The Old Oak Tree
Prompt: Write a short story titled “The Old Oak Tree”
My sister has an oak tree in the center of her backyard, so I used that as my inspiration for this story!
Remy sat on her deck staring at the oak tree in the center of her backyard. Why the center? It seemed to take up so much space being right in the middle. Since they’d moved in, they’d landscaped a lot of the yard. The previous owners had planted random bushes and trees all over, seemingly with no thought to placement. The oak tree was the last one standing. It wasn’t that Remy didn’t like the tree; she did. She just hated the location.
Sighing, Remy looked back down at her book. No use worrying about the tree; Trevor would have it down soon enough. A couple of pages in, she heard something that caught her attention. Looking around, she couldn’t figure out what it was, so she turned back to her book.
“Psst.”
Remy’s head snapped up. She was sure that time that she’d heard a voice. But where did it come from? She was home alone.
“Over here!” the voice called. “Please don’t scream.”
Remy followed the sound of the voice and her eyes widened. Sitting on the railing of the deck was a tiny person. She didn’t scream, but she wasn’t sure she’d be able to even if she tried. Her throat felt dry and constricted and her heart beat a little faster. What was she looking at? Was she hallucinating?
“Hello,” the tiny person said. She lifted a little hand in greeting and appeared to be blushing. “My name is Lyre. I know this must be a surprise to you.”
Remy swallowed and tested out her voice. “What…are you?” she asked, almost whispering.
“I’m a sprite. I live in the old oak tree.”
Remy glanced at the tree and then looked back to Lyre.
“That’s why I’m here,” the sprite continued. “I’m actually taking a big risk. We aren’t supposed to show ourselves to humans under any circumstances. But I thought this was an emergency.”
“What is it?” Remy asked.
Lyre’s eyebrows furrowed. “What do you mean, ‘what is it’? You want to cut down the oak tree! That’s our home. I’m here to beg you to leave it.”
“You live in that oak tree? Well…can’t you live somewhere else?”
Lyre puffed up her chest and stood up. “What if I said that to you? ‘Go live somewhere else because I want to tear down your house’. We have hundreds of sprites living in that tree! Not to mention the wildlife. Sprites attract wildlife. I’ve noticed that you enjoy watching the foxes and songbirds. They’d likely follow us to wherever we went.”
Remy thought about what Lyre was telling her. It was all quite unbelievable, though there she was, talking to a tiny person in her backyard.
“How come we’ve never seen you before?” Remy asked.
“Sprites are magical creatures. We can easily conceal ourselves from human eyes. We have a spell around the tree too that we were hoping would save us, but…”
“What kind of spell?”
“It’s a confusion spell,” Lyre explained.. “It’s meant to disorient humans if they get too close to the tree.”
Remy had never gone directly up to the tree, but she had to admit that she was curious now. As much as she was determined to rid her land of the oak tree, Lyre was making a compelling case.
“Can you talk to Trevor too?” she asked. “After all this time, I think he’ll be difficult to persuade.”
Lyre frowned. “Not all humans are receptive to us. You are, but Trevor isn’t. We could all stand here shouting at him and he’d never know. It’s up to you, I’m afraid.”
Remy brought her hand to her chin in thought. How could she convince Trevor?
“You know,” she said. “Trevor likes when things are useful…have a purpose. He’s said before that he wished he could collect acorns from the tree. And we’re trying to attract hummingbirds to the yard. Would your magic help with those?”
Lyre’s face beamed. “You got it! Symbiosis at work! I’ll talk to the others about it. But I’ll have to be sneaky…they can’t know I was talking to you.”
The next day, Trevor returned from his fishing trip and, once again, Remy was out on the back deck reading. Trevor gave her a kiss and sat next to her.
“Catch anything?” Remy asked.
Trevor shrugged. “A couple. No one caught much.”
Remy looked up at the oak tree as if expecting to see something. Trevor noticed.
“I’ll have the equipment here on Tuesday to tear that thing down.”
“You know,” Remy said slowly. “Maybe we don’t need to get rid of it.”
“What? You’ve hated it since the day we moved in.”
“I know, but…” Remy tried to think of something to say that would make sense. She was saved by the appearance of a hummingbird at their feeder. Their first one!
“I heard that oak trees attract hummingbirds,” she blurted out. She had no idea if that was true — it probably wasn’t.
“Really?” Trevor asked. “I’ve never heard of that before.”
Another hummingbird appeared and Remy and Trevor sat in silence watching the beautiful, tiny birds. When they’d gone, Trevor got up to go unpack from his trip.
Remy got up and went to the tree. To her delight, the ground was covered in acorns. She remembered the spell Lyre told her about and took a few tentative steps forwards. Her brain felt a little fuzzy and she forgot what she was there for. She turned to go back to the house, but when her mind cleared again, she looked back at the big oak.
“Effective,” she muttered.
Bending down to the ground, she picked up acorns until her pockets were full. She went inside to show Trevor.
“Really?” he exclaimed. “Usually the squirrels get to them before you could collect that many!”
Remy emptied her pockets into a bowl and left them on the counter to soak.
The next day, Remy tried again.
“So what do you think about keeping the oak?”
“I don’t know…I finally have the equipment coming. You’ll see, you’ll be happy to have it gone. Then we’ll be able to see the entire yard from here.”
“Yeah, but if it’s going to attract hummingbirds and give us acorns, isn’t it worth keeping around?”
Trevor narrowed his eyes at Remy. “Why do you love the tree so much all of a sudden?”
Remy shrugged. “It’s grown on me I guess. It’s an old tree. It’d be a shame to dig it up.”
Trevor sighed. “Are you sure? You want me to cancel the equipment rental?”
Remy gave him a huge grin. “I’m sure. It’ll grow on you too.”
“I’ll go call them.”
Trevor went inside and Lyre popped into view, almost making Remy scream.
“Geez, don’t do that!”
“Sorry,” Lyre said with a giggle. “You did it!
“For now. I’m not convinced he won’t change his mind again later.”
“One problem at a time. Our home is safe! I can’t thank you enough, Remy.”
“I still don’t like having that tree smack dab in the middle of my yard,” Remy sulked. “But I don’t have the heart to tear down your home.”
“Well it is greatly appreciated. We’ll continue to use our magic to attract wildlife and make our tree as useful to you and beautiful as possible.”
“Lyre?” Remy asked.
“Yes?”
“Will you…continue to come visit me?” Remy had to admit that the little sprite was adorable and she thought it was pretty cool to have a little mystical creature friend in her backyard.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Lyre said with a wink. Then she was gone. Disappeared right before Remy’s eyes. Wow. What a secret to keep. No one would believe her even if she did try to tell anyone.
Remy looked up at the tree. She had to admit that she found it less intrusive now that she knew it had a purpose there. She only hoped that she could keep Trevor from wanting to get rid of it.
