Strange Stories Series

By

Anjum Wasim Dar

Trees Predict

CAN THIS BE JUST A COINCIDENCE?

The house we recently shifted into had been built close to a small river. It had two different trees, each had one nest which could be seen distinctly as the leaves fell, one by one, day by day

The trees along the dividing wall are three in number, the same as in our house in Lalazar Rawalpindi. We planted more than four just outside the front wall but only three survived and grew along with the family.

It was our own house. There was no one to disturb their growth except nature it self. Once or twice some stray goats came in the lane and nibbled off the small green shoots but that was all.

This is 2017.I am thinking about 1990.Time never stops and will never even slow down…and so the trees grew and so the birds came settled chirped sang twittered prayed in the early hours…hopped all over the terrace in sunshine in rain in the heat and in the cold…shivered but perched still and silent with no complaints…waiting for the storm to pass…they built nests and kept them as homes for long….

…these trees were my company …they gave support, cheered , provided shade and protected me and my family from yet stranger elements…mysterious threatening weird and supernatural

strangely there are trees just inside the wall in the house we are living in now…but four in number and line…one more than in our previous home

and then…the coincidence….that a new member came in our family just a couple of months after we moved in…

We all know that trees and birds live with us…they are alive…they are sent by nature for a purpose….

And so there came…the fourth …this short story may be for those who love nature but …Nature is the best teacher

Stay close to nature and thou shalt not err