We Need to Talk

Two trees—let’s call them pines, although pine might not be the best choice for a tree that symbolizes wisdom—stand with one reaching for the sky and the other with its back bent and crown tilted in obeisance to the unbending, higher-ranking tree. Her bend becomes more pronounced each year as she breaks the wind to help him remain sturdy, upright, majestic, and admired.

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            She noticed the other day that the ash and the locus trees stood equally, side by side, with neither usurping authority over the other. When she tried to talk to him, he said, “Do you think it’s going to rain?” His usual response commands that she change the subject. She had always accepted his refusal to discuss anything, but this time was different. When she tried to rebel, she realized it was too late as her back refused to straighten, and her top refused to rise. She’d been in that position for so long that she could not stand up and change the course she had accepted at the beginning of their relationship. She supposed it was a mixture of love and weakness. But why did his love look so different from hers?

            She had decided that if he didn’t want to discuss anything, she would stay silent and give him his will. She watched the deciduous trees shed their youngins, withstand the once-in-a-lifetime snowpocalypse, and bear new fruit in the season of renewal. The bend in her stature deepened as she groaned over her missed opportunities.

            On a particularly pleasant, atmospheric day, by happenstance, she glanced in his direction and noticed that he had begun to bend towards her.  As her needles began to quiver, squirrels flew between them, chasing each other’s tails back and forth, their skittering announcing the trumpet call of an epic moment in the pine marriage. He awoke from his endured isolation to see that she faced him again and still loved him. The weeping willows, guarding the couple throughout their trial, dried their weeping remnants and swayed a happy dance.

            And he said, “We need to talk.”