The pain of the trees

Anna Viterets

by Anna Viterets

Story

Waking up at dawn on your only day off to the sound of trees sawing is definitely a curse. But who cursed Samantha on this beautiful summer day? The shop assistant from the store near her work who constantly glances in her direction unfriendly, or maybe her grandfather on the floor above because Samantha smokes on the balcony late at night and sings softly to the music in her headphones? But no, the grandfather would not, because these noises disturb him as well.

Samantha had almost no friends because life forced her to cut off all contact with her hometown and, worse, with all her close people. She doesn’t even remember those times. She just lives quietly in a small town full of disgruntled old ladies and preschoolers.

Sam’s job is interesting – she collects bouquets. Before she moved, she had never worked as a florist and knew very little about flowers. Now she does it out of intuition and innate taste rather than professionalism.

The apartment Sam rents looks more like a mouse hole than a real home. It is on the ground floor, but has extremely small windows, and she is afraid to open the balcony`s door because it is on the ground floor. A normal person would never choose such an apartment for a long-term stay. But Sam didn’t care. She ran away and looked for a place where she would feel safe.

The best part was that Samantha had no neighbours on the floor. The two apartments next to hers had been empty for a year.

Today, Sam wanted to sleep until lunch, then make breakfast-lunch and lounge on the balcony with the book. But life rarely goes according to plan, does it? So angry, sleep-deprived and uncombed, Samantha stood on the balcony with a cup of bitter black coffee and watched the workers of the city’s some department sawing down tree branches.

The only thing Sam couldn’t understand was why these men didn’t seem to understand that they couldn’t do this work in August. If you know anything about plants, you’ll know that trees should be pruned either in early spring or late autumn. When they feel almost no pain. It’s like having an operation under anaesthesia. Not to cut them down like that. Now Sam thought she could hear the trees screaming in pain.

But the surprises didn’t end there. Sam realised this when she saw a mountain of boxes gradually appear on the neighbouring balcony.

“What the hell…” came out of her mouth before she could put her hand over her mouth.

A young man’s head appeared from the neighbour’s balcony. He smiled at Samantha and waved at her. She stood there for a second without moving. And then she looked down and realised that she was standing in a terrible housecoat that even washing wouldn’t help, with dirty hair and a face angry at the whole universe.

Samantha hasn’t spoken to young men in a long time. She treats them like flying penguins or something like that. In short, they are non-existent creatures for her. And now she has to live with him through the wall?

© Anna Viterets 2023-08-24

Genres
Novels & Stories
Moods
Emotional, Funny
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