miscellaneous stories

The Happy Tree

Once Upon A Time...

There was a forest full of trees which wasn't uncommon or unheard of. What was strange about it was what was in the forest, for the trees were unlike any other trees ever before seen. These trees were happy.

Well, all but one were happy, for one tree, the largest and most deformed of the trees was sad. He sad sad on the far outskirts of the happy trees, near the trees that were like any other tree to be seen. He sat alone and melancholy and weeped golden sap during the days and nights, as no one wanted to talk to him. Years went by and he was still always sad and bullied as he had grown bigger and more warped over time.

One day, a couple built a small wood cabin in the midst of the normal trees. The couple grew happy together and soon they had their first child, a small boy. As the boy grew he like to watch his father come into the woods to do his learned practice of being a lumberjack. The boy came not because he liked the chopping of trees but because he like the adventure of wandering in them. He often vered near the sad tree himself but the loud and boisterous noise of the happy trees scared him off.

A few more years passed and the small boy was almost ten and seemed more content to get closer and closer to the noise of the happy trees. He eventually built the courage to visit them and soon became friends with them. The boy visited the trees almost everyday but he always seemed to not notice the sad tree on his way there. This saddened the tree even more and he began to weep even longer and harder and produced more sap. He weeped for so long and so loud that on the boy's way to visit the happy trees he heard the sad tree.

The boy walked over to the tree for fear of being unwanted. The sad tree heard his footsteps nonetheless, for he was just a boy and heavy footed. The sad tree looked up and was surprised to find the boy there. The boy stared in awe at the tree, a look the sad tree had never know as he had only been looked at with disgust the happy trees.

The sad tree stopped weeping and stared at the boy as he slowly came closer and closer. The boy paused before the sad tree's roots for just a moment and gingerly climbed onto the sad tree's roots. The sad tree didn't protest as he had never had someone or something come this close to him before and he did not want to discourage it. The boy crawled all the way to the base of the tree where the tree's sap had puddled over the years. The boy's eyes glittered at the sight of it as he bent down and stuck a finger in the sap. He thus stuck his finger in his mouth as if to taste to golden goop. The boy let out a small noise.

The sad tree panicked. He had never met a boy before and had never had one eat his sap. The sad tree thought he had poisoned the boy until he saw him go for another taste and realized the noise was a noise of satisfaction. The tree looked down on him in curiosity. He had never seen someone happy around him and it was very strange but he liked it nonetheless. He boy sat down on the tree's roots and enjoyed the sap for a few more minutes before getting up, giving the roots a small hug, and leaving for his parents had called.

Day after day, week after week, month after month, the boy came back again and again to eat the sap. Soon the boy grew comfortable around the tree and began to speak to him. The tree new few words the boy spoke of as the tree never learned the boy's language as no one had ever bother to visit, but the tree caught on soon enough. The boy talked about many things like his home life and his parents and what few friends he had at the small school some miles away.

As the years passed and the boy grew older the boy talked of other things and the tree continued to listen. The boy never visited the other trees again. The tree realized he had a friend, and although the other trees still bullied him and teased him and made fun of him, the tree was okay as he had his one friend, the boy once small but now not, to help him feel good and worthy. That was all the tree needed to feel Happy.

The End