by Sara Finnerty
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\nSadie was as big as a tree.\u00a0 She was as tall as the tallest tree, and at her hips as wide as the widest.\u00a0 Her skin was many rusty colors all at once, and her hair was the kind of red that made you feel like you might be dreaming.\u00a0 When she blinked, sometimes an eyelash would fall, big as a feather, swaying with the air, onto the ground.<\/p>\n
When she was young and able to fit through the doorways of school buildings, kids craned their necks up to look at her and called out, \u201cHow\u2019s the air up there?\u201d<\/p>\n
From high above she wasn\u2019t sure if they were making fun of her.\u00a0 But she figured they probably were.<\/p>\n
Soon she was too big for doorways anyway.<\/p>\n
<\/br> <\/br> <\/br> <\/br> Sometimes Sadie sat and lowered her head to look at the people that passed by.\u00a0 She wondered if any of them would talk to her.\u00a0 She said, \u201cHello.\u201d<\/p>\n Her hair swept onto the ground and tripped everything it touched.\u00a0 Sometimes she didn\u2019t mean to hurt anyone, but sometimes she did.<\/p>\n Sometimes she wanted to hurt them.<\/p>\n <\/br> <\/br> \u201cI am a giant.\u201d<\/p>\n Sadie wanted to cut herself into pieces, smaller.<\/p>\n The whole world was big enough for millions of Sadies, but she felt too big for the world.<\/p>\n \u201cYou are a fat giant.\u201d<\/p>\n A chorus of boys yelled up, slow, enunciating each word, all together and as loud as they could, to make sure she could hear.<\/p>\n She said, \u201cI am a fat giant who will never die.\u201d<\/p>\n They said, \u201cYou are ugly.\u00a0 Too ugly to look at.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/br> <\/br> \u201cI am quite beautiful,\u201d she thought, looking at herself reflected back in the windows.<\/p>\n \u201cYes, you are,\u201d the buildings said. \u00a0\u201cBut we can\u2019t help you.\u201d<\/p>\n Sadie touched them.\u00a0 Some of their windows broke.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are not immortal,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n <\/br> But a crowd of people followed her from the city and set her on fire.\u00a0 They made a thousand person circle around her.\u00a0 The people set the meadow on fire.<\/p>\n And then the people set Sadie on fire.<\/p>\n Sadie stood as still as she could, to make them think she was dead, until eventually the people left.<\/p>\n <\/br> <\/br> I was one of the thousand to set Sadie on fire, even though I loved her.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want to burn her.\u00a0 But it was easier to hate her than to love her.<\/p>\n And then I saw her stand.\u00a0 Burned.\u00a0 I went to her, climbed her, and hid in her hair.\u00a0 I used her tears to stick myself to her.<\/p>\n Sadie walked away from the meadow.\u00a0 Her shoulders were hunched.\u00a0 She was too sad to cry.<\/p>\n <\/br> \u201cI am not big enough, but I am too big.\u201d<\/p>\n She wanted to touch the moon.\u00a0 She wanted to be in outer space, where she could find someone bigger than her.\u00a0 So big that they would pluck her from the earth like a toothpick, someone so big that she would splinter off in their teeth.<\/p>\n <\/br> <\/br> But soon she hit land.<\/p>\n <\/br> <\/br> As Sadie walked away, I whispered into her skin that she was beautiful.\u00a0 She was a color that didn\u2019t exist.\u00a0 She was the biggest thing.<\/p>\n <\/br> <\/br> \u201cSadie!\u201d I screamed. \u00a0\u201cDon\u2019t let me go!\u201d<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know why she didn\u2019t hear me.<\/p>\n The mountains got taller, and it took her longer to climb them.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going to climb until I am tall enough to always touch the clouds.\u201d<\/p>\n Sadie reached up.\u00a0 Almost.<\/p>\n \u201cSadie.\u201d<\/p>\n I was the one crying now.\u00a0 My tears stuck to her.\u00a0 I had never had sticky tears before.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t enough to keep me from falling.\u00a0 Just when I thought I didn\u2019t have the strength to hold onto her anymore, Sadie stopped walking.\u00a0 She stood, still.\u00a0 I wound my hands into her hair.\u00a0 I dug my heels into her.\u00a0 Her head moved, from side to side.\u00a0 Slow.\u00a0 She stopped breathing.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n I turned to see a whole mountainside of Sadies.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n Sadie lowered her arms to touch her torso.<\/p>\n She pressed her fingertips against her body.\u00a0 A giant finger pushed against my stomach.\u00a0 She buried me in her skin.\u00a0 My torso sunk into hers.\u00a0 I am sure she never even knew I was there.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are as big as me.\u201d<\/p>\n Sadie walked forward until she felt arms stretch, reach for her.\u00a0 We flooded in. by Sara Finnerty Sadie was as big as a tree.\u00a0 She was as tall as the tallest tree, and at her hips as wide as the widest.\u00a0 Her skin was many rusty colors all at once, and her hair was … Continue reading
\nThe Sierra Nevada Giant Sequoias are the largest living things on this planet earth.\u00a0 They are not the tallest, but they are the largest.\u00a0 They have the most volume.\u00a0 They take up the most space. <\/em><\/p>\n
\nSadie grew.\u00a0 She was too big for anyone to see her eyes, her face.\u00a0 As she grew, so did her hair.\u00a0 It grew in straight lines and snaked curls and calm, windy waves.\u00a0 It grew and stuck to her body.\u00a0 It grew and made cracks in her skin.\u00a0 Her arms, thin compared to her massive body, reached out for someone who could heed her.<\/p>\n
\nThe root system of the Sequoia is unusually shallow, but they compensate for their shallow roots by extending them outwards, in excess of thirty feet, and tangling and braiding their roots together with the underground arms of neighboring Giant Sequoia.\u00a0 In this way, they anchor each other for thousands of years.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nSadie slept in a meadow big enough to contain her.\u00a0 She touched her nose and felt it getting longer and fatter.\u00a0 She cried sticky tears into the grass. \u00a0Her tears stuck to her face.\u00a0 Her tears stuck to her body.<\/p>\n
\nThe Giant Sequoia\u2019s bark can be up to five feet thick.\u00a0 The thickness of its bark is one reason why the Sequoia is essentially fireproof, this and its tendency to retain moisture.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nBoys jabbed holes in Sadie\u2019s ankles. \u00a0She was a giant.<\/p>\n
\nThe Sequoia is resistant to most things that kill other trees.\u00a0 An insect, for example, cannot kill a Giant Sequoia. <\/em><\/p>\n
\nSadie walked away from the boys, from the people that passed by.\u00a0 She walked into the city and found buildings as tall as her.\u00a0 She looked into their mirrors.\u00a0 It was the first time she saw herself.<\/p>\n
\nSadie walked back to her meadow, the only place she knew.\u00a0 She wanted to be alone.<\/p>\n
\nWhen she opened her eyes she found that she was not in pain.\u00a0 She was on her knees.\u00a0 She got up, she could still stand.\u00a0 She could still walk.<\/p>\n
\nI followed Sadie in secret for years.\u00a0 No one saw me.\u00a0 And I was too small for Sadie to know I was there.<\/p>\n
\nSadie reached her arms up and tried to touch the clouds.\u00a0 They were too far away.<\/p>\n
\nSadie found the ocean.\u00a0 It was much bigger than she was.\u00a0 She rested herself on it and circled over on her back.\u00a0 She floated.\u00a0 I thought I might get stuck underneath her, underwater, and drown, but I didn\u2019t.\u00a0 I slid to her armpit and watched the water go by.\u00a0 I felt Sadie\u2019s sadness through her thick, thick skin.<\/p>\n
\nSadie backstroked the whole ocean.\u00a0 Birds landed on her stomach and perched on her face.\u00a0 She liked the feel of the ocean on her back and she liked feeling small.<\/p>\n
\nI could assume things about Sadie, because loving something leads you to believe that you know things you could never know for sure.<\/p>\n
\nWhen Sadie hit land, she stood, tentatively, slowly.\u00a0 Her hair was slick.\u00a0 Her fingers were tucked into her hands.\u00a0 Sadie was on a beach.\u00a0 People stared up, horrified at her size.\u00a0 She stood there and let the water drip from her skin and puddle around her until she stood in a lake.\u00a0 Sadie stepped out.\u00a0 She heard girls screeching.\u00a0 Sadie quietly said to herself, \u201cI\u2019m a monster.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nWhen western settlers first reported the existence of the Giant Sequoias, no one back east believed that these trees could really be true.\u00a0 But they are. <\/em><\/p>\n
\nSadie went up a mountain and down a valley in just a few great strides.\u00a0 When she was tired she curled into open meadows and slept.\u00a0 She didn\u2019t cry as much, so there was nothing to stick me to her anymore.\u00a0 I was beginning to fall off.\u00a0 I spent my days clutching at her thick skin and her strong hair, not wanting to let go.<\/p>\n
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\nSARA FINNERTY<\/strong> is originally from Queens, New York and currently lives in Atwater Village, CA. She\u2019s been previously published in Flecks, Next Words, Sprawl, and Stella’s Literary Bistro.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"