Photo by Brian Deegan. Art by Mobberley at Wikimedia Commons.
8
Once
upon a time there was a Teenager walking through a forest.
She
had her headphones on. She was listening to music from an electronic
device she had hooked on her belt which was strapped tightly around
her waist.
She
was reading a published Teen magazine. She was wearing glasses tinted
a light yellow. She was chewing gum.
Yes,
she was a healthy normal stereotypical modern financially independent
Teenager.
In
one of her pockets she had a packet of cigarettes and a cigarette
lighter, and a packet of nicotine patches. The only reason she
wasn't smoking a cigarette this time was because she needed two hands
to turn pages as she read the published Teen magazine.
She
was quite-and-utterly-and-totally oblivious to where she was. She
didn't care. She was having an ultra-Teen good time.
Yessss,
in more than one sense, it was a bright sunny day.
As
she was passing one of the many trees in the forest, she did not hear
a nervous voice say "You are in danger, little Lady."
She
carried on walking; listening on her headphones; reading; chewing
gum; not smoking cigarettes, not yet.
Dried
up dead tree branches fell in front of her from high up off some of
the nearby trees.
A
second time the voice shouted "Watch out, Teen-y!"
She
couldn't hear anything except the music coming through her
head-phones from her player hooked on her belt which was strapped
tightly around her waist.
She
did not care and could not care less about everything around her.
It
was as if from deepest down her subliminal non-conscious self she
instinctively and genetically knew she was an Almighty God.
Indeed,
it would not have happened as a surprise to her to discover that
there is a language somewhere in which the word ‘Teen’
means ‘Almighty God; YEAHHHH!’
When
she saw broken tree branches on the ground blocking her way she was
obliged, reluctantly and irritably, to stop walking.
She
did not stop chewing gum. She did not stop listening to the music
coming through her headphones from her player hooked on her belt
which was strapped tightly around her waist.
She
lowered the magazine a little to enable her through her lightly
yellow tinted glasses to look at the branches blocking her path. She
did not take off her tinted glasses.
Not
outwardly showing the slightest sign of the impatience she felt, she
simply started to step over the fallen branches to carry on walking
while she did all those other things.
Again,
the voice shouted at her loudly enough to penetrate her head-phones.
“Young Lady, you are in danger!”
The
teenager stopped and took a step or two back in surprise. She
stumbled. Her lightly yellow tinted glasses fell to the ground. The
published magazine, too, fell out of her hands, to the ground.
She
quickly turned off the music. She slid her headphones off her ears to
hang around her neck. She did not remember to press the off button on
her player hooked on her belt which was strapped tightly around her
waist. She looked about in surprise at where she was.
Again,
the voice said "You are in danger, little Lady!"
The
Teen looked about to see who was talking to her. She saw nobody.
She
asked "Where are you?"
"Right here, to your left.
Behind you."
The
Teen turned, and looked. She saw nobody.
"Okay"
said the Teen, irritably and beginning to be angry, "whoever you
are, just cut it out! I'm in no mood for games!"
"This
is not a game" said the voice. "You are in serious danger.
There are wild ferocious wolves in this forest."
The
Teen looked at the large old tree at her left a little behind her.
She figured the voice was coming from someone who was hiding behind
the tree. She walked up to the tree.
Now,
she was angry. She took the chewing gum out of her mouth with her
thumb and index finger and stuck it on the tree, aggressively,
challengingly, defiantly.
"Whoever
you are" she screamed "just leave me alone! This is not
funny! Come out and let me see you! Now!"
A
voice said "There's nobody else here. I am talking to you. Me.
This tree right here in front of you. The tree you've stuck your
slimy chewing gum on."
The
Teen looked at the tree in disgust, stamping her foot on the ground,
threateningly.
"Trees
cannot talk" she said. "Why am I even bothering to have
this conversation if you won't come out, whoever you are?"
"Okay"
said the tree. "Don't believe I can talk, but believe me when I
tell you to run away because there are wild ferocious wolves coming
this way."
"There
are no wild ferocious wolves in this part of the country" the
Teen yelled!
"Until
this morning" the tree replied.
"How can you know?"
shouted the Teen, angrily. "You're a tree. How could you see
wild ferocious wolves that are not here?"
"Hello?"
said the tree. "I have branches that are very high up. From up
there I can see into the next County. But if you don't want to listen
to me don't blame me when those wild ferocious wolves get here and
eat you up."
The
Teen stood there for a few seconds and stared at the tree
belligerently. She still did not believe the tree could talk. "I
think I'll just turn back and go home" she said, contemptuously.
“Do
not forget to pick up your lightly yellow tinted glasses, and your
magazine” the tree said, trying sincerely to sound genuinely
helpful and not facetious, not even in the slightest.
The
Teen heard wild ferocious wolves howling nearby. She was scared.
"It's
too late" said the tree. "Run over there and climb up that
tree. Climb high and hide yourself. You will be safe. Wild ferocious
wolves cannot climb trees."
The
Teen quickly ran to the tree and climbed up as fast and as high as
she could.
Two
huge hungry wild ferocious wolves dashed in, panting noisily.
"Where?
Where is the person you said you smelled?" growled the one wild
ferocious wolf to the other wild ferocious wolf in genuine wolverine
dialect.
"Right
here, I tell you. See?" The one wild ferocious wolf chomped on
the published Teen magazine that was on the ground, while saying,
"Smell
this. Someone was here a minute ago." The other wild ferocious
wolf, too, chomped on the published Teen magazine, and saw the Teen’s
lightly yellow tinted glasses on the ground.
"Yes!
You're right! Look! Sun shades! They must still be here. They won't
be able to see a thing without these lightly yellow tinted sun shade
glasses. Let's search around."
In
order to see clearer, the one wild ferocious wolf put on the lightly
yellow tinted sun shade glasses.
"Chewing
gum!" shouted one wild ferocious wolf when it saw the chewing
gum stuck to the tree.
"Must
be a Teen! They are forever sticking their slimy chewing gum
everywhere! That’s how I have been able to track down so many
for lunch and dinner."
The
one wild ferocious wolf said to the other, “You said you gave
up eating Teens because they taste yuck?”
“I have”
said the other wild ferocious wolf, “but sometimes I have no
choice because there’s nothing else to eat. On those occasions
I just swallow the Teen whole so that I won’t have to taste
what I am eating.”
By
now the Teen high up the tree was trembling in fright because she
understood what those wolves were saying because she had learnt that
wolverine dialect in High School as a voluntary Arts Elective subject
in order to graduate from High School.
Incredibly,
the Teen began to cry. The wild ferocious wolves heard her.
"Aha!"
said one wild ferocious wolf. "Check out all these trees.
Someone's hiding in one of them. It's a good thing we wild ferocious
wolves learnt to climb trees."
At
that moment all the trees started yelling and shaking down dead dried
branches on the wild ferocious wolves.
Both
the wild ferocious wolves were terrified. They thought armed people
were coming. The wild ferocious wolves galloped away at a speed
barely a few seconds below Albert Einstein’s calculation of
“e=mc2”.
The
wild ferocious wolf wearing the lightly tinted sunglasses was in the
lead because the sunglasses made that wild ferocious wolf see clearer
than the other wild ferocious wolf, his best buddy.
Those
two wild ferocious wolves didn't stop running until they were many
counties away from the forest.
"Okay,"
the first tree called out to the Teen. "The wild ferocious
wolves have gone. You can come down now."
The
Teen did not climb down. The tree called out a second time. And a
third time, but the Teen did not climb down.
"Oh,
dear," said a tree. "I see her. She is slumped over a
branch. I think she fainted in fright. I didn't know Teens could be
frightened by or of anything. Now what are we going to do?"
"Nothing,"
said another tree. "We can't do anything until she wakes up."
"Or
until somebody comes looking for her."
"Yes."
"I
just hope she doesn't blame us for her published magazine being
chomped up.”
“Or
for her lightly yellow tinted glasses being stolen by that thieving
wild wolf.”
“She
probably will blame us, because that is what Teens do, instinctively
and from deep down genetically.”
"Why
would she blame us for her published magazine being chewed up? She
can see for herself that trees don't have teeth."
"She's
a Teen. She will insist on whatever she prefers."
"If
she asks about her lightly yellow tinted sun glasses, I'm playing
dumb."
"That
should work because, instinctively and genetically, she already
doesn't believe trees can talk."
Contact
Ezra (Unless
you
type
the
author's name in
the subject
line
of the message we
won't know where to send it.)