Olivia Oak

                                       Olivia Oak by C. R. Peraino

THUMP.  “Ouch!  What am I doing down here?” said Olivia acorn as she landed among the leaves at the base of her mother tree’s trunk.   She looked up at the huge gnarled tree she had just fallen from and thought, Thank goodness for these leaves.  I would have broken into a million pieces if I had landed on something hard.   I wonder why I’m down here.  It was so nice up on that branch.  The view was …

“Pardon me,” said Lawrence, a leaf that fell a week before.  “That was quite impolite, falling on me like that!”

            “I’m sorry,” said Olivia. “I had no control over where I landed.  When my tree let me go, the wind blew me over here.  Did I hurt you?”

            Lawrence looked over his reddish surface and at the curling edges of his rounded lobes and crackled,  “No, I suppose not.  I’m getting dryer every day and, according to my older companions, I’ll start to fall apart soon anyway.”  He continued,  “I’m going back to the soil to give nutrients to our mother.  It’s quite an honor, you know.  I’ve been told that it’s part of The Creator’s wonderful plan.”

            Olivia rolled on her side.  “I wonder if I’m part of that plan.  My hard shell will make it hard for me to crumble.”

            “Oh, I’m sure there’s a place in His plan for something as beautiful as you. That fuzzy little cap on top of your shiny brown shell makes you quite attractive,” said Lawrence.  “The squirrels seem to think so.  They’re busy gathering all the ones that look like you.  Some they eat,” he said, extending with great effort one of his drying lobes in the direction of bits of brown shell scattered on the ground.  “Others they bury.  There’s one of them now!  Watch out!”

“Squirrels? Eat? Bury?”  Olivia said, looking at the pieces of broken shells on the ground.

   “What are you talking about?” 

Before she could get an answer to her question, Olivia felt herself lifted by two paws and clenched like a vice between teeth.

                                     

            “What’s…happen…ing?  Ohhhh, you must be a squirrel.  What are you going to do with me?” Olivia asked as the animal began moving toward a field.  Her captor stopped at the edge of the open area, looked around, and continued, bounding across it.  Before reaching the other side, the squirrel suddenly stopped, and look up.  Olivia saw a large bird with a hooked beak diving from the sky.    The squirrel dropped her, and plunging for cover under a nearby bush. 

“Owwww,” Olivia cried as a hard rock punctured a hole in her shiny shell when she landed.

             I’m ruined,” she said.  “I’m no longer beautiful.  I’ll never be part of The Creator’s plan now!”

            After the bird flashed by and flew off, Olivia’s captor peered out from the bush, and slowly approached where he had left his prize.   

            Olivia cringed.  “What are you going to do, Mr. Squirrel?  Now that I’m damaged, are you going to eat me?”

            Without answering ( squirrels don’t speak tree language) the squirrel brought her up to its nose and sniffed at her.

“Well, I never…that’s rude,” Olivia said.  “I was just bathed by rain last evening.”  The squirrel’s long thin whiskers wiggled up and down ant its ears twitched in every direction.  Two shiny round black eyes that appeared and disappeared rapidly.  Olivia would have put out her arms to shove herself away from the nose, if she had any.

With a sudden movement, the squirrel placed Olivia on the ground, stopped to quickly survey its surrounding’s, and began digging with both paws.

 Moments later Olivia was carried to the hole, placed in it, and covered with loose soil.  Darkness and quiet over took her.   She snuggled down into her new surroundings.  Here she felt safe from ending up like those bits of other acorns.  But why was she here?  And what will happen now?  Was this part of The Creator’s plan that Lawrence Leaf talked about?

As she lay in her confinement, Olivia felt the soil around her become colder and harder.  Once in a while she heard claws scratch above her, but she remained in darkness.  The chill of her surroundings became deeper, and Olivia found herself napping for longer and longer periods, until sleep overtook her.

“What…wha…what’s happening?”  she said when she woke. ”It’s warmer. The ground is wetter.  And I feel different.  Something’s happening…inside me.”

Over the next several days Olivia began to feel her self grow out from the hole in her shell, up through the soil into the light.

“I’m free!” she shouted as she spread her new leaves for all to see.

“Humph,” said Henry Hackberry.  “Look at that silly little sprout celebrating breaking out of the soil.  Doesn’t it know it will have to fight for every bit of sunlight it can in this forest in order to survive?  It probably won’t amount to much.”

“I wouldn’t be to quick to judge that plant,” Sally Shagbark said.  “That’s Ophelia Oak’s baby.  A squirrel must have brought her over from the forest across the field.  They start out small, but…”

“We’ll see,” said Henry.  “They don’t all survive, you know.   If this one doesn’t get enough water or sunlight, or some deer thinks it will make a tasty snack.”

“Why are you being so negative, Henry?  I think she’s cute.”  She turned to the sprout and asked,  “What’s your name, little one?”

“Olivia.”

Sally smiled.  “What a lovely name.  Welcome to the forest.”

“Thank you,” said Olivia, bowing slightly.  “What are your names?”

“I’m Sally Shagbark and this is Henry Hackberry.  Over there is Betty Birch, and next to her is Alicia Aspen.  We’re going to be your neighbors for some time.”

Olivia waved a leaf at each of them and said, “I’m glad to meet all of you.  Are you all part of The Creator’s plan too?”

“Oh, yes,” said Betty Birch.  “All of us are different, but that’s part of His plan.”

“What do you mean?” asked Olivia.

“Each of us grows to different heights as we chase the sunlight we need,” Henry said.  “All have different seeds that spread in many ways so our children are more likely to survive.  Even the bushes, like Harriet Hobblebush serve a purpose in the plan. We feed various animals and are home to different things.  Being different is good for all of us because we work together.”

“Wow! I’m part of The Creator’s plan even though I wasn’t beautiful,” said Olivia.  “It sure sounds exciting!”  She spread her branches with joy and continued to grow.