Generations

“Come on, hurry up!” I shouted. Mary was so slow. Although she was a girl.

“I’m coming, wait up!” I heard her high voice yell back. She was out of breath already. I could run for hours like this. I guess mom was right. Living in the city does make you slower.

“I win!” I say as I slam my hand onto the tree. I scraped a bit of skin off, but nothing could ruin this moment for me. Mary arrived a few seconds later huffing.

“I told you it wasn’t a race.” She puffed.

“Yeah, cause you are so easy to beat.” I pushed my tongue out at her. I waited for a witty come-back, that’s what she used to do. Now however she just looked at the floor, eyes welling up. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. Mary?” I went over to her and tried to hug her, but before I could even touch her, she tackled me to the ground. Pinning my hands down, straddling me. I tried to wriggle out, but she held me strong.

“Ha, now I beat you! We’re equals.” That’s not fair! “Now what did you want to show me?” I stood up and dusted myself off. She will pay for that later.

“This.” I pointed at the tree. She looked at it like she hadn’t seen it before this moment. She started seeing what I meant.

“It’s huge!” She said in awe.

“Wanna climb?” She nodded eagerly. I scampered up. It took her a few tries to get proper footholds, but it was her first time. I had come out and practised beforehand to not look like a complete fool. We went as far as we dared. We sat down and stared out on to the sky, enjoying the summer breeze.

“This tree seems like an ideal spot,” she thought, sitting below an enormous oak tree. It gave shade from the Sun, and it was far from people. Yes, that’s what she needed, space. Also to learn. Exams were getting closer and closer, she needed to focus and finally study.

“So, what have we here.” She took out her laptop and notebook, the two most important things in her life. Opening up the laptop she already felt too tired to learn. “Here we go again.” Whenever it came to memorising anatomy, she felt her brain throw in the towel. It was impossible to concentrate. Then she’d get anxious about not focusing, making it more difficult to stay on track, making her more worried. It was a vicious cycle; she couldn’t get out of. “But today will be different. Positivity is key.” She repeated her motto for the third time today.

And boy was she right. Maybe it was the fresh air, or just simply changing her surroundings, but she could stay on track, go through most of the lectures and control her anxiety levels. Up until it hit her.

“Who the hell threw a fucking ball at me?!” She yelled inside her head, never would she dare say those words aloud. She looked up, and felt like a freaking movie character. The guy in front of her was smiling sweetly. His hands moving closer to her face, she swatted him away.

“Asshole! Can’t you see there are people around you!”

“Shoot, I said that out loud! Wait. He probably won’t even understand.”

“Uhm, sorry.” He quickly grabbed the ball and ran. “At least it scared him away. Oh no…” He was coming back. And he was not alone. “Idiot, why did you do that?! Quick, quick, get your stuff together!” As fast as she could she smashed her notebook and laptop in her backpack, stood up and ran.

“Hey wait up! We don’t want to hurt you.” They yelled after her. “As if. I’m not that dumb.” They, as soccer players, managed to outrun her. “Well maybe I am, why did I think I could outrun them.”  

“You speak sign language?”  I nodded, it was clearly rhetorical, since only a minute ago I used it in front of him. “Could you teach me?”

“Is he for real? He’s asking a total stranger to teach him ASL?”

“I know it’s weird, but you seem like a native speaker and I haven’t had the best of luck with teachers. So would you help?” “I really am dumb, aren’t I?”  She thought as she nodded, and walked back to the tree with him.

“We shouldn’t be doing this.”

“It’s not private property.”

“Exactly! If it’s yours I don’t mind, but this is not yours or mine, so maybe let’s not. Also, it’s a living being.”

“Are you chickening out?”

“No! I just… Don’t want to.”

“Oh, come on, it’ll be fun.”

“No. You know what? I don’t want to and no amount of convincing will make me sway, so if you want to do it, do it without me.” With that, he turned on his heels and left. The other sighed, and ran after him, maybe tonight won’t be the night.

“Sorry. I wasn’t trying to pressure you, okay?”

“Okay.”

“So do you want to carve our names into a dead tree? I have one at home.”

“Haven’t heard such a bad pick-up line since you first tried asking me out.” He laughed. Seeing how offended Sam looked, he gave him a peck. That seemed to cheer him up, maybe tonight will be the one.

“Do you remember?” She said holding his hand, smiling, her wrinkled face lighting up. He glanced at her with tearful eyes.

“How could I forget?” He reached out to touch the rough bark of the giant oak tree. It had grown so tall since they last saw it. Back then it was only a young sapling. They had found it on their hiking trip, back when the scenery was different. Before it became enveloped by the suburbs before it became a park. When it was just a hill, surrounded by just a forest, and when she was just a girl. How the years flew by, she couldn’t even imagine. “I guess we aren’t the only ones who have memories sewn in with the bark.” He chuckled pointing at the heart with two monograms in it.

“Ah, young love… remember that? Feeling like you want everyone to know how happy you are.” They laughed.

An old woman walked up to the tree, with a basket. Seemed like she came for a picnic, except she was alone. All by herself she neatly laid out a big red blanket, took out some sandwiches and a bottle of water, carefully sat down, and started reading. No one seemed to mind her, no one looked at her. But if anyone would have they would’ve noticed she wasn’t just reading to herself, she was murmuring the words out loud, and if they were to listen in, they could hear the tales of young warrior princesses, fighting and saving their true loves. Tales no one had heard before, and no one will. Tales for only one person’s ears.

After she finished reading and eating. She slowly packed her things up, but before she waddled home, she looked at the giant tree with tearful eyes.

“You’ve all grown up now. You’re almost tall enough to reach her. When you do say hello for me, would you?” Chuckling to herself, she murmured something else, but no one was there to hear it.