The Moon Tree

The Moon Tree

Only He could do it, so He did. If there was someone else that could have done it, He would not have thought of it, but only He could plant that tree. He would have preferred a simpler life than the one that involved the planting and raising of the tree on the distant moon, but He resigned himself in his actions, but perhaps not in his heart. No one else was capable. He often wondered how it was that just because you are the only person that could do something means that you must do it. If He had not done it, the Universe would go without, it was his responsibility. So it was, He spent every summer and fall on the distant moon, caring for the tree.

By the time He met Carl, he had become slightly bitter. Carl, having returned recently from some distant spring travels, was excitedly telling a story to a group of people at a party. Carl was describing the most beautiful thing he had ever seen – a glorious, flowering tree growing on a distant moon. It was like nothing else he had ever seen or imagined, Carl told the group. They ‘oohed’ and ‘ahhed’ as he described it. He overheard Carl and knew it could only be his tree, the only one like it in the Universe. Finally, He spoke up, “I planted that damn tree!”

Everyone turned to look at He, who had been rather quiet at the party. “Well,” said Carl, “It is the most fantastic thing in the Universe!”
“It took a lot of my life. Every summer and fall!” He said, somewhat bitterly, “Its not easy to grow a tree on the moon.”
“For sure. I would never, in my wildest dreams, have believed you could even do such a thing. But, it is so fantastic that now I can not even begin to imagine a Universe without it.” said Carl.

He was quiet. So, that’s why I had to plant that tree. It’s not because I am really the only one capable, it is because I am the only one who ever imagined it possible. He swallowed his lingering bitterness with a gulp. To think I have let myself become so bitter and I haven’t even given myself the chance to ever see it at its finest, when it is in bloom.