Lost Memory

Near the Los Altos library is located a football field, on one side of which grow trees and there are benches for people watch games. It was a breezy and sunny day that parents were watching and cheering for their small children playing football. I stood beside a big tree and noticed that the tree had an exceptionally long trunk extending horizontally to form a platform, then growing to the sky. I suddenly felt an urge to jump on that platform, just like in my childhood....

When I was seven years old, there was a Christian church near our home. Its spacious backyard was a very popular place for the neighborhood kids to play. We played hide and seek, and sometimes we climbed the trees. There was a big and remarkable tree developing branches extensively in all directions. Some of branches could even form a stage where two or three kids could sit. The higher branches were the thicker with leaves. The joy of winning had attracted many kids to try to climb to the top, preferring the slender branch over the safe stage.

One day two groups of brats bumped into each other in the backyard, and started to argue who should own this tree. So all of them decided to send the best guy to run a tree-climbing contest, and the winning side could own the tree for one day. I was sent out to compete with a boy who was about my age. I had such abundant experience in climbing this tree that it was like walking in my own room. With fast moves among the branches, I reached the high place very soon. That boy had followed me, and he decided to make a brave move to win. He jumped from a lower limb on which he stood to a much higher one. When he was finally hanging on the upper limb with both arms struggling hard to hold on, lots of leaves fell from his shaking. We all held our breath to watch him closely, and I also stopped climbing. Finally he stood upon the upper limb, but the tree and the leaves were still shuddering. Suddenly he slipped and fell on the branch. Catching one of the branches, his body brought it down slowly. Every one screamed and hoped the branch could bring him to the ground safely. But it seemed to be too high. When he reached what seemed like 50 feet above the ground, the tree branch suddenly cracked and broke. The boy fell heavily to the ground with the branch in his hands.

Later the church people notified his parents that he had bone fracture. His parents were very shocked and angry. Very soon the church closed the backyard to prevent this kind of accident happening again. All the children were very disappointed about losing the yard and the tree. After a few years we got into high school. and started buy study lives. We stopped talking about it, just like it never existed.

Note : Thanks for comments and corrections from Los Altos Community Freelance Writing Workshop. 2006 Fall.