Memory 7:

Hey! You Turned My Tree Into A Stump! Arrrrgh!

Nearly a decade had passed since Felix and Ralph had spoken to one another. Ralph had made an attempt to find Felix,

only to find that he had moved out of town and it seemed no one was willing to tell Ralph just how long Felix was planning to be gone.

So, day after day, Ralph would take out his frustration by smashing piles of bricks at the dump and every night, all he could do

was sit up against his tree, watch the fireflies dance and remember the nights he spent with Cremella. One night, he

let out a really long sigh and said, "I still remember the glow from her face that she'd get just about every night we did this...".

When he could not stand it anymore, he rolled onto his side and closed his eyes. This never stopped the memories,

but sleep always eventually came and eased the pain, if only for a fleeting moment. With the two people he cared about the most in the world gone,

what was there to do? The night passed peacefully, but that following morning, Ralph had a very rude awakening. Ralph nearly jumped and

his eyelids flew open when he heard the noise of a huge vehicle not far behind. Then, he felt sharp pain on the back of his head. In his reaction, he had

accidentally hit his head on one of the lower branches. As he reached up to rub the spot where it had hit, a very short Nicelander quickly approached him

from the front and held up something that looked like an official document. "Oh, no... It can't be... Not now..." thought Ralph as he bent down to

take the paper. He almost wanted to scream and tear his hair out when he read the document. They were taking away his tree! He wanted

to do something about it, but there was nothing he could think of that would not land him with some kind of ticket or sentence.

Ralph looked around, hoping that there might be a way out of this mess somewhere, or at least somewhere where he could go and quickly think up a plan.

But then, Ralph's fear slowly began to turn into wild fury. He saw that there was a small crowd of workers all trying to get some higher-up to sign

some documents. When the crowd had thinned out a little, he could clearly see that the man signing papers was none other than Gene, who used

to pick on him back when the both of them were in school. "So Gene is behind all o' this..." he thought to himself as he tried to prevent a

snarl from creeping onto his face. As soon as they noticed the changes on Ralph's face, several Nicelanders began attempting to pull him away.

It was at this point that Ralph's expression softened a little, when he realized that if he fought back, someone could get killed. So, he

decided he would let them hold him back for now.

About half an hour later, the saws on the front of the vehicle began whirring and it began to approach the tree. Ralph had been unable to

come up with a plan in which no one would get hurt and so had resorted to a depressed, silent state. He was watching, thinking there was nothing

he could do when suddenly, as soon as the blades had cut about an inch into the tree, Ralph heard a loud, terrified squeak from one of the

little holes in the tree. In fear and almost forgetting about the Nicelanders surrounding him, Ralph began pushing through the group,

reaching out towards the tree. "Lightening!" was all he could manage to say. He kept moving, but for the most part, he was so

numb with fear that he felt his lips were sealed. He did not even notice how many Nicelanders he had almost stepped on when he

made his way through. Then, without thinking, he flew at the vehicle and began tearing it apart. I suppose it could be said that

Ralph was thinking that if he could dismantle it in time, maybe the tree would not be too damaged and no one would get hurt.

However, Ralph was wrong.

Ralph was ripping and tossing every piece he could get his hands on, almost roaring in anger. This soon, however, came to a nearly abrupt stop.

Something that Ralph had tossed hit the window shield, creating a massive crack in the glass that caused Gene, who was now the one in the driver's seat

to scream in fear before opening the door to yell threats at Ralph. In this same instant, Gene accidentally switched off the blades. Ignoring Gene's

insults and accusations, Ralph finally came to and looked up to see if the tree was still standing. Just as a relieved smile began to surface on Ralph's

face, there came a loud creaking sound from the tree. Happiness was over in an instant. The tree then fell forward and landed with a loud thud on the

ground. Ralph's smile quickly faded into a look of sadness and shock. "Well, thanks for the help, Ralph. You've finally done something

useful." Gene was now staring angrily up at Ralph, hands on his hips and a foot tapping on the ground. Then, Ralph finally felt

a load of guilt. "Well, Gene, I-" he started to speak and gesture towards the torn-up vehicle and the trunk. "Well, what, Ralph? Did you really think

wrecking the machine would solve this, huh?" Gene was getting up in Ralph's face.

Now, Ralph realized that Gene still would never listen to a word he had to say, so he just walked on past him to the fallen tree and

knelt down to see if Lightening was alright. Gene only huffed, crossed his arms and said nothing more. Ralph lowered his head and

peeked into the little hole which held Lightening's nest. His face went from concerned to utterly offended at the sight he laid eyes on before

tears began rolling down his cheeks in silence. Now, he had lost his tree and his pet. He no longer had anywhere to go- his

little bit of Heaven had just been torn to shreds.

Ralph rose to his feet and left the area without saying a word. That day, Ralph acquired an addiction to drinking, as he spent the next few hours until

nightfall at Tapper's. Drinking could never solve his problems or make them go away, and he realized it, but it just happened to be one of those

things that sometimes eases the pain just a bit, much like sleep. "Sleep?" he then thought, "Where am I going to sleep, now?". It was then that he

realized how late it was getting and he decided to head home to the dump back in Fix-It Felix Jr. to try and find a new place to sleep.

When he arrived back at the dump, his heart sank again. Out in the middle of the bricks, he saw his stump. Not only had they

cut the tree in two, they even dug up the roots and carted the trunk away to be dumped onto the bricks. "Well, it's not much, but

it's all I have, now..." he thought to himself as he wandered over and began pummeling the bricks in front of the stump to his

liking. It was the first night in years that Ralph would sleep without watching his firefly friends and without seeing Lightening.

He was now completely and utterly alone.

-End of Memory 7!-