Tuffs of Love

The Once-ler. We have heard of his legend. Was that all? Have you heard the rest?



            A busy man he was. Ambitious dreams he prolonged to achieve. Nevertheless, had The Once-ler ever fall in love with a girl during his youthful days, and did a girl even love him back?



            Oh, it was a long time ago. Though his hair had turned silvery white, a story here has revealed how it all began that was one thing he could never forget..



CHAPTER 1 - Once-ler's Sign



The Once-ler. A tall young man with messy black hair, wearing gray descent hat, who loves to play with his black electric guitar and is a great inventor. What he does not understand is that every invention he makes comes to nothing but a failure. From there, he feels lost. All he ever dreamed of is to make his family proud. Because of many failures he had done, they can't take him seriously anymore. His twin retarded brothers always bully him for being nerdy loser. "What in the world can I do to become successful?" he utterly cries in his thoughts.



It took him days to decide what he could do next. He spends his whole time in his room, writing many unanswered questions in his journal and drawing sketches that do not make any sense. Nothing came up in his mind. Maybe some fresh air and an open space can get a clear mental views.



He goes out for a walk with his pet mule, Melvin. Not very far from his house, he stops in the middle of the meadow. He sits down on the grassy field and takes out his journal and a pen, doing the deep thinking again. There isn't a thing that pops in his head, so he keeps tearing pages that are insignificant.



Feeling like he was about to give up, he kept his journal away. He grabs his guitar that was hanging on Melvin's back, then lies against a log comfortably. What a fine and normal weather. The birds are chirping, the breeze is coolig, yet Once-ler is very lost and confused at the moment. His mule notices Once-ler's unusual silence, so he rubs his hat with his snout as if it was saying, "Hey, are you okay?"



Once-ler turns to look at Melvin with a down expression. He faintly curves a smile on his face when he understood his pet's concerned gesture. "He-Hey, boy.. Don't worry, I'm fine." He says and turns his head back to gaze at the sunny horizon, "I think I just need a little music to clear up my mind. Then maybe, something will come along."



He takes a deep breath and holds it, then sighs slowly as he starts strumming the guitar. Out of the blue, he creates an acoustic, relaxing melody as he stares at the sea-blue sky. Not knowing himself that he was already singing,



"Oooh, what a bright and sunny day.



But look at me, I'm not okay..



This ambitious dream is so blurry, and hey, what should I say?



Should I stay because of the failures I made?



Give me a sign. Is it my time? Give me a sign..." *sighs*



He sits up straight and looks at the clouds, then continues to hum.



"What can I do, to get a clearer point of view?



There's so much to do, but what can I do?



Hey, Melvin, do you think I'm lame too?"



The mule shakes his head while chewing grass in his mouth. Once-ler sighs and lays back down on the log, still strumming the guitar. Then, gazes at the floating clouds passing by. Singing softly to himself.



"Is it my time?



Give me a sign...



Is this the end, is it my time?



Give me a sign, give me a sign.



Give meee..."



He makes a smoothing ending of the strumming acoustic music and ends his line singing, "a sign..."



He sighs deeply again, staring at the clouds. The place was very quiet and peaceful which made him really sleepy. His eyes slowly droop closed. Just as he was about to fall asleep, a hard round object hits his head and becomes fully awake. "Ow!!!" he cries and sits up straight.



"What the--??" he picks up a tennis ball that gave him a terrible headache. "Who did that??" he shouts as he stands up firmly. Then, suddenly, a black cat jumps out of nowhere and starts attacking him. Once-ler screams and panics as he takes a grip of the cat that tries to scratch his face vigorously.



While the commotion was going on, a young lady wearing a black artist hat and big black shades, appeared behind Melvin, neighing at his poor victim owner. The lady also panicked when she saw her cat attacking some stranger. "Whoa, whoa! Calm down there, tiger." She tries to grab her cat from Once-ler's hands. She starts stroking her pet softly. "There, there. Good girl."



As soon as the cat calmed down in her arms, Once-ler patted his clothes clean, and then glares at the mysterious lady. "What did that thing do that for???" he asks firmly.



"Well, excuse me, her name's Bliss." She says, "Bliss is usually like this when someone has her favorite ball."



"Oh, you mean this ball?" Once-ler shows the tennis ball in his hand. "This ball hit my head!" he shouts. The lady chuckles, "Sorry about that, I must've had thrown it a little too high."



"So high it could give me a brain damage!" Once-ler adds. "Hey, I said I was sorry." She scoffs and chuckles more.



He was speechless and furious when he hears how the lady laughs. "Here, you can have your stupid ball back!" he makes a hard throw, not knowing it hit straight on her forehead. She collapsed backwards and her hat flew off and the shades removed.



Once-ler was shock to see that he actually hit her head. He covers his mouth with his palms, showing guilt for what happened. "Oops! I didn't mean to do that."



As the lady's face was exposed, something magical happened. Once-ler gazes at her as she stands up and swishes her slightly dark pink long, silky hair in slow motion. Her sparkly sapphire eyes twinkled as she looks at him.



Her beauty is playing tricks with him, it is though as if he is under a spell as he stares. Little did he know, the lady punches him on the face that once again, woke him up.



"Jerk!" she says. He rubbed his painful cheek. "Don't you know who I am??" she asks with a very angry face. Once-ler is confused; he does not have a clue of what she says. He slowly shakes his head. "Really?? You don't??" she asks again, showing disbelief. "No, I don't! Who are you, anyway??" he yells back. The lady did not answer, but she is somehow relieved. "It doesn't matter." She picks up all of her belongings, including the tennis ball. Then, puts back her shades and covers her hair with the hat.



"C'mon, Bliss." She calls for her cat that was sitting snuggly on Melvin's head. And, walked away until they are out of sight.



He has no idea what that was all about. Once-ler also decides to go back home. So, he picks up his guitar. As soon as he hangs it on Melvin's saddle, he finds a small pink notebook lying just beneath his mule. He believes that the mysterious lady owns it. Out of curiosity, he turns its pages, hoping to find her fullname. Or atleast, her address so he could return the notebook to her.



But there was nothing in it, except drawings. He saw one sketch that attracted his attention. It was a picture of a tree. Although it wasn't colored, he knew exactly what it was. From that sketch, it gave him a brilliant idea that makes him decide to go to that place where this kind of tree grows.



"That's it!" he closes the book and hurried back home with his mule. He runs inside the house to tell his mother about his new plan. "Mom! I've got great news." He proclaims excitedly. His mother seems uninterested, reading a newspaper. Just as he was about speak, she gasps as she reads about the mayor's daughter that has gone missing. "Oh my gosh, Oncie! Look! I didn't know the mayor has a daughter, but look! It says here if anyone finds her can get a reward of three million dollars! CASH!"



"Let me see that!" Uncle Ubbs takes a look, "Wow! She's quite a looker!" he exclaims. "She looks hideous!" his Aunt Grizelda adds. When Once-ler sees the picture, he recognizes her because she was the lady he met in the meadows. Her name states there as, "Tuhlia".



"Hey! I've seen her! We just met in the meadows awhile ago. She was wearing sunglasses and a hat. No wonder she was covering up her identity." He cries. After a moment of silence, the family burst out of laughter. They did not believe a word he just said.



"Oncie, have you been drinking?" his mother asks sarcastically. "What? No. You know that I don't drink." He clarifies. "Even though you have been such a failure lately, doesn't mean you have to make up stories like that to get our attention." She explains.



"But, but, I'm not making this up!" he shouts. He sighs and places his palm on his face. "Whatever. Nevermind..." he mumbles.



"You wanted to tell me something?" his mother asks. "Yeah. Uhm, I'm going to Trufulla Tree Forest." He says, making sure he names the place right as he recalls what was written from the Tuhlia's notebook. "Oh, and what are ya gon'na do there?" his brother Brett asks arrogantly. "Yeah?" his twin Chet huffs.



"I'm going to see what I can find there, to make my newest invention." Once-ler replies with confidence while the rest of his family continues to laugh more. He leaves the room, trying to get over the embarrassment and went upstairs to his bedroom then began packing his things for his travel.



"Oh, they'll be laughing now. But sooner or later, they won't." he says to himself as his heart was filled with determination.



After seeing that lady whose name is Tuhlia, he wonders if there is any connection between her and the Trufulla Tree Forest.



Either way, he knows he has to go there. Because he feels that he could meet his so-called "destiny" at that place. He had this fear of the unknown, but he'll do whatever it takes just to prove his family that he can become successful.



-----



Tuhlia wasn't very far when she heard the acoustic melody playing by an electric guitar. She could not forget how the young man's singing voice sounds like. It took her breath away that she wants to hear from him more.



When the man stopped singing and fell asleep, Tuhlia just left, but then her cat begged her to throw her favorite tennis ball. She threw the ball unintentionally to the young man's direction. As the man cried, "Oww!!!" she knew she was in trouble, and that was how they met.



For her, it was one of the wonderful things that happened in her life. So, she wants to jot it down in her diary, which is, lost. However, she found an unfamiliar journal in her backpack. She sighs, thinking that she took the wrong book from when she encountered that young man. Like Once-ler, she peeks what's inside his journal, and browses on pages that were filled with mixed formulas and figuring that she could not understand. Judging from his handwriting and how he takes down notes, she thinks that this man is a very deep thinker.



At the back of the journal, states his name as "Once-ler".



"Once-ler, huh?" she reads. Her cat, Bliss, meowed and purred. Under his name was his address, and she knows where it is. So she decides to return the journal to its rightful owner.