mbarker | Time and Water

Another little story from times past. Hope you enjoy it.

Time and Water
By Mike Barker

It was summer in Ohio, with corn growing fast and tall in the fields they passed on the way to Mike's grandmother's house. Summers for teenagers are long, and the school years frantic. But in the farm country, the sun was hot, and the shade of the weeping willows along the creek inviting.

Mike cut a willow whip, green buds mottling its length.

That evening, his grandmother told him that if he took that willow wand home to Maryland, planted it in a coffee can of dirt, and watered it once a week, it would sprout. She warned him not to water it too much or it would rot. And she warned him not to give up, that it might take a while to sprout.

So he carefully carried the willow wand home. He punched holes for drainage in the bottom of a coffee can with a nail, put some gravel in the bottom, and filled it with dirt from the backyard. The willow wand went in the middle. As summer turned into fall, Mike watered the willow wand each week. The wand dried up and the dirt grew hard.

His father and mother urged him to throw it away, but he said, "Not yet. Grandma said it might take a while."

Through the winter snows and into early spring, he watered that dried up twig. The dirt in the can was hard and cracked, and the wand dry and brittle. But week after week, Mike watered it and watched.

One day, under grey skies and gusty winds, he saw green coming up through the cracked brown dirt. At first they all thought it was something else that had blown in growing, but when it shot up and leaves sprouted, they recognized a young willow.

Father and he planted that sprout in a corner of the yard. And when they sold the house a few years later, the willow tree was taller than the house, and cast a long shadow over the backyard.

The End