FlashFiction Dumpground

The Living Tree (true story)

I have two older brothers. One day when I was small, they played a joke on me and it took me years to realize it. It's one of my most cherished memories.

🍏🌳🍏

Under the veil of big secrecy, my brothers brought me to a special tree. It was an old apple tree that had these tiny apples that were so bitter, even worms didn't eat them. And it was called The Living Tree.

We paid respects to the tree with ritualistic flourish and requested permission to come on board. Then we climbed three different limbs, which turned into our designated battleship stations, and we defended the galaxy from an alien invasion.

Afterwards, to prove to me that the tree was indeed living, my brother picked up one of the apples and put it in a hole of the tree.

I came back there the next day, and, BEHOLD, the apple was bitten. Wow, this tree really was living if it could eat!

We played on that tree for years. And we always called it The Living Tree, even when I figured out the joke.

👩‍🚀👨‍🚀👨‍🚀 🌳 🛸🛸🛸

Last time I was home, I visited The Living Tree and sadly, it was gone. It was living no more.

I still hope that one of the bitter apples will grow into a sapling, and in a couple of decades, a new generation of space troops can defend the galaxy yet again.