The Tree – Friday Fictioneers

AnElephantCant deny it
Trees are just about his favourite things
He is a bit too big
To sit on a high twig
But he may try it if he has wings

He has good reason to love them
This is not a load of bunk
He keeps this brief
But it is his be-leaf
That it’s nice to cuddle a trunk with his trunk

The idea of Friday Fictioneers is to write a very short story (100 words) based on a picture prompt (below).
That’s it.

Copyright-Madison Woods

Copyright-Madison Woods

The Tree

The children don’t play here so much these days.
I remember when they used to swing from ropes tied to branches.
When they hung sheets and blankets for tents, played at Cowboys and Indians.
When they climbed up, pretending to be pirates sailing the seven seas.
Then Benny, no, Bernie, decided to build a tree-house.
Carried that wood all the way up the hill, brought his dad’s best hammer and those long, sharp nails.
I wasn’t quite so keen on that, thought an accident could happen.
Well, they thought it was an accident when my branch bent under his foot.

Unknown's avatar

About ceayr

A Scot who has discovered peace in a small town he calls Medville on the Côte Vermeille, C.E. Ayr has spent a large part of his life in the West of Scotland and a large part elsewhere. His first job was selling programmes at his local football club and he has since tried 73 other career paths, the longest being in IT, with varying degrees of success. He is somewhat nomadic, fairly irresponsible and, according to his darling daughter, a bit random. So, nobody’s perfect.
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20 Responses to The Tree – Friday Fictioneers

  1. Yes, a homicidal tree!

  2. Dear Elephant,

    Now there’s a vindictive tree. Good story but sad ending.

    Shalom,

    Rochelle

  3. What a sinister tree!

  4. Quite the sinister tree, although I guess I wouldn’t want people building a house in me either. Reminds me a bit of the trees in the Old Forest, in Lord of the Rings.

  5. Horus's avatar Horus says:

    spent half my childhood on trees – knew their scars and broken branches! It DOES hurt when you put nails on someone.

    btw – I loved this week’s limerick ! Especially the last line !!

  6. Archon's Den's avatar Archon's Den says:

    I liked your damned story! So there. 😉 Rude enough?? 😕

  7. Ellespeth's avatar Ellespeth says:

    What a wonderful memory image you’ve created here. It’s comforting to imagine that our favorite childhood tree might remember us and miss us. We were just babysitting 5 yr old twins the other day. They climbed a tree, in their back yard, to check on some sort of pretend electronic spy equipment
    Ellespeth

  8. Those sharp nails could be something..

  9. Ooh, good story. I didn’t know who was telling it until the last line. Clever again, AnElephant.

  10. Jan Brown's avatar Jan Brown says:

    So the tree put his foot down, so to speak, at the prospect of all those nails. Smart tree!!!

  11. RoSy's avatar RoSy says:

    Oops!

    Our trees are too tiny to climb on. Maybe future generations can enjoy them.

  12. helenmidgley's avatar helenmidgley says:

    Gotta love Karma 🙂

  13. Nan Falkner's avatar Nan Falkner says:

    We used to climb trees, and all my boys did. Mike built them a tree house, but I was always nervous when they would climb to the top -Now they don’t do that very often, although my 41 year old son climbed the tree on the deck last weekend and I begged him to come down. Good story and interesting point of view! Nan 🙂

  14. Your story reminds me of the children’s book The Giving Tree. It is a story about how a boy and a tree are friends and all the things the tree does to make the boy happy. Nicely done 🙂

  15. Love reading this from the tree’s point of view. Very nice story. I enjoyed it.

  16. I think if someone hammered too many nails into my limbs I’d contemplate retaliation. Nice one.

  17. My mom built us a tree house, but I never thought of the tree’s POV. Thankfully our tree didn’t retaliate. Sad that children don’t play outside as much and that many parents are afraid that their children might get hurt trying almost anything.

    janet

  18. Elephant, Parents are probably afraid to let their children play outside like that any more. Either that or everyone is too overscheduled/busy working. Many kids are also in their rooms on the internet. Times have sadly changed. Well written. 🙂 —Susan

  19. It is sad that kids don’t climb trees as we used to. Times they are changing.

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