SHORT STORY
The Tree Mouse - Wild Ride
A parable of the Forest
THE PROPOSITION
Thomas tree mouse was clinging with all his strength to the rugged bark of the tree, feeling his grip loosen and he knew he was about to fall again. Achilles came up behind him and startled him.
“Can I help you?”
He didn’t quite know how to react, because squirrels never talk to tree mice.
“Can I help you?” Achilles repeated.
“You want to help me?”
“I see you’re having a problem here.”
“I’m OK,” he sputtered, barely able to hold himself on the bark.
“You’re about to take a nasty fall. I'll catch you and we can talk about it.”
“I can’t hold on anymore.” Thomas finally slipped off and the squirrel caught him and pushed him to a place where he could sit.
“I want to help you learn how to climb a tree.”
“And why would you a squirrel do that for me?”
“Because I find in my heart that I must. Like the birds of the air must feel the wind through their feathers, or the Bear as he runs must feel the soft earth beneath his feet, I must climb and teach others to climb.”
“Pardon me for my suspicion. But how do I know once I am up in the branches of history, you might not push me off and I fall down on the ground?”
“I can’t believe you think that I could do such a thing. What can I do to prove I am sincere?”
Young Thomas thought a moment about the test he could put him through and he finally decided on one simple gesture.
“Take me to the river, so that I might see the rushing waters.”
“Sure. When do you want me to do this for you?”
“Let’s go now,” Thomas almost demanded.
“Now? It’s far from the sunset and the wolves come out at night.”
“Are you afraid?” Thomas asked him.
“Alright then climb on my back and hold tight.”
Thomas carefully climbed onto Achilles’ back and then the two began their journey to the river.
“You know it is very dangerous to go to the river with the bears and snakes along the way and that terrible I was always looking for someone to snatch and carry off.”
“I am not afraid of birds and snakes or even the owl,” Young Thomas declared.
A NEW BEGINNING: Before Samuel found the oak tree
When Samuel finished a swim across the river, he was wet and hungry. But he had promised himself he would find another way to survive, never again would you kill another animal to sustain his life. He looked around him in the plush green grasses which shot up beside the water's edge to see what he might find to satisfy his hunger. But the plants were all unfamiliar to him and he was afraid to try to eat what he did not know. He found among the grasses a small bush with red berries and with his head he snatched a cluster. When he crushed the berries in his sharp front teeth, they burst inside his mouth, And the bittersweet juices filled his throat. The flavour was totally new to him and he didn’t know if he liked it or not. He found another cluster of berries and he snatched these, and the flavour was more intense than before and he could hardly bear the sensations.
“I can’t eat this,” he finally resolved to himself. “The taste is more than I can stand.” He found an acorn buried in the ground and he placed the hard nut on his tongue and crushed it with his powerful jaws. When it popped open, the taste was so unusual that he immediately spit it out.
“I will surely starve,” he lamented, and he lied down a moment in the grass.
He slid slowly eastward, moving away from the river and toward a clearing. he could barely see through the grasses. He felt drawn in this direction, but he did not know quite why. He didn’t know how long he had been moving where he was in relation to the river. But as he grew even hungrier ever more tired, he finally decided he had to rest. He found a fallen tree trunk and slithered upward onto the weather-worn top. He would have laid there the rest of his life or so he thought to himself as he turned his head and he caught his first glimpse of the majestic oak tree stretching out its arms as though it welcomed him and his heart swelled with unimaginable joy.
“I’ve never seen anything so beautiful.”
He lifted his head and stared intensely, trying to take in every detail of what he was seeing. From that moment his hunger disappeared and he felt peace for the first time if snakes could cry, he felt like crying.
MISSING TIME
Young Thomas clung to the long hairs on Achilles’ back with all his strength as the squirrel ran effortlessly through the underbrush. Achilles was jumping from branch to branch, tree trunk to tree trunk, and every time he landed on another branch, Thomas would be tossed and his grip would loosen and he would giggle uncontrollably. He was having the time of his life.
“I’ve never had so much fun,” Thomas chuckled for his newfound friend. He didn’t realise what danger surrounded them.
“Thank you so much for taking me here,” Thomas almost shouted.
“My pleasure,” Achilles responded.
Though Achilles was beginning to get a sinking feeling settling like a stone in his gut that someone or something was following them. He stopped a moment and began to look around, sticking his nose into the air and sniffling as though he might smell their pursuer.
“Is something wrong? Thomas asked him.
“I don’t know,” Achilles answered.
They both could hear the rushing waters ahead of them. Achilles could hear the sound of breaking twigs. Nicholas began to look around to see if there was a place that he might climb.
“Is everything okay?” Thomas asked him. “Why have we stopped?
“We have company coming,” Achilles responded.
“What kind of company?” Thomas swallowed his words.
“Could you be a bear?” The Young three mouse with a slight stutter in his voice blurted out.
“I don’t think it’s a bear. Not enough noise.”
He began to move cautiously. And out of the corner of his eye, he got the first glimpse of the grey wolf dashing towards both of them, which his huge jaws wide open. Achilles began to run as he had never run never before in his life, Hoping that his newfound friend had the strength to hold onto his back when he bounced and jump from trees down to paul and branches, all the while looking for higher ground, a place that he might climb to get out of harm’s way.
“I don’t know if I can hold on any longer,” Thomas shouted, almost falling off as Achilles continued to jump and run. He remembered what his father I told him so many times before but the dangers of going too far from the tree.
“There is safety among all of us together. Never go away on your own.” His father had sternly told him, But Thomas always wanted his own way and now he felt that he just wanted to be back home again.
The wolf was getting closer and the sound of breaking twigs became more rhythmic. Achilles found a suitable avenue of escape and rushed up a tall and majestic Maple tree. When he had reached a safe height above the wolf, he watched him struggling to jump up himself into the tree.
“Leave us alone,” the young squirrel shouted back at him. “Go find someone else to eat!”
“He is going to eat us?” Thomas hesitated.
“That was the point.”
The wolf circled around the bar mother tree and finally sat down as though waiting for them.
“What is he doing, Achilles?”
“He is waiting for us to come down.”
“We are not going down, are we?”
“No, we are waiting here. Eventually, he will give up and find something else to do.”
“How long will that be?” Thomas pleaded. “I’m hungry!”
“We will be okay. This is not the first time I’ve had to deal with wolves.”
Achilles could see that his young protégé was frightened. His little paws were shaking and he held his nose nervously up in the air. Then he thought a moment about what he might do to calm Thomas down.
A DILEMMA
Achilles stared down at the wolf who was circling the bottom of the tree. Woodrow stopped a moment and then looked up at both of them. He fixed his eyes upon the smaller of the two. Then he ran his tongue across the sharp teeth in the front of his gaping mouth.
“He’s going to eat me,” Thomas muttered.
“He’s not going to eat anyone,” Achilles responded.
“Wolves eat squirrels and tree mice. This was a very bad idea. Let’s go back to the oak tree.”
“It’s a little too late for that.” Achilles hesitated a moment. “I’ve got an idea. Why don’t I give you your first climbing lesson now?”
“Now? What if I fall down?”
“You’re not going to fall down. And if you do, I will catch you.”
Achilles climbed a little higher on the tree and found a place for Thomas to sit and Thomas climbed off Achilles' back and nested his little body between the branches. Achilles jump to a branch across from Thomas and began to explain.
“It’s not so much strength you need, but coordination.”
“Coordination?” Thomas struggled with the word.”That’s a difficult word. What does it mean?”
“It means being able to control your arms and legs and keeping your balance.”
“And that’s something you think I can do?”
“Anybody can do it. It just takes a little practice.”
The practice was something Thomas had come to know well, but at this moment Thomas was still very afraid.
Of all the animals in the forest, except for insects and hummingbirds, that mouse was the smallest. Their only protection from bears and snakes is their quick agile feet and sharp tiny teeth. Squirrels would laugh at them because squirrels climb trees to escape predators. But Achilles knew this was not the time to emphasise the strength when he could see how frightened his young friend had become.
THE LESSON
Achilles began to explain to his expected pupil all the techniques he had mastered at climbing. The loud roar of machines rose above the trees. Though neither could see the edge of the river, they could hear the sound of man’s creations and the wolf, who before seemed so confident and proud, began to pace nervously at the bottom of the tree.
He took Thomas on his back up to the top branches of the tree and the two of them together began to slide toward the tip of one of the tallest branches. The branch was beginning to sway back and forth.
“I am not so sure that we should do this,” Thomas complained. “What if we fall?”
“We are not going to fall,” Akhilesh responded. “Not under my care. I have climbed even taller trees and I have seen things that no other Squirrel has ever seen.”
“And you are not afraid?”
“Why should I be afraid? Just look at what I can see.”
He turned around on the branch in nearly a complete circle and Thomas was very afraid that they’d fall. They could both see in the distance that bulldozers had come into the forest and one by one they had not downed trees from miles in every direction. Still, the one oak tree was left untouched. Men hadn’t been able to bulldoze it down.
As Achilles helps the young three mice to place his feet in the proper places, in the space between the branches, Thomas finally muttered, “What’s that loud noise, Achilles?”
“That’s man,” Achilles stopped a moment to answer him.
“And what is he doing?”
“He is killing trees.”
“Why would you do that?” Thomas asked him.
“Such a question!” He responded. “Do you want to learn how to climb or do you want to hear about man?”
“Tell me about man,” the young female hesitated. But ACHILLES DID NOT WANT TO TALK ABOUT MAN. He wanted to talk about CLIMBING.
CLIMBING
Climbing is an art, mastered after long hours and great effort. It is not supposed to come easy. But for young Achilles Squirrell, it came as easily as rain from a storm cloud with flowers from the brambleberry bush. He was the master of climbing and he was not convinced that teaching anyone including Thomas could be wrong. Climbing was such fun and it was something to be learnt. Thomas watched him as he climbed higher and higher on the maple tree.
“Please come down, Achilles,” Thomas began to shout. “We need to go back to our oak tree.
“I can see everything in all directions,” Thomas shouted back.
You could see a red jeep coming from the river to watch their clearing. Achilles began to watch the jeep as he came closer and he got an idea I am a crazy and incredible idea.
“What do you see?” Thomas shouted.
“A man is coming,” Achilles answered. He began to climb lower on the tree. Woodrow was still pacing in the figure eights at the base of the tree.
Achilles had heard many stories about the man from his father. But he had never seen a man or his machines up close before. Thomas with his head up with his nose sniffing upwards.
At the base of the tree as Achilles began to gather his thoughts, the work was pacing back and forth appearing impatient. Achilles was determined to wait out the war and was also waiting for Achilles to come down to the ground. But Achilles hoped that he could never come down from the top of the stream, where it was a little like heaven.
To all their surprise, the man parked a jeep at the base of the tree. He climbed out of the van with 12 long sticks with red flags and proceeded to hammer them into the ground in a circle around the base of the tree. It was at this point that Woodrow, who had backed off the train, decided to leave and seek his food from elsewhere.
At that moment Achilles got a crazy idea. He began to rush down towards the base of the tree, stopping a moment to let Thomas on his back again.
“We are going to jump in that man’s machine,” he told Thomas. “I think he might take us back to the oak tree.”
Thomas saw no reason to believe him.
A WILD RIDE IN THE FOREST
When Achilles reached one of the lower branches of the Maple tree, he stopped for the moment to rest.
“Hold on tight to my back,” he told Thomas.
“I am going to jump to the back of the machine.”
“I am afraid,” Thomas told him. “I am very afraid!”
“There is nothing to be afraid of. I’ve jumped even further distances.”
“I am afraid of the man.”
“There is more to be afraid up with our friend, the wolf.”
Thomas could see Woodrose standing in the tall grass is about 100 feet away.
“I won’t fall off your back?”
“You’ll be fine,” Achilles answered.
He backed up a few feet and jumped. He landed precisely in the middle of the jeep. Achilles was brought under a blanket that was lying on the back. Then the man came back to the jeep and started his engine. He didn’t even realise at the beginning that Achilles and Thomas were in the jeep. He began to pull away, driving slowly at first, but then he began to drive faster.
Thomas stuck his head out from under the blanket. Both of them and the blanket we bouncing from the bumps on the ground. Achilles seemed to be having the time of his life.
“I don’t think I can hold on with all of the bouncings,” Thomas was complaining.
In 15 minutes, Jeff had arrived at the site of the oak tree and suddenly it stopped. The man got out of the jeep and began to put wooden stakes around the oak tree. Then Achilles with a stout of a squirrel jumped out of the jeep and the two of them were now on the ground near the tree. This would be the very first miracle of a very strange day. After 15 minutes, the man climbed back into the jeep and pulled away. No one, not even Achilles, knew what any of this meant.
This is a continuation of my short story:
