The Gifting Tree And Other Real World Stories

By Bruce Blanshard

Full of astonishing insights about loss, friendship, family, self-worth, and love. These heart wrenching and heart-warming short stories are bound in danger, hope, and awe. With an uplifting and surprising cast of characters, they prepare children for the real-life experiences that are part of a broader world awareness. These yo

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Addie
• Release date: Oct 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9781838346584

Bruce Blanshard

Bruce Blanshard is an award winning international creative director. He has an educational certificate from Cambridge University, United Kingdom. Bruce is the father of two adult children.Bruce is a world traveller and his interactions with local people of different cultures, gives him an authentic insight to their troubles, life-challenges, and dreams. "The hope for the future lies with the youth." To this end he writes about the hard world issues that affect, in dramatic ways, the people he has met, and befriended, in over twenty-five countries.

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Contents

THE GIFTING TREE

THE BOY IN THE CLOUD

MARGARAT

BUFFALO GIRL

TANGLEWEED

GOD’S ORCHARD

HARROGATE

THE

GIFTING

TREE

AND OTHER REAL WORLD STORIES

BRUCE BLANSHARD

PAGE ADDIE PRESS

UNITED KINGDOM. AUSTRALIA

The Gifting Tree and Other Real World Stories

Copyright©2021 by Bruce Blanshard. Front Cover Design Copyright© B.B. Studios.

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy, or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission from the author. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied, or transmitted, save with written permission, or in accordance with provisions of the Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any license permitting limited copying, issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. The Author has asserted his right to be identified as the author and designer of this work, in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988.

ISBN 978-1-8383465-8-4 is published by Page Addie Press, United Kingdom.

Disclaimer: This book’s stories and characters are fictitious. Certain long standing institutions and public offices are mentioned but the characters involved are wholly imaginary. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events are purely coincidental.

For Alana and Sophia

THE GIFTING TREE

Lek was in trouble, yet again. His father asked, ‘Where have you been for the last hour?’ Lek mumbled quietly, ‘I’ve been playing.’

Mother continued stirring dinner. ‘Up in the tree?’

‘No with my friends,’ Lek replied.

Mother stopped and gave him a long hard stare. ‘Where is the rice and flour I asked you to get from the store?’

Lek pointed through the kitchen window at the rickety bridge. ‘The bag split, and they fell into the river.’

‘I don’t believe you,’ Father said sternly. ‘You spent the money on candy, didn’t you?’

Lek knew there would be no dinner for him tonight.

At four in the morning, Father shook Lek awake. ‘You’ve missed breakfast, and it’s time to go fishing.’ Lek was hungry, and sad. Lek quickly put on his clothes. In the kitchen, Mother hugged Lek and gave him a hot cinnamon bun wrapped in newspaper. He knew his Mother and Father loved him, so why didn’t they believe him?

Down on the beach, Lek mended holes in the fishing nets. Then he and Father lifted the heavy nets into their wooden outrigger canoe.

The sun still lay beneath the horizon as Lek and Father pushed the boat down the white sand beach. Father jumped in. Lek waited for a wave to break before pushing the bow into the surf. Lek was too young to go fishing in the family boat, but he timed the surf break perfectly, and Father paddled over the feathering breakers, and out to sea.

Lek went along the beach and climbed his favorite tree. High in the branches he watched Father paddle along the edge of the reef. He was a good fisherman, but recently Father hadn’t caught any fish.

Lek sat all morning in Tree watching sea eagles swirling in circles. High in the sky, they could see fish caught in a net three miles away. So when nets glitter with fish out to sea, eagles swoop to scoop a fish or two. As usual, Father came back later in the afternoon with empty nets and an unhappy face.

As the sun set behind the mountain, Lek up in his tree, watched in awe as God painted the sky pink. This left Lek with a burning question. He climbed down Tree and took the winding sandy path that led home. Lek ran in and asked, ‘If I painted rainbows, would I be an artist like God?’

Father said, ‘Painting won’t catch fish or buy flour for pancakes.’

The next evening, Lek climbed Tree to watch God repaint the sky. It made him happy to see how beautiful the sky could be.

Did God make the birds? Lek wondered.

Did he make the eagles and the fish?

Lek decided God made everything.

One evening, Lek stayed up high in Tree to watch God paint the sky black and fill the heavens with millions of shining stars. But Lek had not climbed Tree at night before. Branches appeared dark and scary like dead men’s arms reaching out to snag his shirt or twist his fingers. Lek became a little frightened. But, instead of creepy branches grabbing his legs and arms like he feared, Tree began to light up in a brilliant way.

Bird nests hanging from those dark branches became magically alive. If Lek had known that weaver birds made their nests glow to attract fireflies at night, he would have stayed up more often to watch the show. One after another, nests blinked into life as sparkling hanging lights. Lek said out loud, ‘Fairy lights!’

He rushed home and ran to his father and said, ‘My Tree is a fairy tree.’ Then, found his mother in the kitchen. ‘My tree is a fairy tree.’

That night Lek fell asleep smiling.

In the kitchen, Father whispered to mother. ‘We must send Lek to live in the forest with the monks. They will teach him the truth about fairies and life.’

Mother said, ‘I think that’s probably best. I heard that people in the village call him Liar Lek.’

The next day, Father didn’t go fishing. Instead, he sat Lek on a chair and shaved off all his hair. Father gave Lek the orange robes of the forest monks. Lek didn’t want to be a monk and live way out in the forest.

He ran out of the house, down the sandy path, along the beach, and climbed into Tree. Lek climbed, higher and higher. Soon he was so high he could have touched the sky—two eagles flew in circles close by. Lek could see right to the edge of the ocean, how the land curved down the coast. Out of the blue, Lek saw a wave rising mysteriously out of the sea. Suddenly, boats were sinking, trees falling, houses disappearing. The tsunami wave rolled up the coast, swallowing everything in its path. Inside the massive wave, boats rolled and tumbled like toys and smashed apart.

The wave soon swirled around Tree’s mighty trunk, sucking and pulling at its roots. The tsunami wave slunk back, leaving boats turned upside down, and fish flapping.

Then another monumental wave rose out of the ocean. It rushed up the beach to bring down Tree. The churning wave sucked earth away from Tree’s web of roots. The majestic tree leaned over, and slowly fell into the water.

Lek, safe in Tree, floated inland amongst the debris. The monstrous wave had swallowed the lives of everything in its path. A mess of broken boats and trees were swept along. Tree’s branches reached out and snagged plastic bags, fishing nets, woven mats, pots, a sneaker, and a blue bike. Only the moon shone down and smiled.

A tired seabird landed on Tree, even a yellow snake coiled around one of Tree’s branches. In the faint moonlight, Lek saw Father and Mother clinging onto their upturned canoe. They were still alive. Lek leaned out and held them tight. Soon they