The Seedsoul

Chapter 8

     Still half asleep, Jeremiah stretched his remaining limbs towards the sky and opened his eyes to welcome spring's happy song, but it wasn't so happy. Sap oozed from every inch of his broken body, and Jeremiah realized that this had not been a dream. "Oh no," he sadly sighed. "Now, what am I going to do?"

"You're going to pick yourself up and grow again," rang a perky voice from the courtyard.

Jeremiah saw Ginger sitting on the other side of the fence. He was happy to see her but unhappy to be himself. "Easy for you to say," he grumbled. "You have already found your destiny, I have destroyed mine. Look at me, does this look like a king to you?"

Carefully scanning the scruffy tree, his body resembled a barren cross scathed with fewer leaves than life. "Yes, more than ever." Then she reached her aloe arms out in a loving gesture of friendship.

Jeremiah bent his aching body over the fence and lifted her to his trunk. Though his body hurt all over, he was glad to be alive and even happier to see her. He allowed himself to relax in peaceful gratitude and held and rocked his best friend for the longest time. As their energies merged, her soothing tranquility penetrated his hardened shell. She was the only thing that had ever truly made him happy. He had to find a way. He tried to speak the words, but for once in his life, he didn't know what to say, "Uh, Ginger?"

"Yes, Jeremiah."

"N-nothing." he blushed. Just thinking about the words he was about to say made his body tremble.

"Are you all right?" she asked.

"Sh-sure I am," he replied. "I just wanted to tell you, uh ... I mean you make me feel so, um-mm. Well, I really appreciate you."

Snuggling in a little closer, she smiled, "I appreciate you too Jeremiah."

Holding her in his arms felt so right. It was as if she were a part of him and always had been. Forgotten words began to flow with the gentleness of a stream through the hollow of a meadow, "I really like you Ginger," he said to the innocent aloe plant, "and I always have."

She pulled her head away from his trunk and looked directly into his eyes. "I like you too, Jeremiah. In fact, I adore you-you silly goof, and I always have." With the biggest grin on her face, she continued, "Now, let's see what we can do to fix you up." Ginger opened the tip of one of her medicine leaves and instructed Jeremiah to rub it on all of his open wounds. "You'll be as good as new." she encouraged him, giving him a big hug.

Squeezing her back, he smiled, "I'll be better than new. You'll see."

When they were finished doing the healing work, Jeremiah effortlessly bent what was left of his body over to the ground and placed Ginger in a bed of spring flowers.

"Wow, do you realize what you just did?" asked Ginger.

"Yes, I put you in with the flowers where you belong."

"No, you bent over further than any other tree has ever bent over before."

Like a stick of rubber, he did it again. "Hey, you're right." Limbering up, he twisted and curved in every direction and then heard a voice that welled deep from within him. It was his roots. "Because of your willingness to give, you have become more flexible Jeremiah. Take this gift and use it for good".

Jeremiah noticed the squirrel twins spying him through the bushes and gestured for them to come closer. "Hey, wanna go for a ride?"

Wagging their tails like puppies, they scampered over to within reaching distance of the rubbery tree.