“Everything is so quiet today,” Olivia Genesee said. She curled up beneath the Tree of Life in her backyard to read a book while she ate a pear. Her chestnut brown bangs fell in the middle of her forehead. “It’s almost too good to be true.”
It had been several months since 12-year-old Olivia planted a golden seed from King Adam II in Eden to grow a replica of the original Tree of Life in her hometown of Humansville. Olivia met Adam II, ruler of Eden, when she transported to the land through a magic window announced by the mystical player piano that appeared in her backyard with a now-vanished Tree of Good and Evil.
Since Olivia passed the test with the Tree of Good and Evil of resisting its tempting apples, the Tree of Life radiated light and peace, and Olivia liked to bask in its glow. It bore twelve different types of fruit, all of which Olivia and her family loved to eat.
“When I eat your fruit, it always makes me want to do good in the world,” Olivia said to the Tree. She frequently talked to it as though it was a person in efforts to make its leaves grow stronger. “You are so beautiful!”
Of course, the delightful Tree of Life grew in the absence of the Tree of Good and Evil that once stood in her backyard with poisonous apples and almost destroyed her town. Olivia’s Tree of Good and Evil was a version of the original Tree of Good and Evil that grew in Eden until the ground opened its mouth and swallowed it from her backyard.
As it started to rain, Olivia ran inside her home to find her mom cooking dinner. She wiped off the lenses of her round glasses from the raindrops.
“What’s for dinner?” Olivia asked her mother. “I’m hungry!”
“Anything but apples,” her mother Claire declared. “We don’t ever eat those anymore, not even apple dumplings with ice cream, and especially not from a tree that grows in our backyard called the Tree of Good and Evil.”
“No, we only eat meat and vegetables,” Jacob, her father explained, who loved to enjoy the all the fruit on the Tree of Life, including apricots, avocados, bananas, cherries, figs, grapefruits, kiwis, mangos, oranges, peaches, pears, and plums.
“I miss the apples from the Tree of Good and Evil sometimes,” Nathan, Olivia’s 10-year-old brother admitted. He brushed his blond hair from his face. “They made me strong!”
“No, you don’t miss them at all,” Olivia argued. “They almost destroyed you and everyone in Humansville. We overcame them.”
She sat down at the player piano in her living room to perform an original song.
“I’m so glad that the piano doesn’t play all day and night anymore on its own,” Olivia said, as she practiced her scales.
Then, she finished her song, and the piano played a classical piece by itself. “Anyone want to dance?’ she asked, as her family waltzed around the room.
Later that night, the rainstorm grew worse with thunder, lightning, and hail. Sound asleep in her bed, Olivia awoke to a sharp crackling noise. Her dog Meatloaf barked in fear.
She sat up in bed and pulled back the bedroom curtains to look outside.
“Oh, lightning must have hit the Tree of Life,” Olivia said, as she looked at cracks through the trunk into the Tree’s roots. She threw on her jeans and a T-shirt with her jacket, grabbed an umbrella, and ran into the backyard with Meatloaf, only to hear a magical triumphant song performed by her player piano.
“Olivia! It’s me, Evelyn! Listen to me!” a woman’s voice screamed through what appeared to be an opened window between Humansville and Eden.
The window always emerged along with the particular song played by the piano. It shifted space and time to allow people to transport between lands.
“Evelyn? Is that you?” Olivia said to the woman who was named after Eve, the first woman known to live in the Garden of Eden, after which the Land of Eden was named. “What is going on? Is there something wrong?”
“Please, I need your help! I’m still chained to the original Tree of Good and Evil in Eden. No one in Eden will listen to me! I beg you,” cried Evelyn, as she stared through the window in her green leaf-like body suit. “The lightning storm must have caused some sort of an electric short in the universe and opened the window.”
Months ago, Evelyn had accompanied a replica of the original Tree of Good and Evil to Humansville, only to be judged by Eden’s ruler King Adam II for lacking compassion. As punishment, she was chained to the maiden Tree of Good and Evil in Eden for eternity.
“Adam II has been captured by an evil ruler named Prince Ubel from the Land of Trembling,” Evelyn cried. “He wants all the power from the original Tree of Life in Eden, and he has sent lightning storms throughout Eden and to all the places in other worlds where seeds were planted.”
“Lightning just hit the roots of the Tree of Life in my backyard,” Olivia stated. “What do we do now?”
“If you are brave enough, jump through the window again, and visit Eden to help save Adam II and the original Tree of Life,” Evelyn pleaded. “If Prince Ubel controls all the power from the Tree of Life, he will have the ability to decide the life and death of every soul everywhere, and he said he wants to destroy them and their children to create his own species without free will—a species that would make any humans subordinate to them.”
“How am I supposed to help fix that?” Olivia argued. “I’m just one person. Why would I trust you?”
“Because if you don’t trust me, you will certainly perish,” Evelyn argued in a loud voice.
“If I trust you, I could end up perishing anyhow,” Olivia answered. “At least I could hide in Humansville for now.”
“How would Prince Ubel control the power from the Tree of Life?” Olivia questioned.
“If he destroys all the Trees of Life and Adam II along with them, the power will become his,” Evelyn stated.
“This must be another test,” Olivia said. “I knew the Tree of Life would eventually bring me another test. I’m just a regular girl. Why does this have to happen to me?”
“I don’t know, but Prince Ubel’s new race without free will would control any humans who are not eliminated,” Evelyn told Olivia. “Please, help me! You only have minutes to decide. The window will soon disappear.”
“I don’t know if I’m strong enough for this test,” Olivia told her. “Also, I could save Eden and still get grounded by my parents. I already spend too much time alone on Friday nights.”
“Hurry! The window is going to close,” Evelyn called. “You will not have a second chance to slip through it.”
Olivia scribbled a note in the dirt that said: “Be right back.” Without the note, she worried her family would think she went missing.
Then, she faced Evelyn and jumped through the magical window. She spun and whirled through time and space, to arrive next to her desperate friend in the Land of Eden.
Olivia stared at the chain that looped around the Tree of Good and Evil, which was attached to Evelyn’s ankle. It looked heavy.
Rain poured as Olivia and Evelyn sat beneath dripping tree branches in Eden. Olivia could not see the sun through the clouds.
“Adam II has been gone for days, and Eden is desperate for someone to find him and the missing Tree of Life,” Evelyn explained in a depressing tone.
Then to Olivia’s surprise, out from behind the tree trunk jumped Meatloaf.
“What are you doing here?” she asked her four-legged friend. “I guess he could not let me travel to Eden by myself.”
“A surprise!” Evelyn commented. “Well, he could be useful.”
As the dog started to howl, a looming figure stepped out of the shadows.
“You will now be my slave,” Prince Ubel said to Olivia, as he held a sword. “I would surely free you, Evelyn, from being chained to the Tree of Good and Evil, if you serve me,” the false king lied with a fake smile.
“Ubel, that’s the sword that was supposed to guard the Tree of Life in Eden,” Evelyn snapped at him. “What are you doing with it?
“It’s mine now,” Prince Ubel decreed, as Evelyn and Olivia exchanged glances, not sure how to respond.
“I will join you for your reign,” Olivia agreed, abruptly, with a fib.
“What?” Evelyn gasped and refused to look at Olivia. “Why would you betray me?”
Secretly, in her heart, Olivia planned to defeat Prince Ubel at the earliest moment and free Adam II, but she could not reveal this to Evelyn in front of the dictator.
“You never wanted the best for me anyhow,” Olivia play-acted in front of Prince Ubel. “I should have never listened to you in the first place.”
“Your fate chained to the Tree of Good and Evil is worse than death,” Prince Ubel decided. “I might just leave you chained to the Tree a little longer.”
He then mounted a horse, and Olivia jumped on the horse next to him with Meatloaf.
When the evil ruler looked away at his comrades in the distance, Olivia looked over her shoulder as Evelyn squinted at her in tears.
Later that evening, Olivia arrived on horseback at Prince Ubel’s camp outside of Adam II’s palace.
A bit of a ghost town, the residents of Eden had hidden themselves in their homes, in hopes that the new regime would not look for them.
“This is your tent for now,” Prince Ubel told Olivia and her dog. Then, he opened the front of a small cloth hideaway. “My soldiers will move into Adam’s palace once his soldiers and belongings are removed.”
“Thank you. I appreciate it so much,” Olivia twisted the truth.
“I want to put you in charge of identifying all the Trees of Life throughout the cosmos on my maps,” Prince Ubel instructed, as he paced back and forth in front of her tent. “If you could organize them into an exact list, then I could be sure they were all destroyed with lightning attacks.”
“Of course, my lord,” Olivia reluctantly agreed. “I will do my best to make the list right away.”
“Now come with me for a moment. I need you to start working on your assignment first thing in the morning,” he asked. “I will show you the key for the vault in my tent where I keep the maps of the Trees of Life.”
The vault perched behind the makeshift desk in Prince Ubel’s tent.
“I hide the key in plain sight where no one would expect to find it,” the invader explained. “I hide it in my top desk drawer.”
“Yes, sir,” Olivia said, as Meatloaf sniffed around his tent. “So, where are you holding Adam II?”
In response, the Prince drew the sword that once protected the Tree of Life in Eden and held it at Olivia’s throat.
“Let me go!” Olivia yelled and stomped on his foot.
“Sir, we have a question,” one of his guards asked, as he walked into the tent and interrupted.
“What now?” Ubel asked. When he was distracted, Olivia slipped away from him. She ran beneath his desk in defense and grabbed the key from its top drawer without him noticing.
“Child! How dare you question me?” the evil prince screamed, as she slipped the key into her pocket. It felt smooth as she ran her fingers over it.
“I’m sorry for asking,” she cried and ran with Meatloaf into her tent.
“I wish we had somewhere else to hide from him,” Olivia said to Meatloaf. She zipped the tent cover shut and pushed the table and chairs inside the tent in front of its entrance.
“Meatloaf, go out and sniff around and see what you can find,” Olivia whispered into his ear softly. “I can’t go looking for Adam II, or Prince Ubel will see me.”
Meatloaf scurried to the back of the tent and dug a hole under its corner until he squeezed his way out into the darkness.
“Good boy,” Olivia cheered. “Come right back after you nose around for a while.”
After she sent Meatloaf out, she tiptoed back over to Prince Ubel’s tent and spied through holes in the fabric. Hiding in the shadows from his guards, she watched him sleep on his bed.
“I need to get my hands on his sword,” Olivia said to herself, not able to see it anywhere in sight. “It’s the best way to defeat him.”
Then, Olivia noticed that Meatloaf returned to her tent. He whimpered and dug in the dirt.
“What should I do?” Olivia thought to herself. “I wonder what else is in his vault. This is so scary. I have to be brave.”
Olivia waited until the guards were not looking and slipped into Prince Ubel’s tent with the stolen key. She slowly walked into his tent, hardly breathing, and opened the vault door as he slept. She jumped as the vault door squeaked, and the false prince rolled over in bed. Then, she spotted the sword in bed underneath him with a case on it.
Staring into the vault filled with maps, she noticed a second key.
“What is this other key?” Olivia thought. “Maybe it could be used to free Adam II?”
As she lifted the second key and the maps from the vault to take them with her, she eyed the stolen sword. Its silver edges glistened in the darkness. She slipped both keys into her pocket.
Then, she studied Prince Ubel as he slept and glanced at the feet of his guards that paced outside the tent. She wondered about the chances of her success.
“What is that dumb dog doing?” one of the guards said to his partner.
With Meatloaf creating distractions, Olivia scurried to Ubel’s beside. She knocked him in the head with the lantern by his bedside, gagged him with a bedsheet, and tied his wrists and ankles with rope she found inside the tent.
“I am putting myself in charge until Adam II can be found,” she thought. “Oh, I can never tell Mom and Dad about this.”
Then, Meatloaf ran into the tent and barked with the guards chasing after him.
She grabbed the sword from beneath Ubel and pointed it at the guards. As a beam of light streamed from the sword, the guards were knocked off their feet.
Olivia declared: “I am now the ruler of Eden, and you will bow to me.”
She grabbed Meatloaf and fled with the sword to find a horse. The two keys sat safely in her pocket.
“We have to escape before Ubel wakes up,” Olivia said to Meatloaf. “He should be knocked out for a while.”
Then, they jumped on the nearest horse and fled in the dark. When Olivia arrived back to the Tree of Good and Evil, Evelyn gasped.
“Where have you been?” Evelyn cried. “How could you leave with Ubel?”
“What else did you want me to do?” Olivia argued, as she held up the sword that once protected the Tree of Life. “You asked me to help you. I tied him up and got back the Tree’s sword.”
“Did you find Adam II?” Evelyn hoped, as she crawled around the Tree of Good and Evil.
“No, I haven’t found Adam II,” Olivia clarified, while she unrolled the maps from the vault.
“Did you check in the Caverns of Eden below the palace for Adam II?” Evelyn asked. She studied the maps and pointed to the confirmed Trees of Life in other worlds. “This is fascinating!”
“I didn’t check in the caverns, but I can check there next,” Olivia answered.
“Maybe the original Tree of Life is hidden in the caverns,” Evelyn said. “Ubel would have to hide it somewhere that had room for all of its roots.”
“It would not be that easy to hide,” Olivia said and considered how to search the caves.
“There is a channel of rivers that runs beneath the palace into the caverns,” Evelyn explained. “You have to hurry!”
“I knocked Prince Ubel out and tied him up, expecting we would find Adam II before he wakes up,” Olivia said. “I found this second key in his vault, so I am hoping that I can somehow use it to free Adam II.”
“You can enter the caverns where the river splits on the West side of the palace,” Evelyn explained. “It eventually descends into the caves. Put the key on the chain that’s around my neck. Wear it for safety when travelling, so you don’t lose the key.”
“Thank you! I should be able to do this somehow,” Olivia agreed. She looked at Meatloaf and hoped he could tread water. Then, she took the chain from around Evelyn’s neck and put both keys on it, and she clasped it around her neck. “I’m leaving this sword with you. It’s too valuable to lose,” she told Evelyn.
“I’ll make sure no one steals it again,” Evelyn said. She dug a hole in the dirt and buried it in the leaves of the Tree of Good and Evil.
So, Olivia and Meatloaf set off to the palace on horseback. At first, she was the only one on the hillside, but then she could see a group of Prince Ubel’s guards in the distance.
“Quick!” she said to the horse. She pulled the reins and led him to hide in the ravine. “We’ll let them pass, and then try again.”
“Oh, where did that stupid girl go? I don’t see her anywhere,” a guard said. “Let’s go! We’ll find her! Prince Ubel is still knocked out from her attacking him.”
As the guards rode off, Olivia and Meatloaf rode out of the ravine and approached the river near the palace. When she arrived at the cavern’s entrance, she dismounted the horse and tied him to the nearest tree. A small boat with a lantern sat near the shore. It was tied to the fence that followed the river’s edge. Two paddles rested on the side of the boat.
“It looks like someone might have recently used this boat. I wonder if they are still nearby and would try to stop us,” Olivia said in a worried tone to Meatloaf. “Now, I hope you don’t mind getting wet. It’s almost like all the times that I washed you in the bathtub, but we don’t have soap to add any bubbles.”
Olivia jumped in the boat with Meatloaf, held up the lantern for a moment, and then paddled the boat slowly. She descended into the caverns under the palace. As she paddled, the water grew closer to the ceiling of the channel, and the boat neared the top of the ceiling as each minute passed.
Then, a gust of wind filled the channel, and a wave of water crashed against the boat. The wave knocked the chain with the key over Olivia’s head and into the river. “Oh, no!” Olivia cried. “I can’t let go of the paddles!”
Meatloaf swam through the water and grabbed the chain with his mouth as Olivia controlled the boat. She put it back around her neck and doubled checked that the clasp was shut.
“Good boy!” Olivia said. “What would I do without you?”
After floating along a dark channel, the boat rocked back and forth, and Olivia knew she could not travel much farther in these conditions. About to give up, Olivia and Meatloaf spied a figure behind bars in the corner of the underground river.
“Adam II, is that you? We have to save you from drowning,” Olivia called. She pulled out the second key from the chain around her neck. “Stay here, Meatloaf!”
With Meatloaf still in the boat, she jumped in the water and swam to rescue Adam II. “Hang on!” she yelped. “We’ve come to save you!”
“Thank you! Hurry, the water is filling up the cavern!” Adam II warned. “It rises every day with the tides. I haven’t drowned so far, but I don’t want to test the fates.”
The original Tree of Life had been placed next to him in a glass case with its roots tied together in a ball. A small amount of water sat in the bottom of the glass case.
“I hope the Tree is still alive,” Olivia commented, as she stuck the key from her chain in the lock on the cell door. She jiggled the key left and right, and it finally opened.
“Freedom!” Adam II cheered. “I am indebted to you.”
“I tied up Prince Ubel and took control of the kingdom,” Olivia explained to Adam II with Meatloaf barking in triumph. “Eden is still in disarray. We have to hurry before someone else tries to put themselves in charge.”
Even though Adam II was now safe, Olivia worried that they still might drown on the way out of the caverns. The channel was so small and tight. Olivia felt her chest constrict as she looked at the rising water. She was glad that she was a strong swimmer.
Olivia jumped back in the water and swam to the boat where Meatloaf whimpered with concern. Adam II grabbed the glass case with the Tree of Life and floated it to the boat as he swam beside it.
“If you don’t think we’re going to make it, leave me, and just take the Tree,” Adam instructed Olivia as he climbed into the rescue raft. He propped the Tree across the front of the boat in the glass case. “I hope we don’t sink.”
“We’re all going to make it,” Olivia said, a determined look on her face. She paddled them back to the surface as quickly as she could.
The water got choppy and slammed into the boat, rocking it from side to side. The boat hardly held the trio in the first place.
“Hold on!” Olivia yelled as water knocked the boat so hard that it almost capsized. She grabbed Meatloaf by the collar as Adam II dove to protect the Tree. She got a huge splash of water in the face and swallowed much of it in a gulp.
After the boat regained its balance, Olivia paddled as fast as she could, and Adam II used his arms to direct the boat. The Tree teetered on the front of the boat.
“I hope the glass case doesn’t break,” Olivia said. “The Tree will end up soggy.”
At the end of the tunnel, Olivia could see a glimmer of light. “We’re going to make it to the surface,” Olivia announced. “I can see the sunlight. We’re almost there.”
“Prince Ubel and his guards could be waiting for us on the shore,” Adam II warned. “If they are waiting for us, I have no weapons.”
“I left the sword from the Tree of Life with Evelyn,” Olivia explained. “I didn’t want to risk losing it. Our horse should be waiting for us. I tied him to a tree.”
“Keep your head low,” Adam II told Olivia as they rose out of the caverns from beneath the palace. “Run if you see Ubel and his guards.”
Olivia grabbed Meatloaf close to her chest, and he shut his eyes in fear.
“I wonder if the Tree will actually grow at this point,” Adam II lamented, as he studied its roots. Although it was not dead, it needed to be replanted as soon as possible.
Then, he spotted two guards of Prince Ubel’s monitoring the river. She also spotted her horse still tied to the tree, eating some grass.
“We’ll hide behind this brush for now,” Olivia thought. She stopped the boat near a large bush. “We’ll wait for the guards to leave,” she whispered to Adam II.
“They might change guards soon,” Adam II explained, wet and tired. “Then, it will be our chance to run.”
“Do you see that brat anywhere?” one of the guards said, as he lounged by the river. “Can you believe that she suffocated Prince Ubel?”
“She tied him up so tight that he couldn’t breathe,” the other guard said. “It just looked like he was sleeping.”
As Olivia heard of the demise of Prince Ubel, she decided to announce Adam II’s return.
“Adam II is back in charge of Eden,” Olivia yelled, while she stood up on the boat in defiance to the guards. “Bow to him now, or you will be sentenced to prison for life.”
Scared of their fate, the guards bowed with reverence and shook with fear.
Adam II lifted the Tree of Life from the boat, and Olivia ran with Meatloaf to mount her horse. She jumped on the horse with relief and tried to figure out how the horse could carry the three of them with the Tree. Ubel’s guards ran into the distance.
“Run ahead to the East side of the palace on the horse,” Adam II said. He broke the glass case open that enclosed the Tree. “I will meet you there to replant the Tree of Life.”
“No, we will trot with you,” Olivia said. She could not leave Adam II alone.
“Thank you for your kindness,” Adam II said. He propped the Tree on his back. “We need to watch for other guards.”
“Prince Ubel’s guards will all know that you are alive and free, and they are better off to flee than try to overthrow you again,” Olivia said, as she looked across the terrain. She saw no sign of Ubel’s army anywhere.
Adam II carried the Tree to the other side of the palace with Olivia and Meatloaf at his side until he replanted it firmly beside the springs.
“This location is closer to my palace than it previously resided, but I will be able to keep better watch on it here,” he explained.
“You are the once and future king,” Olivia cheered and bowed to him.
“We need its sword!” Adam II decreed. “Sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow.”
“Meatloaf, run to Evelyn and bring back the sword hidden beneath the leaves under the Tree of Good and Evil,” Olivia instructed him, hiding a note in his collar for her comrade. “She will give it to you.”
Then, Olivia watched Meatloaf hurry off into the sunset on his daunting errand.
The next morning, after Olivia and Adam II slept beneath the Tree of Life, Meatloaf woke them up with a grunt. He held the missing sword’s handle in his mouth.
“Meatloaf, I knew you could do it!” Olivia said, as she watched the sun rise over the hills.
Adam II grabbed the sword from Meatloaf and threw it into the air, and it circled the Tree, flaming and flashing back and forth to protect from intruders that would destroy it.
“Wow,” Olivia gasped. She watched the sword swing while she patted the soil around the Tree with her hands. Even Meatloaf piled dirt onto the area with his hind legs.
“The sword is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart,” Adam II explained to Olivia, as he walked with her and Meatloaf into his palace.
As Adam II swung open the chamber doors and reclaimed his throne of supernatural fire, she sat at his feet with her canine. “I am King Adam II of Eden,” his voice boomed.
Slowly, over a few days, the Tree of Life began to stand up straight and bear buds for new fruit and leaves.
A few days later, upon finding Evelyn back at the Tree of Good and Evil, Adam II praised her for her faithfulness in asking Olivia to save Eden.
“Olivia is our hero,” Evelyn said to Adam II. “She did what I could not do!”
“For your allegiance to Eden, Evelyn are hereby released from being chained to the Tree of Good and Evil,” Adam II said. He reversed the previous judgment that he rendered on her for her selfishness toward Humansville.
“Thank you, sir,” Evelyn said. “I am forever grateful.”
Olivia cried tears of relief as her latest journey had come to an end. Meatloaf jumped into her arms and cuddled his head in her chest.
“Olivia, you will once again return back to Humansville,” Adam II said, as he gave her handfuls of golden seeds. She placed the seeds in her jacket pockets. “These small seeds are from the original Tree of Life that you helped me save. They came forth as gold from the fire in my throne. Plant them and make me proud.”
Then, Adam II waved his hand, and the magic window between Eden and Humansville opened once again. Hugging Evelyn, and then Adam II goodbye, she stumbled through the window with Meatloaf.
“Until next time,” she called to Eden as she transported back to Humansville.
She spun and swirled through time and space. Then, she landed in her backyard next to the replica of the Tree of Life with its cracked trunk.
“Did anyone notice that I was gone?” she announced, as Meatloaf barked.
From her backyard, she could hear the player piano performing from the living room. It played the same triumphant magical song every time the window between Eden and Humansville opened. Her note, “Be Right Back,” was still scribbled in the dirt.
Watching the sun rise over the hills, she wondered how time worked between Humansville and Eden. It seemed to be a bit of a mystery.
Then, her dad walked into the backyard with his morning coffee cup. She realized that he never realized she was even missing.
“We’d better get rid of this mess before someone trips over it,” her father said, as he drank his coffee and stared at the crippled Tree.
As her father considered what to do with the Tree, her mother and brother walked into the backyard to join them.
“That was quite a storm last night,” her mother commented. “It hadn’t rained like that in ages. I’m so glad nothing else got struck by lightning.”
Before her father could clear away the damaged Tree, the ground opened suddenly, and shook the entire backyard, and swallowed it whole.
“I’m so close to the edge,” Olivia yelled. She fell in the opposite direction, as the ground closed. “If I had been one inch closer, I would have been swallowed with the Tree!”
Meatloaf howled in fear and caused all the dogs in the neighborhood to join in a chorus.
“Did my eyes just play tricks on me?” her father yelped and grabbed onto the wooden fence that surrounded the yard. “I know what I saw, but did you see that?”
“I’ve seen things like that in the movies!” her mother cried and plopped into the lawn chair, almost passing out.
“At least it didn’t swallow us!” her brother quipped. Then, he stood up after being knocked to the ground. “Where have you been, Olivia?”
“Just to Eden and back,” Olivia admitted, as she stood on the edge of what was once a cliff. “I’ll tell you about it later.”
Olivia patted a golden seed beneath the dirt, where the ground was a chasm moments ago. Meatloaf dragged the garden hose over with his mouth and watered the soon-to-be new life. The rest of the dogs in the neighborhood still howled in trepidation.
“Whatever makes you happy, Olivia,” her father agreed, as he rolled his eyes.
“Plant a seed today, and enjoy the fruit tomorrow,” Olivia insisted. She studied the cracks in the ground and hoped there were no aftershocks from the earthquake.
By the morning, a new Tree of Life stood in the Genesee family’s backyard, full of delightful fruit, enough to feed the whole neighborhood, and eventually the world.
Copyright 2023 Jennifer Waters
No comments:
Post a Comment