One pale dawn, the sapling was trying to feel bits of sunlight poking through the clouds, when it heard a soft rustle. It started, and listened carefully. And then…From the top of the large cliff, a child appeared. Then the child fearlessly swung her legs over the cliff, and hand under hand started to climb down. She was unbelievably nimble and quick for a little girl, only about nine. In a flash she had come down the tall cliff and was standing on the sand of Wind Shore.
She looked around with her clear gray eyes like the water of Wind Shore. Her light wispy hair looked like wind. It was a chilly day, so she was wearing a bright red coat, which stood out brilliantly from grayness. She looked around- probably looking for something besides the enormous, vast, distant, gray sky and water.
Then her eyes spotted the sapling. Her face lighted up with a rosy bright smile, and she rushed to the sapling. She looked at it adoringly, although there wasn’t much difference in their heights.
The sapling looked down, too, and saw her face clearly. Her round cheeks were a brilliant red thanks to the cold, and her clear eyes were shining. Her hair was blown back by the wind. She was quite small, but rosy and pretty, and a shy, timid air hung around her, but her eyes were more eager than anything the sapling had ever seen.
She reached out and touched the sapling’s trunk with her hand, and the sapling tensed with joy and wonder at the touch. The girl looked at the sapling smiling.
“My name is Adele, little tree.” she said in a voice round and rosy as herself. “Do you have a name?”
The sapling shook its branches.
“No?” said Adele gently. “All right, can I give you one?”
The sapling remained still, but rustled its leaves.
“I’ll call you Retty.” she said. “It was my doll’s name long ago. She was so skinny but pretty like you, little tree! I lost her, but you’re as satisfying as any doll.”
“I live up there.” Adele continued, pointing up at the cliff. “We moved here yesterday. We have our own wonderful cottage. I love it here! Much, much better than the city. Mama and Papa says we’ll only be staying for a little, but I wish we could stay here forever. We’ll be best friends, Retty. I’ll come every day and we’ll talk. It’s so beautiful down here! But I must go now, Retty. Mama and Papa won’t like me coming down the cliff. I’ll come here tomorrow at morning. Take care, Retty!”
With a hug and a smile and a wave, Adele ran across the sand and clambered up the cliff.
The sapling breathed. Sweet little Adele! It had another friend! It was sure that Adele’s rosy bright friendship would be very different from Tessel’s, but just as wonderful.
So, with two good friends, the sapling’s days flew by, completely unlike its life a month ago. In the morning, Adele’s brief visits lightened up the whole day, and in the afternoon the sapling enjoyed the largeness and the quietness of Wind Shore. In the evening it watched the sun set, and daydreamed happily. Tessel’s very brief night visits allowed the sapling to end the day with a jolly, loud laugh.
The sapling could talk with Tessel, but not with Adele. It expressed some of its thoughts with its leaves and branches, but not really talk. Because, the sapling always thought. Adele is a human…
One day, Adele was chattering, when the sapling heard a familiar loud flapping.
Tessel! The sapling thought urgently.
Tessel barrelled through the air and plopped down beside the sapling, and beside Adele.
Adele shrieked.
“Tessel!” said the sapling urgently. “What are you doing here?”
Tessel laughed loudly. “I wanted to see you now, so I came! Anything wrong?”
Apparently, Adele couldn’t understand their talk, but she knew that they were communicating. She looked at Tessel carefully. “Is he your friend, too, Retty?” Tessel blinked, and then grinned. “Retty?”
So, little by little, the sapling and Tessel talking, Adele and the sapling communicating, and Adele laughing at Tessel’s squawks, the three friends’ bonds formed and strengthened. So Tessel often came in the morning, to play with Adele as well as the sapling. How happy the sapling was, with its wonderful two friends! It didn’t want anything else in the world.
The happy days filled with friendship went- a month flew by. Autumn made the sapling’s leaves red and yellow, and then it grew windier and chillier.
And one day, the happy days were changed by Tessel and Adele coming together one day, both without their usual cheerfulness.
“Chopstick?” Tessel said nervously. “I have to tell you something.”
The sapling leaned forward just as nervously as Tessel.
“I’m—I’m—I’m migrating.” he said boldly. “I’m flying south. For the winter. I have to leave soon. I’m sorry.”
The sapling gasped, and it seemed than its happiness during the past month had been torn away and had fallen into a black pit. And then Adele stepped forward.
“Oh, Retty!” she whispered. “Mama and Papa told me today that we’re leaving tomorrow! They said we were just here for a visit anyway… oh, I have to leave you, Retty!”
The sapling’s heart was stomped on with something sharp and heavy. It wished it could talk or cry to express its sadness, like Adele or Tessel could. But it could only move its branches blankly. The sapling was heartbroken- both of its best friends were leaving… Can I ever see Tessel or Adele again? It thought, quivering. Will I ever have friends again?
Adele hugged the sapling, and Tessel perched on one of the sapling’s branches, and for a few moments the three friends huddled together with shared feelings.
And, at that moment, an amazing change came over the sapling. Adele’s arms around its trunk, and Tessel’s feet curled around its branch, made it feel so cozy and warm and happy. Then the sapling realized something- they were firm friends who would be friends always. The sapling and Adele and Tessel would always stay that way.
With that knowledge, the sapling’s heartbreak mended into something inside it, something solid and warm and sweet, that the sapling knew was the friendship of Tessel and Adele.
Then Adele said something else. The sapling listened.
“But Retty, that’s not all! Guess what- we bought that cottage on the cliff! So every vacation, we’ll come back here!” her cheeks pink again, she grasped the sapling’s trunk affectionately. “I’ll come back, Retty.”
“So will I, Chopstick.” said Tessel loudly. “Migrating means we only go for the winter, come back spring, and stay ‘til the next winter! Did ya know that, Chopstick?”
Relief flooded the sapling- it felt a warm, soft feeling in addition to what it felt a few minutes ago. Tessel was coming back. Adele was coming back. They would stay friends.
Then it realized that Tessel was carrying a shovel in its feet, and Adele carrying a huge bag.
Adele knelt down beside the sapling, and took something out of the bag. It was another sapling.
That little thing was much smaller than the sapling of wind shore. It was very slender and delicate, with pretty little leaves and branches. The little tree was still as Adele lifted it out of the bag.
“Here’s a friend for you for the winter, Chopstick!” said Tessel proudly, tossing down the shovel beside Adele.
Adele carefully dug in the sand with the shovel and planted the little sapling, beside the sapling of Wind Shore. “How do you like it, Retty?” she asked happily. “We got a friend for you!”
The sapling would have been too touched and surprised to speak even if it could have. It rustled its leaves with all its might.
Adele hugged the sapling once more. “I’ll miss you, Retty.” she whispered. “Goodbye!”
Tessel ruffled the sapling’s leaves. “Take care, Chopstick! I’ll be back!”
The sapling watched as its two best friends went away from Wind Shore, with a sweet, wistful feeling in its heart. Then it turned to the little tree.
The little tree blinked and stretched. It looked up at the sapling and smiled. To the sapling of Wind Shore, that smile seemed like the most beautiful thing in the whole world.
“My name is Kirsten.” said the little sapling. “What’s yours?”
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(First Prize in Age 13 Short Story, The Power of the Pen Writing Contest 2016, Hamilton Public Library and The Hamilton Spectator)
