Beneath the Pear Tree

All of Vienna’s most prominent memories happened by the pear tree in my back garden; her first steps, the first time she climbed to the top of a tree, the first time she fell from a tree, her first kiss was as she lay beneath its branches staring at the stars, it was where she went when her family was too much and she didn’t want to be around them and where her parents would come to find her to resolve the problem.

Without realising it, Vienna grew to love that pear tree, well apparently it was a pear tree, though she felt she had never seen it produce a single pear. She was even sad to say goodbye to it when she decided to move. In fact, she was sitting beneath the tree’s branches, staring at the clouds as she received the call that she had got the job she applied for two states over.

She loved that tree so much that when her parents mentioned in their monthly call that they were selling the house and they had to chop it down, she was devastated. She didn’t even really care that they were selling her childhood home, it was just her parents now and fair enough if they wanted to downsize. Even if they sold the house and she knew the tree was still there, she could live with that, but she couldn’t bare knowing that it was gone forever. She tried to fight her parents to keep it but apparently it had become a safety hazard.

Knowing that she wasn’t going to be able to convince them otherwise, she did the one thing she hadn’t done in the four years since she moved, she decided to go back to her parents’ house. She felt that she had to say goodbye to such an important part of her life, so she took off her first ever leave and booked a flight.

It was weird for her to revisit her old neighbourhood, yet there was a feeling of home with every step she took. Even though she had made a new life for herself, it would never have the same feeling as the place she grew up.

Once she reached the house she was greeted by her parents, they all made their way to the kitchen and sat down for a cup of tea. After a while of catching up and discussing plans, her parents told her to settle down and take her stuff to unpack. Once she had taken her bag to her old room, she immediately made her way outside.

The tree had never looked so beautiful, the afternoon sun shimmering and bouncing off its leaves, the effect enhanced by the slight spring breeze. Vienna made her way to the bottom of the garden and sat beneath the tree as she always did. She lay on her back, her feet against the trees trunk and stared up at the clouds. She didn’t want to say goodbye, she lay there until the sun had set and her parents called to her, as they always did, to tell her to come inside for dinner.

Vienna lay there a few moments more because she knew dinner wouldn’t be on the table for at least ten more minutes. Vienna stood up and decided to climb it one last time, she was worried that maybe it wouldn’t be able to hold the weight, but it stood strong like it always had. She reached the top and broke through the leaves, revealing the stary night sky, she paused and took a deep breath, breathing in the scent of the night air and pears.

She opened her eyes and as she did, she noticed something amongst the lower branches. She made her way to the end of the branch and realised that it was a single pear. Vienna reached for the pear, but the end of the branch was too thin, and it could no longer support her weight. With a crunch the end of the branch snapped off, taking Vienna with it. After a short fall Vienna landed on her back, the stick with the pear on it that still in her hand.

Vienna had fallen many times before, so much so that it hadn’t really hurt. She simply stood up, wiped off the dirt, grass, Vienna saw it fitting that her one last climb would be followed by one last fall. As she stood by the tree, she looked at the pear she had managed to retrieve and realised that maybe she didn’t need to say goodbye to the tree. After all she had a pear containing the seeds of the tree, meaning that the tree would never be fully gone.