Palm Tree

A Story by Nanna

A short story about a brother and a sister climbing a palm tree.

He asked me to help him climb the palm tree but I got afraid. Not for myself but for the little face looking at me with excitement. I looked at his hands, so small and fragile. Red knuckles whit blisters from frost. We where not made to climb those exotic giants that ruled over us. He asked me to help him conquered the sky and I desperately tried to explain to him what falling was. This was not our sky nor our ground and I couldn’t carry his body home. He smiled his sweetest and told me that he wasn’t able to fall. He had risen so highly and never lost his grip and he said “why should it happen this time?”. I had no words for him. I could not say and explain how often I had fallen. Tell him stories of bloody knees and broken bones. How the ground had painted me blue, red and green.
His blonde hair and blue eyes looked like a costume in-between raven black and hazel brown. He never questioned why his pink skin became red while our friends turned into gold. We where not home even if we where welcome and new comers should not run down slippery steps they don’t know. Next to him running wild I looked blind, fumbling in the soil looking for hidden thorns.
He ran so fast up the hill while I shouted his name. Told him to slow down. Over his shoulders he threw me wicked smiles and that gleeful laughter. “cat, cat don’t be afraid of the water”. The sun blinded my eyes while I ran after him and I used stones to follow him up. Stones that where boiling in the midday sun. Sweat was dripping down my nose and I stopped to catch my breath. Shielded my eyes from the sun and looked up at him. He looked like warrior winning his first war. Looking down the mountain whit both hands on his hips. Smiling over the landscape before him, chest full of pride and it scared me. The flames in his eyes where to strong for a person whit so few years in their pockets. The danger behind winning is that you don’t believe you can lose but even kings will lose at the end. Ether if its bleeding in the battle fields or chocking in their own beds sheets.
I tip toed the last few meters up to the highest point. My skin was burning from the sun and I desperately tried to dry my face with my T-shirt. He rambled around while telling me how the world worked. Telling me why the moon did that and the sun did this. Why so many people where bound to sink while others would rise to the sky. He spoke and spoke and I secretly tough “what if we are sinking right now?”
He waved his hands like a eagle and spoke like ruler in front of his nation “Sister, sister, Cant you see that this is it?” He smiled at my worried face and put his hands in mine. “Can’t you see that we have gone to the top of the world?”. And I made the softest “but” between my short breaths and then filled my lungs whit all the air I could. I smiled and said “yes brother I can”. I looked over the landscape that seems to swallow me whole. The sun in the misty blue sky while the dry nature seems to buzz around me. And my worries mirrored a wave in the sea, as soon as they seems to be drifting away they came back even stronger than before. He was walking away.
“brother? brother? where are you going? stop”
He spoke to the skyline before him. “but I won’t stop at the end. why should I ? I don’t want the world to end for me where it ends for all the others? I can see the birds above me and that is not fair?”
I imagined that his words must be heard down to the village and I hoped someone would come. His enthusiasm was to strong for my fragile soul. I remembered few years earlier when I just picked him up when he ran to the fire. But now I felt like I had lost control.
“brother stop” but he keep on going. “Its not fair that I’m not allowed to taste the moon or touch the sun? why must the sea be to deep for me or the sky to high? This is where I’m going, This is what I want to do!” He had stopped in front of a the palm tree. The palm tree used as a leading star in the whole valley. It could be seen from the strongest corners and the softest hills. It rose to the sky like it wanted to be brunt by the sun.
He turner around with rosy cheeks and short breath. Will you help me climb the palm tree?” he asked and I got so afraid. “will you help me concur the sky?” and my words drowned between my short breaths. The world suddenly seemed so hazy and I felt time move in new directions. I saw him standing in front of me and I saw him climbing the tree whiteout branches. When I moved my hand to grab him I only grabbed the air he used to be in, Whit rock in my stomach I looked up at his dark silhouette above me and for a moment I tough he had turned the sun off. Everything was dark and the moon stroked my cheeks. I could hear the cribs sing a song for me, for him and for us. I took a shallow breath and the sun was there again, bathing your face, giving you a crown for living. I was stuck in two moments and suddenly I remember how one of them ended. I realized I had been threatening you whit everything you loved, trying to lure you down whit promises I could never fulfill. And you looked around and I’m not sure if I heard you say it or if I only heard it in my mind. “Cat Cat don’t be afraid of the water”. I saw you say it just like I had seen you on the ground next to me. Broken bones and bloody knees but you would never see how the ground painted you. I was in the darkness and the moon stroked my chin while I cursed the sun. The cribs sang for us and I asked you “how am I supposed to carry your body home?”