In the midst of my loneliness, a little girl came running into the meadow and slumped down under me. She started crying, so I asked her “what’s wrong?” She didn’t respond, but then again, they never do. But, after a bit, she started talking to me, pouring out her troubles. I felt sorry for her. I hope she comes back soon, it gets lonely out here.
Once again, she came. I’m beginning to think she likes me, because now she talks about ordinary stuff, like how her mom thinks she’s popular, but she really isn’t. I hope she comes tomorrow because most humans begin understanding tree talk after three consecutive days of talking to us.
She came back! I’m so glad, because Mia, that's her name, realized she could understand me, and we talked for hours. I know she's coming back because she told me I am her new best friend.
Yet another long conversation today, although I’m starting to believe that she hasn’t told her mother about me by the way she always sneaks off the trail to come talk to me. I think she should be honest with her mother, and I told her that, but Mia yelled and said her mother wouldn’t understand, that nobody would understand. She started crying, and it broke my heart to see Mia cry, so I calmed her down. But she is going to have to tell her mother soon.
For some reason, Mia is coming less and less to visit me. She told me it’s because it isn’t normal for her to talk to me so much. I think it’s because of that new girl who moved in next door. One time, Mia brought her to me, and they climbed on me all afternoon. I was crying the whole time, and Mia just ignored me. I felt so sad at the fact that she had found someone else to share inside jokes with that I was still crying when she came to talk to me in the evening.
She calmed me down, just like I had done to her so many weeks before, and told me that Zoe was just a friend, not a best friend like me. But I’m not convinced.
It was the worst possible day today. Mia brought her mom to go climbing. I didn’t cry when they were scrambling up my trunk, but when Mia and her mom sat on one of my branches and discussed moving away, I couldn’t hold it in any longer. I started crying again, and that set Mia off too. Her mom asked “what’s wrong, honey?” and Mia shouted back, “Don’t you hear the tree crying, telling us not to move? He’s my friend, I talk to him, and I can hear him telling us not to move!”
Then her mom just stared at her in shock until she said “that’s not normal honey! You have lots and lots of friends, and you chose to talk to a tree?! How long have you been doing this? Does the tree “talk” back? I’m getting you checked out!”
And with that, Mia’s mother carried her away and I haven’t seen her since. But sometimes, I see her mom puttering in the yard, and I always wonder what would’ve happened if Mia had told her mother the truth about me. Because then, maybe my last memory of Mia wouldn’t be the terrified look she gave me as her mother carried her away into the unknown.
