I Love You Mister Wind

I LOVE YOU MISTER WIND


Once in a time of long ago, a special tree lived on the edge of a great forest. It was late spring and the tree had its new green leaves . . . but something was wrong! One of the new leaves had not come out of it's bud and its family, that lived on the highest of the tree's branches, was worried.

The head of the family, old Grandfather Greenleaf, was loved and respected by his very large family, and when he put up his hand and said, “Quite, please!” all the leaves quickly stopped talking. And when he began to twist his long green beard; a sure sign he had something important to say, the leaves of the Greenleaf family leaned forward, expectantly.

He looked at each of them in turn, his kind green eyes clearly showing he had been crying, and
said, “It must have gone to heaven, no leaf has slept in this long before.”
“Heaven, I don't think so. Look at the bud, it may be tiny, but it's perfectly healthy. It's only
sleeping in,” snapped a leaf who could never say anything nice about anybody.“It's a lazy-bones,
that simple!”
“For a moon longer than everybody else? Don't be daft! It's dead,” said an older leaf.

A group of ever older leaves in a long row behind him nodded in agreement.
“It is agreed, then,” said the Old Grandfather, as he bowed his head, “the little baby leaf has gone
to heaven.
So it was accepted, and they talked of the lonely bud no more.

The days passed into weeks. High up in the trees thousands of baby birds grew up, learnt to fly and sing. The wind rushed about in the forest leaving behind a hum like a seashell, and swarms of dragonflies sped along above a stream. The sizzel sound made by their wings all but lost to the rattle of the streams loud rattle as it ran and jumped along through the forest, and past the special tree on its way to the sea. And every leaf, every bird, every living thing talked all day, and when they stopped talking they sang.

Each morning, Grandfather and Grandmother Leaf waited with their family, and all the leaves on
the other trees, for the sun to peep over the distant mountains, except this morning, for to the delight of everyone, the forgotten leaf pushed out of it's bud, unfolded and stretched out to its full size . . . It only took a moment.
Grandfather saw it first, and put up his hand for silence. The birds stopped singing, every wild
thing big and small stopped talking. Even the wind stood still. He rubbed his eyes and twisted his
beard, and everyone leaned forward, nodding, as they said, “Say something to it, say something!”

Grandfather knew what they most wanted to know; 'Is it a Miss or a Master?' He leaned down
close to the new leaf and said, “You had all of us very worried, Master Leaf, why did you stay in
your bud for so long?”
A buzz went around the leaves on the branch, and all the other branches on the tree, “It's a
boy! It''s a boy!”

Master Leaf didn't seem to hear. His head and shoulders were bowed, his green eyes were as wide as a cat's in the dark. His head was perfectly still. He was looking staring at the ground all the long
way below. And what did he do, when the Greenleaf family leaves had a turn to speak to him? He never moved a freckle, not a single one.
Grandfather moved back on his stem and said, thoughtfully, “What's he doing. Looking at the
chicks in their nests?”
“I know husband,” said Grandmother, “he's waiting for the butterflies to come out of their
cacoons.”

Everyone had a suggestion, even a pretty young leaf suggested, “Maybe he's watching that
Praying Mantis; the one on the bottom branch with Mrs Thrush sitting on it.”

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Tommy, he was a very young leaf, said. “There's some nice white Old Man's beard fungus
growing near the Grey-Eye family branch.”
The young leaves tittered, the older leaves laughed. The white beard was almost as long as
Grandfather's.
A blue-eyed leaf from the back side of the branch said, “I think it has been born on the wrong
branch, and doesn't know what to do.”
No one had an answer to that so, for three long days, and three starlight nights the young master
was left alone staring downwards. His eyes never seemed to blink.

Late in the day, after the sun has droped down behind the mountains, and the red and gold clouds
were about to leave for the day, the pretty-little first star of night always comes out. But, on the third night of the new leaf's odd behaviour, the little star wasn't there. No one could remember the pretty little thing being missing before, and were worried she may have fallen and hurt herself. They need not have worried; she had dropped quietly down into the clear stream beside Master leaf's tree - just so he could see her, and guess what she did; she winked! the biggest wink ever, and she did it three times, and then she hurried back to her proper place in the night sky, and waited, as usual, for all the other millions of stars to join her.

The young leaf was so startled when she left the stream, that he looked up to see where she was, just in time to see her arriving back in her proper place. Of course, she saw him looking at
her, and gave him three more of those huge winks.

“Oh, how lovely,” he cried, and began to sing:
Twinkle, twinkle, little star!
How I wonder who you are.

Up above the world so high
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
I wonder who you are?

Grandfather leaf twisted his beard, with both hands this time, and said in his deep voice, “You have a beautiful voice young master, but we are all puzzled, why haven't you spoken before now.”
The young master said, very quietly, “I'm frightened.”
“Frighened of what?
“It's so high up here. I'm frightened of falling.”
“Oh, don't be frightened. None of us leaves ever fall. We all hang onto the branch with our strong
stems, and in the Autumn.”
“Autumn?” said the young master.
“A special time, I will tell you about it when it comes.” Then changing the subject, he said,
quickly. “Please sing that song again and we will all sing along with you. But first you must have a
name.” The old chap put his finger to his mouth. “Mimm,” he said, “Now let me think.”

He twisted
his beard; the young master waited, all the leaves waited.
Finally, he laughed.
“You are the smallest leaf on the tree and,” he smiled, “and the heaviest sleeper, we could call you 'Sleepy' or 'Little Leaf', or even the 'Sleepy Little-Leaf, which do you prefer?”
“Little Leaf, that's nice, don't you think?”
“Yes, that's nice.” And together all the family said, 'Little Leaf is his name' three times, while the
little star gave three big winks - just to show she approved.

Now Little Leaf was truly a part of the family, and every day he watched and talked about the
goings on about the tree. He saw different coloured birds and learnt their names, he watched the


little wild things following trails they had made themselves on the forest floor, and he learnt their
names, too. He saw swarms of huge dragonflies zooming along the stream; often with a baby-one
following along behind. At night he saw hedgehogs taking their young ones to the wild-strawberry
patches and always he waited for his friend, the first star of the evening and sang to her, “Oh, what a pretty little star you are, so kind to help me in my trouble,” and of course, she gave three big winks; just to say “Glad to be able to help.”

Then Autumn came.
The green leaves changed to a wonderful golden brown, and soon, a few at a time, they let go of
their stem, and floated down to the ground.
Little Leaf watched in horror. “They will be hurt,” he said, “please tell the others not to do it.”
Grandfather Leaf understood Little Leaf's fear and said, “Every autumn, each leaf lets go of its
branch, the wind takes it in his arms, carries it gently down to the ground, and then floats it into a
special hollow under the trees. That's the hollow where all the leaves huddle together, cozy and
warm, and sleep and dream until spring; that's when all the new life begins, as it has since the world began.”

“But they are my friends, I don't want them to be hurt!” Little Leaf was crying now.
Grandfather Leaf smiled a big wrinkled smile and said, in a soothing voice,“They won't be hurt,
the wind looks after all of us.” Then, he released from his branch, and floating on the wind, did loop the loop saying, Wee, Wee, Weeee all the way down to the ground.
But the fancy flying didn't convince Little Leaf it was safe. He held on to the branch extra very
tight and started to shake, as the last of the leaves left the trees and, like the Leaf family,
gathered together in hollows on the ground under their trees
Little Leaf was alone now . . . there was not one leaf on a tree in the whole of the big forest to talk to. He was extra, very cold and – Oh! So awfully lonely.

The wind saw him shaking, and knew it was caused by fear as much as by the cold. Each time it
passed by it slowed down and said, “Let go, Little Leaf; I will take you down to where you can be
with your friends.” But Little Leaf held on tight as he could and never said a word . . . .

It would not be winter without a wind rushing and howling through the forest, but this wind was
desperate to get the little leaf down from the tree, and into the warm arms of his friends. So it
stopped blowing. There was not the smallest hint of his mighty power. Even his seashell hum was
silent in the whole of the forest, all because . . . He was hovering - the length of a mouses tail, from Little Leaf's frozen nose.

It spoke. “Look! Above you Little Leaf, there leaning on the top of your tree, a huge, fat, black
cloud, and it's full of snow. It can't hold all that heavy snow much longer, and when it lets it drop,
you will be much colder than you are now! Then you will die!” My friend!

Little Leaf was so cold he could only give a tiny nod. The wind moved even closer. “Think of
your friends all holding each other crying and upset. They are very worried.” Little Leaf
bowed his head as the wind said. “It is time for you to be brave and let go.”

Little Leaf could not see the wind, but he could feel it's kind presence. He thought of his dear
friends, he looked at the empty trees, he looked at the big black cloud that seemed to be looking only at him, and then he looked at his branch. And, as he looked, he felt himself let go; it was as if his body had taken charge, and had done what had to be done. He dropped the smallest, little, teeniest bit, the wind wrapped him in its huge arms, and together they moved slowly forward. Little Leaf gasped, then smiled. This was fun. “I'm flying like a dragonfly.” The wind had carried lots and lots of leaves before. Sometimes it took them down and immediately hurried back to get another without pausing. But today he had only one leaf to help, and plenty of time.

They gathered speed quickly, and climbed higher and higher. The leaves waiting in the hollow
heard the wind scream as it raced all about the forest, and shivered as they thought of Little Leaf all
alone on his cold branch.
When it started to snow Grandfather Leaf cried.

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Oh! Groaned all the leaves together, “Wonderful Little Leaf will die now.”
The snow was falling thick and silent, when the wind heard the leaves groan. After a sharp
turn it climbed up to the top of the tallest trees, slowed to a dawdle and wound its way down past
the bare branches of the trees to the frozen stream - which it followed to the special tree and the
hollow.

There was a huge sigh of relief, when the wind floated the excited Little Leaf in among his
delighted friends in the hollow. Grandmother Leaf held him in her arms and held his face to hers.
Grandfather and all the others gathered close all around their little friend. There was not a dry eye
among them, but Little Leaf's tears were the biggest! He was so happy. Slowly the warmth came
back into him as Grandfather wiped his eyes, twisted his beard, and said what everyone was
thinking:

“What kept you so long Little Leaf?”
Little Leaf stretched up to his full height, and with a cheeky-grin on his little face said:
“My name is Master Little Leaf, the fastest leaf alive. Next year I will be down first! Just watch
me.”

The near warmth of so many friends makes a body feel so cozy and safe, and it had been a trying
time for the littlest leaf in the family. So it was not a surprise, when the moment he closed his eyes,
he was asleep, and who can say good-night when they are asleep? Anyway, the smile on his lovely
little face said it all for Master Little Leaf! . . . But he wasn't quite asleep . . . he had forgotten
something very important.

“I love you Mister Wind. Thank you so extra, very much!”

Copyright C Niels Richard Papps 2017