Climbing Trees
Dina loved two things more than anything else. Climbing trees and cherries. She was the best tree climber in the valley, with her twin, Dennis, a close second. Together, they had climbed every tree for miles around the family farm, or so it seemed.
But Dina’s favorite tree grew only a short walk from her back door. It was an old cherry tree, planted by some long-gone farmer. Despite its age, it still produced delicious fruit. Today, Dina sat in the crook of one branch with Dennis across the bole in another. They munched on cherries, spitting the pits to see whose would travel farthest. As usual, Dennis was winning.
Dina started shoving cherries into her pockets. “We should get back.”
“Don’t be a sore loser,” Dennis answered. “I’m okay that you climb better than me.”
“It’s not that,” Dina said, her brow knotting as she looked toward the old farmhouse. “Kelly can’t pick her own since she broke her leg. She was hinting this morning that she wanted some.”
Dennis snorted. “It’s not your fault. She should have known she couldn’t climb as high as you.”
“Maybe. But she’s still our little sister, and she likes cherries too.”
Sighing, Dennis capitulated, picking cherries for his own pockets. As the twins dropped to the ground, he said, “Maybe Dad will bake her a cherry pie.”
“Nah,” Dina answered. “Kelly prefers blueberries. After we drop off the cherries, let’s go up to the power lines and pick her some.”
This week’s Wake Up and Write prompt was to write a story in under 250 words about a place you know well. I chose a farm we lived on for four or five years on Cape Breton Island. There was an old cherry tree there and we did pick blueberries that grew around some power lines, though I don’t have a twin and was no champion climber.
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This story made me think about my childhood where we climbed trees and picked berries all summer long
This brought back so many memories! I, of course, was a tree climber but there was an additional connection, or two, to this story. After I journal in the morning, I go back to my childhood and try to remember something from that time that brought me happiness and this morning it was climbing trees to eat cherries when I was at my grandma's house. My cousin was paralyzed by polio and, when we were finished eating our fill, we'd bring some down for Leslie when he was home from the hospital. It is a memory that still makes me smile!