Seem to Go

He was trapped in the house for a year. A whole year of seeing nothing of the outside world but this tree that blocked his window.

He had servants, servants who brought him food, brought him everything he could ever need. Being under house arrest was not so bad, he thought, as everything was brought to him anyway. Just that hateful tree that was in front of his window and blocked his view. It lit his whole room up with this disgusting green every morning, and at sunset, splotched colors across the wall.

He hated it, and ordered his servants to cut it down. Over and over he would commmand 'cut it down!' but to no avail. His servants would only reply "the tree is beautiful."

But he never listened to them. He knew what was beyond the tree, he remembers from before his imprisonment. It was a lovely field of flowers that seemed to go on for miles. He didn't understand why the servants would not just cut the tree down and let him see the world.

After weeks and weeks of prying at the servants, he finally cracked and said 'if you don't cut down that tree, i'm firing all of you'. And that was it. The servants cut down the tree in the middle of the night, while the man was sleeping. He dreamt of seeing the field of flowers in the morning, of seeing people outside other than his servants.

And when he woke up, the green was not there. His room was the color of the walls, and he knew the tree was gone. He was so excited to see outside the window, he looked out with his face smilng. But, to his dismay, all he could see was a solid wall of concrete. A concrete wall was all he could see beyond his window. He called to his servants

'What is this?' he asked. The servant replied 'While you were imprisoned, the city built over the field. The concrete wall you are seeing is the side of a building. The tree you ordered us to cut down, was the last thing remaining from the country and the field.'

And that was all there was. A concrete wall. The man missed the tree so much, but it was his own orders that caused it to be cut down. He missed waking up to the beautiful forest color, he missed the colors cascading around his wall. He now realized how pretty they were. He now realized that he couldn't hear birds singing anymore, as they have nowhere to nest. He had cut down the most beautiful thing in his life, only in exchange for a wall of nothing.

He cried. He knew that he had done the wrong thing. He knew now that you should hold onto what you have, because you never know what it's like without them. He should've listened.

The man's imprisonment was over in another year, and the first thing he did, was go right in between his house and the large building next to it, and he planted a tree.