My Metamorphosis

I am an old apricot tree. I have lived for hundreds of years and I am now tired. I started off as a small seed from my elder tree. The elders have told me that I was the chosen one and that I would live long and that I was one of the wisest trees of my generation. They told me that I would make dictions that would change that way people think. I did not know what the elders meant at the time but now I know. I have lived through much. I have been carved in by lovers sitting under me in the full moon. I have lived to see the changes in small children as they grow as I did. I have heard many laughs and cries. I have seen thing that many human beings have not seen. I loved to live and I would to it all over again. This was my last one, I had to cherish every moment. The other trees that had grown with me have died and been removed. I was the only one left.

My first season was a long one; it was the season of spring. I started off as a small seed in the ground. I grew taller and my branches grew long on my branches I grew sweet blossoms on my branches. The blossoms were small and the magnificent colour of a new born baby’s bottom. I grew and grew until I was as big as a four year old standing next to me. I grew leaves like the other trees. Butterflies flow around me in a tornado of brilliant bright colours. I was in love. I truly was. There was nothing on Earth I had ever seen that was as beautiful as the spring. I lived to long to be in that season once more. It made me feel alive. In spring beautiful love birds, the colours of the rainbow had flown past me daily. There was snow melting on the floor but the wind smelt sweet. The wind was cold but the sun was as warm as a summer’s day.

Spring passed and it grew into summer. The children from the village, Cuadixin, would sit under me in the hot summer sun. The children would eat the fruit from my branches but would pull a face when they found out it was sour. When my fruit was sweet and mellow, the whole village would gather for my picking. Every year they ate my sour fruit until it was ripe and sweet as a candy cane. I enjoyed the children’s laughs and giggles like the chiming of silver bells. The sun beat down on me, the heat of the sun making hallucinations but the waters of the earth making them fade. Children used to climb up my trunk and have competitions to see who could get to the top the fastest. A girl with long, silky, black hair won this competition. I remember this for she would sit under me all day. Everyday. She climbed up every morning of her life until she grew large with pregnancy and couldn’t. I always wondered why she climbed me all the time. Was it because it made her feel real or was it to get away from the world?

I lost my treasured and newly grown flowers and my lively, green leave. Autumn was happening. It grew cold during the nights. The children started to play inside because of the cold autumn breeze. Winter was coming. I knew it. I could feel the clouds cluster and the twinkling stars disappear. The people of the village started to light fires in their homes and no longer cared about me. The people lit their candles with patterns and sat them by the window. The glow from the freshly painted candles remained me that was special. The other tree’s leaves fell of as well. They first turned different colours. A blazing orange and a blood red were the colour they changed. They fell to the ground in long floating travels. From there all the trees were bare and looked depressed and lonely. They autumn was lonely but my small foot-bound Chinese friend still climbed up me every morning and every afternoon after she came home from the village school and before diner. But it ended.

Winter was here. Winter only came because of the winter spirits being sad. The snow was their worry, their tears the rain and the mist their breath. It snowed everyday. Every new day there was a thick blanket of the spirit’s worries. The spirits worries only disappeared later in the day. The mountains were high up and it was extremely cold. The season was long and dry but the misty Chinese mountains provided perfect moisture and I was happy about that. The other trees were now bare and had nothing to be proud of. I too was bare and had nothing to be proud of. The other trees looked so sad in the season of winter. They always did. The other trees would look as if they were crying in the rain because of the mist, snow and rain. The rain droplets would stick to the other trees. My Chinese Cinderella still came out to climb me even in the cold mist and snow. She gave me a warm feeling of happiness every winter from there on…

These seasons happened every year. Sometime the season of summer was hotter than usual and maybe the winters would be so cold that my Cinderella would stay inside. She very seldom did this, for she loved me or so I thought. I was in my hundredth and eighty first years and my seven hundredth and twenty fourth season. It was my time to pass. I lived a long life. I was blissful in this life.