© Ayr/Gray
Straightjacket buckled and secured, two orderlies lead Harold to the ambulance.
“I’m telling the truth! Why won’t you listen! They feel what we feel!”
Harold’s mother stands at the top of the porch, her arms crossed, grim downturned mouth, and a deep furrow of worry at her brow.
“Please fix my boy,” she calls as the double doors of the back of the ambulance slam shut.
Both orderlies glance in her direction and nod.
Good luck with this one, each thinks as they climb up into the vehicle and roll on towards Happydale.
Harold has loved roaming the oak forest since childhood. The trees have watched him cry and have listened as he told them about father’s beatings, mean boys who pummeled him in the alley, and girls at school who tittered when they opened his Valentines on Valentine’s Day.
The trees never give advice, but they always give comfort.
By graduation day, Harold had given up on humans and spent more time in the forest, among his friends.
One day, at age 37, he finds just the brush of one of the forest oaks, the rest of it having been chainsawed and hauled away. Horrified, he wonders if they will be back.
We feel what you feel when we are harmed.
He hears it clearly in his head and looks up. His friends sway in the breeze.
Harold sets up his tent. He waits for their return with his loaded rifle.
[240 words]
Jenne and C.E. are the hosts of The Unicorn Challenge.
The rules are:
Maximum of 250 words.
Based on photo prompt above.
That’s it.
Tao Talk 
I liked where you went with this one Lisa! :-)
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Thanks much, Carol Anne :)
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I’m with Harold on this one. (K)
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<3
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This is such a poignant story Li.
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Thank you, Sadje, it was a tough one to write.
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I can imagine. You’re most welcome
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Powerful story. I do feel sorry about Harold. Clearly, the folks around him do not appear to understand him.
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I feel sorry for him also. I hope he gets the help he needs and someone stops the forest from being destroyed.
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Great story with a strong message.
And welcome to the Unicorn Challenge, always good to see new faces, so tell your friends too!
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Thanks, C.E. Willdo.
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‘The trees never give advice, but they give comfort.’
Such a beautiful line, Lisa.
Delighted to see you at the Unicorn Challenge – welcome!
And with such a cool story showing the harshness and blinkered view of us humans who have wandered so far away from the natural speed of things.
I’m with Harold!
See you next week? I hope so!
PS Have you come across a book called The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben?
And PPS I’m just about to share your squirrel video with a friend of mine who battles squirrels in her garden all the time!
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Thanks much, Jenne. I’m glad you’re with Harold. I will do my best to show up again :) Yes, I have that book and also saw the netflix special they did on it, which was also really good. Glad you’re sending along that video, I’m sure she will get a chuckle out of it.
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Such a shame it’s come to that, however, I can’t help but empathise with him.
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Indeed, and glad you can empathize with him.
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I really like this. A person who has never had kindness, but is drenched in empathy which he directs toward nature, and as a reward, he is considered insane.
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Marla, thank you for your insightful comment.
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It moved me to comment, so thank you for a beautiful piece.
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I can understand his anger…but I hope he gets help
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I’m afraid after he gets the kind of help they give, he will no longer know what a tree is… as they say, “ah, another one cured.”
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Even on the Waltons they teached to plant two for every tree they cut down…they seem to never get it.
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The thing about trees is that the big ones like oak are storing hundreds of years in carbon in their bodies, not to mention how long it takes them to grow. One of them cut down and burned is releasing all of that carbon back into the air and it will take another hundred or more years to replace it. How many people do you see cutting down trees and planting even one to replace it, aside from tree farms? One of the reasons I loved the Waltons, they lived with nature. We could survive forever on planet earth if we just honored her ways.
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Oh I agree…I was going to say that also…takes so long to grow back.
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Welcome to the ‘hop.
Enjoyed your story.
Appears that your protag has a little more learning to do (from his departed friends*).
But thought-provoking is the thing ’round the Unicorn.
*M Night’s ‘The Happening’ notwithstanding
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Thanks much for the welcome, Clark. Am familiar with M Night but not that particular film.
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The people like Harold rarely stand a chance against the “powers that be”. We need more Harolds in this world!
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<3 <3 <3 Dale <3 <3 <3
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💞💞 :) 💞💞
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