Rememberings of a tree

Long ago there was a boy who lived in the wilderness. He would move from place to place, never staying in one spot for long.

One day he came to a city. He’d never been to a city before, nor had he heard of one.

He happened upon a kind man and upon learning that the boy had never before been to a city, the man gave him a map and showed him how to use it.

So the boy wandered. But even with the map he became lost. Perhaps it was because of the map that he became lost. Though truly, how could he be lost? He was going nowhere in particular. This feeling was new to him and he began to think that only in the city could one be lost.

After a while, the boy found himself in a dark alleyway where he encountered a gang of angry men who began to beat and then dismember him. When his dismemberment was nearly complete, a terrible thunderstorm with a raging wind began and the gang left the boy for dead.

A crack in the cement left by a misplaced blow from the sledgehammer meant for the boy’s body… from this sprouted a tree, fed by the blood of the boy.

So it was that the tree found its way back to the forest and told the other trees of its adventure as a boy.