The Leafless Tree

Sitting on the heavy twisted roots of the huge leafless tree he could see the deserted lake, cloudless sky, green mountains and a wooden rowboat.   He is tired of watching the same scene at the end of every day in his life. He is 9 and appa calls him Ram.

The sign of poorness has plagued his skin and his color. He used to wait under the leafless tree for his appa to return from the town which is in the other side of the lake. He doesn't know why the old tree under which he spends his evenings doesn't spread leaves. He remember appa telling him that it has come from somewhere during a flood and planted on the banks of the lake.

He doesn't have any memory about his parents. When he started thinking of his own, he was with him. He called him appa, meaning father.

He likes to disturb the standing evening lake with the small round pebbles. He never had any friends of his age in the neighborhood. Appa was all for him and for appa he was his lost son. He wakes up with appa before the sun rise and goes out to the lake on the wooden rowboat for fishing. They return back when the bell rings 3 times for the school near to the church to start. He never went to school. On his ride back through the lake, he used to see kids of his age playing near the church wearing white shirt and khaki trouser uniforms along the lake. He was never sad for not playing with them; he never knew why they were there. He didn't want to know.

That day he waited for appa to return from the market and he waited more than the usual time. His tired eyes never wanted to look at the same evening lake view and he slept leaning against the huge tree.

He woke up with a shock when the appa's boat hit the wooden deck. It was dark and with the available moon light he ran towards the wooden deck shouting for appa. Appa took him and placed him on his shoulders. Appa introduced the family which came with him on his boat that day. The moon light was not enough for his tired eyes to recognize the new faces. On the way back to their hut appa enquired if he got scared in the dark. He didn't replied but Ram's small arms held tightly on appa's neck and rests his head on appa's shoulders.

Days were all similar for him. But that evening when he was waiting for appa, he found one girl sitting near the wooden deck near the lake, throwing stone on her reflection. He has never seen her till that day. She was of Rams age and looks pretty in her white frock with small black dots. He stared at her that whole evening. When appa returned from the market he picked up Ram and placed him on his arm and walked towards her.

"Are you playing alone?"

She stood up from the wooden board and shook her head.

"I am waiting for my father" and she smiled at Ram.

"Ram, do you remember her. They came with me yesterday from the town."

He didn't laugh at her. He didn't know how to address her. When appa started moving to their hut, he looked back and kept staring at her sitting on appa's arm.

"Who are they appa?"

"They are from the town, came here for the medical camp. Her dad is a doctor."

He didn't understood what people do in a medical camp but he knew that people go there when they get sick. That was a small village with no bridges or roads to connect the main town and very few fishermen's lived near the lake.

"Can I go and play with her tomorrow."

Ram looked at appa but he didn't reply. He never told him a NO to any of his request, but he couldn't find an answer to his question. Appa's face reflected with so many reasons for not saying a NO to Ram.

The next evening he found her in the same place. He ran towards her, beating his stitched cycle tyre with a wooden stick, accelerating with his speed.

"Are you coming with me to play?"

She looked at him and smiled, stood up and started running behind the cycle tire over the dusty road along the lake. They played, shouted, threw stone on to the lake that whole evening. When they get tired, they rest near the big leafless tree waiting for their parents to return from the town.

"What is your name?" she asked wiping the sweat off from her forehead.

"Appa calls me Ram."

"My mother calls my first name in full but I love to hear it from my father calling me molu."

"What is your father?" She asked Ram. But his face looked confused as he couldn't understand the meaning of her question.

"My dad is the main doctor in the Medical camp conducted by the Panchayath." He listened to her carefully trying to understand the meaning of the sentence. She was quick and fluent in her language.

"Which standard do you study?" she was excited to ask this question.

"I don't go to school."

"I will be promoted to 5th standard next. Why don't you go to school? You don't study well or are you scared of your teachers?" and she laughed at him.

He never felt bad because he didn't know why people go to school.

"I go for fishing with my appa every day and during evening I wait for him, under this tree."

"Hey my father is coming." She shouted when she saw her father in the row boat nearing the land.

They started meeting every evening. They laughed, shouted, played and studied together. She started teaching him letters and alphabets writing on the wet sand near the lake. She taught him poems and they sang together looking at the evening sky. For the first time the old tree started to spread leaf during that summer and everyone one started discussing about the good change happening with the old tree near the lake. Ram started spending more time with her under the tree playing, studying and singing.

Ram himself started noticing a change in him and now he learned how to address everyone with his beautiful smile which he discovered after meeting her. He started counting the coins which appa's got after selling the fish. He started learning new things in his life and he was excited about his few hrs which he spends with her. He lived only for the evenings to come, to meet her... to play, sing and learn. He never missed a day meeting her; he can't afford to miss the smile when she looks at him.

Months passed by and that was a Sunday, Ram was waiting for her near the old tree to play with him that evening. She never came that evening, the next evening and never. He wandered with his cycle tyre around the place where she stayed and the Panchayath where the Medical camp conducted but there was no sign of her. The smile started disappearing from his face and one day appa asked him.

"Ram, why are you sad these days?"

He didn't say anything to him. Appa picked him up and walk towards his hut.

"Where are they?"

"Who son?"

"Where is she, my friend?"

Appa stopped and looked at his pleading eyes.

"They went back to the town my son, they will never come back." He held him close to his chest and continued.

"When you asked me for the permission to play with her, I couldn't stop you because you never had any friends in your life. Now she has gone and will never return back. I had taken them back to the town in my row boat. She asked me to say bye to you that day but I never told you this. I don't want my son to get hurt."

Appa felt his chest getting wet. Ram cried that entire day...he never went out with appa for fishing the next days. He was tired of crying, he never went out the evenings waiting for his appa.

After few days, he came near the lake and sat near the big tree. He looked at the branches of the tree and noticed that it turned to be leafless again. He remember when she was there, the tree was full of big green leafs and now people started talking again about the bad fate of the tree.

He remembers when he had asked appa the reason for the leaflessness of the tree, he replied like this.

"The flood brought the tree here and she didn't like this side of the lake. The tree was happy in his homeland. She had grown tall, looking beyond the lake searching for her homeland and waiting for another flood to place her back to her home land. She remains leafless thinking of the good memories she had in her previous life. "

Ram sat near the tree, lied on his back, looking at the evening sky through the leafless braches of the tree, thinking of the good memories he had with her. He took a sharp stone from the ground and started marking something on the bark of the tree. He had learned a lot from her but he could not hold her to his life. He wanted to see her for the one last time but life had asked him to stay in this side of the lake. He took off the sharp stone from the tree when he saw appa standing next to him.

Appa inquired,

"What did you write here? Who taught you to write? How did you learn all these?"

Ram didn't say anything to appa. Appa took him and placed him on his arm and looked at his eyes. Tears started falling from his eyes and Ram finally said crying,

"She taught me how to learn, write and sing. This tree stands here thinking of all good times it had in its homeland. I wanted this tree to remember our good time we spend under this tree. I wrote her name here... A s h w a t y."