Oak Tree

Flash fiction

I could hear them; the spirits of the old oak tree. They remembered the children tying ropes to the highest limb, falling, and getting back up, laughing, scraped and bruised. They remembered a boy and a girl coming to sit in the shade and sharing their first kiss. Their innocence showed in their eyes as they said they would always be together, forever,  and the scratching of the knife in the bark making way for “K+M” with a heart around it. So cliché, the spirits thought, to carve into us again and again. They remembered a man and a woman setting out for a picnic in the oak’s shade on a summer evening, and the lovers embrace later that night. They remembered the aging couple picking flowers in the field and talking about their lives. They remembered M’s funeral…and then K’s funeral. They remembered watching their families bury them and say their goodbyes. Then they remembered greeting new spirits, the great Oak being their final resting place.

Reviews

[FJ Davis]

A charming little tale regarding one of Earth's deeply-rooted, long-lived silent witnesses to the human parade.
Excellent work, M!

[MindIsAnOcean]

Thanks so much!