Read The Order of the Trees Online

Authors: Katy Farber

The Order of the Trees (2 page)

Small lanterns, made from tiny candles in a glass ball jars encircled the tree, glowing. Cedar sang softly while she waited. She wondered to herself if inviting him was a good idea. This place was hers. Her own oasis, her homeland. Did she really want
to share it? The truth was she felt better in these woods, her woods, than anywhere else. She could breath more deeply, see clearly, and felt simply alive here. It had always been this way, for as long as she could remember.

She heard him coming long before she saw him. His feet crunched over fallen leaves. He walked like someone who doesn't spend time in the woods, heavy and unsure.

“Where is everyone else?” Phillip asked as he approached, and looked wide-eyed at the ring of lanterns around the tree.

“You, Phillip, are the only other human member. We have lots of tree members in the Order,” Cedar offered, hoping he would go for it, and not run away. “That is, if you still want to be.”

Smoke from the lanterns scented the air with lavender, a warm, welcoming smell, as Phillip looked down at Cedar, seated below the towering tree. The graying light surrounded her.

“Um, okay,” Phillip said, glancing around, “I know nothing about trees. Being out here at night is kind of creepy.” His eyes scanned the forest.

“You'll get used to it,” Cedar said, gesturing for
him to sit down. “Just realize that you are safer out here in the forest than you would be in any town.”

Phillip shuffled over to a spot under the tree.

“So, I hereby commence this meeting of the Order of the Trees. First, I'd like to welcome our newest member, Phillip Walker.”

Phillip's mouth pushed into a crooked half smile.

“Phillip, meet Stella, the Queen,” Cedar said, sweeping her arms widely. “She is by far the oldest tree in this part of the forest, and has seen a lot. She holds this forest together with her mighty strength and long-standing beauty.”

“Okay,” Phillip said, looking at Stella and Cedar as if he was seated on a bed of nails.

“And that over there is one of her daughters, Magdelin. She is young and reaching for light. Around her she has a few friends, and I'm not sure of their names yet. Maybe you can find and name a few of the boys.”

“How do you know which ones are boys?”

“You just spend some time with them and then you get a sense.”

Phillip nodded. His eyes twitched.

“It is time for us to inspect the health of the trees. What we do is visit the trees in this little grove, making sure they are healthy and happy. Use the lantern, look at every detail, in their bark, on their leaves and around their roots.”

“I'm supposed to go by myself?” Phillip asked, his eyebrows pushing up from behind his glasses. The night was growing darker.

“I'll be right next to you, at a different tree.” Cedar chuckled. She couldn't remember a time when she was uncomfortable in the woods. In the classroom, definitely, but not in the woods.

After the tree inspection, Phillip and Cedar shared what they had found. Some woodpecker holes in Stella, a few insect trails and ruts in the bark on some medium-sized trees. A few of the smaller trees, Magdelin's size, had some bark rubbed off. They discussed which animals might have done the damage, like deer or moose.

“Now it is time for Silent Session. We sit here, completely silent, and listen to the sounds of the forest.”

“For how long?”

“For as long as it takes.”

Phillip shrugged his shoulders. The shadows and fading light crept around him.

Cedar lay back on a bed of moss and leaves, listening. To her, the sounds of the forest at night were a symphony more beautiful than any human-made instruments. She closed her eyes and focused completely on the forest music.

The first sounds rolled in, dull and muffled. The leaves shook slightly with the breeze, a tiny quiver. Next came the high-pitched chirping of the tree frogs. Trilling toads joined in. Some crickets droned in the distance. Sound came in waves, and Cedar felt them all, a smile forming on her lips. Time slowed as more sounds filled the nighttime forest.

In an instant, it shattered. A screeching, soul jostling, whistling sound came from high up in the trees.

“What was that?” Phillip's voice called into the symphony. His eyes shot open.

Chapter 3

It called again, this time louder, a fingers-on-a-chalkboard screech. The sound seemed to break apart the night air.

“Just listen!” Cedar whispered, “It won't hurt you!”

The moonlight filtered through the clouds, falling through the branches, and Cedar saw the movement. She pointed silently up. There, an animal was flying from a tree on silent wings, with a stout, stumpy head. It landed on one of Stella's huge arms, right above their heads, and let out a loud call. Cedar smiled, her hair full of leaves. Phillip's eyes bugged out as he stared up at the small brown puff of an owl. It eyed them in the moonlight, little rust-colored tufts pointing down, pivoting in a circle, and then flying off further into the forest.

Cedar turned her head to Phillip and said, “A screech owl. That one usually visits me during Silent Session. Isn't it beautiful?”

They sat, the impression of the owl lingering in the air.

“Phillip?” Cedar looked at him, as he cupped his knees in his arms. A few moments passed while Cedar worried that bringing him here was a mistake.

Finally, Phillip's face broke into his small smile. “Amazing,” he whispered, barely audible. And he was hooked.

The next day in class, Cedar walked in and read the whiteboard.

Phillip + Cedar = TREE HUGGERS

There were hearts all around their names. Cedar burned red hot, and dropped her backpack and jacket. She scanned the room to find Miranda and Sam howling with laughter by the cubbies. As the rest of the kids came in off the bus, they looked at the board and either laughed or stared. Phillip sat at his desk, bright pink, pretending to read.

Cedar knew what to do. She walked right up to
the board, and began to erase it. The class gawked, whispered.

“Cedar Montgomery, just what do you think you're doing?” Mrs. Doneaway called from the doorway just as Cedar erased the last of the message.

“I was just erasing something that…”

“Did I ASK you to erase something on the board?”

“But someone wrote something…”

“You didn't answer my question. Did I ASK you to erase something on the board?”

Now the class was full, and Cedar stood in front of all of them, hot pinpricks of embarrassment reddening her face. She looked right at Miranda, her big brown eyes, shooting nails.

“No.”

“That's right. So sit down.”

Cedar walked speedily to her seat, staring at Miranda, who avoided her gaze.

Phillip didn't even look at Cedar for the entire morning in class. She squirmed in her seat, like a wild cat in a cage, wanting to escape. All morning, Miranda and Sam seemed to gloat that Cedar had gotten in trouble and they hadn't. Their voices
were louder. Their laughs hurt her ears. Cedar just wanted to run to the forest. She peered out the classroom window, staring at the sheets of bright sunshine, blue sky.

In math class that afternoon, Cedar was working in her book when the pain started. First, she thought it was just a headache from all the attention earlier in the morning. She tried shaking her head, and focusing on equivalent fractions.

It didn't work.

At the base of her neck came a white-hot pain that caused her to drop her pencil on the floor. Rubbing her neck, she bent over to pick it up. Did I strain my neck sleeping? She wondered. She saw clouds when she sat back up. Pain burst in little bubbles in the corners of her eyes.

Some kids noticed as she shook her head, rubbed her neck.

Just then another a bright, white light seemed to shine on Cedar, causing shooting pain up her neck. It spread like a wildfire, winding though her neck, down into her shoulders and torso. She inhaled a quick breath, twisting in her seat, staring at her math book page. She had never felt pain like this
before. Over and over she tried to read the same line, and she wasn't sure how long she was like that before she heard something at the end of a long, white tunnel. Muffled voices. Harsh.

“Cedar! Cedar, are you there? Earth to Cedar, come in Cedar!”

She realized the voice at the end of the tunnel was Mrs. Doneaway's.

Chapter 4

The whole class, except for Phillip, erupted in laughter and snickers. Cedar snapped back to reality and looked around. Phillip caught her eye; his face was tight with worry. She didn't remember the last few minutes at all. The only thing she remembered was bright, searing pain.

“Cedar, where have you been? You haven't done a lick of math in the past twenty minutes,” Mrs. Doneaway said. She towered over Cedar, her body looming in crisp clothes.

Cedar felt the blood draining to her toes. Her head felt heavy, like it might roll around without her knowing. A dull thumping pain throbbed at the base of her neck.

“I . . . I don't feel so good.” Cedar said.

“Well, you could've said something sooner, Cedar. Go to the nurse.” Mrs. Doneaway turned her back and walked up to the board.

So much for sympathy. Phillip watched as
Cedar made her way slowly out of the classroom, the normal fire in her eyes dimmed.

The phone rang in the Montgomery's little cabin in the Worcester woods.

“Cedar?” Phillip asked.

“Hi Phillip,” Cedar said, walking to her room.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I'm fine. I just came home and slept. But I never do that. I really have no idea what happened.” Cedar sat on her bed, stroking DaVinnci, her cat, lazily.

“You looked so pale, and so … different.”

“Phillip, how long was Mrs. Doneaway saying my name?”

“For a while. She probably said it seven or eight times.”

“Wow, Phillip,” Cedar said, leaning back on her pillows.

“What?”

“I only heard the last one.”

“What do you mean? Were you just spacing out?”

“No,” Cedar said, her hand stopping in the middle of DaVinnci's back, “no, I was just not there.”

“You must just be sick. You should make up some of your herbal mumbo-jumbo to fix you and go to bed.”

“What about the Order meeting?”

“What about it? You shouldn't go out in the woods tonight. It's cold out there.”

“I'll be fine.”

“I really don't think you should,” Phillip said. He waited.

“That was rough today. Those girls.”

Phillip hesitated. The line was quiet.

“I'll see you there at 5:00,” Cedar said, and hung up.

Under a blanket of slate grey sky, the forest was dark. Cedar sat, leaning against Stella, thinking. What happened to me today? She thought. She remembered the bright white light, the climbing, searing pain, and shuddered. She curled up closer to Stella's deep, dark bark, waiting. In the cradle of
Stella, her body relaxed. Cool night air filled her lungs, and she was grateful for it.

“Hi,” Phillip said, approaching in the twilight, “You okay? You look out of it.”

Cedar pulled out of her thoughts. “Oh yeah, I'm fine.”

“I told you, you shouldn't be out here tonight,” he said, settling in on the ground beside her.

“I'm fine, Phillip, stop worrying!”

He smiled his small smile, pushed his hair from his eyes.

“I'd like to call this meeting to order,” Cedar said. They settled in for the second meeting of the Order of the Trees.

After silent session, and a visit from the screech owl, Phillip and Cedar leaned against Stella.

“Were you born here, I mean, actually born? What do your parents say?” Phillip said.

“They tell me I am part of the forest. They say I was magic. That I was given to them by the tree. They get a starry, far-away look when they talk about it.”

“Do you think that?” Phillip asked quietly. He didn't want to upset her.

“Well, I do love these trees. My trees. Especially Stella.”

They were quiet. “I like them too,” he paused, “but what do you think really happened? You know, I've taken health class…”

“You can just stop right there. I have no idea. I have two great parents and some enchanted woods. It just matters that I'm here, right?”

“Right,” Phillip said. He smiled into the night. This girl, he thought, is of the trees.

Later, during the inspection of the trees, Phillip called to Cedar.

“What do you make of this?” Phillip gestured to bright orange tape wound around a small maple tree.

Cedar's face fell. “Someone else has been here recently,” she said. “Did you see this the other day, during the last inspection?”

“No, and I did walk over here because I remember that large boulder. I would've noticed.”

Cedar fingered the ribbon. “It looks new. There's no wear on it, no dirt.”

“Why would someone be marking the trees? Our trees?” Phillip asked, his eyebrows pushing upwards.

A cloud pushed over the last of the twilight, sending them into sea of deep grey forest.

Chapter 5

Cedar woke up suddenly, breathing hard, soaked with sweat. She searched her mind, but couldn't remember her dream. Whatever it had been about, it disturbed her. She got ready for school quickly, and filed out to the kitchen.

“Morning, Cedar. Want some toast?” Cedar's mom kissed her on the forehead, hugging her sideways. “Whoa, honey, you are clammy. Are you sick again? Is everything all right?”

Cedar nodded, and said, “Just a bad dream.”

“Why don't you have a little tea before you catch the bus? Something to settle your nerves?”

“No time Mom, thanks. See you tonight.” Cedar pushed through the wooden door, past the fading gardens, and up Bear Swamp road to her bus stop.

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