Sadie didn’t like the new house. It was too quiet, and it smelled funny. And everywhere she looked, it was green, green, and more green!

 

She missed sitting at the living room window of their old apartment, where she could watch the people go by on the busy street below. She missed hearing the neighbor down the hall playing the piano. And she missed walking everywhere with her mom: to school, to the store, to the park. Now, they had to take the car to go anywhere! 

 

Sadie pushed her wheat-blonde bangs out of her face and pressed her forehead against her bedroom window. The glass was cold, and the view did not impress her. A big, messy backyard full of weeds. Some as tall as her! With angry spikes! 

 

The flat yard was as wide as her new house, and bent around the side to make an ‘L’ shape. It was so big that a whole other family could have lived there! Wooden fences closed in the sides, blocking any view of the neighbors. That meant Sadie couldn’t wave to them. But the fence that ran along the very back was made of mostly wire shaped into squares that Sadie could fit her hand through. She could easily see to the other side. Sadie frowned because beyond that fence was a huge hill with even more green!  

 

From her window, she could almost see the other end of the house, where the yard curved around the side. Where the last owners had left a rusty old swing set and a pile of chipped garden pots, all covered in spider webs. They sat like forgotten garbage under a skinny, dead-looking tree. Sadie crossed her arms and leaned on her windowsill. At eight years old, she was probably too big for the swing anyway.

 

A much larger tree stood near her window, also with no leaves. Its thick branches stretched like a nine-armed monster, and at the end of each branch, vines hung straight down like stringy brown hair. Sadie got goose bumps every time they swayed in the wind. And sometimes when it got dark, she thought she saw eyes in its bark, staring back at her.

 

“Sadie!” her mom called from another room. 

 

It’s too much green, she thought. She wanted to go back to the city. To her third-grade classroom, full of friends. To where she saw reds and purples and every color in between. 

 

Sadie peeled herself off the windowsill and followed her mom’s voice to the kitchen.

 

Her mom was washing her hands at the sink. “There you are!” she said. She turned off the water and dried them with a dish towel. “Can you sit outside with Grandpa while I start some laundry? Come get me if he needs anything.”

 

Sadie shoved her feet into her purple sneakers, crossed the living room, yanked open the heavy sliding glass door, and stepped out onto the square of concrete patio in the backyard. 

 

Her grandpa waved from his wheelchair. “Hey, kid. What do you think of all this?” The smile in his eyes told her he was feeling playful. 

 

Dried leaves crunched under her feet as she walked warily across the patio. Sometimes he got confused and angry. But he didn’t seem confused now. “It’s too quiet, and there’s nothing to do,” she said.

 

He grinned, showing off his missing tooth. “Nothing to do?” He looked around the untamed yard, then pointed to the stringy, spooky willow tree. “Think you can climb that tree?”

 

Sadie dragged the toe of her shoe along the ground, making a mini pile of leaves. “I don’t know.”

 

“Hey,” Grandpa said, waving her closer. “Get me a Coke, will ya?”

 

She stared at him. “Mom said you can’t have soda.” 

 

“Aw, come on, just a small one.”

 

“But she says it’s too much sugar,” she told him. 

 

“It’s all I want,” he begged. “Just a Coke.”

 

Sadie pressed her lips together. She knew she shouldn’t give him a soda, but it would make him happy. And her mom had said that the reason they moved was so Grandpa could be happier? She was about to search for his drink when she saw something odd on the other side of the fence. Brown things moving in a sea of green.

 

“Grandpa, what’s that?”

 

He squinted at the hill, then smiled. “A bunch of deer.”

 

Excitement made Sadie’s arms tingle. “Deer?” She stretched up to her toes for a better view, wishing they were closer.

 

The sliding door opened, and her mom stepped onto the patio. The four deer on the hill lifted their necks to the sky and swiveled their heads to stare at Sadie’s backyard. They were so cute with their big black noses and sideways ears.

 

Grandpa poked Sadie’s arm with a knobby finger and whispered, “Hey, if you give them an apple, I bet they’ll come right to the fence.”

 

Sadie grinned. She had seen a bunch of apples on the kitchen counter!

 

But Sadie’s mom spoiled their plans. “We are not feeding the deer.”

 

“Aw, come on!” Grandpa said. “Why not?”

 

“It’s not good for them,” her mom replied, “if they rely on being fed instead of foraging for their food.”

 

“What’s that?” Sadie asked. 

 

“Forage?” Her mom thought for a moment. “It’s when they search for food in nature.”

 

“So, toss an apple over the fence. Let them forage,” Grandpa insisted.

 

Sadie’s mom shook her head. “The apples from the store are too sugary. They might taste good to a deer, but they can make them sick. And when they are sick, they can become prey.”

 

Sadie knew that term. Prey. Someone else’s dinner. She stared at the hill, wondering what other animals were out there. Suddenly, she felt very glad for the tall wire fence that separated their house from nature.

 

The deer dropped their heads and brushed their noses in the grass. Was that foraging? Sadie wondered. The minutes passed as she watched them. If they stayed healthy, maybe she could see them from her backyard every day. Then she had a new thought. If too much sugar makes the deer sick, would it also make Grandpa sick?

 

She looked at her grandfather and decided she wouldn’t give him a soda after all.

 

Her mom sighed. “They’re pretty, aren’t they? I love deer.”

 

Sadie nodded. She never would have seen them in the city. Their skinny legs rustled through the tall grass as they crossed the wide hill and moved out of sight. 

 

 

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The next morning, Sadie woke and ran to her window. The sky was bright with only a few fluffy clouds. And as she had hoped, little brown spots dotted the hill. A perfect view with just the right amount of green!