22 September 2012
The little girl in a red-polka dot dress came every day after school to help tend Mr Wizard's Orchard.
She picked apples for pies and pears for crumble. She even sang to the hearts in the Heart Tree.
She tied red ribbons on its knurled branches and planted wildflower seeds around its roots.
But still the hearts would not grow. She tried for days, weeks, months, through winter, spring and into the summer. But still no luck; the hards remained small, green and barely beating.
Mr Wizard was fond of the little polka-dot girl, so one balmy summer evening he handed her a pear.
She smiled at the old wizard, his snow-drift beard quivering in the warm breeze.
"But it is a heart I want," She sighed.
"I know, little polka-dot," Mr Wizard said, "But a pear is all I have tonight."
The girl in the red polka-dot dress went home sad that night. Even when her mother, wearing her blue polka-dot apron, made the pear into a crumble.
Again the days, weeks and seasons past. Again the autumn was quiet without the beating of the hearts. Mr Wizard and the polka-dot girl would stand side by side, peering at the Heart Tree. Mr Wizard would stroke is snow-drift beard, sigh, and turn away. But the girl never gave up hope.
Years past, and still the hearts remained small and green.
That was, until, the little girl, who wasn't such a little girl anymore, had her first kiss. As she met her first love's lips, her face flushed almost as red as her polka-dot dress.
And, a thought occurred to her.
Running, skipping, as fast as she could the polka-dot girl ran through the crooked lane of the village down to Mr Wizard's Orchard.
She jumped the gate, ran to the Heart Tree and climbed up into its branches.
Cupping a small, green heart in her hands she placed upon it a single kiss.
Suddenly its surface flushed red, as if blushing, and the heart started to beat faster in her cupped hands.
She laughed, proceeding to kiss every heart on the tree.
Mr Wizard looked on in astonishment, a merry grin spreading beneath his snow-drift beard.
"You've done it!" He cheered, joining the polka-dot girl's laughter, "You've saved my Heart Tree!"
That autumn, the beating was deafening. All the hearts thundered together - the whole village could hear.
Lud, dud, thud, lud dud, thud...
And so the girl in the red polka-dot dress finally got her heart, but not from Mr Wizard's Heart Tree.
The End
#hearttree (3 of 3)
[on a side note, there is a rather unfortunate boy wandering the village with 11 purple warts on his nose...]
Hearts Beat Again • Opuss № I