Don't tickle me

Joju-

I opened my eyes after a good nap.

Who is that?

I could barely see anything.

Is that Harish? But why he is taller and looking aged? And who are the other people? Why are they surrounding me? 

It took me a minute to realize that a cuckoo's nest was blocking my sight. I swayed my branch; the cuckoo flapped its wings; I hoist my branch; the cuckoo shrieked, I lowered my branch; the cuckoo cooed. Now it's clear. I perceived the four branched moving creatures who call themselves humans looking at me. There were ten of those creatures surrounding me and talking between themselves.

The one who looked like aged Harish said: "It seems so young. Look at those trunks."

Another one replied: "Yeah, it does. But just leaving one? It might feel alone."

They all spoke for about a minute and left that place. I was not exactly sure what they talked about but I could say one thing: that four branched movable creature was not Harish. 

Wondering who were those creatures, I stirred my bottom left branch to have a look at Jujo, my friend more like a neighbor tree, hoping he might have an answer for that.

Where is he?

And where are Juji, Juo, and Jojo? 

I saw five tree stumps standing in the place where my friends stood since the day I was born.

Jujo-

I'm dead.

For the information, I'm not Joju. I'm Jujo, his neighbor tree, like a friend, more like a mentor.

As I said before, I was dead by then. Right now, I was a soul wandering around the forest in search of the other souls. A few hours ago, three young men came to our place, it includes Harish's father. Harish was Joju's human friend, well now I'm not sure he was. At first, I thought they were just passing by the forest or searching for Harish through the woods. But I was wrong. The humans whom I grew up watching, the humans who used me as their lounge, the humans who breathe my exhale, the humans who owed their lives on me, took my life. They made my trump into a stump. Not just mine. They took Juo, Juji, and Jojo's life, the only other three ebony trees left in this state. And all this happened while Joju was asleep.

And why did they leave Joju alone? 

A dumb reason. He was young, and his trunk doesn't cost enough.

I wondered, Well it all okay, I'm dead and all that. But why am I still here? I searched for my friend's soul and I couldn't find them either. Sometimes I would hear people resting under my branches talking that once we died we would fly over to heaven. A mysterious, invisible, floating-place in the sky. But I didn't go there. Maybe the boss of that place: 'The God' didn't want me, or he might have assigned me another job to finish. 

I flew over to the place where I beheaded, to be precise, be-trunked.

Joju-

The only little thing running through my mind was: Where the heck were my friends?!

I whirled all three-sixty degrees, spinning my branches, but I found none. All that I could see was four little brown chairs, which were too low from my eyesight. And right then something happened. Someone pulled me. I felt it, some kind of force embraced me and hauled me towards it. I didn't panic, it felt safe, like in the god's hand. It wrapped around me and dragged me out of my body. Am I dead? Or yet another stupid dream? My body stood right in front of my eyes as I was floating. I could literally see the back part of my body, which I dreamt to see for years. "Hey!" I heard a voice.

And there I saw Jujo. But the weirdest thing was that he wasn't himself. It was kind of hard to explain. But he was he. He got his trunk, branches, and leaves, but he wasn't he. He was shrunk down and floated all the way up. And the same description goes for mine.

"Are you...?" I took a step back.

"Yes, I'm Jujo and I'm dead and you are Joju and you are not dead." he rushed his words. "Don't panic. It may sound weird, but I took your soul out to show you something. I have an assignment to complete allotted by the god."

"Jujo... but are you 'dead' dead?" I asked.

"Yes, I'm dead and no other question. Just follow me!" he wailed and advanced into the woods.

I followed him.

Jujo-

I had no intentions to frighten that kid by making him watching his own body. All that I wanted him to do is make sure he understands how the world works and what part he does in that work. I glided over the surface and headed towards the street which passes across the forest. Joju followed me with a look: "Am I dreaming?" on his face. He flapped himself, which caused the tiny soul leaves to shed down just to make sure he was dreaming or not. Trying not to break the suspense, I didn't inform him I was heading to the wood factory.

I try my best to explain the gruesome act that took place.

To begin with, three men came at first, which includes Harish's father. Followed by them a truck came, an enormous truck which could easily carry me. And another truck came, and another and another. Totally five enormous moving metallic boxes visited us with a bunch of men. As I said before, at first, I thought they were passing by the forest, but eventually, I was wrong. 

"Just five?" a man asked to another.

"Yeah, these are the last remaining in this state. Glad that we found out," he replied.

"Worth it?"

"Sure thing"

A man who might be around three percent of my height, wearing a mask came towards me holding some kind of huge metal in his hand. All the other eyes pointed at him as if he was about to cut me down. And that's what exactly happened. Jojo, Juji, and Juo looked at me with their eyes filled with fear. Why are they looking at me like that? The guy with the mask held up the machine in his hand and gently touched my trunk with it. It tickled me, I laughed. But my laugh didn't last a while. He slid that machine into me, caused my blood to sparkle at him. "Don't tickle me harder!" I screamed, but no one responded. He drew a circle around my trunk with that machine and shoved it against me. The sawdust filled that whole place, I guess that was the reason he wore the mask. He drew a rectangle on the bottom part of my trunk. "Don't tickle me!" I screamed again. The cuckoo at the left branch strode towards me and peed at him right at his head. The man dropped that machine and took a look around. The squirrels in my right branch threw a nut at him. But those four branched creatures didn't care about anything. He wedged a hammer and made me fall to the ground. The cuckoo flew away leaving its eggs to die itself and the squirrels scurried away. A four branched creature who would be three percent of my height made me fall to the ground.

All this happened when Joju was asleep. The minute after I died, I transformed into a soul and saw my other friends die just like me. But not Joju, they left him alive.

And some hours later, I drew out Joju's soul from his body and made him follow me to the wood factory.

Joju-

I had no idea what the hell was happening. Shrunken Jujo said that we both were souls and ordered me to follow him without any questions asked. I couldn't really say much but I was damn sure I was dreaming. Jujo glided through the street and went inside a wood factory. Wondering 'am I dreaming?' I followed him inside the factory.

"WHAT is THAT?" I had a bombshell for a second. I saw four trucks one next to each other carrying my friends in it. 

"It's me," Jujo said.

I gazed at him for a moment releasing what he just said. "So, you are dead and that's your body. Am I right?" I asked.

He nodded.

"But why are you in that truck? Who are these peo....." as I spoke, Jujo broke me off. "Listen, just follow me. No more questions," he said.

Shouldn't I ask any questions? Why shouldn't I? My friends are lying in that truck for no reason and I shouldn't talk anything? First of all, what it means to be dead? Why these trucks carrying them? Why didn't they carry me? Why did they leave me?

I went inside, Jujo followed me.

All my four friends were unloaded from the truck by a huge metallic hand and directed towards a room, a huge room full of movable metallic creatures. I left Jujo's soul back and rushed to see the real him. But I couldn't touch him. All the huge branches he had were now gone, just his trunk was lying down. I waved my branches onto his trunk and tried rubbing it against his but I couldn't. 

"You are a soul. You can't touch things." Jujo said from the back.

"You are not just a thing. You are Joju. And why are you lying over here? You are now the soul, right? Then go inside the real you and you will regain your life!" I expressed myself. But Jujo chuckled and shook his head, "That's not how it works"

As I was talking to him, the four trunks were shifted from that place by another small truck. I tried to stop it but I couldn't. The most that I could do was screaming high enough until Jujo scolds me not to. While I rushed following the trunks, I saw Harish standing with a man, his father, I guess. Wait, this is the man who I saw when I woke up.

I stopped right at that instant and glided near Harish, he is the kid who would often visit me.

"Harish, listen. This is the place where you are going to work in your future." the man said. "It's all yours."

"But Appa, I don't even know what you do here. How can I?" he chuckled.

His father chuckled too, "You don't know what we do here? You are my son, how can you not know that?" he smiled, "It's nothing hard, we cut down trees and bring them over here and make them into useful wood products." 

What? Am I just a wood product?

"What?" Harish exclaimed. "You cut trees? But why?"

"Where do you think the chairs, tables in our house came from? All furniture products in our house were made up of wood."

I turned back to see Jujo. He nodded, "Yes, that's how it works." he said.

Harish posed, "But, why should we kill trees for that? Isn't there any other ways?" 

"No", his father broke the topic.

I heard a crackling sound at the other end of the room, I glided over there. A huge metallic handheld Jujo's body and a honed blade came across the hand and sliced down them into pieces. The blade ran throughout their body until their entire trunk turned into small wooden pieces. Likewise, Juji turned into wooden sheets, Jojo turned into wooden cubes and Juo turned into nothing but wooden powder. And they sifted all those to a huge container named "Ebony products".

So, is this all that we are worth?

Jujo-

I pulled Joju over me and forced him to leave the hell on the earth. And once again, I had no intentions to frighten Joju, all that I wanted him to know was show him how the world works and what part he does in that work. And I achieved in my task, I guess.

I grabbed his branch and returned to the forest where we came from. He didn't yet recover from the thunderbolt. It was way too many unpleasant details for him at this age. But he must know these. Whenever kids play with him or when people rest in his shadow, he must know what they were going to do to him in the future. He must learn not to scream like me and adapt to the fact that he was going to be murdered one day by the four branched creatures.

Joju-

Why didn't they take me with them?

Am I going to spend the rest of my days waiting for the time when they make me into a powder?

How could those four branched creatures do this to me?

There were millions of questions banging into my mind at that moment. I followed Jujo into the forest. He was dead, actually dead. How could they do that to him? I cried again.

Am I going to spend the rest of my life alone with those murderers?

If they can use me as their chairs and tables, why can't I use them as my fertilizer?

Are they the grateful creatures?

Jujo stopped at a point. I realized that we arrived at me, the actual me. Okay, now what is going to happen? Is Joju going to leave me alone?

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm going to do" he chuckled, "I'm dead and turned into a soul, I can read your mind"

"I'm the only ebony left here. Couldn't you stay here with me?" I pleaded.

"No, I can't. I completed the assignment allotted by god. I showed you how your future would be. All that I wanted you to understand is: 'Don't be a fool like me.' Remember one day those ungrateful creatures will make you fell into the ground." he said.

I bent my branches and gently moved to my body. The only thing that ran in my mind was: "Is everything just it, an illusion?"

Jujo grabbed my branches as I entered my body, "Wait, one more thing." he rushed his words. "Remember, when they tickle you, don't scream. Let them tickle you, then you won't feel the pain."