Little blond haired Peggy (with her ridiculously cute pigtails) put her tiny hand on the large oak tree that filled up the majority of her mothers backyard. A brilliant April sun hung in it's morning position over the little girl in the blue summer dress that she had picked out herself this morning. She wanted to look especially pretty today for Tree.
"Good morning, Tree!" the seven-year old girl said while smiling up at her friend.
The oak tree remained silent.
" I said Gooooooood morning! Peggy called in her trademark sweet sing-song voice. "Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!"
The tree did not respond.
Peggy raised her voice a little to try and arouse her pal from his seasonal slumber "It is time to wake up sleepy head. It's the first day of spring! Winter is over!"
Nothing.
She thought he must really be in a deep sleep. Peggy knew exactly what that was like, as it always took a lot of work for her to wake up in the morning too. For the first time she wondered if Tree dreamed while he slept. If so, what did he dream about? Were him nightmares made up of woodpeckers or forest fires? Did he dream about her? Peggy would love it if he did. She had been dreaming about him.
With the palm of her hand she gently rubbed the bark near the crevice that had served as the mouth of Tree. That was the trick her mom used to do whenever she was in a deep sleep. Peggy's mom would sit on the edge of her bed and delicately caress the side of her face until her eyes would open. There were so many mornings where the first thing Peggy would see would be her mothers beautiful face beaming down at her. It made her sad that her mom had stopped doing that last year. It was just such a lovely way to wake up in the morning - and it was a favor she wanted to pay to her friend, Tree.
"Come on Tree! The sun is out. It is so warm! Soooooo warm!! The birds are back. Open your eyes! You told me to come back for you on the first day of spring and to wake you up. That is today!"
Suddenly a troubling feeling started to murmor to life in the pit of her stomach.
What if she couldn't wake him up? What if he couldn't wake up?
She started to get worried. Little Peggy flipped her had over and started lightly knocking her knuckles on the face of Tree.
"Come on, please. It is time for you to wake up and make me brave again."
*********************************************************************************************
Peggy Mitchell had discovered that the tree in her backyard was magical four months ago - just a day before winter had started . She was having a tea party on the back lawn with her stuffed animals (Sir George The Red Bear and Lady Funny Bunny The One-Eared Rabbit) on an unusually warm late fall day when a nasty bee landed on her arm and stung her. It was easily the most painful thing Peggy had ever experiened and it immediatly sent her into a high-pitched howl.
In a normal situation any kind of cry from little Peggy would send her Mom running in from the house to investigate what was going on. These, however, were not normal times for Peggy's mom. Her mom was always so tired now, and on some days would never even emerge her bedroom until well after noon. She always told Peggy "That mom needed extra sleep these days, so don't come in when my door is closed." Peggy had once defied that order and barged in unannounced to ask her mom for some jelly beans that she couldn't find in the pantry. Her mom reacted swiftly to that intrusion and Peggy wore welts on her back for a week to remind her of her crime. She was never going to bother her mom again when the door was closed.
The problem was the door was always closed these days.
Even when her mom would come out of her bedroom she was always sad. There were times when her mother would just cry for no apparent reason. This always made Peggy sad too. She missed her mom's smile. It had been such a pretty smile now it was almost always a scowl. Frown, sleep and cry was really all her mom did now. Frown, sleep, and cry.
As Peggy sat clutching her freshly-stung arm she knew that her mom wouldn't be able to hear her through her shut bedroom door. She wanted to get up and run to her mom but she was afraid. Afraid that there were other bees and afraid of bothering her mom. She was not going to be opening that closed door again anytime soon. In fact, for the rest of Peggy's life she had a fear of shut doors.
"Nothing good ever comes from opening closed doors. There is a reason why they are closed."
Raindrop sized tears began to stream down her once pale, and now extremly flushed face. Her entire arm throbbed with pain and her stomach ached from all of her sobbing. Peggy had almost stopped crying when she made the critical mistake of looking down at her arm. She could see that the stinger from her attacker was still stuck in her soft skin. The sight of this made her hysterical again.
"Mommy...please...help me...mommy!!" she shrieked as best as she could with all of the air she could muster between her jagged breaths.
Her mom didn't hear her.
After some time of calling out to her mother (in vain) Peggy stopped screaming. She just curled up in a ball on top of the blanket that a few minutes early was the floor for her tea party with Sir George and Lady Bunny. The only noise she could make now was just a low guttural moan. Her arm hurt so much and she was so terribly scared.
She needed her mommy. She needed her to swoop in and carry her inside. Once inside her mom would know what to do about the stinger in her arm. Her mom would get rid of it and kiss the wound with her bright red lips. Her mom's kisses had a special healing power that always melted any pain away. While she rocked back and forth in agony it occurred to Peggy that she couldn't remember the last time her mom had actually kissed her.
"Mommy...please..." she groaned.
"I think you should stop crying. Because I think the poor bee got the worst end of the deal." a low voice said from behind her.
Suddenly the pain in her arm wasn't as scary as the sound of an unknown person talking to her. Peggy rolled over onto her knees so she could look in the direction of where the voice had come from. There was nobody there - just the large oak tree and the brick fence that divided her lawn from the nasty Mrs.Peters next doo.r The rest of the backyard was completely empty. The only other people there were her two inanimate stuffed friends. Could one of them spoken to her? Peggy stared at Sir George. She had always imagined that if he could talk he would have sounded a lot more distinguished than the gruff voice she had just heard.
"Stuffed animals can't talk, silly girl." the voice said again.
Peggy took her eyes off of Sir George and looked up to see the large oak tree had two huge white eyes in the middle of it's trunk - and they were looking right at her!
Then a mouth appeared about two feet down from where the big eyes were. "Hello, Peggy. My name is Tree, and I am your friend."
"How do you know my name?" Peggy asked. The stabbing pain of the bee sting was now a brief afterthought.
Tree smiled and began to speak very slowly. "I've known you your entire life. I was right here when your mother and father brought you home from the hospital. I was right here when you took your first steps right over there by those bushes. I 've been here through it all. I've watched you grow into such a beautiful young girl."
Peggy blushed. Her daddy used to call her beautiful all of the time before the day he left her and her mother last year. She then pondered Tree's response to her question. Had he really been watching her that long?
"How come you never talked to me before?"
"Well, this is actually the first time I've ever spoken."
"Why?" Peggy inquired.
"That is hard to explain, Peggy" Tree said thoughtfully. "The best way I can explain it is that it is very difficult for big trees like myself to talk. I've had to save up lots and lots energy to do this. It took me a long time."
That answer satisfied Peggy enough for her to stand up from her kneeling position and begin to cautiously approach the large oak. Tree broadened his smile and spoke again:
"I'm glad I did. I rather enjoy talking with you."
Peggy couldn't hold back her smile.
"Me too. Are you magical?"
Tree did not answer her question right away. He thought on it for a moment.
"Well...I don't think so." he said.
"I bet you are magical." Peggy countered. She was now standing right in front of Tree. Whatever fear she had possesed when he had first started to talk to her was now all gone - which meant that the throbing ache from her stung arm suddenly returned. Peggy grimaced and slid her hand back over her wound and could feel the stinger still in there. The tears began to form again in her eyes.
This caused Tree's eyes to narrow and his smile to weaken. "I'm sorry that you are in pain."
She could feel the hysterics coming back on. "It hurts so much...the stinger is still in there. It burns..." she said with a voice that was growing in elevated pitch.
"I know it does sweetie." Tree said. He was concerend and felt very helpless. "If I had arms I would take it out for you - but I don't. You will have to do it."
"I can't!" Peggy sobbed.
"Sure you can." Tree calmly said. "Just pinch your fingers on it and give it one quick tug."
"No...I can't!"
"Yes, you can." Tree said.
"I'm scared..."
With that Tree's smiled returned . "Well, that is perfect then!" he exclaimed. "I'm a courage tree!"
"Wha- what does that mean?" she asked.
"That means that as long as you are touching the bark of my trunk you can never be afraid of anything."
"I thought you said you weren't magical!"
"I was just being modest. I'm actually very magical. If you just put your hand on my bark and say the right words it will magically take away all of your fear."
Peggy raised her hand up toward the tree and then heistated.
"Wait - what are the right words?" she asked?
"Oh, yes, I suppose you need to know those words, don't you?"
Peggy nodded.
"Once you place your hand on my bark you have to close your eyes and say the following words: I am good. I am strong. I am brave. I can do anything. Then you have to imagine that I am able to give you the biggest and warmest hug you have ever received. Then open your eyes and you will no longer be afraid. It's that easy."
"I hate being afraid..." Peggy said in a whimper.
"Me too." said the Tree.
"What are you afraid of?"
"Axes. And of course, Winter. It is terrible. It is so cold and I have to sleep through the whole of it. And it starts tomorrow."
"You're going to sleep tomorrow?"
"Yes. I'm going to have to. I'm so tired - and besides. all of my leaves have already fallen off. I'm practicually naked!" Tree bellowed. Then began to laugh afterwards - which made Peggy giggle too.
"And you sleep through all of winter?" The girl asked.
"Yes, I do." Tree said.
"You don't get Christmas??!!" Peggy was outraged.
"I guess I don't."
"That is terrible!!" Peggy couldn't imagine what it would be like to not have a Christmas.
"It's okay little Peggy. Once I'm awake I treat every spring and summer day like it's Christmas for me."
Peggy smiled at that thought. "You get a bunch of Christmas's then?!!"
"I sure do. Are you ready? Let's take away your fear and get rid of that nasty stinger."
Peggy's brow furrowed and her face was adorned with a serious expression. She raised her trembling hand right over Tree's face. She took one deep breath, closed her eyes, and placed her palm on the bark.
"I am good." she said.
"Yes you are" said Tree.
"I am strong" she said.
"You are so very strong" said Tree.
"I am brave" she said.
"You are the bravest." said Tree.
"I can do anything" she said.
"Of course you can..." whispered Tree.
Peggy then imagined herself being wrapped up in the arms of Tree. His embrace was like a warm blanket. There was nothing that could harm her while she was in the arms of Tree. There was no pain, there was only security.
She opened her eyes to discover that she was already holding the stinger between her fingers. Somehow she had pulled it out of her arm without ever realizing that she was doing it.
"Look! I did it!" Peggy said. She was absolutely astonished.
"I'm so proud of you!" Tree shouted. "I knew you could do it!"
Peggy flicked the stinger away and gave Tree a very non-imaginary hug. Over and over she kept thanking her new friend. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"
"Don't thank me! You are the one who did all of the work!" Tree said through Peggy's near muffling hug.
The little girl let go of Tree and looked down at the red mark on her arm.
"It still kind of hurts.." she admitted.
"And it will for a while." Tree replied. "Eventually, the pain will go away. Then new pain will come. That is they way pain works. Just make sure you don't keep worrying about the old pain when the new pain comes in."
Peggy had a confused look on her face. Tree quickly realized that everything he had just said went over the head of his seven year old friend.
"What I meant to say is that you should make sure you wash your ouchie out under the facet when you go inside. Keep it clean and it shouldn't bother you much again." he said.
"Oh, Okay" Peggy said. She was relieved to hear that.
A cool breeze swept through the backyard sending a few of the straggling leaves to vault off of some of Tree branches. The leaves twisted and swirled in the wind around Peggy.
"Brrr. Winter is almost here" Tree said. His voice sounded sad.
"When will you wake up?" Peggy asked.
"I usually wake up bright and early on the first day of spring." Tree responded.
"Well, I will be here!" Peggy announced. She put her hands on the face of Tree and smiled straight into his saucer-like white eyes. This made Tree very happy. As happy as he had ever been in his 150 years of being alive.
"Will you be able to talk to me, like this?" she asked.
"I certainly hope so! I will make sure I get plenty of rest so we can carry on."
"You have to! You have to promise you will talk to me again. Do you promise?" Peggy begged.
Tree did not want to make that promise. He knew that the ability to do this again was out of his control. Tree was afraid that this might be a one-time event. He had never been able to "come alive" like this before and wasn't sure if he could do it again. The last thing he wanted to do was to lie to his sweet Peggy - the little angel he had loved since the day he first saw her. Tree had seen every joyous moment and had witnessed all of the sorrow that had ever happened to her. He had sat there in silent agony when he saw her seemingly perfect family fall apart. Tree was there when Peggy's dad packed his bags and left them. Tree was there when Peggy's mom became swallowed by the darkness that plagues many humans and eventually shut her young daughter out.
Peggy had already been let down by so many people and Tree did not want to be another grand disappointment in her life. He knew he should have told her the truth - but how could he with her staring at him with those beautiful brown eyes? If he told her the truth he knew it would break her heart. She was the love of his life and he would do anything for her.
Even lie.
"Okay then, I promise. I will come alive on the first day of Spring."
"Yay!!!" Peggy exclaimed. "Now get some sleep Tree. When you wake up I will tell you what I got for Christmas, and you can help me be brave."
"That sounds wonderful. So so wonderful." Tree said truthfully.
With her hands still on the face of Tree she leaned in and gave him a quick kiss where his nose would be if he were human. It was the first kiss Tree had ever received. It was everything he had hoped it would be. It was pure energy. It was warm. It was love. Of all of the many days of his life this was the best one he could ever remember. Suddenly Tree felt so very tired and couldn't help yawning, which caused Peggy to giggle again.
"Dream of me, Tree." Peggy said while backing ay from him.
That was a promise he could be sure to keep. He closed his eyes and fell into slumber.
********************************************************************************************
It was the first day of Spring and Tree wouldn't wake up.
"You promised, Tree!" Peggy screamed while pounding her fists against where his face had appeared on the perfect fall day. She had been trying to wake him up for the past hour and there was no response.
Where was he? Why wasn't he opening his eyes? She needed him more than ever. The past four months had been particularly awful. Her mother had become even angrier and sadder. Peggy was more afraid than ever and she needed Tree's magic to make her brave again like she was on that day the bee had stung her.
"You promised..." she repeated.
Tree had left her. Just like her father. Just like her mother. Just like everyone always does.
Tree had tried everything in his power to open his eyes again and speak. He screamed "Peggy! I'm here! I'm here!" over and over but his voice would not come. He tried to lurch as much as he could to try and signal to his beautiful Peggy that he could hear her - but nothing was happened. Tree was frozen inside himself again. He could feel her tiny fists against his barks and with every blow it devestated him. Tree knew that he had let her down. He should'nt have made a promise he couldn't keep.
*******************************************************************************************
Inside of her kitchen Maureen Mitchell staggered to the kitchen on a spring to find some aspirin for her raging head. The sun was violently shining through the big window to her backyard that hung over he sink. While gulping down a couple of the pills she heard a commotion coming from the backyard. Cupping her hand over her eyes to shade some of the invasive sunlight she could see her daughter, Peggy standing in front of the tree in the backyard. Peggy was screaming at it and hitting it.
"What in the hell was wrong with that girl?" Maureen thought. "That is all I need now, a mentally ill daughter. Don't I have enough problems? With that she went back to bed.
******************************************************************************************
Eventually Peggy stopped hitting him. She spent the rest of the morning sitting cross-legged staring at him and softly crying. Tree had never felt so helpless before. He just wanted her to know that he loved her and that he always would.
After about an hour Peggy stood up and put her warm hands on his face. "I need you to be brave again. I'm so scared. Please wake up for me again."
She knew in her heart that he wouldn't be able to talk to her again and that made her so very sad - but she wasn't angry anymore because no matter what she knew that he loved her. Tree watched the expression on her face change.
Peggy moved over and sat against Tree. She then said the best thing that he had ever heard anybody ever say.
"Since you can't talk right now. I will talk for both of us." Peggy said. Tree was overcome with relief.
Peggy then went on and gave Tree the details of what he had missed since he had been winter sleeping. She talked about some of the new friends she had met in the neighborhood and about how she loved her first-grade teacher. Peggy also talked about how upset her mom was all of the time. Peggy talked about how she missed her daddy. Peggy talked and talked for hours and Tree loved every minute of it.
This became their ritual that they would continue with every few days until the day Peggy ran away from home at the age of 17. She would come outside and share her life with Tree, and sometimes to his delight she would read a book to him. His favorite book she would read him was something called The Giving Tree. That was a story that always made him happy. Peggy would always kiss him goodnight on the last day of winter and go out to wake him up on the first day of spring. Of the hundreds of years he would live - those ten years were the greatest of all of them.
The day Peggy left forever she came out and said goodbye. She had just had a very terrible fight with her mom and Tree knew that Peggy was going to leave and never come back. He was very sad for himself - but so very happy for her. She had transformed into such a courageous and beautiful young woman. It was time for her to leave her broken world behind and to forge a new path. Peggy gave him one last kiss on his face and said
"Thank you, Tree.
I am good.
(Yes, you are)
I am strong.
(You are so very strong)
I am brave.
(you are the bravest)
I can do anything.
(Of course you can!)
Please dream about me."
I promise.
That was a promise he could keep. He dreamt of his sweet Peggy every winter.
Tree never did talk again. He remained silent forever. The magic was gone - but his love the little girl never left him.
Ten years later when the men with the saws began to tear him apart Peggy was his very last thought. Tree remembered the times she came and read to him and the stories of her life she used to share with him. Tree imagined that she was there with him now telling him "Now it was his time to be brave."
This made him happy and gave him courage when the axes came down on his bark as he fell into a permanent winter sleep.
"Goodbye Peggy. It is your turn to dream about me."
