11—Dancing With Wood

The new page of Great Aunt Nature Walker’s book brought the sound of trucks to the forest now filling the Magical Story Room. Lucy and Hannah turned to see the trucks come to a stop at the far end of the field of stumps behind them. Along

with the trucks was another machine rolling in on heavy metal treads instead of wheels. 

“The Saw People have returned,” observed Adora Birch, and her tree’s leaves quivered.

Men with hardhats, heavy boots, and tools with with long silver blades got out of the trucks. The men laid their tools
on a stack of birch logs, then stood in a group drinking coffee and listening to the man who appeared to be in charge.

“Who are the Saw People?” Lucy asked as she and Hannah drew closer to Adora Birch and her tree.

“Monster,” said Hannah.

“Oh no,” said Adora Birch. “There are no monsters here. The Saw People have come to take some trees to the factories. Trees, you see, have many other purposes than feeding birds and animals and giving them a place to live.

“As you already know,” Adora Birch went on quite proudly, “some birch trees make very excellent doors. Other trees are used for making furniture, lamps, bread boards, tables and even walls and tree houses. Why, some birch trees are even used for making barrels and paper.” As Adora Birch spoke, images of the wonders created from birch trees floated in the air before Lucy and Hannah.

At first, Lucy was merely astonished by the many contributions birch trees made to life. But then she began to think. “Everything made of wood was once a tree,” she observed with no small amount of wonder. 

“Right you are,” said Adora Birch. “Oak trees, maple trees, cherry trees, bamboo . . . ” 

“That’s it!” cried Lucy.

“That’s what?” asked Adora Birch.

“That’s how your door grew out of a tiny seed. Your tree grew out of a seed. And the wood from the tree became a door.”

“A most brilliant deduction!” declared Adora Birch, and the leaves on her tree quivered with glee.

But before Lucy could celebrate her brilliant deduction, Hannah began jumping up and down and pointing at two dark
circles on the side of the bread board suspended in the air before her. “Dora friend . . . eyes!” she cried.

“Wow,” Lucy exclaimed, for peering out of the bread board were two eyes—could it be?—another Wood Spirit just like Adora Birch. 

Then Hannah started running from one birch tree creation to
the other, pointing at the figures swirling through the wood. “Dora friend everywhere!” she exclaimed.

Suddenly, the images of birch tree creations disappeared, and the forest felt alive with a wavy and flowing energy curling and swirling this way and that. Lucy and Hannah danced and twirled with curling swirling energy until at last they collapsed on the ground, laughing and out of breath. And as they lay there, the trees and the space between them also settled into a peaceful quiet. Adora Birch and her tree sighed happily. 

But when Lucy remembered her answer as to how a door grows out of a seed, she sat up. For her mind turned once again to the still unanswered question.

“How do the Wood Spirits get inside the tree?” she wondered out loud. But even as she asked this question, an even larger question occurred to her—Why had no one she knew ever talked about Wood Spirits. Were they even real? Or just something made up in Great Aunt Nature Walker’s book? 

“You know,” Adora Birch said as if reading Lucy’s mind, “some people refer to us Wood Spirits as ‘patterns in the woodgrain.’ And yes, it was true—Lucy had heard grown ups exclaiming as they ran their fingers over a new wood table, “My but isn’t that woodgrain lovely.” 

Out of the air there emerged a diagram of boards that had been sawed off a log. “You will notice here,” Adora Birch pointed
out, “that the wood looks different when you cut on the up and down instead of sideways. The up and down board cut shows what is called the woodgrain.”

Lucy and Hannah looked at the diagram. On the end of the log were the same growth rings that they’d seen on the tree stumps. But the long boards created by the up and down cuts were full of wavy lines.” 

“What you see in the wood,” said Adora Birch, “depends on how you look at it.”

As Adora Birch spoke, there appeared in the air, diagrams showing different ways of cutting a board from a tree trunk. But what could this possibly have to do with how Adora Birch and her Wood Spirit friends ended up in doors and bread boards and furniture?

“Dora swirl story,” insisted the impatient Hannah. And this time Lucy agreed.

“When seeking answers to complicated questions,” Adora Birch advised, “we must be patient like trees that grow with the seasons.”

Lucy and Hannah understood that the need for patience was true and very grown-up—but was also very annoying when you wanted an answer. Still, they quieted down and waited as yet another diagram appeared out of the air. 

“It’s quite wonderful how a tree grows,” Adora Birch said. “The tree drinks up water it needs from the ground and breaths in what it needs from the air.
 Then with the help of sunlight, the leaves turns it all into food that makes the tree grow up and out.

“Those growth rings,” Adora Birch continued, “tell the story of how the tree grew out over the years. But when you cut the wood to show the grain, you are looking at the story of how the tree grew up by reaching beyond its forest for the light. That story is also the story of the tree’s Wood Spirit because the Wood Spirit is the magic that mixes with the air, the water, the sun to makes the tree grow.”

“If a Wood Spirit is magic,” Lucy asked, “how can you see it?”

“Have you ever made a print of your hand in paint or clay?” Adora Birch asked.

Lucy nodded. 

“Well,” said Adora Birch, “the swirls and eyes and faces like mine are the prints a Wood Spirits leaves of itself in its tree.” 

There was a mystery to all this that made sense until you tried to explain it. But before Lucy could ask any more questions, Hannah pulled on her arm. For the Saw People were now walking toward them across the field of tree stumps.

“Today is the day,” Adora Birch said, and her tree quivered. 

And something in the air made Lucy and Hannah made Lucy and Hannah wish that Great Aunt Nature Walker would not turn the page. But just like all of life, stories must go on.