The Tree in the Courtyard

“The two of us looked out at the blue sky. The bare chestnut tree glistening with dew, the seagulls and other birds glinting with silver as they swooped through the air, and we were so moved we couldn’t speak.”
– Anne Frank

The tree in the courtyard lived for 172 years, she was a horse chestnut. Her leaves were green stars; her flowers foaming cones of white and pink. Each fall, she let spiky seedpods clatter to earth. In winter, her bare boughs etched a lattice against the pale blue sky.

She grew near a city canal. Seagulls flocked to her shade.

For the first part of her life, her world was the courtyard. She was not yet tall enough to see beyond the homes, workshops, and factories. Then one spring, she stretched above the orange roofs and took in the beautiful city.

She spread roots and reached skyward in peace.
Until war came.

Explosions shook the ground, rockets split the night. Strangers invaded the city.

The first winter of the war, a new owner came to one of the factories.

He had a wife and two daughters.The older girl was quiet and proper. The younger was lively, with dark hair.

When they visited the factory, she would play by the canal or write by the kitchen window. She wrote for hours. Even when her father called her, she wrote.
The tree loved the sight of her.