“That’s a funny tree” said the girl to her father as she passed the tall, sparse tree on the edge of the beach. “For a start, what’s it doing here? It’s right by the water papa, isn’t that strange!”
Immediately, a small fruffy feathered headed bird swooped down and perched close by, to face the girl and her impertinence.
“Strange! Strange?! Just look at my tree! Are you deranged?!” the bird scoffed.
The girl, insulted at the audacity of the bird, scowled. “It’s your tree is it? Why do you live at the edge of the sea? Can’t be very safe can it..” she said rather than asked, expectantly.
Papa cleared his throat to quietly remind his daughter of her manners but was interested to hear the birds response so waited before moving them along.
The bird squawked angrily before replying “Why wouldn’t it be safe?! Look how big it is, it’s a palace of a tree! I have twenty seven branches! Do you have a home with twenty seven rooms? I doubt you do! In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if you told me you live in a hole.” the bird’s voice deepened on the word ‘hole’ for dramatic effect.
“Pah! Of course we don’t live in a hole, do we papa!” The young girl stamped her foot in anger. “Tell this bird we live in a fine house, just fine!”
Papa looked down at the small, fruffy feathered headed bird, somewhat bemused, and nodded. “My daughter’s quite right, our house is just fine.”
The bird lifted her feathered eyebrows. “Really..so how many rooms do you have?”
Just as papa was about to answer, the bird squawked over him “It’s not twenty seven is it! Well as I already said, I have twenty seven different branches. Just look at them! I used to rest on that one, and then that one, and then that one!” the bird pointed over at various branches with her wing.
“It’s rather sparse though isn’t it?” said the girl, more of a statement than a question. “What about waves..?” she added, as a question rather than statement this time.
“I nest at the top! I see the waves coming, and I brace at the top of my tree, with all the other me’s, and then we let the waves hit below, and that way we feel no sorrow, as we wait for the sea to soothe itself down, and it’s only then, only then, that we will move ourselves around.”
“You won’t leave the tree for higher ground?” asked papa.
“To this tree, I am bound. It’s roots are my roots, it’s branches hold me dear, and at the top I can see clear! For miles and miles around. I am the tree, the tree is part of me” the bird nodded assuringly.
“And the other ‘me’s?” added papa.
The girl narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. She was quite interested to hear what the bird had to say about that.
“Every year, there is a new me. Every year, there is a new branch on my tree. Every year, I’m getting closer to the sky, and it’s only when I may die, that my tree will cease to be, like me.”
“So the other ‘me’s ‘ in your tree…will they die or live on?” asked the girl, much more politely than before which earned an encouraging nod from her papa.
The bird thought for a moment and then looked up at the girl and her father.
“When I am gone, I will be reborn as another me, or maybe as you, or maybe as he!” she pointed with her wing at them individually, one after the other.
“I see….” said the girl pensively.
Just as the three beings held each other’s presence peacefully for a few moments, a deep, rumbling roar came from the sea. The bird was already in the air when the girl and her papa looked over to see an enormous wave heading towards the shore.
“The sea! Time to flee! Or time for another me!” the bird squawked as she flew off to the top of her tree.
The young girl and her papa scrambled up the sandy bank but before they knew it, they had been swept away by the giant wave. The bird remained at the top of her tree, and it wasn’t long before a couple of new branches had sprouted, and a couple of new birds arrived to look down at the other me’s, that passed their tree.
Fin.