THE OLD TREE

AN old tree welocmes back an old friend

The old tree knew it was Jenny, knew from a distance as she raced across the field towards him. She raced like she had as a child when there had usually been one or more friends with her. Usually there had been a girl called Alison and  one called  Cathy. Once or twice there had been a boy called Michael, the tree hadn’t liked Michael because Michael stuck his knife into his bark and sometimes even snapped little branches off and went chasing the other girls around the field with it. Jenny always shouted at him for doing this and told him he was hurting the tree but Michael just laughed and hit her with the branch. Cathy and Alison seemed to like Michael even though he hit them and pulled their hair because sometimes when Michael wasn’t there they would talk about him and giggle. The tree didn’t understand what they said but they were obvioulsy talking about him. Best of all though was when Jenny just came on her own.
The tree watched as Jenny got nearer to him. No one ran quite like Jenny. Also no one walked or talked quite like Jenny. The old tree remembered the feel of her arms when Jenny hugged him. She ws always kind and gentle with him, not like the others that carved words into him and cut off his branches every time they wanted wood. He remembered how Jenny used to talk to him, she had even done it when the others were there and they had laughed at her. The tree didn't know the words they used but he knew what they meant.. He remembered listening to the sound of Jenny’s sweet voice, sweet like a running stream, the tree knew water for there was a stream deep underground which his roots knew was there. He had never known anything that  Jenny was saying only that they were words of kindness, words of softness and gentleness. He knew that Jenny loved him and he loved Jenny.
The tree didn’t know why Jenny had stopped coming. The tree knew nothing of human ways, did not know that in the Human world things changed fast, that people grew fast and didn’t stay in the one place all the time. He thought perhaps that Jenny had forgotten him and didn’t love him anymore. Other humans that came, they came only to climb him or to stick sharp knives into him. Even those that occasionally put their arms around him didn’t feel like it did when Jenny did it. The tree watched as Jenny finally reached him. She was panting, out of breath which she hadn’t done all those years ago. Her face was different, she looked older though in the life of the tree little time had gone by. She was still the same Jenny. She still had the same twinkling eyes which still gazed at the tree with the same kindness in them. It was the same arms which threw themselves around him. It was the same sweet voice speaking such sweet words to him. The tree had no idea where Jenny had been, no idea what she was saying but he didn’t care. He was happy and he knew Jenny was happy and that was all that mattered.

Reviews

[Tina Kline]

A very emotional story. I loved reading this, seeing things from the trees point of view. I like that this has a happy ending.

This reminds me of Shel Silverstein's book, The Giving Tree. It's a child's book. I can't read that book without crying every single time.