Treeadore

*trigger warning for kidnapping/mild abuse (of a young tree)

I, Treeadore Spruce, was only seven years old and six feet tall when my world came crashing down. Actually, I was only seven years old and six feet tall when I came crashing down. One minute, I was standing in the forest, vibrant and green against a swirling winter wonderland. Snowflakes were dancing all around me. My boughs were bouncing in the breeze. The next minute, I was falling face first into the snow. 

Everything went black. When I came to, I found myself being carried out of the woods on the shoulders of two large humans. A tiny human was toddling behind them. I tried to thrash and fight back when I heard my mother’s creaky screams, but I couldn’t. All my limbs were tied against my trunk.

After a short time, the smallest human stopped walking. He stomped his foot into the deep snow.

“My legs are tired! I can’t walk anymore,” he whined.

The two big humans lowered me to waist level, but didn’t let me go. 

“We’re almost home. You’ve got this,” the tallest human assured the tiny one.

“Nooooo!” 

The toddling human was now wailing. He plopped himself down in the snow and refused to move.

The shorter big human set my top end down and crouched next to the tiny one.

“Would you like a snack?”

“No!” 

“How about some water?” 

“No! Mama carry me!”

“I can’t carry you. I have to help Daddy with the tree.”

“MAMA CARRY MEEEEE!” the tiny one sobbed.

The human called Mama lifted the small human up onto her hip.

“You’ll have to drag the tree. It should be okay, it’s not too far,” she said.

The Daddy human wrapped his hands around my trunk and started walking. My top slid and scraped across the snow. An owl hooted in the forest. The humans stopped in their tracks. 

“Did you hear that?” the Daddy human gasped.

“Great horned owl,” the Mama human replied.

I knew that it had to be Owlberta. Every year, for as long as I could remember, she’d built a nest in the pines that surrounded me. I’d always hoped that one day, when I grew taller, she’d pick me to hold her nest. That could never happen now.

The tallest human dragged me through a chain link gate. The smaller big human, who was still carrying the tiny one, latched the gate after we came through. 

“We’re home. We made it.”

The tiny human was placed on the ground. He promptly leaned back in the snow. He moved his arms up and down while he swung his legs open and shut.

The tallest human dropped me near the back steps. He walked to the far corner of the yard. The tiny human rolled onto his belly and licked the snow.

“Don’t eat the snow!” scolded the human named Mama.

The Daddy human came back. He was carrying something long and metal.

“I’m going to cut it down a bit. Then you can help me get it inside. We’ll set it up in the tree stand before we get him to bed,” the tallest human told the shorter one.

He picked me up by the trunk, and, holding my bottom end over his knee, raised a saw to my bark. I tried to fight with all my might, but it was no use. My limbs were still tied.

I must have passed out again while the tallest human clipped a couple inches off my base. When I woke up, I was standing up. Indoors. My limbs were no longer tied down, but a string of colorful lights was wrapped around my entire body, from top to bottom. My base was clamped in some type of tightening mechanism. 

The air was warm, and stale. The lighting hurt. The Mama human was sitting in a rocking chair with the tiny human in her lap. They were flipping through the pages of a book. The tiny human’s eyes grew heavier with each turn of the page.

“Tomorrow morning when you wake up, we’ll decorate the tree. You can help,” said the Mama human.

“I can put the decorations on,” the tiny human said through a yawn.

The Mama human stood up and carried the little one out of the room. She came back, alone, a few minutes later. She stopped and studied me.

She pulled the lid off a box that was sitting next to me. She reached in and grabbed a long, shiny, silver bundle. Before I knew it, she was wrapping the silver bundle  around my body. It was crinkly, and it felt immediately itchy.

I was quite thirsty by this point, and growing weaker by the minute. Luckily, the Mama human poured water into the contraption that was holding me up. She turned off the lights before leaving the room, but the colorful ones wrapped around my body still glowed.

I was embarrassed to be on display like that. And, I was hot. The little glowing lights were surprisingly heavy. The shiny silver stuff continued to itch me.

I glanced down and saw that my needles were starting to fall out. There were just a few on the floor, but I knew it wouldn’t be long before my branches were bare. A cat skittered out from the shadows. It arched its back and let out a long hiss. I couldn’t respond, but I knew what was coming. The animal jumped onto one of my  middle branches and sunk its claws into my bark. I was filled with a stinging pain. Sap began to form around the wound.

The cat clawed its way up my body. It nibbled on my limbs before leaping through the air. It landed on the ground with a soft thud.

Early the next morning, the tallest human entered the room and flipped the switch on the wall. He studied me carefully, frowning when he noticed the scattering of needles on the floor. 

The tiny human came thundering down the stairs. The Mama human wasn’t far behind.

“The tree is dropping needles already,” the tallest human said.

“It’s okay. I’ll vacuum after we get all the decorations on.”

When the humans were done with me, there were colorful balls hanging from every single one of my branches. They stuck a star shaped hat on my head, and placed a red, velvety skirt on the floor beneath me. 

I stayed in that living room for 26 days. The humans stashed colorfully wrapped packages under me. Every once in a while, they dumped water into the apparatus that was holding me up. Despite this occasional watering, I became brittle and dry. I was thirsty all the time.

One morning, the humans ripped open all of the packages they’d been stockpiling beneath me. The next day, they removed each of the colorful balls, the shiny crinkly stuff, and the strings of lights. The tallest human unclamped my base. He dragged me outside, across the yard, and through the gate. He swung me back, then tossed me into the woods. I flew through the air a few feet before landing. Several of my branches broke off when I crashed to the ground. 

I’ve been lying here ever since. When it snows, I am buried in powder. When the sun shines, the snow melts, and my branches poke through. Occasionally, a deer comes to nibble what’s left of my needles, but mostly, I’m just waiting to be returned to the earth.