I Can Make It Rain

The Cry of The Trees

Did you know that trees make noises from their insides?

There are sounds that actually come from deep within the trunks, and sometimes from the roots below the ground, in the language that only nature can understand. When the roots can't reach for enough water, these sounds are actually a cry for help. But sometimes help doesn't come. Sometimes rain just won't fall. At these times, their cries attract everybody else; the parasites and insects that immediately crawl upon and into the trunks and leaves, and the actual predators. Animals from the next level of the food chain come to feed on them-but most of the time; humans.

That's how trees die.

That's what Will witnessed when they first came.

It was past midnight, but he had been keeping his eyes open. He needed to know which ways they took when leaving the ship, and then the harbor, and then the city where the harbor was. The car was going up farther away, up to the hill side, where he was not sure of what he saw. There were too many dead trees, chopped and cut up into logs and laid on the grounds alongside the street. How much wood do you need to build a house, or do you want to build a block full of wooden houses?

What are these logs for?

He thought that his brother Nicolas would be asleep, because their mother had told them to, and he tried not to make a sound. He turned to the other side of the car where Nick was seated, and found he was awake nevertheless. He was also looking out with his palm pressing on the car's window.

Street lights got dimmer and rarer the farther they drove. Less people, cars and motorcycles were passing by once in a while. The road was winding and hiking. When they were at what felt like the top of it, there seemed to be no one at all. No houses. Only tiny lights here and there. Will could see a few things glowing under a little moonlight; a street sign that said there was a mosque nearby, little houses that he thought were shrines used by the Buddhist, and a kite that was all torn out up on another dead tree.

But where is this?

"You can see the city below us," Nicolas whispered from his side of the car.

Are those tomb stones?

"Will."

Down the slope of the hill Will saw shadows of little squares of stones, stretching for at least half a mile away. He rose from his seat to get a closer look, but the car soon went past them.

"Nick, what are those?"

"What? I don't know," Nicolas didn't even look. "Come here, look at this."

It felt like he was riding on an airplane when Will went closer to Nick. Outside the window was a sea of lights, like thousands of silver, glowing marbles thrown upon a thick black velvet sheet. Buses and cars were fireflies with their little lights moving about the darkness, far down below.

"It's like the reflection of the sky," whispered Nicolas again.

The car took a sharp right turning and Will had to move back to his own side window to be able to look up. They were riding up along the steep end of the slope, and by the turning now he could see the sky above. The stars had never felt so close. They were almost as bright as the city underneath them, and Will felt like he could reach for them. It was like they were riding up to the clouds.

Soon he was captivated and for that moment forgot about the trees.

"Can you believe they actually go further and further apart?"

Nicolas was holding his breath beside him, sticking himself to Will's window. He meant the stars explosion, and Nicolas could talk about the subject for hours. Will always had a lot of questions when Nicolas talked about astronomy. But he was not supposed to make a sound now. They were supposed to be asleep.