SHORT STORY
The Tree Mouse — Man Comes to The Forest
A Parable of The Forest
MAN
There were many stories about the man that were whispered by every animal in the forest. Animals had learnt to live in harmony with trees, accomodating the dictates of the forest, through all its changes through the seasons. There was balance and beauty in every movement in its cyclic dance.
Achilles squirrel from his perch at the top of the tree could see the bustle of activity. He could witness the choreography of every animal in the forest from every direction including over the river where men were working. They were relentlessly cutting down trees with their large machines. It seemed to them all as if a man hated trees.
The man was claiming more of the forest for houses to be built from the trunks of dead trees. They were using huge metal saws and magic spells, with red sticks drilled into holes, making them disappear into dust in the wind. There were red tags posted on the ground everywhere, along the banks of the river and scattered across the fields. They could all see the tags were now at the oak tree.
SQUIRRELS
Achilles, the squirrel and Thomas, the tree mouse were stuck in their tree, waiting for Woodrow to give up on his meal. Achilles’ brother Sophocles was busy with his chores. He carried several acorns one by one into the trunk. He gathered branches and brought them to the base of the great oak tree.
“More nuts,” he snarled. Sophocles snarled a lot, especially since he was doing his chores alone. He wondered where his brother Achilles had gone, but he was certain that his brother was somewhere climbing trees. He even thought about telling his father that Achilles had taken the tree mouse to teach him to climb.
RUMBLINGS
Hector the owl had returned to the oak tree. He was soaring above the pine trees again. When Sophocles could no longer see him, he returned to the clearing where the younger squirrels were. Teddy tree mouse approached him.
“I’ve come to ask you where my brother Thomas has gone,” Teddy told him.
“He’s with Achilles,” Sophocles answered.
“When will they be home?”
“ I’m not supposed to talk to a tree mouse,“ Sophocles responded. “There are rules, you know.”
“Where would they go?” Teddy asked him.
“How would I know? Achilles doesn’t tell me anything!”
“I’m going to sit here under this bush and wait for my brother,” Teddy announced.
“Do what you want. I have chores to do.”
Teddy scurried beneath a brambleberry bush. He squeezed a berry between his teeth and the juice covered his white lips with a blue almost as blue as his eyes. Sophocles retreated nearer the tree and hid in the tall grasses.
“Sophocles,” Teddy shouted.
Sophocles came out of his hiding place.
“What, Teddy?” he asked.
“Men are killing trees near the river.”
“So what,” Sophocles answered. “Men kill trees!”
“They will be here soon,” Teddy told him. “Take your family go far into the forest.”
“Why, Teddy?”
“This is the last of the oaks,” Teddy told him. “It will not be spared.”
Sophocles did not know how Teddy could know such a thing. But Sophocles had never talked to a tree mouse before.
There were tales in the forest that tree mice could see things no one else could see. That whenever love was near their eyes turned from blue to brown
“We have always lived here,” Sophocles responded. “Our past is its history. Our future is this tree.”
But the saddest thing about this. Sophocles could not listen to a tree mouse because tree mice could not climb trees.
FINDING HIS PLACE
There were hierarchies in the forest. There were those to whom you spoke and those you did not. No one wanted to speak to bears and snakes. Squirrels spoke to squirrels and never to tree mice. But Sophocles had found himself speaking to Teddy. Strangely, he wanted to continue to talk. He had questions, lots of questions and his father was too busy to answer so many of them.
“Why does the sun shine? Where does the moon go during the day? Where does the water come from when it falls down from the sky? Why do some animals eat other animals and some do not?“
He would ask these questions and many others every day to his mother and she would struggle with the answers, often not knowing what to say. Teddy was a curious mouse who listened to everything.
THE ARRIVAL
Both Achilles and Thomas were thankful to be home. What had been a great adventure was finally over and Thomas was afraid to go to the river again. But he still wanted to learn to climb the tree. Sophocles was watching their whole arrival home from under the branches of the brambleberry bush. Sophocles came out from his hiding place to greet his brother in the clearing beneath the tree. He was happy to see his brother back home again.
“Papa has been looking for you,” Sophocles told his brother.
“We had quite an adventure with a wolf and even a man.”
“I could see you on that frightening machine.”
“It was wonderful, the greatest day of my life so far,” Achilles told him.
“We have acorns to put away.” Sophocles responded, “and branches to gather.”
“I’d rather climb.” He paused. “Men are killing trees near the river.”
“Men kill trees,” Sophocles repeated.
“You should take your family out of this tree and go into the forest,” Thomas told Achilles just as he had told Sophocles.”
THOMAS CLIMBS A TREE
Sophocles was busy with his chores, while Achilles began to carry Thomas up into the oak tree to teach him to climb. When they reached the fork where the two large branches divided, his father Herodotus confronted him, “What are you doing with that creature on your back? Why is your brother the only one putting acorns in the tree?”
“I am taking the tree mouse up into the tree,” Achilles answered.
“There are rules about tree mice,” his father scolded him. “No mingling with inferiors, those who cannot climb.”
“He is not an inferior, Papa. I can teach him to climb.” His father became angry and began to click his teeth. “A tree mouse will never climb a tree. You’re wrong, Achilles, you’re wasting your time. Help your brother with the acorns!”
“I can go another time,” Thomas answered.
“It’s okay, Thomas. I will teach you,” Achilles responded.
Thomas slipped off Achilles’ back and came to rest on the top of the trunk.
“Let him try to teach the tree mouse, Papa,” Sophocles, to everyone’s surprise, pleaded his brother’s case. “I can finish the acorns by myself.”
Thomas was surprised his brother defended him, then their father changed his mind.
“Alright, for a short time, long enough to see that it is impossible, but no longer.”
Achilles climbed up higher into the tree. He spent a very long time teaching the young tree mouse and to his surprise, Thomas began to learn and was soon climbing himself. With some difficulty, he was actually doing it, walking on the branches at the top of the tree. Thomas was happier than he had ever been in his life. He was shouting at the top of his voice, “I am climbing a tree. I am climbing a tree!” Achilles was happy too.
THE TEST
“I am hungry,” Samuel the snake said. He bit into an acorn and spit it out. “Terrible.”
Thomas tree mouse was the happiest animal on earth. He just broke the record. He, the tree mouse, was walking around the branch of a tree.
“I am doing it,” he laughed. “I am actually doing it.”
But he grew too confident. He strutted around the branch like a victor in war. Suddenly he lost his footing and fell from the tree. He was both frightened and oddly excited as he fell. But he landed on the ground in the worst possible place, right on top of the snake. Samuel struck out in blind instinct. He had promised himself he would never attack another small animal. He was very happy when he discovered he had missed and there, just a few inches away, Thomas sat terrified. Thomas wanted to run but couldn’t. He did all he could do by squealing.
“I am hungry!” Samuel murmured.
He looked at the tree mouse. He pulled his head back in the way he was about to strike. The tree mouse shivered.
“I can’t,” Samuel cried. “It’s just not in me anymore,”
Thomas ran. He ran as far as any tree mouse ever ran until he was on the other side of the field. Then he realised he had to run back. Samuel slithered away to the tall grasses on the opposite side of the field.
“I’ll starve,” he cried. “I’ll surely starve!”
THOMAS TELLS HIS STORY
“Teddy,” Thomas Shouted. “Teddy.”
Teddy ran,
“What, Thomas,” Teddy asked.
“It’s a miracle! It’s a miracle!” Thomas screamed as he jumped up and down.
“What’s a miracle, Thomas?”
“I climbed a tree today!”
Teddy smiled and rubbed his nose against his brother’s nose.
“Did Achilles teach you?”
Teddy seemed sad and Thomas noticed his sadness.
“Is something wrong?”
“It’s selfish really, but I wanted to be the first to climb a tree,” Teddy told him.
“I’ll teach you,” Thomas encouraged him.
“No, you’ve been chosen. Go ahead and learn.”
He forgot to tell his brother about the snake.
MAN COMES TO THE FOREST
Samuel always loved the mornings in the forest, when the first rays of sunlight began to illuminate the leaves of the trees. He loved it when the birds began to sing. This day was especially beautiful, with a bird singing like a symphony. Samuel shook his long slender body in the grass and he looked upwards for the sky which seem bluer to him than any day before. His gaze finally settled on the majestic oak tree.
“It’s so beautiful” he told himself. The Browns were as intensely brown as he had ever seen them and the leaves almost blinded him with the intensity of their greens. He couldn’t remember anything more beautiful from the other side of the river from where he had come. For Samuel, this Oak tree was like life itself. Yet something seemed different about this morning. Then he realised what it was.
Mixed in with the greens and browns along both sides of the field were reds. Stakes with red flags were not only hammered in the ground around the tree but seemingly hammered in the ground everywhere. He didn’t know what this meant, but he knew it wasn’t good.
Thomas and Teddy sniffed one of the flags.
“He’s here,” Thomas spoke sadly.
“Who is here?” Teddy asked him.
“Man is here.”
Teddy turned his head to Thomas. He squinted his blue eyes and asked, “Why does man hate the forest?”
“I asked the same question, Teddy, And this is what papa told me. Not all men hate the forest. Only those who cannot feel its love.”
“When did this hate start?”
“A long time ago, when man still lived in the forest.”
“Man lived in the forest?” Teddy responded, not believing him.
“Yes, Teddy. Papa told me that some believe the forest was made for man. But then man left the forest and doesn’t love it anymore.”
AT THE TOP OF THE TREES
Climbing wasn’t just a skill for Achilles. It was more than movement, more than play. There was something majestic about standing at the top of the tree and looking at the forest. When Achilles had spent nearly an hour climbing, he reached the top of one of the tallest pines and he looked around in all directions, including near the river, where most of the trees had been cut down.
“This is heaven for me,” He told himself as he carefully climbed out to the tip of a branch.
“Come down, Achilles. You are climbing too high,” Teddy shouted to him. “I can see Hector flying above you.”
The owl was flying in circles above the tops of the trees.
“See me, Teddy. I’ve never climbed so high.”
Teddy raised his head and looked up at the tree.
“See me,” Achilles tried to shout louder.
Hector circled closer. Then Hector snatched Achilles with his claws and with the great effort carried him away. Achilles knew he could not struggle. A fall from such a height he would never survive. Hector beat his huge wings and with each flap a rush of air nearly blinded Achilles.
“Help me,” Achilles tried to scream. The air rushed into his throat. “Help me.”
Then he remembered something.
“I have jumped 20 feet before. If only I can find a tree 20 feet below me.”
He struggled to look down.
“Nothing. It’s no use. I am not strong enough.”
But something inside of him cried out, “TRY!”
“It’s useless,” he repeated.
Again it cried, “TRY!”
So Achilles stretched out his body and in one lurch forward, broke free of Hector’s massive claws and he began to fall.
“Help me!” He cried. He closed his eyes.
As vividly as one sees a rainbow after a storm, Achilles began to see his life, all the squirrels he knew, all the trees he climbed. He remembered everything. Then suddenly he hit, right in the middle of a brambleberry bush.
Teddy squealed. He was sure Achilles was dead. No squirrel had ever survived a fall from such a height. But there amid the broken branches, covered with berry juice and leaves, quite shaken, sat Achilles. He survived.
“It’s a real miracle!” Teddy cried. Everyone came out to see what had happened. Soon there were nearly 50 different animals who came out to see how Achilles had survived. Sophocles watched from the trunk of the oak tree. He knew this would become another story for his father Herodotus to tell.
THE MEADOW LARK
As all of the animals began to gather beneath the outstretched branches of the majestic oak tree, among them squirrels and rabbits and tree mice and chipmunks and even two small fawns, a meadowlark landed on the large western pointing branch of the trunk and began to sing this most beautiful song. Everyone became silent and listened to him singing. It was if heaven itself had opened its walls and let the breath of God once again blow to the trees and the huge branches of the oak tree began to sway as if they were dancing to this beautiful tune. Sophocles couldn’t remember the last time he had heard a meadowlark sing. The bird sang nearly 100 songs, beautiful melodies filled with meaning and purpose, then everything alive stopped to listen and Samuel lying in the grass near the trunk, felt as though he were in heaven, as he heard the bird sing its song. He even wished more that he could be a bird. Everyone sensed that there was something extraordinary about this moment and then the people came.
THE LOVERS
They giggled as they ran through the field, hand-in-hand and they stopped a moment and they began to look at the oak tree. The forest sings when love is near. Sparrows whistle and owls hoot, and for a moment a field mouse has brown eyes. They stood awestruck looking at the oak tree.
“It’s so pretty,” the young woman told him. “I wish I had a camera.”
“We can come back with a camera again,” he responded.
“Like a dream,” she told him.
He pulled a knife from his pocket.
“What are you doing?” she asked him. “Don’t harm the tree.”
“I’m only putting a symbol of our love,” he answered.
He carved a heart with their initials, B.E. and F.R.E.
“Here for posterity, a symbol of our love. For our children and grandchildren to see.”
Then they left and began to run away.
ACORNS
Teddy was the first to come out after they had gone. But Teddy was hungry. But all he could see were acorns, and acorns were strictly forbidden. He ran to his brother Thomas who was eating a bunch of bramble berries.
“Thomas, why can’t we eat acorns?” he asked.
“We can, but we won’t,” Thomas answered.
“Why?” Teddy repeated.
“You’ve heard of the Great Bear,” Thomas began to explain. “That story Papa told us when we were young mice.”
“No,” Teddy answered. “I don’t remember that story.”
“The Great Bear came into the forest in the winter long ago. He was the greatest bear who ever lived and spent every hour in prayer.”
“What is prayer?” Teddy interrupted.
“Talking to the great provider and accepting his love.”
“Who is the great provider?”
“He made the forest, Teddy.”
Thomas went on with his story.
“The great Bear loved the forest more than any animal and his favourite of all the trees was the oak. In a cold snow storm, he found a tree mouse who would die in the snow and his heart was filled with love. He carved out a hole in the old oak tree and there set the mouse inside. He watched over him night and day until he actually recovered.”
“But bears eat a tree mouse,” Teddy interrupted.
“Not this bear.”
Thomas sniffed.
“When the tree mouse recovered, The tree mouse asked the Bear how could he repay him. The great bear simply answered, ‘SAVE YOUR ACORNS.’ So until now, we have saved them in his memory.”
“That’s incredible,” Teddy sighed.
But Thomas was not sure if he could believe the story.
THE TRANSFORMATION
Three men came to the forest with axes. Samuel watched them from the distance. His eyes nearly pierced through them as they began their destructive task.
“What do you want?” he cried out.
Then it began.
One at a time and then together, they lifted their axes and began to chop at the tree. Sophocles was stunned. He jumped from the tree and then he and his brother Thomas began to gather the others and they all ran across the field. Their father Herodotus came out from the tree and he stood on his legs as if to defy them, then he too left the tree. Samuel was enraged.
“No,” he shouted. “No!”
His slithered ever closer, but they chopped on. Finally, he could no longer take it anymore and he began to strike from 5 feet away. Lunging his body forward, He flew! For a moment he flew and in that one twinkling of a moment, he knew what is like to fly and he cried. He cried for those who could not fly and cried for the men who could not care about trees.
“No, I cannot,” he said. Samuel had learnt to love even man. In an instant, he was no longer a snake, but a meadowlark and he flew to one of the pine trees.
“I love you,” a small shrill voice said inside, “Sing for me,” and Samuel began to sing. He sang the most beautiful birdsong ever sung by any bird.
The men, seeing this and not believing their eyes, ran away and Samuel came to rest on one of the branches of the oak tree. Samuel was the happiest bird alive. Nothing else had been like it and he loved flying and he soared above the oak tree in near-perfect joy. But it was a joy that could not last because the men returned to the forest a second time nearly an hour later and they brought machines with them. Everyone watched them drill holes in several places on the trunk and put sticks with strings into the holes. The many animals watched them walk 100 steps away from the tree. Then in a twinkling of an eye, as if by some powerful new magic, all that was left of the once majestic oak tree was a cloud of dust that settled on the ground. The men seemed happy with themselves.
A PROMISE
Samuel cried. Sophocles cried. The whole forest began to cry. But something else began to happen to the tree mice. Their eyes turned brown as though love was near.
“Thomas,” Teddy shouted. “The Tree!”
“I know.”
Then a little voice distinct and gentle began to tell them of their future.
“You have been chosen as guardians of the trees,” the voice encouraged them. “Plant the acorns you have saved as quickly as you can.”
And then en masse, nearly a dozen tree mice began to plant acorns all across the field. The men stood watching this strange behaviour as the tree mice planted. Soon Achilles and Sophocles joined in the planting and soon other squirrels joined them as well. Finally, even their father Herodotus joined in, using his nose to push an acorn into the ground. The men stood silently awestruck, watching this happen. Nearly an hour passed and they were still standing and watching. None of the men knew what to make of this. They had never seen tree mice or squirrels behave this way. Then it began to rain, at first softly and then a summer storm. The men stood statue-like in the heavy rain. Achilles and Sophocles and Thomas and Teddy, and whoever else wanted to join them, continued to bury the acorns. One of the men took a camera out of their truck and began to take pictures of what they could see.
“No one is going to believe this,” this man said, as he took picture after picture of the seeming miracle before their eyes. Even with the rain, they could hear a meadowlark song. The rain didn’t stop. It was as though the heavens themselves were crying over the death of the oak tree that had lived there so long. Finally, the men seeing that the rain would continue unabated climbed into their car and left. It rained the whole night creating a small pond in the field. By morning over 100 small oak saplings had taken root in the soil with their stalks stretching upward all over the field. There had never been seedlings that had germinated so quickly. None of the men could have explained how such a thing was possible. But in this special place, unbeknownst to anyone, there was a pulsing sea of energy, that made everything grow more quickly, including squirrels and tree mice.
THE FOREST
There was a story at first covered in a small paper in Phillipsburg Pennsylvania about a majestic old oak tree that had been exploded in a field. Local contractors were building a new neighbourhood and it was decided where the tree stood a road would soon be made. When the men returned the next morning after destroying the tree, they found over 100 small saplings growing where the tree had once stood.
A local TV Station from Pittsburgh came out to film it and soon the story was picked up by the networks. As the story spread everywhere, people who heard about the story were touched by the miracle of the trees. So there arose among them a desire to save all those trees. State officials finally decided to preserve this ‘small piece of heaven’ as they began to call it and they made it into a park. At last count, there were over 100 oak trees growing together. People would travel from all over the country to visit this park and see its beautiful squirrels and tree mice.
SAVE OUR ACORNS. SAVE OUR FORESTS!!!
Sophocles was busy with his chores, while Achilles began to carry Thomas up into the oak tree to teach him to climb. When they reached the fork where the two large branches divided, his father Herodotus confronted him, “What are you doing with that creature on your back? Why is your brother the only one putting acorns in the tree?”
“I am taking the tree mouse up into the tree,” Achilles answered.
“There are rules about tree mice,” his father scolded him. “No mingling with inferiors, those who cannot climb.”
“He is not an inferior, Papa. I can teach him to climb.” His father became angry and began to click his teeth. “A tree mouse will never climb a tree. You’re wrong, Achilles, you’re wasting your time. Help your brother with the acorns!”
“I can go another time,” Thomas answered.
“It’s okay, Thomas. I will teach you,” Achilles responded.
Thomas slipped off Achilles' back and came to rest on the top of the trunk.
“Let him try to teach the tree mouse, Papa,” Sophocles, to everyone’s surprise, pleaded his brother’s case. “I can finish the acorns by myself.”
Thomas was surprised his brother defended him, then their father changed his mind.
“Alright, for a short time, long enough to see that it is impossible, but no longer.”
Achilles climbed up higher into the tree. He spent a very long time teaching the young tree mouse and to his surprise, Thomas began to learn and was soon climbing himself. With some difficulty, he was actually doing it, walking on the branches at the top of the tree. Thomas was happier than he had ever been in his life. He was shouting at the top of his voice, “I am climbing a tree. I am climbing a tree!” Achilles was happy too.
THE TEST
“I am hungry,” Samuel the snake said. He bit into an acorn and spit it out. “Terrible.”
Thomas tree mouse was the happiest animal on earth. He just broke the record. He, tree mouse, was walking around the branch of a tree.
“I am doing it,” he laughed. “I am actually doing it.”
But he grew too confident. He strutted around the branch like a victor in war. Suddenly he lost his footing and fell from the tree. He was both frightened and oddly excited as he fell. But he landed on the ground in the worst possible place, right on top of the snake. Samuel struck out in blind instinct. He had promised himself he would never attack another small animal. He was very happy when he discovered he had missed and there, just a few inches away, Thomas sat terrified. Thomas wanted to run but couldn’t. He did all he could do by squealing.
“I am hungry!” Samuel murmured.
He looked at the tree mouse. He pulled his head back in the way he was about to strike. The tree mouse shivered.
“I can’t,” Samuel cried. “It’s just not in me anymore,”
Thomas ran. He ran as far as any tree mouse ever ran until he was on the other side of the field. Then he realised he had to run back. Samuel slithered away to the tall grasses on the opposite side of the field.
“I’ll starve,” he cried. “I’ll surely starve!”
THOMAS TELLS HIS STORY
“Teddy,” Thomas Shouted. “Teddy.”
Teddy ran,
“What, Thomas,” Teddy asked.
“It’s a miracle! It’s a miracle!” Thomas screamed as he jumped up and down.
“What’s a miracle, Thomas?”
“I climbed a tree today!”
Teddy smiled and rubbed his nose against his brother’s nose.
“Did Achilles teach you?”
Teddy seemed sad and Thomas noticed his sadness.
“Is something wrong?”
“It’s selfish really, but I wanted to be the first to climb a tree,” Teddy told him.
“I’ll teach you,” Thomas encouraged him.
“No, you’ve been chosen. Go ahead and learn.”
He forgot to tell his brother about the snake.
MAN COMES TO THE FOREST
Samuel always loved the mornings in the forest, when the first rays of sunlight began to illuminate the leaves of the trees. He loved it when the birds began to sing. This day was especially beautiful, with a bird singing like a symphony. Samuel shook his long slender body in the grass and he looked upwards for the sky which seem bluer to him than any day before. His gaze finally settled on the majestic oak tree.
“It’s so beautiful, he told himself. The Browns were as intensely brown hpe had ever seen them and the leaves almost blinded him with the intensity of their greens. He couldn’t remember anything more beautiful from the other side of the river from where he had come. For Samuel, this Oak tree was like life itself. Yet something seemed different about this morning. Then he realised what it was.
Mixed in with the greens and browns along both sides of the field were reds. Stakes with red flags were not only hammered in the ground around the tree but seemingly hammered in the ground everywhere. He didn’t know what this meant, but he knew it wasn’t good.
Thomas and Terry sniffed one of the flags.
“He’s here,” Thomas spoke sadly.
“Who is here?” Teddy asked him.
“Man is here.”
Teddy turned his head to Thomas. He squinted his blue eyes and asked, “Why does man hate the forest?”
“I asked the same question, Teddy, And this is what papa told me. Not all men hate the forest. Only those who cannot feel its love.”
“When did this hate start?”
“A long time ago, when man still lived in the forest.”
“Man lived in the forest?” Teddy responded, not believing him.
“Yes, Teddy. Papa told me that some believe the forest was made for man. But the man left the forest and doesn’t love it anymore.”
AT THE TOP OF THE TREES
Climbing wasn’t just a skill for Achilles. It was more than movement, more than play. There was something majestic about standing at the top of the tree and looking at the forest. When Achilles had spent nearly an hour climbing, he reached the top of one of the tallest pines and he looked around in all directions, including near the river, where most of the trees had been cut down.
“This is heaven for me,” He told himself as he carefully climbed out to the tip of a branch.
“Come down, Thomas. You are climbing too high,” Teddy shouted to him. “I can see Hector flying above you.”
The owl was flying in circles above the tops of the trees.
“See me, Teddy. I’ve never climbed so high.”
Teddy raised his head and looked up at the tree.
“See me,” Achilles tried to shout louder.
Hector circled closer. Then Hector snatched Achilles with his claws and with the great effort carried him away. Achilles knew he could not struggle. A fall from such a height he would never survive. Hector beat his huge wings and with each flap a rush of air nearly blinded Achilles.
“Help me,” Achilles tried to scream. The air rushed into his throat. “Help me.”
Then he remembered something.
“I have jumped 20 feet before. If only I can find a tree 20 feet below me.”
He struggled to look down.
“Nothing. It’s no use. I am not strong enough.”
But something inside of him cried out, “TRY!”
“It’s useless,” he repeated.
Again it cried, “TRY!”
So Achilles stretched out his body and in one lurch forward, broke free of Hector’s massive claws and he began to fall.
“Help me!” He cried. He closed his eyes.
As vividly as one sees a rainbow after a storm, Achilles began to see his life, all the squirrels he knew, all the trees he climbed. He remembered everything. Then suddenly he hit, right in the middle of a brambleberry bush.
Teddy squealed. He was sure Achilles was dead. No squirrel had ever survived a fall from such a height. But there amid the broken branches, covered with berry juice and leaves, quite shaken, sat Achilles. He survived.
“It’s a real miracle!” Teddy cried. Everyone came out to see what had happened. Soon there were nearly 50 different animals who came out to see how Achilles had survived. Sophocles watched from the trunk of the oak tree. He knew this would become another story for his father Herodotus to tell.
THE MEADOW LARK
As all of the animals began to gather beneath the outstretched branches of the majestic oak tree, among them squirrels and rabbits and tree mice and chipmunks and even two small fawns, a meadowlark landed on the large western pointing branch of the trunk and began to sing this most beautiful song. Everyone became silent and listened to him singing. It was if heaven itself had opened its walls and let the breath of God once again blow to the trees and the huge branches of the oak tree began to sway as if they were dancing to this beautiful tune. Sophocles couldn’t remember the last time he had heard a meadowlark sing. The bird sang nearly 100 songs, beautiful melodies filled with meaning and purpose, then everything alive stopped to listen and Samuel lying in the grass near the trunk, felt as though he were in heaven, as he heard the bird sing its song. He even wished more that he could be a bird. Everyone sensed that there was something extraordinary about this moment and then the people came.
THE LOVERS
They giggled as they ran through the field, hand-in-hand and they stopped a moment and they began to look at the oak tree. The forest sings when love is near. Sparrows whistle and owls hoot, and for a moment a field mouse has brown eyes. They stood awestruck looking at the oak tree.
“It’s so pretty,” the young woman told him. “I wish I had a camera.”
“We can come back with a camera again,” he responded.
“Like a dream,” she told him.
He pulled a knife from his pocket.
“What are you doing?” she asked him. “Don’t harm the tree.”
“I’m only putting a symbol of our love,” he answered.
He carved a heart with their initials, B.E. and F.R.E.
“Here for posterity, a symbol of our love. For our children and grandchildren to see.”
Then they left and began to run away.
ACORNS
Teddy was the first to come out after they had gone. But Teddy was hungry. But all he could see were acorns, and acorns were strictly forbidden. He ran to his brother Thomas who was eating a bunch of bramble berries.
“Thomas, why can’t we eat acorns?” he asked.
“We can, but we won’t,” Thomas answered.
“Why?” Teddy repeated.
“You’ve heard of the Great Bear,” Thomas began to explain. “That story Papa told us when we were young mice.”
“No,” Teddy answered. “I don’t remember that story.”
“The Great Bear came into the forest in the winter long ago. He was the greatest bear who ever lived and spent every hour in prayer.”
“What is prayer?” Teddy interrupted.
“Talking to the great provider and accepting his love.”
“Who is the great provider?”
“He made the forest, Teddy.”
Thomas went on with his story.
“The great Bear loved the forest more than any animal and his favourite of all the trees was the oak. In a cold snowstorm, he found a tree mouse who would die in the snow and his heart was filled with love. He carved out a hole in the old oak tree and there set the mouse inside. He watched over him night and day until he actually recovered.”
“But bears eat a tree mouse,” Teddy interrupted.
“Not this bear.”
Thomas sniffed.
“When the tree mouse recovered, The tree mouse asked the Bear how could he repay him. The great bear simply answered, ‘SAVE YOUR ACORNS.’ So until now, we have saved them in his memory.”
“That’s incredible,” Teddy sighed.
But Thomas was not sure if he could believe the story.
THE TRANSFORMATION
Three men came to the forest with axes. Samuel watched them from the distance. His eyes nearly pierced through them as they began their destructive task.
“What do you want?” he cried out.
Then it began.
One at a time and then together, they lifted their axes and began to chop at the tree. Sophocles was stunned. He jumped from the tree and then he and his brother Thomas began to gather the others and they all ran across the field. Their father Herodotus came out from the tree and he stood on his legs as if to defy them, then he too left the tree. Samuel was enraged.
“No,” he shouted. “No!”
His slithered ever closer, but they chopped on. Finally, he could no longer take it anymore and he began to strike from 5 feet away. Lunging his body forward, He flew! For a moment he flew and in that one twinkling of a moment, he knew what is like to fly and he cried. He cried for those who could not fly and cried for the men who could not care about trees.
“No, I cannot,” he said. Samuel had learnt to love even man. In an instant, he was no longer a snake, but a meadowlark and he flew to one of the pine trees.
“I love you,” a small shrill voice said inside, “Sing for me,” and Samuel began to sing. He sang the most beautiful birdsong ever sung by any bird.
The men, seeing this and not believing their eyes, ran away and Samuel came to rest on one of the branches of the oak tree. Samuel was the happiest bird alive. Nothing else had been like it and he loved flying and he soared above the oak tree in near-perfect joy. But it was a joy that could not last because the men returned to the forest a second time nearly an hour later and they brought machines with them. Everyone watched them drill holes in several places on the trunk and put sticks with strings into the holes. The many animals watched them walk 100 steps away from the tree. Then in a twinkling of an eye, as if by some powerful new magic, all that was left of the once majestic oak tree was a cloud of dust that settled on the ground. The men seemed happy with themselves.
A PROMISE
Samuel cried. Sophocles cried. The whole forest began to cry. But something else began to happen to the tree mice. Their eyes turned brown as though love was near.
“Thomas,” Teddy shouted. “The Tree!”
“I know.”
Then a little voice distinct and gentle began to tell them of their future.
“You have been chosen as guardians of the trees,” the voice encouraged them. “Plant the acorns you have saved as quickly as you can.”
And then en masse, nearly a dozen tree mice began to plant acorns all across the field. The men stood watching this strange behaviour as the tree mice planted. Soon Achilles and Sophocles joined in the planting and soon other squirrels joined them as well. Finally, even their father Herodotus joined in, using his nose to push an acorn into the ground. The men stood silently awestruck, watching this happen. Nearly an hour passed and they were still standing and watching. None of the men knew what to make of this. They had never seen tree mice or squirrels behave this way. Then it began to rain, at first softly and then a summer storm. The men stood statue-like in the heavy rain. Achilles and Sophocles and Thomas and Teddy, and whoever else wanted to join them, continued to bury the acorns. One of the men took a camera out of their truck and began to take pictures of what they could see.
“No one is going to believe this,” this man said, as he took picture after picture of the seeming miracle before their eyes. Even with the rain, they could hear a meadowlark song. The rain didn’t stop. It was as though the heavens themselves were crying over the death of the oak tree that had lived there so long. Finally, the men seeing that the rain would continue unabated climbed into their car and left. It rained the whole night creating a small pond in the field. By morning over 100 small oak saplings had taken root in the soil with their stalks stretching upward all over the field. There had never been seedlings that had germinated so quickly. None of the men could have explained how such a thing was possible. But in this special place, unbeknownst to anyone, there was a pulsing sea of energy, that made everything grow more quickly, including squirrels and tree mice.
THE FOREST
There was a story at first covered in a small paper in Phillipsburg Pennsylvania about a majestic old oak tree that had been exploded in a field. Local contractors were building a new neighbourhood and it was decided where the tree stood a road would soon be made. When the men returned the next morning after destroying the tree, they found over 100 small saplings growing where the tree had once stood. A local TV Station from Pittsburgh came out to film it and soon the story was picked up by the networks. As the story spread everywhere, people who heard about the story were touched by the miracle of the trees. So there arose among them a desire to save all those trees. State officials finally decided to preserve this ‘small piece of heaven’ as they began to call it and they made it into a park. At last count, there were over 100 oak trees growing together. People would travel from all over the country to visit this park and see its beautiful squirrels and tree mice.
SAVE OUR ACORNS. SAVE OUR FORESTS!!!
This is the last story in 3 part fable.
Part 1:
Part 2:
