Once Again

• Chikamso Obieche, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2022

After I saw him, my life changed completely, and perhaps forever.
I had enjoyed the vast green grass, that I watched over, day and night, the diverse and beautiful birds that sang above me to awake me from my dreamy state every morning, the glamourous stars that lull me to sleep with their dazzling cloaks of white, and of course, the flowers, leaves, and fruits that hang unto me, loathing to leave me.
I had enjoyed all these little beauties, that is until he came! He was an awkward, lanky, young man who was disinterested, or perhaps at war with life. He possessed short, fiercely auburn-coloured, curly hair. His countenance was that of utter disgust in himself and in what life had bestowed upon him. I was constantly in fear of what he could do to me simply because of his appearance.
In the past, I had previously seen him doing various tasks like mowing the vast lusciously green lawns that surrounded me day in and day out and blowing the reddish-brown autumn leaves, which kept me company during the night-time, off the dirty, white pavement. I had observed him closely out of innocent, guiltless curiosity and sheer, mirthful amusement. But now, I am suspicious of his moves particularly when he scuttles from one task to another, and one place to another. I feel something akin to odium and animosity towards him because of what he did to me.
Yet my heart has been filled with pity and sympathy for the poor young man as he was unwilling but forcefully obedient when his manager commanded or reprimanded him to do something. This calls to my mind a familiar, yet sagacious saying - The head and the heart are historical adversaries. Casting my mind back to a sunny, sultry, summer morning that would ever remain green in my memory, I noticed the young fellow was behaving in a peculiar manner. He was acting out all sorts of unusual mannerisms, like tapping and biting his extremely short fingernails with his scattered and disoriented, yellowed front teeth. He appeared quite unpleasant, miserable, and morose. He was terribly rude, impolite, and repugnant to his co-workers. As I watched the chaos he instigated, he seemed sluggish, hot-headed and moody. Nevertheless, what puzzled me most above all his ill attitude was, he was constantly staring at me with eyes that seemed to twinkle viciously. They seemed to say, ‘You’re done.’ Until I had seen him with the long, slender, gleaming axe that had put my comrades to eternal sleep, I had no idea what was going on. It all happened suddenly, and before I knew it, I felt the blazing blade of the axe on my trunk, cutting and scraping me down. Then crashing on the ground were my gorgeous greenery and branches and then, I was no more.
Several years elapsed, and here I am, starting at the beginning again. A small seed planted by a little girl, in the process of growth, once again.