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Fri 23 Dec, 2005 07:48 pm
Snow had fallen on the mountain. A little boy followed his father who carried an axe and they walked up through the woods. Their shoes made a crunching sound as they walked.
In a clearing there was a tree, it looked small against the tall blue spruce by it. A dusting of snow hung on its branches and they walked toward it. The boy could see the snow flakes sparkling in the sunlight, the light danced and the branches shimmered the colors of the rainbow. It was a small tree, and just right for a Christmas tree.
As they walked he heard the call of a blue jay and turned to see it fly from one tree to another calling out as if to say, I am here I am here. A tree branch bounced as a squirrel ran up its branch. I wonder where he lives that squirrel, "Did you see it Daddy!" "It lives in the trees here, somewhere, he has found a small place and there is family of them there," his father said as they neared the small tree.
The boy said, "I wonder if we could find it? The squirrels' home? "
The man dressed in a heavy coat and stocking cap turned his eyes sparkled. He tossed the axe toward the tree and said, let's go over there and so they went.
Under the tall trees there is a place where the pine needles fall and they create a blanket and there is no snow there, just pine cones and a soft place to walk. The limbs hang low nearly touching the ground, dry limbs bare and looking like skinny arms resting there. They could see tracks in the snow from the squirrels and rabbits. The snow was crusty near the edge of the branches. The boy could stand on it without falling through it. The snow glistened in the light and he thought it was like walking on a shiny cloud.
Looking at the tree his father pointed out a few places high in the tree where old branches had broken off. There was a spot where the sun came through an opening in the branches and they sat there against the tree in the sun, it was warm.
"See those small holes in the tree," his father said, "In there is where the squirrel lives. They live there and put food away in one of the other holes up there so that can eat it all winter long."
"Watch it and see,"his father said.
"What?"
"Just watch"and then they saw a squirrel stick his head out.
"I see it , I see it" the little boy said. The boy just looked at the squirrel's home for a long time. The bark of the tree was flaky, and rough. It was an old tree. His father sat on the soft needles and they looked down the mountain towards their home. The boy looked and said it, "It looks pretty, Daddy." They could see the snow covered everything.
The man looked around and pointed to a place a little ways away and said, "You know you were named after a place around here, somewhere over in those trees, two trees grew together side by side. One time they were one tree and then spit in two. They are big those trees are. You can't even put your arms around it."
The boy said, "I can't see it. Where is it?"
"It is over there, just a little ways away." They man got up and taking his son on his shoulders they walked toward them. His father said, "A long time ago when I was about your size we used to camp down below at the head of the valley in those days we had a hogan, the eight -sided kind, your grandma had lots of kids, more than us. "
"More than four?"the little boyheld up his fingers, holding up all five of them putting them in his father's face.
"Yes, two hands full," he said, "Put both hands out. The boy extended his hands and showed all his fingers, all ten.
"That's how many plus one more little one. "
The little boy said, "All of you fit in the hogan, that many? "
"Yes, it was hard, during the winter everyone was crowded in there. The little one," he showed his son his small finger by itself, "This one was the smallest and was kept in a cradle board." He said this as he walked into the grove of tall trees
"That little one was the smallest and everybody was bigger." His father took him off his shoulders and took his hand they walked up to a tree and sat down looking up at it. It was a tree split in two, tall and old it was.
He told the boy, "One day someone took the baby out of the cradle board and let him play on the floor of the hogan, all the kids were playing and our mother was outside."
His father took him and put him so he could look straight into his face. The boy could see his father's eyes, the way they looked kind of like grandpas and his father told him, "Someone wasn't watching where they were going and stepped on him, right here." He pointed to his chest. "He was just a baby and he couldn't breathe so good. When that happens to you, you quit breathing and you can't live any more."
The boy looked at his father, "What happened to him?"
"He was gone, my father and mother took him away, we didn't see him anymore. There was just his cradleboard left and I took it and came up here.:
"I came here to this tree and crawled up it."
The boy looked up at the branches.
"Why?"
"I put the cradleboard way up there high in the tree; in this tree so I would remember him. In those days the times were hard and it was hard in those days, not like it is now; some things like that happened, No one meant for it to happen. It just did. This is the same tree I came to and it is still here, Trees live along time, longer than us."His father looked up.
The boy said, "Is it still there? "
His father was quiet for a moment and then said. "It is probably around here somewhere, that was a long time ago but the tree is still here" The boy looked up and saw all the branches but could not see to the top of the tree.
"That is how you got your name, Tall Trees. You were named for these two and that little one .You are called after him. The boy looked at the tree and touched it. You have a good name." his father said, and then he picked him up and they went back to where the dropped the axe was by the little tree.
The boy saw the small tree and it glistened and shined in the sun, the snow giving off little flecks of light. He looked around and could hear the blue jays calling out in the distance, that it sat under a clear blue sky and thought of the squirrels.
His father said, This is the one we will take home for Christmas. It is a good tree.
The boy reached out and touched his father's arm and said. "I don't want a Christmas tree, I just want to go home. This is their home," pointing to the squirrels and blue jays.
His father looked at him and saw that he was changed he wasn't as small as he was earlier.
The boy said, "It's a good tree," and his father slowly picked him up and said, "We gave you a good name Tall Trees."
They walked back the way they had come. His father calling out the sound like a blue jay as the boy laughed to see his father's face all scrunched up when he called out to them.
As they left the clearing they turned and could see the small tree as it stood shining with limbs covered with snow and it stood there it was a perfect Christmas tree...
johnny rustywire
hugs
Gram Selma
from Eldersway
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