Walking the Tree

by Kaaron Warren

  Have they connected food with life? Clear?

  I guess they would eat insects – certainly the insiders would.

  Giant spiders from Venezuela taste like crab. Outsider/insider, sea/tree, crab/spider.

  Spiders have more protein than beef does.

  Think about the food. Research. Describe some of the dishes. Research.

  Usually would surround the house of a newborn and have a shared feast, food passed around the circle/metaphor for the tree/community, so don't disturb but do display support, etc. Covered?

  What happens when stormy? Long house.

  Uses for leaves; plates, already mentioned. Clear?

  Usually would surround the house of a newborn and have a shared feast, food passed around the circle/metaphor for the tree/community, so don't disturb but do display support etc. Covered?

  Wheat flour? What sort of flour? What would grow in this environment? I need a botanist! Check.

  Would wheat grow?

  How could they grow it?

  Most things would have to by hydroponic.

  Research hydroponics. Answer this by the end.

  Smell

  Bad smells buried.

  They know a bad smell means something unhealthy to the human body. Enough?

  They trust their noses. Are trained to follow nasal instinct. Enough?

  Men

  Dickson is making a necklace for his bride in A, and asks Lillah to spread the word. DOES SHE SEND A TEACHER HIS WAY? ONE WHO SHE THINKS COULD LOVE HIM.

  NEWS COMES OF DICKSON. Done?

  In this society, males crying is accepted, expected. Check and add.

  Lillah was curious to know what his cave looked like. Melia never cared about the walls, the pictures. "I'm too busy for that," but to Lillah it was part of the seduction. To see the images the men found sexual gave her an understanding of them. Already she felt like an expert. She had seen a cry for help (SOMETHING DRAWN INTO THE TRUNK THAT FRIGHTENS HER in community 9) and she had seen things which made her back out of the cave and choose somebody else. (This is community 4.) Done?

  Lillah has moments of resentment towards Morace – what she's given up for him. What she's risking. But sees him innocently wandering and knows she could never survive the guilt if she let him be killed. Clear?

  So while women have the power because of their experience and knowledge, men have the steady jobs. Women have husbands and kids and freedom eventually, men have their jobs and security. They have to stay still forever.

  After finishing Walking the Tree, Kaaron took the unusual step of revisiting the story through the eyes of Morace, in the form of a whole new novella, which we present in its entirety, exclusive to this eBook.

  Morace

  Laburnun — OMBU — Aloes

  We call it Our Place.

  I am ten years old.

  I hope Mother lets me go to school this year. I'm bored being home with her. School may be hard, and it may be scary and tiring, but at least it will be different. I can't think of what to do to convince her to let me. I don't want to be too useful or kind in case she can't bear to part with me. I don't want to be bad because she might punish me.

  I'll have to talk to Dad. He might be on my side, see that I have to go to school and he might be able to think of what to do.

  School takes five years. We leave our village and we walk around Botanica. Around the Tree, the island. We walk quickly, and we stay in other villages and we will walk back into Ombu five years from now.

  The other children have no doubt they are going. They don't have crazy people deciding for them.

  Every time a school comes through here, I am jealous. I want to disguise myself and go with them. They are tired, often, but they are so confident, so full of knowledge and information, so easy with each other and with all of us. I want that. I really want that.

  Rham came by to ask me to go swimming. She's younger than me but taller. With her, it doesn't matter. The others tease me because I'm skinny and short, but she doesn't care.

  "Mother won't let me go." I kicked a rock as I spoke and hurt my toe.

  "She won't know if you dry off before you get home." Rham bounced around me. She always had good arguments.

  "She knows everything, and if she finds out she won't let me go to school," I said.

  "Come and watch then." I let her drag me along. I could collect shells along the shore at least, to trade with the older boys for sweet berries or for small carved tools. If I save enough shells, I might get a fish spear. Then I'll be popular on the school walk. I'll be useful.

  Once I go to school, I'll swim so far, so hard. The teachers will let me. I will follow my mother's rules until I am out of her sight, then no longer.

  I collected two scoops of shells, piling them onto

  a smooth, flat piece of drift-in wood. Carrying them back home, I planned what I would say to Dad when I found him alone.

  He was readying his things in a basket and I knew what that meant. I tried, anyhow.

  "Dad?" I said.

  "Morace, I can't talk. Magnolia's started to have her baby."

  Mum hates it when another woman has a baby. She doesn't like to share Dad yet she has to. He's Birthman and the women want him with them.

  Mum's awful when Dad's away. Shouts at me, as if it's my fault, until I want to hide under my bed and pretend her voice is the Tree screaming in the wind.

  I walked with him to Magnolia's house, knowing I could get a few points in while he was distracted.

  "So, Dad, you know Rham is going to school this year? She's so smart, don't you think?"

  "Yes, yes she is."

  "And it would be a shame if I wasn't around that cleverness for five years, don't you think?"

  "You're very clever yourself, Morace. So you don't need to convince me about school. I know you should go. But it's hard for your mother to let go."

  "Every other mother does it."

  He stopped walking and put down his basket. "You know your mother is not like others. I can't talk about this now, Morace. Magnolia needs me. Come along and help. We'll think of a way to convince your mother."

  When we got to Magnolia's, he was greeted with great welcome. I waited for a while, but it took too long for the baby to come and I felt useless. I went to the trunk and explored the caves there. Some people are scared of ghosts inside the Tree but I know what to say if I ever met one. I'll say, "Can you show me what's inside?" I went back to Magnolia's a few hours later with some coconut and fish for Dad to eat, because sometimes he forgets and he comes home so hungry he can't swallow. When I got there the baby had arrived and there were all sorts of people crowded around. Logan, Magnolia's husband, looked very tired but happy. Dad looked okay; I think they must have fed him.

  A crabby girl shoved us out of the room. Lillah. She's Logan's sister. She wants to be a teacher but she seems very mean. I hope she doesn't get picked. I hope Melia does. She is very funny and likes to talk to us.

  I didn't want to go home and see Mother because all I could think about was school and I didn't want to say the wrong thing. So I went back and sat by the Tree Trunk, at the place where stories are told, and I dreamt of people telling stories about me and my adventures. I waited for Dad there and when he walked past, tired but happy, I ran to take his hand. Mum doesn't like him happy, but I do.

  Sometimes Mum moves stiffly, as if her bones hurt. But sometimes she forgets, and moves like the rest of us.

  When Dad came home she did this thing where she moves, but smiles bravely as if she is hiding her pain. I can't stand it when she does it, trying to make us do what she wants, but Dad doesn't seem to mind. He sat down and drew me onto his lap, held me tight and said, "You are my precious son. There is no question of how much I love you." That started to get embarrassing. Mum yelped with pain and he put me aside. He was exhausted. He said, "I'll rest for a short time, but I still need to get back to Magnolia. Her baby is glorious, Rhizo. What a beautiful child."

  She nodded,
my mother did, but with her eyes closed.

  "Are you feeling pain?"

  "Just a little," she said, but so quiet, as if she couldn't bear to talk. So instead of resting, he looked after Mum. I don't know if I will be so kind when I'm grown-up.

  Children love my Dad. He's big as a bush and strong. Other men get annoyed with kids, but not my Dad. He thinks we're funny and says adults can learn a lot from children. Smart man!

  He rubbed Mum's legs and gave her a drink of warm lemon. He stroked her head and murmured to her. I hoped he was saying, "Let Morace go to school. Let him go."

  • • •

  The noise rose outside. "Baby celebration!" Dad said, and he and I grasped hands and smiled at each other. The community is so happy at a baby celebration. We have a lot of fun, once the boring talking is over.

  Mother squeezed her fingers to the side of her head. "I'll come. I should come," she said, but she stood up and let her knees wobble. "You go on. I'll come soon," she said, holding my arm so tight it hurt. I went, even though I knew she wanted me to stay with her. Dad wanted me to go.

  Lots of people were there already, including Dickson, one of the grown-ups. He is so awful. He teases us kids. Hides in the branches to frighten us and he takes our food sometimes because he's bigger. We were eating food and talking at the celebration and he peed on people. I couldn't believe it. I wouldn't do that. The grown-ups laughed as if it was funny.

  Later he picked up one of the other children, not me. If he'd picked me up I would have screamed. But Zygo loved it. Loved being spun around so fast he was nearly sick. The grown-ups said stop, but Zygo said keep going. He is young. He's wilder than I am and makes fun of me. He's not brave, though. When I look into the ghost cave, he screams with the rest of them.

  I like the emptiness of the ghost cave. The fact no one else goes in there, looks in there. The fact it is mine alone.

  Sometimes I feel this hard nut of something in my stomach. I think it's hate. I feel like I hate Dickson, hate Zygo. Sometimes I even hate my mother. And I hate being told what to do.

  I was bored, listening to the grown-up talk. I sat there, though, because they want you to and sometimes it's easier doing what the grown-ups say.

  You don't just get to eat and play when there's a celebration. You have to listen to stories and rules and future plans.

  "The Tale teller makes a good story boring," I said to the other children later. "Come with me and I'll tell you the real story of the Tree and the noise inside it. If you are scared you should stay with the adults. You don't belong with the children." Most of them followed me up to the base of the Tree. I made them press into the thick leaves. I like it in there.

  "There is a massive insect inside, a giant termite, nibbling away at the flesh of the Tree. They say if you scrape your shin on the bark, leave any skerrick of yourself behind, the insect will come for you. Once he's had a taste of you he'll come to gobble you up."

  They ran screaming from the Tree down to the safety of the water. They are not used to hearing bad things; in our community children are never hungry and we are treated well. We are not beaten. Our sins are punished with discussions, long, dull discussions about what should and shouldn't be.

  Every time I looked at Dad I pleaded with my eyes. "Ask her! Talk to her!" He did start talking to Mother about school, and about how my life would be if I didn't go. He whispered other things, too. Grown-up things which made her smile.

  They announced the teachers and crabby Lillah is one of them. She actually smiled and didn't seem crabby while we celebrated. Rham said to me and Zygo, "She might be fun." They are both going, of course, and Borag too, and three or four others. The teachers are Lillah, Melia, Thea, Erica and Agara.

  I wanted to be happy for them, but I couldn't do it. I didn't think I was going.

  Lillah saw me sitting alone and walked over. "Morace, I'm sure you'll be coming with us. Your father talks a lot about it." My mother hates my father talking to the young women.

  "It's her that's the problem," I said.

  "I'll talk to her. It can't hurt me if she hates me; I'll probably never see her again."

  That's the thing with the teachers. They don't come back. They find a new village to live in and they stay there.

  "Yes, please!" I said. "If I have to wait for the next school to leave, the children will be even younger. I can't be friends with children who still need help to wipe their bottoms."

  She laughed. She is turning out to be not so bad after all. Most of them wouldn't even know I was worried about it, so I think she might be all right.

  Mother welcomed Lillah in her tight-faced way. She spoke so quietly Lillah couldn't hear her, until finally Lillah sent me away to find a smoothstone so my mother would be able to speak normally, not try to keep me from hearing.

  I hid under the window. My friend Rham saw me outside and came over and stood with me. I didn't want her to hear any of my secrets. She is too smart. I caused an argument with her and she threw her hair back in anger and walked away. So she didn't hear what I heard. Mother played her foolish talking, lying game and I listened outside the window, wanting to run in and push her over. The words were muffled by our window coverings. Oh, Mother and her secrets. I thought I knew them all. But here were two. Two things I didn't know. She said "Can I trust you, Lillah?" then she said she was very sick.

  I felt so bad about it. It meant that she might die and I couldn't bear the thought of that. Plus, what about me? What if people thought I was sick with Spikes and decided to treat me? I didn't want to die. I was too young and I had not even been to school yet. How could she do this to me?

  She said she didn't want me to know, but how would she think I wouldn't?

  And then she told the next secret. A terrible, wonderful thing.

  My father is not my father. I don't understand. Myrist is. Lillah's father Myrist is my father also. So Lillah is my sister, my half-sister. Such a wonderful thing. And then so is Logan half my brother! And then so is that baby half my nephew, or is he quarter my nephew? He's mine, anyway. I belong.

  But my father is not my father.

  After all that, she said yes. I'm going to school.

  Lillah's turning out to be really good. She took me to see Aracauri. He hasn't got legs that work but he's got the strongest arms you've ever seen.

  He gave me a great hat with flaps on the side so I only had to look ahead. It was to keep the world small, he said. I like small places. I hate looking along the beach, out to sea. It's endless. I want to know when something will stop.

  The hat blocks a lot of view off and I like that. Aracauri told us a story which made me think he was like me; he said he used to wear it because he used to hate open spaces but now he didn't. He might have been lying but he seemed to be truthful.

  I can't believe Mum is letting me go to school. I thought she'd say no, and I'd be left here with the babies and the old people. The other children see the sand and the beach as places to explore. They don't think ahead. I do. I see sharp rocks, spiny fish, poison food. If I think about it, everything ahead is danger. I want to be like them. Fearless. Not like my mother.

  I can't believe I'm about to go. Leave home to walk around the Tree. I can't believe she's letting me go.

  I look at my father. The one I've always thought of as my father. I will miss him. I feel bad leaving him behind. I'll miss him. They say you barely recognise your parents when you get back.

  I have his smoothstone. He gave it to me. I never thought I'd own this; I thought it would sit on the shelf, forever. Or until Mum and Dad died, but it would be too late for me to go anywhere, then. I'd be grown-up. An old man.

  The one who really is my father? I don't care about him. I am too scared to talk to him in case he finds me weak.

  Is it bad I feel so happy to be leaving Mum behind? Even ten steps away I feel better. My nostrils are clear, and I smell salt air, the Tree. The smell of Mum's illness has gone. I stink, though. No wonder the other children keep
away from me. It was so clear away from home. I can fix that, easy. They'll like me soon enough.

  Hopefully.

  Ombu — ALOES — Ailanthus

  We call it Jasmine Place.

  The further away from home, the more I only wanted to look at my feet. The water was so big away from our community and I didn't know if around any corner, behind any rock, a huge sea monster lay in wait to swipe me out to sea with his tail. Break my legs, my back, and I lie face down and can't breathe.