Garden Drama 1

The Good-Bad Tree

    Crow flew straight. "Caw caw hurry hurry!" Over the tree tops like an arrow. "Caw! This time of day, El's got to be by the swimming hole," she thought to herself. Sure enough, there he was, on his favorite rock, dallying his feet in the deep end.
    "Caw Caw! El! Big trouble! Snake and Eve are headed toward the Good-Bad Tree!"
    "Hey Crow," said El, still watching the trout dance in the shadows of the overhanging cedar boughs. "What's that you say?"
    "Caw you heard me! Snake's up to old tricks! Come quick!"
    "Oh Gosh, what now. Okay okay. Go on ahead, will you? Keep them out of too much trouble? I'll be there, just a minute."
   Old El just couldn't rush. He couldn't hurry if it was Judgment Day. Every birthday, by the time he made up his mind what to wish for, his candles had burned down and all the ice cream had melted (which Crow didn't mind; she preferred melted ice cream).
   So off she flew, poor Crow. Somehow she always got the people watching assignment. El often told her she was the most observant of all his friends, which puffed her feathers and made her feel good. But, just as often, she wished El would ask her to watch over the beavers, or the ants. Even the mice would be better than humans! Anyone other than Adam and Eve! Caw! One of these days she's gonna tell him to go watch these children his own self!
    Quickly Crow arrived at the Good-Bad Tree to no sign of Snake or Eve. "Caw caw! Anybody home?" Surely some winged kin was nearby. 
   "Chirp rrrr chirp! Hey Crow," said silky purple Martin.
   "Caw have you seen Snake or Eve by the tree?"
   "Rattle chirp yes even just now, and guess what?"
   "Caw! Don't tell me!"
   "Chirp, yep they picked an elppa."
   "Caw, everyone knows it grows upsidedown for a reason!"
   "Chirp, I didn't think even Snake would be that foolish. I rattled my shameful-est chirp, but they wouldn't listen. Maybe if Bluejay had been here, he could have scared them."
   "Caw, can you help me find them?"
   "Rrr chirp they headed down the deer trail, toward mossy hollow; they just had to show Adam their shiny new fruit."
   "Caw, people! You stay here and wait for El, if he ever shows up, and I'll round up our lost sheep."
   Crow was faster than El, as usual, but struggled to keep the trio - Adam, Eve, Snake - underneath the Good-Bad Tree. Adam and Eve were behaving quite strangely, running around snatching figs and peaches, then running back into the forest to stash them. In between hoarding they tore off the Good-Bad Tree's scratchy leaves and held them over their waists (the worst place to put a scratchy leaf). They kept averting their eyes from each other and from Crow, turning their backs, stumbling and dazed as Sparrow that time he flew fullspeed into a pine cone. 
   Snake, on the other hand, was his usual snakey self: one minute laughing, then throwing an acorn at Squirrel, then picking his nose, rolling his eyes and sticking his tongue out at Cricket.
   When El finally arrived, he had what looked like an entire cane brake piled up in his arms.
   "Caw! El! What are you doing!" cried Crow
   "Hey Crow, looky here!" said El. "Mrs Possum was telling me that if you peel off strips from these reeds and weave them together, you can make all sorts of things. Necklaces, baskets, chairs, beds...Now what I'd really like to make is...
    "Caw! El!"
    "What? Hey is that Adam? Eve? What's going on?"
    Adam, his back to a hemlock tree too skinny to hide him, and Eve, crouching behind a rose bush, shut their eyes, hoping that might make them invisible.
    "Oh no, Crow, oh I see. The Good-Bad Tree," said El, dropping his cane and finally catching up to the situation. "Oh my."
    See, the Good-Bad Tree is a funny tree. It's upsidedown. Its roots grow up toward the sky and its branches grow down toward the ground. The leaves cover the ground, and the fruit hangs up and looks like an apple, but it's upsidedown, of course. That's why they call it an elppa. 
   Once curious Tabby Cat, rubbing up against a branch of the Good-Bad Tree to scratch his back, asked El, "What's the point of this tree anyway, old man? Seems silly to have fruit we can't eat." 
  "Well," said El, "We made all kinds of fruit and nuts for every kind every bird and creature to eat and be healthy. But we thought to ourselves, what if someone gets mixed up and thinks Good is Bad and Bad is Good? What if someone gets afraid and won't share any food? What if someone gets really angry and won't talk to us? We wanted a fruit that we could give to someone to instantly turn them around. 
   "But I've told all the animals not to eat from the tree because if they eat it while they are healthy, it will make them feel empty and sick."
   El tried to coax Adam and Eve back from the brink, "Hey, just follow me over to the Good-Bad Tree and we'll get you back to your right mind." But all they heard was, "I never want to see you again." 
   El said, "There's plenty of food around here, don't worry!" But they heard, "You will never have enough." 
   El pleaded with them, "You each made a mistake; you don't need to blame each other," but Adam said, "It's all Eve's fault!" And Eve said, "The snake tricked me!" 
  The more El walked towards them, the more Adam and Eve ran away. "At least let me make you some clothes!" he called, but it was too late.
   "Crow, dear Crow!" cried El. "Please help. I can't let Adam and Eve run off alone and naked into the wilderness. You know out there is a different world."
   "Caw! Don't you put this on me! I did all I could. If you cared so much you should have been watching them yourself. And besides, shouldn't Snake have to fix the stick he broke?"
   "Snake! You sneaky devil you," said El, turning on him with a scowl. Snake just giggled and turned a back flip. "Ug," sighed El. 
   "Snake, if I gave you the sneakiest feet in the forest, so sneaky they don't even touch the ground, would you follow them for me? All you have to do is keep them on the run. Sooner or later they will run into another Good-Bad Tree." Snake blinked, or was it a wink, you never can tell, but El figured it was as good as a yes.
   "And Crow," said El, "if I blessed your eggs and spread your nests all across the wide word, would you watch over them for me? Remind them to look up in the trees. Eventually they will find the fruit that heals them." Crow said, "Caw! It's about time I got something out of this people watching! I'll keep a close eye on them, El, don't you worry." 
   So Snake got his sneaky, invisible feet and slithered out into the wilderness, and Crow flew straight to catch up.