Trees

 from Fragments of Hilcias’ and Taki’s Notebook

Taki put the palm of her left hand on the trunk of the tree.

"When I was an agnaiyaaq, a little girl, my aakaaluk, my grandmother, held this hand and walked me outside of Point Hope," she said.

“Aakaaluk talked with me about the plants around us, the ones animals eat and don’t eat, the ones that can be used for medicine and the ones that are poisonous.

This, Hilcias, is the Balm of Gilead tree."

Hilcias looked closely at the buds on the lower branches of the tree.

He breathed deeply the sweet smell of the resin.

He whistled for the wonder of it all.

"Balm of Gilead resin can stop a cough,” she continued, “Or keep a cut from getting infected.

Hmmm. 

I wonder if it could help a boy named Hilcias who won’t talk.”

Hilcias smiled a broad smile and looked deeply into her brown eyes.

“You can gargle the resin with water or rub it into your skin,” she continued, “And it helps soothe sore throats and relieve burns.

It grows here in Point Hope, even though the ground is frozen most of the time.

Look at its heart shaped leaves. 

They remind me that the heart is the place where we learn to listen and where we learn to share.

Aakaaluk told me, ‘Taki, sharing is of the people, by the people, for the people. 

It keeps our hearts beating and our lives living in these frozen Arctic lands.'"

She closed her eyes.

She placed her ear on the smooth, brown bark of the tree.

"I hear the tree," she whispered. 

"It’s saying, 'The world has need of you. Always be you.'"

Hilcias put the fingers of his hand on the petals of a  flower on the tree.

"When I was a niño, a little boy,” he clicked and whistled, “My abuelo, my grandfather, held this hand and walked me outside the fields where we worked and lived.

He taught me about the plants around us there, the ones you can eat, the ones you can use for medicine.”

Hilcias took a small notebook out of his back pocket. 

He opened it to an izote flower with leaves on its stem pressed between the pages.

He had written these words beside the flower.

“This, Taki, is the national flower of El Salvador."

Taki looked at the milky, bell shaped flower.

Hilcias handed the notebook to her.

She raised the flower to her ear and listened to it.

"You can eat the flowers,” it said.

“They help relieve arthritis and headaches.

You can break the stems and plant them in the ground.

They will take root and grow into new izote plants.

In this way, they never die.

Look at the sword shaped leaves.

They remind me of the will to live. 

They remind me that the pen is a mightier than the sword and that the world is made up of stories and not atoms.

He closed his eyes. 

"I hear the flower,” Taki whispered again. 

“It’s saying, 'Seek the forgotten language. Find your voice.”

She smiled at him.

She took a flower from the Balm of Gilead tree and pressed it between two other pages in the notebook.

They walked back to Point Hope together.