, who was called from her nearby house in the country, and who of course came immediately, thought they—the symptoms—might be, at least partly, the result of so much excitement before the trip. She knew her niece. But she also admitted—she had to—that a bug might have come along too, because Meri’s temperature—accompanying her nausea—was over 101degrees Fahrenheit.

It was hard to understand what actually had happened! Because only a few hours after Meri’s parents had left, her symptoms were—gone!!!

But by then it was too late. The ship had sailed.

Whatever had really happened, before they left it just didn’t seem possible to take their daughter in a car all the way to Norfolk, Virginia. She was throwing up too badly.

Of course her parents were agonizing about whether to try to take her anyway. They didn’t want her to be unbearably disappointed, as they knew she would be. They knew how she would feel if they had to leave her behind. And they didn’t want to be disappointed, either.

One idea that had occurred to them was that, if they could only somehow get her safely on the ship, they could put her to bed immediately in the cabin.

She would probably recover quickly, they believed.

But, suppose she had something contagious?

Meri’s tears then broke her parents’ hearts, and her voice made the final decision.

I’m too sick to go, she admitted, throwing up and then looking back up at them with a face that broke both of their hearts again.

Her parents were just about destroyed. Her mother sat on the edge of the bed and put her arms around her daughter, spoiling the suit she had so carefully picked out to wear on the ship the first day. Her father’s eyes were just noticeably wet, but this time he didn’t make any attempt to inconspicuously dry them as he normally would have.

Her mother and father looked at each other. Through their eyes, they each knew what the other was deciding.

None of them would go to England!

They were unwilling to leave their daughter that ill and so unbearably disappointed at the same time. Even though her father, a geography teacher, had had a special dream all of his life to cross the mighty Atlantic on a ship—and this would probably be his only opportunity.

It was at this point that, as emotionally devastated as she was, and feeling pitifully sick to her stomach, Meri suspected what they were thinking and refused to allow them to stay behind simply because she now had to.

Unselfishly, she told them it would be all right. She loved her Aunt Am immensely, she reminded them, and they—she and her Aunt—would have a lot of fun together following their trip on maps. Because of her father, Meri actually liked maps. He had been showing them to her all of her life.

She had a vivid imagination, and a strong will, and so her parents weren’t surprised at all when she then claimed that she might even come to England by herself—on her own—when she was better—and meet them there.

You’ll see, she stated with a strange confidence in her voice that comforted even herself in spite of the obviously ridiculous idea.

I know the way, she reminded them.

And, of course, because of their love of maps, she did.

But her parents didn’t take these words, filtered through a fever, seriously at all. They were what any admirable girl full of spirit might say in a crisis— especially a girl overwhelmed with a sudden crushing disappointment!

Their daughter’s spirit lifted theirs. And they also hadn’t failed to notice her unquestionable kindness.

So, with tears in both of their eyes, broken hearts, and incredible reluctance, they left their beloved daughter behind.

It was sad for them in ways they were unwilling even to think about as they drove slowly down the street. Because deep down inside—and perhaps even not so deep—they knew England had already lost its most important attraction.

Chapter II:

THE TACKLING DUMMY

It was good that they didn’t see Meri choking with sobs as they disappeared down the street.

And then, she became even more ill. Aunt Amelia hurried her to the doctor, who, after examining her and also hearing the special circumstances, prescribed going to bed and some disagreeably tasting medicine.

Don’t try to go to England by yourself, Aunt Am said softly to the dim figure lying motionless in the bed, just before closing the door. She knew it wasn’t necessary, but she loved her niece too much not to say those words just in case.

Alone, Meri began to think. Her spirits were lifted. Of course she knew she couldn’t go to England on her own, and she smiled at her aunt for asking her not to go. But it was an idea that she playfully liked having in her mind. It would be fun to imagine that nonexistent trip!

Aunt Am also relaxed. She knew Meri wouldn’t try to go anywhere by herself—especially as far as—and as impossible as—England!

She’s a good child—the very best. No, I don’t have to worry about her, she said almost out loud as she reached her favorite room, the kitchen. But she did wonder with a little surprising concern what she herself would have done, at the same age, if the same circumstances had happened to her.

Her eyes sometimes open and sometimes not, Meri began thinking disconnectedly about her own special trip to England. How could it happen?

Not, she knew. But the thought did come to her that there probably was a way— somehow. If only she knew what it was! Finally, she fell asleep.

The next day, after resting deeply all night, even during a few spectacular dreams, Meri woke up in perfect health.

She could have gone anyway, her aunt realized with a mixture of relief and sadness that Meri had lost her trip probably because she was looking forward to it so much.

But it was too late.

*

Meri continued her walk along the uneven country road with its occasional shiny bubbles of tar in the sunshine. She was ready to stop thinking about aquamarine—for the moment at least—and go on with her game.

When closer to the town—almost there—she looked back at the various fields she had passed and the forests beyond them, all green.

The August sun was noticeably warm. It was a beautiful day.

Anchor maps, she suddenly said out loud, looking into the clear air straight ahead of her, and vaguely at the sky above, at the same time. Below, she was aware of the town’s first sidewalk.

She liked the idea of a map for anchors to follow. That was funny!

"Or maybe anchors with maps on them or all over them," she went on, knowing no other decoration on an anchor would be so appropriate.

She smiled.

And then, because anchor and ankle are so similar, her mind suddenly changed the idea to

Ankle maps.

Abruptly she glanced toward her own ankles, which she couldn’t see because of the white socks she was wearing with her also white tennis shoes.

The socks looked neat. As she looked, however, she imagined a very pretty map, continued from one ankle to the next, of a voyage across the Atlantic Ocean—perhaps even of her own trip to England. As she walked along the sidewalk, she left the maps on her ankles.

Suddenly! was actually a very simple game.

All that was required was to think—suddenly, or all at once—of any two (or even more) words without any connection between them. You Suddenly! put them together. Then, you see what idea you’ve gotten by accident! That was how you could think of something as normally unthinkable as ankle maps!

It’s always fun to say the new idea out loud, too.

Sometimes Meri would say the new idea quietly in her mind, if she were with someone who wasn’t playing, or if for some reason her spirits weren’t quite as high as normal. The new idea would then usually raise her spirits.

Once she had unexpectedly said, Feather duster lightning and laughed out loud at the idea of soft friendly lightning that somehow helps to keep everything a little cleaner.

Continuing now along the sidewalk as she reached the town, Meri was feeling better, she noticed. It helped that she always liked this walk—in either direction!

It was then that she correctly realized that all of her ideas in the game Suddenly! were about the ocean. In fact, both words of anchor maps were.

That realization made her think of her parents again. She pictured in her mind their pretty white ship, surrounded by all the swells and perhaps even a dolphin.

Her Aunt Am hadn’t been so sure she should go on this particular walk so soon. It might bring back too much of her disappointment, she thought. Because what Meri planned to do was walk across her own yard. The house would be empty, of course, and the sight of it empty wouldn’t be easy.

But seeing the house wasn’t why she was going, although she loved her home.

No, there was something about the yard that she wanted to see! Not surprisingly, it had something to do with geography.

Her father had carried his love of geography much farther than his classes at the high school. In the middle of rural Virginia, in a country county about 120 miles from the invincible Atlantic, he had also established his own Institute of Geographical Discovery to honor geography.

And to honor discoverers.

And then, through his personality and a resourceful mind, he had made it come very much alive although it was so far from the ocean.

He actually held classes and other events for the public throughout the year and especially in the summers. He planned visits by interesting scholars and fascinating speakers. His inspiring creative displays of a geographical nature attracted wide attention because he was successful in