I awaken, the leaves brushing my roots that peered out of the ground.
For a minute, I look around. A lot has changed since I was a sapling, and now when I’m old, I always wake up confused. And I should be—there are no other trees around me, yawning and shaking their branches.
Then I remember. I remember how they’d seen me as Wise Old Oak; how they had followed my actions; how they would shake their leaves loose for winter when I shook mine; how they would guess my real age (3,000 years old now); how they would joke about my aching limbs; how they had teased the rare hikers who came here; and many more memories.
Now I am alone, no other trees near me to shout at, no other trees that I could raise and tell them about what it was like in the past, with all other trees with much more fresh air and when nobody cut down trees near me to build more houses and get more space for houses.
I shake my branches and suddenly remember Stanie, our best branch shaker. She was one of the first trees that were cut down when they reached my group. Stanie shook so many leaves and the leaves had landed on the people’s cars, and ruined their paint.
I sigh and flex my roots. Suddenly, I think of Zander and Zavier, the two whom had flexed their roots so that they clogged the houses’ toilets.
I shake my head; trying to remove such depressing thoughts and memories. I struggle to do so and fail.
Sighing in defeat, I cracked my bark and look at what is left now.
I could see many white, brown, yellow, blue, black, green, and many other colors houses as far as I could see, which is a lot. Then, before I could get so much emotional about how few trees there were in that area, I turn to see Aeia’s, the last tree before I was completely alone, short trunk that is left from her cutting down.
My bark suddenly itches, my branches quiver for no apparent reason, my leaves start to fall, floating in the air—all of them are green.
I feel ready. I feel ready to disintegrate, to break down.
So I do. I break down, all my leaves swirling around me as I fall, my roots uprooting the ground.
I feel peace as my spirit leave the world, leaving behind a seed.
A seed of hope.
