There was once a tree that loved a boy, and the boy would water the tree everyday. The boy was careful to keep weeds away and would pick any grubs or caterpillars out of the leaves if he found them.

The tree was already large when he and the boys became friends, but this tree appreciated the things the boy did for him. Even the water, which was nice but unnecessary because the tree had powerful deep roots, became something the tree looked forward to receiving. The boy would sit in the shade of the tree after school, sometimes the boy would climb the tree and sit in the low heavy branches which were easy to climb because they were thick and straight.

Sometimes when the boy climbed the tree, he would kick off some small branches or break some bark and this would hurt the tree, but the tree ignored the pain, happy that the boy was with him.

Once the boy brought some friends to see the tree, and the friends jeered and laughed at the boy, this, they said this was a normal tree just like any other in the field and this tree was stupid, worse than the others because it grew in the middle of the field and stopped them playing ball games or using the field for real fun like football. It was a tree, they said, that should be cut down.

One boy then took a knife from his pocket and scratched a word into the tree. The boy saw this and they began to fight. The boys fought a hard terrible fight, until blood ran on their faces and the others, tired of laughing and screaming convinced them to stop. The strangers left but the boy sat against the tree and cried. The tree, seeing everything, was proud of the boy. He could feel the wound cut into his trunk and he saw the blood on the boys face and he knew that they were connected now, forever they were one.

The boy grew up but the tree did not notice nor understand what this meant. The boy would bring girls to sit under the tree and by now, the boy did not water the tree anymore, nor keep the grubs out of his leaves, but as he was a big tree it did not matter. One day the boy stopped coming. The tree watched for him but the boy never came back. The tree could not know it, but the boy had left town and was now a man, living his life in a far city. The tree waited, watching, seeing other people but never his boy. One night, after a huge rain storm, a strong wind came and shook the tree so hard that it toppled over in the mud. It’s broken trunk sticking from the ground like a broken bottle, it’s massive body laying crushed in the mud. As the tree, confused and broken, lay dying it’s thoughts were for the boy that used to love him.