May's Workshop Stories

Life of a Tree- Prompt 1

It couldn't remember how long it stood there, erect, reaching for the sun.

Time didn't matter to it. It was all about the wind gently embracing it, tickling its bark, about the soft earth allowing its roots to spread far, exploring the vast yard. Drinking the freshwater that graced it from the skies.

However, all that changed when a pair of gentle hands carefully lowered its branches to enjoy the black, juicy fruit that was the product of the tree's labor.

There was something in the way the girl, who had just become a woman, carefully lowered the branches to obtain her prize.

Unlike most greedy humans the tree saw in the past, this one showed respect, reverence even. She was cautious not to cause it any pain, to preserve the gentler branches.

For the first time since it could remember, the tree wanted to help.

It lowered its wide branches, and sometimes it even shook the black mulberries from their resting place to please the human. Her laughter reverberating off its bark was the most pleasant feeling the tree had felt in its long life.

Soon enough, the woman and her husband constructed a house in what was once a barren stretch of land, and life became a joy for the massive tree.

Its far-reaching branches provided shelter from the scorching heat, while its sweet fruit kept the couple happy. They would pick the juicy fruit which caused their hands to turn blue and sit in the tree's shade, discussing their future.

Those were the peaceful times the tree enjoyed the most.

However, whether we acknowledge it or not, time passes and things change.

The couple became so busy with their daily lives that they forgot the joy of sitting under the majestic tree end enjoying its fruit.

Soon enough, new tiny humans appeared.

The tree didn't know where the children came from. However, it relished their company. They were energetic and full of life, which caused the old tree to feel young again.

Instead of trying to reach fruit from the ground, the younger girl would carefully climb the tree's branches. Next, she would throw delicious mulberries to her cautious sister.

"Gina, why don't you climb up here? Don't be a scaredy-cat!" the younger girl used to tease her older sister.

However, Gina never tried doing so. Instead, she waited patiently for her sister to provide her with the tasty treat, which she inevitably did.

Many a tree would've found it troublesome to have humans hanging from its branches like tiny monkeys, but this particular one enjoyed their attention. The warm hands holding tight to its boughs offered the type of connection it never had before. It could feel something rare for a tree to feel, love.

The laughing sounds of the children and their grubby faces became such a familiar thing that the tree failed to observe how quickly the girls changed, how quickly they grew.

The sisters were no longer interested in the silly old tree. They preferred to go out with their friends rather than sit under it, daydreaming like they used to.

At one point, they just stopped paying any attention to the mulberry tree at all. Thus, it fell into slumber.

It only woke up again when two more tiny humans ran towards it.

"I can climb that tree, Ron! I'll show you," the cute little girl with pigtails said.

She was fierce but quite clumsy. Thus, climbing the tree's trunk seemed like an impossibility. However, Monica didn't give up until she was finally safely settled into its embrace.

"See! I told you so!" she snickered towards her brother from the top of the tree.

"You win. I was wrong when I said that because you are younger, you wouldn't be able to climb the tree," Ron admitted grudgingly.

His admission made Monica grin brighter than the sun itself, and the tree shook in joy at her victory.

These particular children didn't spend as much time with the tree. Nevertheless, when they did, they showered it with far more love than any other humans ever did.

It was an honor for the tree to be their friend, to play games with them by moving branches just out of their reach as they tried grabbing on to them. They made a life of a tree far better than any tree could hope for.

However, nothing lasts forever.

The children grew from young saplings into adults. In turn, they had less and less time to play with their loyal friend.

Until one horrible day, they just passed under its branches without even offering it a simple glance.

The tree lowered its branches.

Spread its roots.

It did everything in its power to reach out to them, to earn back their love.

Nothing worked.

"We need to cut down the old mulberry tree!" the familiar woman with unfamiliar lines on her face said one day.

The tree remembered that voice. Though the woman's bark was different than before, she was still the first person who woke up a spark of joy in its core. It was only suiting that she would be the one to douse the flames forever.

The next day, all that remained of the once magnificent tree was an ugly stump with sap leaking from its wounds. The sun was left to scorch the earth that was once protected by the tree's shade.

The stump stood like a gravestone marking the place where once a tree lived. A tree that had touched so many lives yet was forgotten by everyone and brutally murdered for no valid reason.

The tree connected and enriched their lives. Yet, they chose to repay it by eliminating it from existence. They made it seem as if its life had never truly mattered. As if it was their right to decide which life should flourish and which one should whiter and die.

All it ever wanted was to be connected, but doing so with humans caused its demise.