The Birches

The twelve birches fringing the lane are beautiful, strikingly beautiful. They sway in the night breeze, graceful dancers swathed in gowns of silvery moonlight. For all their splendor, the birches are discontent. A wistful sigh rustles their leaves; their sap is embittered by loneliness.

“Where is our playmate?” they murmur. “What has become of her?”

To these questions, none reply.

The child whose memory troubles the birches has been ill, confined to bed for a month. Tonight, the hands of pain, which have clutched her heart for so long, squeeze with overwhelming strength, and she can’t sleep. She gazes out her window, thinking about the birches. Do they remember me? she wonders, or have they forgotten the girl who used to dream beneath their boughs?

Wrapping herself in a sheet, she tiptoes to the door. The hand that opens it is trembling—she has never been outside, alone, after dark.

The moonlight that streams about her and the scent of wild roses calm her fears. “It’s like a fairy pal ace,” she whispers. “The grass is an emerald carpet, velvet, luxuriant. Hung from the vaulted ceiling are stars, the sputtering lamps. And the servants? Ah, the lilacs, staring up at their mistresses with trusting faces.”

She nears the birches—a smile flutters across her lips. “Oh, dear fairies, you haven’t forgotten me, after all!”

Their boughs reach down to her in unison, as if they’re one being, possessing the same mind, same heart, same soul. She takes hold of a branch and hoists herself into the tallest birch. The sky is close up here, so close that she could reach out to skim the stars, harvest gleaming bouquets.

But she’s too comfortable; the pain has eased in her chest, and she’s tired. Then, cheek pressed against bark, her lashes slowly droop—the eyelids flutter, and then close, never to open again.

The ebony sky descends, enveloping her in a funeral shroud, taking her far away to walk with stars.

When morning comes, the sun reveals a lock of golden hair, intertwined with the birch’s foliage in a web of inseparable love.