A childrens story.

The Tree that went for a Walk.

by Zachary Twoshoes

Her name is 'Summer', perhaps because she was born on mid-summer's day, exactly five years ago from today. Summer has curly fair hair, the sort that ties itself into ringlets, and she likes to wear dungarees and a summer hat when she plays in the garden.

At the bottom of the garden there's a beautiful beech tree. It has wonderful branches that reach right down to the ground. The branches have arranged themselves almost as steps,

spiralling around the tree. Summer can climb to near the top of the tree, and doesn't ever feel frightened.

I shall call you 'Emily' says Summer, with her arms around one of the beech tree's highest branches, and rests her cheek against its smooth bark. She can hear the sound of leaves rustling, answering her, and it's a friendly sound.

And mixed with this sound, Summer hears her mother calling. 'It's teatime' her mother says, and Summer slips down quietly from her hideaway in the Beech tree, runs across the garden and into the house. There are crumpets, with butter and raspberry jam, and Summers' Mum

has spread the jam into heart shapes in the middle of each crumpet. They eat them, sitting together at the table and looking into the garden.

The next day is a Sunday, and straightaway after breakfast Summer heads toward the beech tree. She climbs up to her safe place in Emily, and now it's as if there's a cradle there for her, in the branches, and she settles into the safety of them, and whispers to Emily. 'Sometimes I feel sad', she whispers, 'because my friend, Crystal, had to leave, and I don't know why, and I don't know where she's gone'.

And this time, when Summer listens to Emily's leaves rustling, she thinks that she can hear words in the wind, and Emily's saying, 'Tell me, so that I can help you'. So Summer tells the tree everything, about how Crystal left, about how she misses her, that she doesn't have such fun without her.

And Emily's leaves rustle, and the sounds that they make speak to Summer, and she hears Emily say, 'I can help you. I can take you to Crystal, to show her to you, so that you don't have to feel sad any more, because you'll know that she is happy'.

And Summer trusts Emily, and asks her to take her to Crystal, so that they can see that she is happy.

Emily cradles Summer in her branches, and rocks her until she's asleep, and then, very slowly, Emily starts to walk.

It's unusual for a tree to be able to walk, even in dreams, but Emily is an unusual tree, and she moves with the slow slide of a snail, which is so gentle that it doesn't wake Summer, as

she sleeps in the cradle of the branches.

Emily crosses the road, to ask the Chestnut Tree where they can find Crystal.

The Chestnut Tree gives Emily careful directions, and some roast chestnuts. 'Summer might like to nibble these later', thinks Emily, as she slides silently through the night, following the Chestnut's directions to the park by the Blackberry Brambles.

Summer awakes in the middle of her dreams, and, after she's had the chestnuts for breakfast, she plays in the park, staying close to Emily, so that she's sure she won't get lost.

And now a man with legs that seem as long as hedges is walking in the park, and Emily and Summer watch as he sits carefully on the bench by the pond. He opens his bag, and arranges a piece of pumpkin pie, a potato salad, and a jar of pickles on his knees, on a red and white striped handkerchief. His legs are so long that his picnic is at just the right height, as if he's sitting at a table.

And now his phone rings, and as he pats his pockets, looking for it, his hat falls off his head. It's dark brown, with a rim like a wheel, and it rolls along the path, toward the pond in the middle of the park.

Summer can see that the man doesn't know what to do, now that his picnic is so perfectly arranged on his knees, and his hat is rolling towards the pond. She nudges Emily, and Emily waves her branches carefully, and makes a breeze blow, and the breeze catches the hat, and

picks it up, and makes it sail back through the air, until it lands, gently, back on the head of the man with legs that seem as long as hedges.

He looks surprised, and Emily and Summer can hear him talking into the phone, telling the tale about how his hat fell off, and a breeze caught it, and blew it back onto his head.

Summer smiles, she's thrilled by Emily's magic.

And now Emily is whispering to an Ash Tree that is by their side in the park. Summer can hear the rustle of their leaves. The Ash Tree gives Emily a key, and tells her how to find a Lime Tree

that lives in the curve of the hill, next to the Whispering Wood.

And, after thanking the Ash Tree, Emily and Summer set off, to find the Lime Tree.

And when they arrive Emily gives the Lime Tree the key that the Ash Tree has given her, and

the Lime Tree gives Summer a leaf, the shape of a heart.

'This is where we'll be able to see Crystal', says Emily to Summer, wrapping Summer tightly it

her branches so that she won't feel frightened.

Summer looks through the branches, and through a dreamy window in a little redbrick house

she can see Crystal playing in her bedroom.

Summer lets go of the heart shaped leaf, and it floats slowly downward. Emily waves her

branches, softly, and the breeze from the branches catches the leaf, carrying it through the

open window toward Crystal.

Crystal reaches out, and gently takes hold of the leaf, and holds it close to her heart, and

looks up toward Summer, and smiles, then waves, and then carries on playing.

Summer can see that Crystal's happy, and, now that she knows Crystal's happy, she knows that she can be happy too. She holds tight to Emily, and whispers, 'Thank you', into a hollow in

Emily's bark.

Summer and Emily stay at the Whispering Wood for a while, and then they set off for home,

sliding carefully through the moonlight, to return to Summer's house and her snuggly bed.