Tree Whisperer

Chapter 19: Brenda

Chapter 19: Brenda

            A week passed. The week I had been looking forward to since I was a little girl. The day I was able to find out why we were here. I would be able to find out why there were so few of us. I would find out my history. Today was the single most important holiday in my history. The sad thing was I had never heard of it, let alone attended a ceremony pertaining to it. I had to where my best dress today.

            When Ahma and I arrived at the synagogue, I gawked. It was a small building, but the most festive I had ever seen. Oil lamps flickered around it, creating a dramatic scenery. The building was covered in every colored flower imaginable, making the building appear dome-shaped. Outside of the building stood two children. One stood on the left side and the other stood on the right side. The one on the left stood proudly, wearing a brown sweater and a navy green pair of pants. The child was covered in leaves. The other child stood with shoulders slumped. With closer inspection, I realized it must have been the suit I donated. It hung on the child like an oversized blanket. It had two black eye patches, one covering each eye. On his hands were blue party hats, so that the hands looked as if they came to a sharp point. Above the child on the left, a sign read TREE. Above the child on the right, a sign read NARCHICHI.  

            The sound of a horn rung out. Immediately, people started rushing into the synagogue. Ahma and I followed suit.

            Another blast came from the horn. I saw the person this time, standing at the top of the platform holding the horn. It looked like a ram’s horn. The person, a woman, was dressed in a green dress. Now that I glanced around at everyone, they were all wearing variations of green, brown and black. Thankfully, my dress was mostly black with some white in it. Ahma’s dress was a dark navy blue, so hopefully nobody would be able to tell the difference. All around, there were foldable chairs set up. At the end of every row, there was a more comfortable, leather chair for the Elders to sit. Ahma and I chose to sit near the back, well, Ahma chose. I think she just wanted to go unnoticed for as long as possible. At least that was how I felt. All of these people were strangers, unfamiliar and unsafe.

            Seated beside me was a little girl. She was wearing a chocolate brown dress with black leggings. She tugged on her mother’s sleeve.

            “Ahma, what story is this again?” the little girl asked.

            “This is the story of Becka and Saul, honey. We need to be quiet now, shhh,” her mother quieted her down. But wait, why did she call her mom, Ahma? That was my name for my mother.

            “Hey Ahma?” I asked softly.

“Yes?” she said.

“Why did that little girl call her mother Ahma? I thought that was your nickname?”

Ahma started chuckling. Why would she do that? I was being completely serious right now.

“Well, I guess you’ve never been in a situation to know. Have you?” Ahma replied. What was she talking about? “Ahma means mother in an ancient language we used to speak. It is one of the only surviving words from that language.”

“Oh.”

Right before the ceremony began, a handful of people passed thick, leather books out to everyone in the audience. When I opened the book, there was strange writing scrawled everywhere. It looked similar to Arabic.

“This is the only story that contains the ancient language,” Ahma whispered into my ear.

I nodded to show I had heard her.

The person on the stage spoke in an old, deep voice, “Please turn to page three hundred and seventy two.”

The sound of pages being flipped erupted throughout the room. When I arrived at page three hundred and seventy-two, I realized that from then on, it was written in English.

“Hello, and welcome. As most of you know, my name is Elder Contera, and I will be leading this year’s gathering and celebration of our separation from the Other World. The story began with two teenager’s different and unique perspective on life. The first teenager was Saul, who led his people courageously. He taught us the idea of questioning what people say through curiosity, bravery and loyalty. The second was Becka, who died heroically.

“The story begins with a family reunion. Meanwhile, Saul ponders whether or not everything the Towns People say is the truth. It starts with the truth about Humans. He convinces Becka that what the Towns People say about Humans is not true. The Towns People said Humans were evil. We can all look at any Human and see that they are not evil, just stupid and naïve.”

That was harsh, I thought.

“The Towns People said that Humans looked like grotesque creatures that burn your eyes with a single glance, and we know, that is not true. The Towns people said all of these things… But they had never actually seen them with their own eyes. Humans look almost exactly like us, without the aspects of being a tree. We all know this, and we have all seen one.

“As a result of his curiosity, Saul convinces Becka that the Townspeople were feeding us lies. Saul then convinces Becka to try to find a key on the guard’s shirt or pants. While she is talking to the guard though, he breaths on her. When he breathes on her, she becomes jumpy and overexcited. This is a side effect of being breathed on by a Narchichi, which was later discovered by John Thompson.

“For those that don’t know, a Narchichi is an exotic blue creature that is at war with us Trees. They were mortal enemies and constantly trying to kill off the other so as to receive the other creature’s adaptations. It was an old tale at the time that if the Narchichi’s killed off the Trees, they would be able to inhabit trees as we do. We would have no benefit of killing off the Narchichi’s, but the Trees couldn’t just stand there and die for them. No! They had to fight back, and that was exactly what they did. Now, trust me, I could go into a thorough history of the Narchichi War, but I have to continue don’t I?” Elder Contera let out a booming laugh, as well as most of the audience.

“Anyways… Saul and Becka lived during the War. Becka was the first victim of the Narchichi. Since she was breathed on by the Narchichi, a Narchichi quickly inhabited her body instead of having to use the bloodstream to reach her heart. By the time Saul realized that something wasn’t quite right with Becka, she was gone. The only soul left was the Narchichi’s. The Narchichi was high off of living as a Tree, if only for a moment. That Narchichi’s life was short lived though, and quickly passed. Determined after his best friend’s death, he constructed his own plan to pass the guards. And he was successful, now wasn’t he?”

Heads shook eagerly up and down.

“This is basically the story of how all of us got here,” Ahma whispered over Elder Contera as he droned on. “They know this story like the roots of their Tree.”

“…And that concludes the Gathering and Celebration of our departure from the Other World.”

The audience clapped politely while kids tugged their parents out the door, whispering of a festival.

“Hey Ahma, so what’s this I hear of a festival?” I asked innocently.

She rolled her eyes. “Come on.”

And we left for a festival full of new experiences. Well, for me anyways.

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