Chapter 4

"I love Sundays," Jana observed, sitting on a park bench at ten thirty in the morning next to Gordie, who didn't look completely awake.

"Me too," he mumbled back. "I'm glad I don't have to work."

"You're such a pussy... you've worked for A DAY filing papers and putting paper clips in said files, and you're already completely wiped out."

"It's not quite as easy as it looks. IN fact, it's deceptively difficult."

"Right."

"Look at all these paper cuts!" Gordie protested, holding a mangled, bandaged finger in front of her.

"Oh, my poor Gordie... scarred in corporate battle..."

"There we go. That's the sort of support I need."

She grinned and closed her eyes.

"You're not going to go to sleep on me now, are you?" Gordie demanded. "I go to all this trouble to get out of the house every Sunday so I can spend it with you, in all of your neurotic glory, and now you're going to sleep on a bench?"

"No... I'm checking my eyelids for holes."

"I don't think you're allowed to call me a pussy if that's the worst you can come up with," Gordie smirked. "Ow!" Jana opened her eyes to see that Gordie's face was entirely covered by a huge, green leaf. "This THING just attacked me!"

"I think it's called a leaf. Sometimes you see them if you stay outside long enough and are able to tear yourself away from the Monkees long enough."

"I love it," Gordie remarked decisively, turning around to look at the tree behind the bench. "I am going to write a poem about it."

"About this tree?"

"This very tree."

"This very tree?"

"Indeed. What kind of tree is it?"

"This..." Jana looked up. "I believe this is a yew."

"No it's not."

"What is it then?"

"It's a me."

Jana burst out laughing. "Gordie, you are something else."

"I know," he replied, laughing a little himself. Then he slapped the tree trunk. "You know what?"

"No. What?"

"There should be an us."

"A what?"

"An us. Like, in your backyard, you know how you have a lot of trees?"

"Yeah?"

"Well you could have a row," Gordie explained, pointing to the tree. "A row with a yew, then a me, then an us."

Jana grinned. "The tree family."

"Yes. The little Gordie and Jana trees."

End of Chapter 4

This was so short; I'm sorry.