By Lilly Miller
I
A tree was just getting out of winter. The snow was melting into puddles.
“Winter, winter go away! You’re too frosty, go away, come again another day…in three years.” the tree said.
II
Summer came and it was blazing hot. The tree needed more water to keep growing his leaves and summer fruit, but there was not a drop in sight.
“I need shade,” he said sadly. “I wish it was winter again.”
He decided to eat one of the apples growing on his branches. He was so hungry he ate the apple without looking at it. As he got to the core, he took a bite with a seed in it—and he didn’t like the seeds.
He looked around and there was only one kid in sight (about a mile away) so he spit the seed out. “Maybe, another tree will grow from this seed. And if it doesn’t, at least the police didn’t see me littering.”
III
A week later, he was startled when he woke up to see a little tree growing next to him. Coming off the trunk of the little tree were two horizontal branches that each had a bushy clump of leaves on the end.
The older tree thought of saying hello, but then he remembered that when he was a baby, he could not understand what his mother or father was saying. That used to make him whine, and he didn’t want to be stuck next to a whining baby tree, so he decided to wait awhile and let the little tree grow.
A month later, the little tree had grown to be bigger than him so he finally decided to talk to him.
“Who are you, little tree?” asked the older (but shorter) apple tree. “Do you know how you got here?”
But to his surprise, the tree answered back, “I don’t know.”
The older tree was surprised by the answer and said, “Well anyways, your name is going to be TreeWee, and my name is WeeTree. So, now that you know your name, do you know where you come from?”
TreeWee answered the same answer, “I don’t know.”
When WeeTree asked thirty more questions, he realized that the only words the younger tree could say were “I don’t know.”
IV
WeeTree decided that he would teach him how to read. After he knew his ABC’s, he started to learn the easy words like “a” or “I” or “or.” It was a month later when he started reading the big words like “because.” But, his talking was a little confused. He would say Le Langeles for Los Angeles. And he would also say Ame-air-i-k for America.
V
Four months later, it started to snow. And now, he wanted the exact opposite. Because now he was even colder in the shade of TreeWee.
The frozen old tree said, “TreeWee, you’re blocking the winter sun. You should really lean back. That way I won’t be frozen so I can talk properly with you. You’ll be warmer too.” (This wasn’t really true because TreeWee would be much colder lying on his back in the snow).
TreeWee thought this was a great game. It was so fun he did it all the time, and he was able to lean back farther and farther as he got more flexible. They made it through the winter and spring and then summer came again.
VI
By summer TreeWee was way more flexible, and he decided to go so far back he could touch the ground. But when he got to the ground his bark was really hurting him and he needed to straighten up. He came up so fast he almost knocked WeeTree to the ground.
But fortunately TreeWee had gotten his flexibility back after being frozen stiff in the winter, and he was able to bend out of the way. All day he had to keep going back and forth, and back and forth, and back and forth, as TreeWee kept bending around. WeeTree didn’t want this to keep going all summer, and decided to distract TreeWee with a new activity: painting.
VII
What they did was paint on each other’s bark like it was paper. TreeWee loved to paint, and TreeWee was a good artist.
But even though WeeTree had introduced painting as an activity, WeeTree’s favorite pastime (that he was good at) was reading. WeeTree decided to read and read and read and read until TreeWee stopped nagging, “Can we paint? Can we paint? Can we paint?”
TreeWee would keep repeating this question until he gave up because WeeTree kept humming and pretended that his book was the best thing in the world. (But, he was not reading the book he was pretending to read. He was actually reading a book called, “How to Paint Better Than a Tree.”)
When he eventually realized that WeeTree was studying painting in books, TreeWee decided he also needed to read better to paint better. As a result, TreeWee’s reading also got much better (although he still couldn’t read mirror and thought it way my-er).
TreeWee started to paint all over WeeTree, until even his eyes were covered in paint. WeeTree was glad that his eyes were not like human eyes and were just like his trunk so it did not hurt—and that was the good part.
VIII
Over time WeeTree came to have an appreciation for the different seasons. The snow would freeze on the paint and then in the spring the snow would melt in all different colors like red and blue. And that was his favorite part of living with TreeWee.
About the Author
Lilly miller has blue eyes and chin length blond hair. She loves to wear dresses. She has three cats named Louie, Addie and Louis. Lilly likes to plant lilies. Lilly loves water, and when she touches it she feels like she grows. Lilly loves to look for rainbows. She grows from the sun and she can only find rainbows with the sun.
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