Trees in a Forest
Trees in a Forest is a short story I wrote while student teaching a seventh grade English class. I always try to do the assignments I assign to my students and this was the creation that year. It explores the absurdity of judging people based on physical features beyond their control. It is set in another world in another time ravaged by hatred for silly things that should be celebrated.
The gaseous tendrils retreated into the darkness like waves returning to the ocean. They crawled back past the ferns and the trees. May’s heart beat so fast, so loud she was sure it would give her position away. This wasn’t like the games of hide and seek she used to play as a kid. This was war. If she was found she didn’t become the new seeker, she would be killed. Not only was the consequence of losing higher, but the terrain was completely foreign; the trees weren’t like the pines of the forests she grew up in. These trees shot out shoots and grew new trees when those branches touched the ground creating a large maze out of a single tree. The root system was also a tangled weave sprawled across the forest’s floor. There were no soft pine beds here. Where there were no roots the ground was harsh, and the small fern like plants that sprouted from the rocks were razor sharp.
May didn’t sign up for this war, and she wasn’t drafted. She ran away from home to assist her father on the warfront. May was not a soldier, she was a 13-year-old girl who had already lost her mother, and she didn’t want to lose her father too. They had been separated two days ago when Fort Helen, where her father was stationed, was lost to the enemy. May had been on the run ever since. She didn’t know where her father was, and she still hadn’t seen the enemy. All she had seen was the gas that always came before an enemy attack. She had been lucky so far and always managed to avoid the gas. This time she was able to climb the tree and stay just above the gas. Now that it was in retreat May felt it was probably safe to climb down.
Upon the harsh ground May quickly resumed her search for her father. When the gas retreated there was never any danger from the enemy side, giving May a true respite. As May was wandering through the labyrinth of tree shoots, she heard a young boy crying. She slowly approached. Hiding behind a thick trunk May peered at the boy. Judging by his size May judged the boy to be just a little older than she was, but still a boy. May didn’t recognize his uniform, but there was no mistaking her father’s craftsmanship in the gasmask hanging off the face of this young man. As she looked closer, she noticed the boy was staring at his leg which looked bruised and bloody. Before she even realized what she was doing, May stepped out from her hiding spot to aid the young man.
The young man was startled by May. He tried to pull himself away from May in horror as though the grim reaper himself was coming for him. The boy fumbled through his things looking for something, anything to fight off this demon that had come to kill him.
“Calm down.” May put her hands out as she lowered her posture to seem less threatening. May was small for a 13 year old, but her posture made her look even more like a little child. “I’m not going to hurt you; I just want to look at your leg.”
The young man began to settle down and allowed May to look at his leg. He cried out a few times as she poked and prodded the leg. After May’s mother died, she had taken a few first aid courses just in case something was to happen to her father. She had never thought that she would be tending to a wounded soldier. As May examined the boy’s leg, despite the pain, he examined her. May saw her gentle smile reflecting in the lenses of the young soldier’s goggles.
“You’re his daughter, aren’t you?”
“Sorry?”
“You’re Sir Claudine’s daughter. I had heard that you came up to assist your father. I just never thought someone as young as you would be allowed to be on the war front.”
“You’re one to talk. How old are you?” May waited for a response but the boy did not answer. “Can you stand at all?”
“Not on that leg.” The young boy shook his head.
“We’re going to have to make you a splint, and probably a crutch too.” May got up and started searching for supplies. It didn’t take her long before she had the soldier’s leg immobilized by two straight branches tied to either side of the soldier’s leg.
“Your father is a good man.”
“Why is that?”
“I once saw him lecture before the war. He knew this war was coming and pleaded with the crowd that we needed to learn to see people as people instead of as members of this group or that group.”
“That was my Father. Always trying to get us to see the trees through the forest.”
“I thought the expression was to see the forest through the trees.”
“It is” May sighed, “but my father didn’t want us to lose sight of the fact that a forest is still made up of trees, and each tree is unique and an individual.”
“I see.” The young man shook his head in acknowledgement.
“Father hated the propaganda posters that made the enemy into some green eyed monster.”
“Your father didn’t hate green eyed people? I thought every blue eyed person hated green eyes and brown eyes. That’s what they say though isn’t it.” The young soldier chuckled. “Your father said that just because a person had blue eyes didn’t mean that life was easy for him, and just because a person had green eyes didn’t mean that person was being oppressed.”
“Yeah most people didn’t like to hear that.” May looked down. “It made a ton of people angry with him, both green eyed and blue eyed people alike. Father was divisive like that. Try to stand. We probably shouldn’t stay here too long.” May handed the soldier a stick for a crutch and tried to help him to his feet. “Do you know how to get to your camp from here? I haven’t really seen anyone since Fort Helen fell.”
“I think I could get us there.” The soldier grunted as he stood. “I might be a little slow going though.”
The two started their way through the forest comprised of a single tree. May was amazed at how well the soldier seemed to be able to navigate his way through the labyrinth. Soon they heard voices, and the soldier grabbed May and hid.
“Man, that last attack was brutal.” The one voice said.
“Did you see that guy who was caught by the mist without his gear on?” The other voice sighed. “The poor boy went instantly crazy. He tried to swan dive into a rock.”
“The Lieutenant had him restrained quickly. That gas makes you do crazy stuff. Scares the beezejebubs out of me.”
The wounded soldier indicated to May to be quiet. May couldn’t understand. Obviously, these voices were men from her Father’s regiment. Shouldn’t this young soldier be overjoyed to have found his compatriots? May couldn’t explain why but she chose to trust the young boy she was with rather than alert the voices of her presence.
The voices came closer, but the young boy continued to hide while holding his finger to his mouth. It was clear by his body language that he was afraid of being caught. May decided he must be a deserter. She couldn’t blame him. A boy his age had no business being on the war front anyways. Soon the voices started to trail away heading back in the direction they came.
When there was silence once again the boy released his tense position and straightened up. “That was close.” The boy said with relief.
“Are you a deserter?” May asked, but the boy remained silent. “It’s ok if you are. I won’t judge you, but I thought you were taking me back to your camp. I could go join those guys and not mention that I saw you.”
The boy’s eyebrows raised in alarm so high that May could see the expression passed the goggles and the face mask. “Do you want to find your Father?” The boy asked.
May’s eyebrows furrowed, as she looked down and then through the top of her eyes looked at the boy. “I do” She said drawing out her words. “are you telling me you know where he is?”
“He’s not with those soldiers.” The boy said with certainty. “You’ll have to trust me.”
“How do you know that?” May put her hands on her hips.
“Think about it. If your father was with them, don’t you think they would be searching for you and calling out your name?”
“I guess.” May let her arms dangle. She peered into the lenses of the boy’s goggles, but all she could see was her own reflection. “If you know where my Father is, lead on.”
The boy shook his head and sighed. Then he started to walk. The path the boy took them on went deeper into the thick of the tree system away from her home, and away from the fort.
“I didn’t know we had any camps this far in?” May said nonchalantly.
“I didn’t know that little girls were privileged to know strategic battle plans.” The boy retorted.
“Fair enough.” May conceded.
“We aren’t too far now. There is going to be a break in the trees and a small hill up ahead. Your father is just beyond there.”
“Thank you.” May smiled at the young boy. They continued to walk in the direction the soldier had indicated for a little bit in silence. As the clearing came into view. May again smiled at the boy but stopped before stepping out from the cover of the trees. “I was wondering one thing.”
“What’s that?” The boy looked back at her.
“Can you remove your goggles and mask for me?” May had her hands on her hips again.
“Will it change anything?” The boy hesitated.
“I just have to see the face of the person who reunited me with my father.”
The boy slowly removed his goggles with his eyes closed. As he opened them, he revealed rich emerald green eyes that sparkled with little flecks of gold. Green gas enveloped the path behind them. “I’m sorry May. Your father is here. He was captured when the fort fell.”
May looked at the boy directly in his eyes. “Thank you for reuniting me with my father.”
Gary L. Busch 