"The Trees" by Jeannine Anderson

Evergreen Patches. It was a renowned tree farm with little competition. The firs were laid out in rows marked by numbers. There were twenty-seven rows in all. At the front of rows #14 #15 and #16, stood the main office where the owner, Mr. Snowe, waited for the first customers of the season.

The wind sliced the frosty air, battering against the snow-covered firs, all in their rows. They waited in the bitter, December cold. Waiting for some family to come and chop them down and take them home to their nice warm house and string popcorn and tinsel and garland and ornaments on them and appreciate them. For it was finally their year to shine, their year to do what they’d been grown for at the tree farm. Little children were waiting to come get the best trees there were this side of town. So everything and everyone was waiting.

Soon, the first customers of the season showed up, and all the trees perked up. A family, rustled a none-too-special, but nice looking, tree at the end of row #7, I hope I’m picked!

“We sell only the best ‘ere,” said the owner to the family. “Just pick one out an’ I’ll chop ‘er down for ‘ye.” So, a little girl in a light blue coat asked for the most beautiful, the girl’s older brother asked for the tallest. The mother went for the most cone-shaped and the father wanted the greenest. Finally, as they saw a snowstorm brewing in the east, they settled for the most practical, which was not the tallest or the greenest, or the most beautiful. So the owner marked SOLD on the fir in row #18 and walked to his office. Mr. Snow revved up his chain saw and parted the tree with its roots. While the other trees watched their cone-shaped friend be carried away, they slumped over again, and braced themselves for the coming storm.

The next day, three more families came. They picked the tallest, most beautiful, and the thickest. And on and on it went through the month until nearly all the trees had been picked-over.

Then, two days before Christmas, two families came and picked the last two trees. The stubby trees they picked were so relieved at being picked that they forgot to say good-bye to their fellow tree.

It was the only tree left. Standing alone in row #7, way at the end was a thin scraggly tree. It had no special features, and was browning a little on the ends. It was just plain ugly. And out around it was what looked like a frozen wasteland.

Family after family drove up, and family after family drove away from the tree’s ugliness. Each time the tree was rejected, it slumped a little more, browned a little more, and a few more needles would fall off. Christmas seemed to not want to invite the little scraggly tree. It felt that no one loved it. It was an outsider looking in. If it had died that year in the harsh winter winds, no one would have cared.

The owner was worried about the tree. “You used to be so proud, so eager to be picked,” he would be caught saying. “Even if you weren’t the best tree. What happened?”

Then, on the evening before Christmas Eve, just when the owner was about to close up, a deep blue van drove up. A tired-looking mother and father slid out of the van and opened the back door for four children.

“What can I do for ya’ll?” asked the owner.

“We need a tree,” sighed the father.

“STILL! I mean… Well, I can help you. We’ve only got one left, but it might be the only one you’ll be able to find this Christmas.” The Mr. Snowe led them around to the outdoor nursery, his boots crunching through the snow. Crunch, crunch, croosh. He came to a halt in front of the scraggly tree. A “ SALE, 60% off” sign had been put on the tree to encourage people to buy it. “It ain’t much, but… If you’d a came earlier in the month, we’d have better ones, but…”

“Oh, Mommy, I like this tree,” said the littlest girl.

“We’ll take it,” said the mother. She smiled a little. “All it really needs is some TLC.”

At that word, the ugly fir began to perk up, and it grew proud of itself. And as if by magic, its browning tips became greener, and that tree filled out into the thickest, greenest, tallest, most beautiful cone-shaped tree ever. And that family took it home and lit it up and strung garland and popcorn and tinsel on it and put many ornaments on it and stacked at the foot of it many presents. When they stood back to appreciate it, the tree glowed with a pride that did not seem possible.

And the family loved it so much that they did not get rid of it in January—they couldn’t-- but kept it as long as they could. When it finally came time for the old tree to die, it went out felling respected and loved, because that was what all the evergreens that grew on that tree farm ever wanted, and what this tree got. In all the years to come, Evergreen Patches never got a tree quite like this one, and it’s legacy lives on silently where the scraggly tree’s stump still lies.

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