The Tree 1

I always stood with the others, a silent guardian of the nursery. Taller than the others they all looked up to me. Until the men came. They carried chains saws and cut me along with many others nearby. Then we were tied up tightly in a biting plastic net and piled on top of each other in a trailer, where we stayed for what seemed like days. But it was so dark I couldn't tell. Then we were sprayed with some kind of paint, apparently to make us even greener. I mean we're freaking evergreens, how much more green can we be??

Anyways, from the trailer I was eventually propped up against a wall, where a little fat man in a parka and toque tried to sell me to everyone. But most looked at my price and passed me by. I was the biggest tree there. I longed to stretch my branches out, but I was still bound.

My needles were nice and soft. A few times people touched me and smiled appreciatively but none bought me. I could feel myself start to droop even though I tried to keep up a strong face.

And then a very pompous man came straight up to me; he never even spared a glance at the others. He didn't even look at my price tag. Just picked me up and said, "I’ll take it."

Then the man tied me to the roof of his truck, and after a fast but cold drive we arrived at my new home.

There I finally got my branches free as he cut the plastic away. Unfortunately my branches were still cramped so it took me a while before I could. But oh it felt glorious. It felt so good that I barely even noticed the little spikes that he drove into my stump. I did notice the nice cool water that tasted faintly sweet as he poured it into the bowl I was standing in.

I sighed contentedly, at least as much as a tree can, and stood there proudly as they began to put on the lights and garlands, the tinsel the tickled and the crystal ornaments that I held up high so they don't get knocked off by careless people.

And then I prepared for my first night as a Christmas tree. It was dark in the house and after everyone had gone to bed when the maid came out and sat down on the couch. She was wearing a maid outfit like none I had seen before. The skirt was so short that it basically didn't exist, black stockings covered her legs, and even form where I was I could see down between her cleavage.

She had only been sitting for a minute when the man who bought me came out in his robe. He looked at her and then let his robe drop. Revealing a very noticeable erection. My branches shook as the maid dropped to her knees and began sucking on him. He looked at me briefly, smiling that silly smile guys get when their dicks are being sucked.

I wished I could do something to alert his wife, but what can a tree do? The lights! I quickly turned on all of my lights, quickly illuminating the room and catching the two adulterers. He was so stunned that he fell over crashing into the glass coffee table and shattering it. She knelt there for an instant as if she was still sucking before she realized what had happened.

"What's going on out there?" I heard his wife say and then she came into the living room and saw it all.

She was silent for a minute that stretched to eternity, and then said in a very quiet but edged with anger voice, "get out, both of you."

The man tried to say something, but one glare form his wife and he stayed silent, he got his bathrobe and was going to the bedroom before he realized she meant get out now!

He quietly went out the door, the maid soon followed.

I wondered if she would suck him while they were outside. I was proud d that I had exposed them, until I looked back at the wife. She had fallen back onto the couch. Tears running down her face.

She was a beautiful woman, maybe not as young and pretty as the maid but definitely beautiful. I wished I could reach out and hug her. But I was still trapped by this bark and wood.

Sap ran down my bark and I tried to reach to her with my branches. Then she got up and strode out of the room, her shoulders shaking as she cried. I heard water running a little later and figured she was going to take a bath to clear her mind.

Then for a long while there was no sound except for the whisper of her sobs echoing in the stillness.

Then I heard her walking towards me, back into the living room. She was naked and still dripping from the bath. She wasn't crying anymore but to say that she was no longer sad would be a lie. Her eyes showed such sorrow. It wasn't until she put her arms out that I saw the cuts on her wrists.

Then she put her arms around me and held me. Ignoring where my branches poked against her, just holding me like she would hold a man she loved, and one she thought loved her. I put my branches around her as best I could. Wishing I could bind her wounds, and save this one life.

Then I was no more.

**********************

I don't know how it happened. The last thing I remember is hugging the tree. Somehow on that night it seemed like such a marvelous thing, the only good thing still in my life. I knew I would die soon, I still have the scars on my wrists from the razor.

So why am I still alive? I don't know. I woke up at the foot of the tree. Somehow its needles had all turned red and brown while I was unconscious. They lay all over the floor. As if in its death pangs it had shed them like a dog shaking.

Right where my arms had been when I hugged it my blood still sat. I was the same woman who should have died last night yet I live.

Looking up at the tree I whisper, "thank you," and then I get up and get prepared to live again.