The Red Garden

by Alice Hoffman

It was a decision before it was a question. That was the way things happened in the human world. In our world, a leaf falls one day and we know it’s time. We feel our hearts slowing down. We try to fight it with cold water, bee stings, fresh kills. But the leaf has fallen, the water doesn’t rouse us. When we sleep we dream more than any other creatures. We dream of entirely different lives. We are men and women. We walk and talk in houses, and fields, and farmyards. Leaves mean nothing to us. Thousands can fall and we look the other way. A beautiful woman walks toward us and we fall in love. We feel it happening, but can’t stop it. In your world, love pins you to the ground. You take it to bed and wake up with it. You dream it and it becomes your life. I knew I’d never sleep through a winter again. I took a knife and cut myself to see how fast I would bleed. Slow, and I would be a bear forever. Fast, and I was yours. I nearly died from a single wound. That was what it meant to be human.