I parked my car in the little carpark at the edge of the forest and got out. It was a crisp spring morning and I had no plans ahead of me. Just fresh air and exercise. I headed off along the forest path to the left of my car, whistling to myself. It felt good to be free. I had left my boring, dead-end office job, and I wasn’t going back.
I followed the path for a couple of hours. I arrived at a clearing where I sat down on a fallen tree trunk and took out my flask of coffee. Sipping on my coffee, I took in the view. The morning sun through the new leaves, the grass in the clearing, the birds calling to one another. I took out my book and looked up the description of the plants growing around me. I had always been curious about my surroundings, how things worked, why we said certain words. It drove my parents crazy when I was a child. I had found this nature guide in a second-hand bookstore and was pleased to be putting it to use. I placed the book back in my rucksack and crossed the clearing, heading towards a new path that led further into the forest. Acorns, pine needles, twigs, dead leaves. I imagined myself as an expert tracker, following the trace of an endangered animal, looking for clues to its whereabouts. Some prints in the mud, some droppings. Some hairs caught on the brambles as it went by. It was around one o’clock, so I sat down against a large oak tree and took my sandwiches out. I was thinking about a message that I had received a couple of days before.
“After all these years. I was looking through some old photos and you were in one of them so I thought I’d look you up on the internet.”
An ex-girlfriend from 25 years ago. In the past that just wouldn’t have been very likely. In the past, the past remained the past. You fell out of touch with people, you moved to another town, another country, they got married, had a life that had nothing to do with you any longer. Not anymore. Just look them up. Spy on them. Are they single? Did their hair fall out? Do they look happy? Oh well, at least she meant no harm and at least she had the decency to contact me and tell me that she had been stalking me! It made me wonder though, how many other people from my past life might have done the same thing without telling me?
I was feeling a little tired after my morning exertions and was thinking about nothing in particular when I heard a voice. “Mr Jenkins? I thought it was you.”
I looked up from where I was sitting and squinted at the figure standing between the sun and me.
“Mrs Groom? What are you doing here?” I asked a little confused. Mrs Groom worked at the Job Centre as a Careers Guidance Advisor.
“How is your search going Mr Jenkins?”
I felt guilty. I had quit my job, signed on, and the only way to claim my unemployment benefit was to enrol in the Jobhunter Scheme. Mrs Groom was my advisor, and here I was in the middle of the forest instead of filling out job applications.
“I was taking some fresh air. I needed to get out. I was struggling to find something which corresponded to me.”
“Each of us needs to find the right path” Mrs Groom said enigmatically.
“Err, yes” I replied uncertainly.
“I have brought some other Jobhunters with me. They would like to share their experiences with you.” Behind Mrs Groom stood three people that I hadn’t noticed until now. The first stepped gingerly forward with a nervous smile on her face. I recognized her. It was Julie, from the Jobhunter workshop.
“Hi Julie”
“Hi Dave. I wanted to talk about my jewellery. I’ve been picking up tiny pebbles. One for my jewellery, one for the path. I’ve been building as I go.”
“That sounds good Julie”, I said, smiling encouragingly, but Julie didn’t say anything else. She retreated into the background.
“Thank you Julie” said Mrs Groom, glancing a little behind herself. Returning to me, she said, “You see, that is exactly what I’m talking about. Julie has found the key to the door that leads to her pathway. She has been working very hard. Tell me, Mr Jenkins, what can you share with us?”
Having done absolutely nothing to find another job, I improvised. Pulling out the nature guide, I replied, “I have been reading this guide. I’ve learnt the names of all the trees and all the plants in the forest.”
“That’s excellent!” exclaimed Mrs Groom. “You have made the right choice. It is important to understand what is around us in order to understand what is inside us.”
Emboldened, I said “Look, I’m sitting against this oak tree. Once it was an acorn like this one”, holding an acorn between my thumb and forefinger. I examined the little cap of the acorn before lifting my head to add, “It takes hundreds of years…” But Mrs Groom and the others were gone. I looked back down at the acorn and the little pebble in my hand.