Trees in Train

Posted by: me on: March 4, 2010

• In: Creations | Stories
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It was a typical Thursday morning. I was leaning against the glass panel by the train door reading. It was a sad story and I cried. I could feel my nose souring, and I know that it was turning red rapidly. My nose and eyes always turn a violent shade of red even though I don’t do the bawling sort of crying. No no, that’s for babies. I do the single-tear-sliding-down-your-cheek kind of crying. The one that actresses always do on TV. Except that their noses and eyes don’t turn red and they always look pretty. Well, mine do and I don’t look pretty at all. In fact I think I look like an overgrown bunny.

So I sneaked a peak around to see if anyone saw. But no, no one was in the carriage with me. At least, no humans. Instead a forest of trees had entered the car and they stood silently, with their leaves swaying in the wind. Yes, there’s wind in the train. It’s this extremely cold blast of wind made by the train rushing through the tunnel. I usually can’t stand the chill but the trees seemed to have blocked it for me.

They were very nice-looking trees. Very disciplined too. They stood silently, thinking tree thoughts. The only sound were the leaves going swish-swish, and the train rumbling along the tracks. I wonder what thoughts trees think about. When they should disperse their seeds? How they should attract birds or bees to fertilise their flowers? Where to find good sunlight and nutritious water supply? I can only wonder for I don’t think they can talk. They do not have mouths.

I took to examining the trees in great detail. The long train ride gets boring and this is so much more interesting than that free newspaper that’s always given out. I gather the trees must be of the same species for they have the same straight trunks and almost uniform heights. There were some tall ones though. They stood with their crown through a hole in the roof, letting the rushing wind whip their leaves and branches into a frenzy. If they had mouths I’m sure they would feel the urge to let out a whoop and allow the wind to steal their voices away. At least I know that’s what I’ll do.

These trees have very special roots. I guessing them to be suction roots, like the pads on lizards which allow them to climb walls. Instead of sticking to walls, these trees anchor themselves onto the floor. It seems like no matter how hard the train jerk, they never seem to fall. The roots are well suited for urban life too. They can just suck water off the cement flooring in the urban areas since the surface runoff would be much more now that concrete would prevent most of the infiltration of water into soil. Wow, that is some amazing plant evolution.

My stop was announced over the PA system. I made my way towards the door. Some trees shifted their suction roots and shuffled themselves out too. The tall ones have retractable crowns like that of a clicking ballpoint pen. Click! and they became short enough to walk through the train doors. I walked out with walking trees and we tapped our ez-link cards. Beep beep! goes our ez-link cards. I think they have the cards embedded so they do not have to go to the trouble of holding it in their branches. (Wow, evolution of technology.) I went into the washroom to check my reflection in the mirror. When I walked out, the trees were gone.

The only evidence of their existence was the slightly yellowed and bug eaten leaves that littered the station floor.