The Luccia Tree
My dad, a cow and an apartment
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| Illustration: Guilherme Arruda |
There are few people that believe them, almost anyone has seen them. But the truth is: elves exist, and they are closer them we can imagine.
There are many elves’ lands spread throughout. But, right in the middle of a very big forest, we find one of the most beautiful elves’ lands in the whole world. To get there, it is necessary to climb hills, cross many valleys, until all trees around, before of various species, are then pines. Enormous pines. Their crowns begin by the height of ten meters from the ground, and end many, many meters above.
Little by little, in the heights, small houses, built around the pines’ trunks, begin to show up. Colorful houses. Red with yellow roofs, mustard with cream roofs, blue, green. Really pretty houses. The elves so all the way up through little rope stairs. The trails between the trees are well designed, for the elves sweep the leaves to the margins every day.
As deeper as we get in the elves’ land, we arrive at a big clearing, whose center is occupied by a beautiful tree. It’s not that big. It’s a normal tree, with a light brown trunk. The amazing, though, are its leaves. Under, they are orange, of a luminous orange, that beam an enchanting glow. At night, the tree illuminates all the clearing with its astonishing light, and makes everybody happy with its magic. Among the elves, it is called the Luccia Tree. They say it’s really magic, and in difficult times all elves go to the Luccia Tree to say their prayers. They also say that it is thanks to the tree that the elves’ land is blessed, with no misery and no famine; it is only happiness, wealth and joy.
It was a pleasant June day. Kaliz, an elf with long beards and black hair, wearing a pointy red hat, was in the clearing, surrounded by younger elves, each one with a pointy hat of different colors. The elves are creatures a bit smaller than the dwarves. Usually, they have long beards, at least when they’re older. They all wear colorful clothes and hats, a belt and little boots.
On that day, Kaliz was distributing tasks, which the young elves should execute. Thus, in elf community, there is no king or president. Each one is charged with a task and, for the whole community wealth, should perform it contently. They were not that boring tasks: pick fruits, sweep leaves, cultivate potatoes, amongst others. And usually the elves were really responsible, finishing everything before the end of the day.
Kaliz, in the middle of the murmuring, was delivering the green sheets, where each work was graved. The elf called them by their names:
“Hafel! Vestus! Zulia! Menela!”
The youths came closer, picked their sheets, and soon depart to their chores.
One of the last names called by Kaliz was Surim.
“Surim!”
From the back of the group came an elf with light colored hair, beardless for been too young. He brought on his head a yellow hat. The boy took the offered sheet. He should clean the clearing and take care of Luccia Tree. He let a discontentment sigh come out. Kaliz noticed it:
“Dear boy, what is the reason of such displeasure?”
Surim was embarrassed, so pretended to be nothing.
“Nothing, mister Kaliz. I will begin my task immediately.”
He went away, to pick up his work utensils. While he did so, Surim complained with himself:
“That’s something! Why shouldn’t this work be voluntary? I don’t want to do that at all, sweeping a clearing full of leaves so a bunch of lazy elves go there and find everything clean, available. Why don’t they do the dirty job? What a waste of time!
And there he went. Such a bad will he had, that the boy grabbed the first opportunity he had and fled from the service. He claimed the cleaning utensils were rusty, and the watering can was leaky. He said he was going to arrange new ones, but actually he went home and stayed there the whole day looking at the ceiling. So, the night came. As he couldn’t work at night, the service was delayed to next day.
Next day, however, Surim woke up mysteriously sick, with a disease no one had ever had. His mother was worried. Two minutes after she left home, Surim got up of his bed and enjoyed one more day without work.
One more day later, Surim couldn’t, simply, find the cleaning utensils. Someone must have stolen them! He rested again.
And things continued this way, each day a different excuse. Surim stayed more than a month delaying his responsibility. Meanwhile, the clearing started to get full of dried leaves, making harder the elves’ activity. More preoccupying, the Luccia Tree was drying little by little, imperceptibly. The leaves were falling more than usual, the branches were petering.
It was when really bad things started to happen in elves’ land. It was a drought time. One day, the water disappeared from the riverbed. The pines dried, and so the houses built around their trunks rotted, dislodging the elves. The fruits didn’t grow, the kids didn’t eat. Strange animals, that before had never had the audacity of penetrating the land of the elves, appeared and now terrified the inhabitants. The quiet life was finished.
The elves asked themselves what was the reason of so many disgraces upon them. However, so far, Surim hadn’t paid attention to the community’s unpleasantness. He spent the whole day at home, enjoying his laziness. In certain occasion, the woke up hungry, and immediately ran to the kitchen. There was nothing. He cried for his mom, that soon showed up and explained it: there was no food in the whole land, and in a short time there would be no water either.
Oh, but the boy got angry! How could that be? He was hungry! They had to find him something! His mom explained it: it was not possible, there was not a single apple in all the territory! But it was when she was going out, pronouncing her last sentence, that the boy realized it:
“Be calm, Surim. I hope these difficult times will be gone soon. I’m leaving now. I’ll say my prayers under Luccia Tree. Maybe she will help us. Although, lately, even our beloved tree is near death. She doesn’t glow anymore, her foliage is rare…
Something started in Surim. The tree! Suddenly he realized. It could be possible that his irresponsibility had caused all the disgraces that were happening? The boy got desperate. He had to fix that! How fool he was in not accomplishing his duties! Now all his land was paying for this.
But, what now? How to find water for the tree? How to raise strength to sweep the clearing? Everything was chaos.
Surim went out, also directing to the clearing. If he had gotten there, he would find many elves asking the tree for a miracle to save them. But such was his consternation, that Surim got lost in the pines labyrinth, and could only reach the clearing when night was falling. The elves had already gone, and Surim, alone, went down to his knees under the tree. He realized how irresponsible he had been, and now he regretted it. He started to cry. His tears, rolling down his face, dropped over the tree’s roots. Like a wind had come, the tree’s leaves were agitated. A breeze ran through the clearing, and through all the land of the elves. The tree then emitted a strong orange glow, that illuminated everything around it, to the sky and clouds.
So, gradually, the sky painted in orange, it started to fall a thin rain, constant. It refreshed the faces of the elves, which looked amazed to the above. The rain fell over all elves’ land, wetting the soil, the trees, filling the riverbed; they were little star come from the sky, tiny lights of a beautiful glow. An orange glow.
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| Illustration: Guilherme Arruda |
One day, my dad had an idea: to buy an apartment, a cow, and set the cow to live in the apartment. This way, everyday in the morning, he could drink his fresh milk!
So he did. He bought the apartment, with two dormitories, in a fantasy condominium. Then, he went to the country, bought a beautiful cow, big, and brought her to town.
Luckily, the elevator of the building was roomy, and the cow fit just right there. She must have thought it different to ride on an elevator; in the farm they don’t have that.
Getting to the right floor, my dad took the cow inside the apartment. There was no furniture, only the cow.
Since then, every day, my dad went there, took a bit of alfalfa for the cow, and drank his fresh milk, warm.
The cow wandered through the apartment, from the room to the living room, from the living room to the other room… There was an employee responsible for the cleaning once and a while, everything went just fine.
When my dad left right in the morning and met any acquaintance, the talk was like this:
- Howdy, friend, where are you going?
- To drink milk from my cow.
- From your cow?! Where?
- In my apartment.
My dad kept his way, happy.
One day, however, something unexpected happened. A little calf appeared in the apartment. My dad was really surprised when he saw it. He asked himself where that calf could have come from. Then, looking right at his face, he realized that he and the cow were so much alike… And they were so attached to each other, that my dad didn’t have a doubt: he was the cow’s baby!
God knows how the calf had reached the apartment, used the elevator and all. But there he was.
Then, my dad realized that the cow’s eyes were smiling, happy in having her little baby back. The calf rubbed his little head on his mom’s.
On that same day, my dad took the cow and the calf and left for the country. Getting there, he set them free in the green, green pasture. He raised a little house, room and kitchen.
My dad still has his fresh, warm milk every morning. But, now, the milk comes out sweeter.
