DOUGLAS’ BIG CHRISTMAS ©
by
Mary Tomasi-Dubois
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2009 Mary Tomasi Dubois
Discover other titles by Mary Tomasi Dubois at
Smashwords.com
The Mariner’s Secret at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1408
Danger in the Jeweled City at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1414
Raising Harley at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1529
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Chapter 1: A New Home
The little sapling found himself waking in a strange, new place. It wasn’t warm and humid like the glass-house nursery he was use to. This place was wide open. It was fresh and free and exciting—but it was scary too.
“Well, hello little one—welcome to our farm!” said a stately Nobel Fir.
“Farm, w- what’s a farm?” asked the trembling little sapling, still a little shaky on his roots. (He didn’t have his old clay pot to hold him securely, and his roots weren’t quite steady enough yet.)
“A farm is where we Christmas Trees live,” answered the old fir, announcing that his name was Royal the Fifth. “And what’s your name?”
“I, I guess I don’t have a name,” the little sapling said softly.
“No name? Well, we’ll just have to give you one.” Hum, let’s see, you look like your going to grow up to be a Douglas Fir—hmm. That’s it! We’ll call you Doug—that’s short for Douglas.”
Not waiting for the little sapling to give his approval of the new name, Royal asked if he liked the farm so far.
“Yes, I think so,” said the little sapling.
“You think so? My boy, you either like it or you don’t. What’s there not to like? Humph,” was all Royal could say.
“Oh, I do like it here, Royal, sir,” said the little sapling. “And I like my new name too. But, it’s just so different here from my old home. Here, I can see the sky better. And mountains! I couldn’t see the mountains from the nursery windows—and I couldn’t see the valley, and trees. There’s so Many trees.”
“Hee, hee, hee.” Royal giggled. “Yes, it is different and I admit, a little scary too. Why, I can remember my first day here after the nursery.”
“You came from the nursery?” Doug interrupted. Royal was so big and stately, Doug just thought he had always been in the grove.
“Yes, I was born and raised in the nursery too. But, my great, great grand parents came from an ancient forest. My guess is yours did too.”
“What’s an ancient forest?” Doug was curious. No one in the nursery had ever spoken of an ancient forest.
“All the trees and plants we see today originally came from ancient forests.” Royal explained. There weren’t many humans living around them then, just animals. So, the forests were lush and dense with vegetation. The trees grew to be huge, with trunks so wide it would take ten humans to encircle them. And the trees lived to be hundreds of years old.
“There aren’t many ancient forests left though. Guess humans have been cutting them down. Thank goodness they at least have the nurseries or we might not even be here.
“Yes, the farm can be a little scary at first,” Royal repeated, “not quite as protected as the nursery—but, freer. Yes sir, you can really spread your branches here. Not all cramped up in that old pot,” and as he was saying that, Royal stretched out his limbs and new growth as though they were fingers.
Chapter 2: Doug’s Summer:
As the days grew warmer, Doug grew taller and stronger. His once tiny trunk was getting wider. Doug wondered how big he might have grown to be if he had lived in an ancient forest, before there were humans to cut down all the trees.
He enjoyed wiggling his new root shoots in the warm, moist soil, stretching them out as far as they would go. Then he’d stretch his limbs and new candle-like fingers, imitating Royal. He even enjoyed the attention he and the other trees got from the nurserymen. When they checked his needles it tickled, but they didn’t hear him when he giggled. Then they’d make sure the furrow around his trunk was high enough to hold water, and Doug enjoyed the drink.
The warm rays of sunlight felt good and Doug stretched his trunk as hard as he could, as if to try and reach the sky. He enjoyed listening to the song birds as they sat on Royal’s branches, and he imagined he was a big tree, pretending that the grasshoppers and ladybugs on his small branches were birds too. He giggled to himself as he watched the squirrels run around or climb a big tree, stretching out on the limbs to warm themselves in the sunshine. Doug couldn’t wait ‘til he was big enough so that they could climb him.