The Boy Who Listened to the Leaves

Chapter 1: Neem Tree

The first night Arun came home, he slept beneath his bed.

His mother had spread a soft quilt over the mattress. His father had placed a little wooden bird beside the pillow. But Arun slipped into the shadows below, where he could see the doorway and hear every footstep.

His mother sat nearby.

“You may sleep there,” she whispered. “I’ll leave the quilt beside you.”

Outside, the wind stirred the neem tree.

Arun listened until his eyes closed.

Three years earlier, when Arun was two, he had disappeared near the edge of the forest. His family had searched the paths, called beside the river, and asked travelers for news.

Then, one afternoon, a hunter brought home a small boy who had been found near a leopard’s den.

Arun’s mother recognized a little crescent-shaped mark on his shoulder.

She reached toward him, then stopped when he pulled away.