Once Upon a Tree... | Teen Ink

Once Upon a Tree...

May 28, 2009
By bibwitharte BRONZE, Barnegat, New Jersey
bibwitharte BRONZE, Barnegat, New Jersey
2 articles 30 photos 10 comments

Favorite Quote:
We all just floating on by waiting for some guy that can walk on water


“Ahhh!” I screamed, terrified of what I thought was a monster in my room. My mother charged in, asking what was wrong. I blankly stared at her and told her that I thought I saw something in the mirror. My mom told me that nothing was there and said for me to go back to sleep.

This was a re-occurring thing for me. Waking up every night crying or believing something was after me. My mom decided one day that she should take me to the doctor’s to make sure everything was okay.

“Mom, why do I have to see the doctor?” I curiously asked.

“It’s only for a check up, nothing bad. I want to make sure that you are healthy.”

I turned away after my mom told me this. I figured everything would be normal. I’d walk into the waiting room, mom would fill out some paper work and I would patiently wait for the doctor to call me into his office. See, normal. All these things happened and I played with the toys in the waiting room because my doctor is called a pediatrician. Sometimes I can’t say that word because it’s kind of hard to pronounce. The doctor called my name, “Steven Harris”. My head popped up. He waved to me and my mother and I followed him into the small square office. There was a table with white paper which he told me to sit on it was crinkly and loud when I hopped up. My mom leaned up against the brown door while the doctor was doing his job. The doctor had this old looking wheeling chair that he plopped on to and rolled over to the table and picked up a few tools. One was to check my blood pressure and another to look in my mouth. Once he finished he turned to my mom and calmly said, “He looks perfectly healthy.”


My mommy and I buckled our seat belts and she turned the key to start the car. Vrmmmm vrmmm. We were off. We turned down all the same streets that we did getting to the doctor’s.

Trees, trees, big trees, small trees, short and fat trees. Walking trees, talking trees, wise trees and silly trees. I started to giggle.

“What’s so funny?” my mom asked.

“Nothing.” I smiled and we finished our way home.

We pulled into the driveway. Click. The car was parked. Mom asked me what I wanted for dinner. “I don’t know.” My usual answer. Mom knew that I would say that but she asked anyways. She knew that I liked all her cooking.

I walked up stairs to wash up for dinner. Then I heard a knock at the bathroom window. A tree, a tree stood there and it said, “Hello.” I was surprised and looked around to make sure that no one else saw the TALKING TREE!

I dashed over to the bathroom door, closed and locked it. Then went over to the window again and leaned my head out to look around. I looked back up at the tree and again he said, “Hello.”

“Hi,” I stuttered.

“How old are you?” the tree asked.

“Six and a half,” I told him. “How old are you?”

“I’m 600 years old,” When the tree said this my mouth dropped.

“Steve, dinner’s ready!” mom called. I went to the tree to tell him goodbye but he wasn’t there when I turned back. I climbed off of the toilet and closed up the window. Then mom came knocking at the bathroom door.

“Are you alright in there?” she asked.

“Yeah I’m fine.” I flushed the toilet and washed my hands again. When I opened the door mom said that she made some lasagna and wrapped her arms around my shoulder and we went down stairs to eat dinner.

“Do you want some bread?” mom asked.

“Sure.” She passed me some bread and butter. She asked me why I was being so quiet. I told her that everything was fine and that I was just a little tired. But actually I was wondering about that tree. I was wondering how a tree knew how to talk and where it came from and what kind of tree it is and if it is a boy or a girl, or even if a tree could be a boy or a girl.


After dinner I went up stairs and brushed my teeth. Mom always told me to brush my teeth after dinner. I finished up and went into my room I just sat there thinking about the tree so I drew a picture of it.

“It’s time for bed.” I put the picture on the desk and then curled up into my blanket. Mom kissed me on the head and said good night and that was that.


The knocking started again on my window and I reached under my bed to grab a flash light. I turned on the bright light and walked over to my window and opened it up. The tree told me to climb on and so I did. We started to talk and then I felt it move and I realized it was walking.

“Where are we going?!” I was scared.

“To where all the other trees are and more things like me,” the tree told me. I told him alright and we kept going. I wasn’t sure where I would end up but the summer air felt nice and the stars were out. So I just lay down on the branch and looked at the stars.
When we arrived, where ever it was, I could hear large stomps as if some one were dancing… almost like a giant. I opened my eyes and we were surrounded by mountains, large mountains. The trees all cheered when we came and I sat up to get a closer look. Then I realized this tree that I was sitting on never told me his name. I asked him his name. He said “Pete the Pine.” Well, it made sense because he was a pine tree. Many trees stood around me and they all seemed to be enjoying themselves. They danced and sing and talked and some told jokes.

I met more and more trees like Stan the Silly Sycamore and his sister Samantha. They told me hilarious jokes. But there was one tree that was all alone and looked sad. I said “Pete who is that over there?”

He told me, “That’s Willy the Wise Willow.” He started to tell me a little about Willy. “Willy is a quiet fellow, but he will give you the best advice and he is older then any of us here.”

“How old is he?” I asked.

“I’ve been told he is over 1,000 years old.”

“Wow,” I said, surprised. Then I looked back over at Willy and I turned to Pete and asked him to put me down. I started to walk over to Willy because I wanted to talk to him.

“Hello, Steve,” Willy said.

“How do you know my name?”

“You are the talk of the trees, my son. Everyone knows your name here. Why do you think that you are here tonight?” he asked.

I guess I didn’t think about that. But I wanted to know why, so I asked Willy.

“The reason you are here is because you are the reason why all us trees can talk and dance and laugh and walk and joke. It’s your imagination that brought us here. But unfortunately, I am too old to dance or jump and do those things like the others.”



I glanced around at the others Sam and Stan were dancing around and Pete was talking with the others. Then I looked back at Willy and told him that I will tell him a joke that Stan told me. Willy and I just laughed the rest of the night and I became really tired. Willy told me to lie down. I propped myself against his trunk and covered myself with his leaves then went to sleep.

When I woke up I was in my bed. My mom was telling me that I needed to get ready for school. I sat up and I said, “Mom I had the craziest adventure last night.”

“That’s nice honey, but you can tell me on the way to school.” She left my room and I got ready.

When mom dropped me off I was done telling her my adventures she laughed and said have a good day. As I walked in to the class room and I was putting my lunch box and coat away when I heard a knock at the window I turned and there was Pete, Stan and Sam waving at me. I sat down and daydreamed about them all day.

The author's comments:
I wrote this story for my creative writing class in school. My teacher thought it was well written and I made a few corrections and decided to submit here hope you enjoy. maybe it could even be published.

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