Shadow's First Life

Chapter VIII

Unexpected Help

A.N. I have a personal dream somewhere in this chapter. For you Romans and other speakers of Latin out there, it is the revival of Castanea dentata!

After only one month passed my arm was healed. I felt good about my arm and my spirits lifted skyward. As my life continued, I had an unexpected encounter. On a day when my family and I were going on a much-wanted vacation to the Earth, I saw someone that I would have rather avoided.

It started with all of us getting up early on a Saturday to embark on this trip. After we all had packed and were on our way, we went to a different part of the colony. Out at the colony's edge, there are several spaceports where supplies and people would enter and exit the ultimately small expanse of the colony.

I plodded along after Maria, Mom, and Dad as my parents found their way through the colony to the ports. My suitcase rolled, and its wheels would make many noises as we walked around. The wheels clacked on tile, rumbled on concrete, softly hushed on smooth marble, and zipped on metal grids.

As I got older, being patient and waiting became easier and easier for me to do. After we had climbed aboard a spacecraft that looked like a cross between a jumbo jet and a space shuttle, everyone got in his or her seat and we buckled up. I was very excited to get off of the prison in space where I lived, so my mind raced with thoughts about Earth.

I was not completely alone, as everybody was looking forward to the trip. The inside of our 'plane' looked much like the inside of a passenger jet. I go the seat by the window and peered outside. The 'plane' was still in the docking bay, but it was rolling on its way to the vacuum of space.

Soon the spacecraft was ready to launch, and so the engines roared and the entire ship started rumbling as I felt my body gently push against the seat. The four walls of steel surrounding us vanished in a flash, giving way to the darkness of space. My body felt weightless and I realized why we all were wearing seatbelts!

I looked back at the colony that was just left, and a large horizon of near black speckled with lights slowly drifted behind the ship. The lights seemed to be stars, but the multitude of stars we saw did not move while the lights did. The planet below was dark, since we were above the dark side of the Earth.

I glanced at Maria sitting next to me, who was also looking out the window, so I focused again on the view and sat back some for her to see out also. The window was quite thick since it needed to be airtight in a vacuum and endure the blazing heat of reentry. The colony no longer appeared to be a horizon, but a curve with a definite edge. It continued to gradually shrink. I guessed that we were going very fast, since there is no drag in space and the colony was shrinking so much.

One whole hour passed. The blackness of space was above us, with the thin atmosphere below. The Earth was now a giant orb of dark blue and grey as the once black sky became a dark navy blue color. The ship was on an ocean of air, and many kilometers spanned between the four of us and the ground. The ARK was but a speck in the sky, a small white dot that was dwarfed by the nearby crescent of the Moon.

The sky became blurred as we continued to descend. I could barely hear a hissing noise from outside as the weight of my body started to return ever so slowly. I glanced at Maria. "Maria?" Maria looked at me from behind a book she was reading. "What is it?" I pointed out the window. "What is happening?" I asked worriedly. "I do not know, Shadow," Maria said with a shrug.

I relayed my question to Dad. His response was a pause, a look out the window, and a brief conclusion. "The spacecraft is hitting against the top of the atmosphere. This will be like being baked alive. Get ready for a heat wave, buddy!" The shuttle rumbled, causing me to glance out of the window. A dim red glow was beneath the shuttle that soon grew orange as flames of red started to lick upwards and a rumble sounded.

The glow beneath us was yellow and the flames grew higher and higher, soon enveloping the entire shuttle. The flames cast an orange light through the window and the air in the cabin became warm. I gasped as the rumble became a steady roar and the shuttle vibrated constantly. The air of the cabin started to waver and grew hot. The whole shuttle started to rattle my bones. I looked outside again, finding that I could not see through a thick curtain of fire that danced upwards. My fur felt sticky as I started sweating.

The orange glare dimmed, and I could see the dark navy color of the night sky. Patches of clouds that looked like cotton floated below us as we cruised through the air. I looked back at my sister. She had taken her mask off and slipped her arm around my shoulder, giving me a nervous little laugh. I looked back with a smirk. "That was... hot!" I exclaimed, a bead of sweat crawling down my forehead. We glided down to the airport to land as I wiped a drop of sweat off my muzzle...

The surprise occurred after I had gotten off the shuttle with the others. We had gotten our luggage at the baggage claim and waited at the airport entrance for a bus. As we waited outside on a bench, I stared in awe at the sky. The stars I am so familiar with transformed completely. Each of the cosmic lights in the sky flickered in display that I enjoyed to the fullest. The stars twinkling was the first sight of Earth I have ever known. It was only the beginning.

A gust of wind rustled the leaves of a nearby tree and brushed my frame. I sighed with content as a smile briefly formed on my face. That first glimpse of nature is a memory I cherish. It is a shame that so many individuals are too caught up in themselves or their frantic lives to just pause and admire the beauty in this world...

Later we had climbed onto a bus and after we had gotten off at a storage place, I met someone again. I was alone, because Maria was getting a snack at a local bistro, Mom and Dad were talking to people in the storage office, and I was venturing to the bathroom. I had wandered down a hallway to three doors, two of which were bathrooms. The bathroom was typical, having several stalls, sinks, waste bins, and other such things.

I had finished my business at a urinal and turned around as a large shadow settled over me. The cause of the shadow was but a meter behind me, and spotting it caused me to jump a foot. A large wolf was behind me, watching me intently and dwarfing my small frame with his own massive one. No, the wolf was not a wild beast on all fours with fangs bared and drool glistening on his sharp teeth; the wolf was a man. The sight of him standing there still surprised me.

My first impulse was to run, but he had completely blocked my only escape route. The imposing figure spoke with an oddly familiar voice. I had heard it before, but my mind took a second to recall where. The where part of it struck me with panic. The size of this man, his voice, and his blue eyes added up. This was the wolf that was with those two men that broke my arm! NO! Stay calm! Stay calm! Stay calm! Even as I thought this, my breaths shrank into shallow gasps and my heart raced as cold sweat washed over my skin.

The wolf asked me "Are you alright?" I was too stunned to speak. The wolf sighed and then added reluctantly, "Look, I am... really sorry about what those two men did to you. I apologize for that. Can I make that up to you?" I nodded in reply without thinking, but it caused the wolf's eyes to seemingly soften. At first I feared the wolf, but his efforts got through to my heart. I started to trust him. He would babysit me sometimes when my parents would let him, he bought me ice cream, and he really seemed to care about me. I bonded with the wolf for the following year.

A day passed since the encounter in the bathroom. My family had taken me to a national park in Virginia, Shenandoah National Park. The purity of nature there was breathtaking. I felt fulfilled there. The first night we had checked in to a little cottage in the heart of the wilderness.

The cottage was small, only having three small bedrooms and two bathrooms, a small kitchen, and a lounging area. One of the bedrooms was in a loft upstairs along with a tiny bathroom. Below the loft were the other bedrooms and a bathroom. The lounge in front was open clear to the roof of the cabin, and a large window in front of the lounge gave an almost panoramic view to the outside greenery above. The loft had an open view to the window, giving a great view away for eager eyes to watch.

I sat out on the front outside deck as I drank a glass of lemonade and marveled at the ambient melody nature performed. That afternoon I set my glass down and headed for the two giant trees in front of the cottage. Beyond the two natural sentries a field stretched out into the open, where a gravel road led to the tavern at the front of the camp.

The chill of the night is soothing to me. At times I feel lucky to have this thick, ebony fur. Where my family would be bundled up in thick coats, thick socks and long pants, I would feel fine with no more than jeans and a long sleeve shirt.

The end of summer had passed, and the leaves of the trees were starting to yellow. The trees were pretty, but three of them towered in might above the others. These large trees were massive; the trunk of one of them looked at least six meters around! The sunlight was bright and golden, and it danced as the leaves rustled in the wind.

One tree had a massive trunk with rough bark that was light gray in color, almost like chalk. Limbs opened up above and sprawled out across the sky in a rounded crown of deep green leaves. The air was cool and calm in the shelter of the tree, and I noticed the shade as twigs and decaying leaves crunched beneath my footsteps. A faint thump and rustling of leaves startled me. I looked down at my feet and saw a small yellow acorn bounce on the ground. The nut was not ripe.

I glanced skyward at the screen of swaying leaves, which were silvery green underneath. I concluded with a soft smile that the mighty oak towering above me was ancient, having silently witnessed the passing of many years and generations.

Later I asked a park ranger about the oak. He chuckled as he stroked his brown beard. He wore glasses, a ranger hat, and a green uniform. His voice carried a Southern accent that pulled at the vowels in his words like they were taffy.

"The tree is a white oak. That giant is what we call 'Old Mighty'. That there tree is three hundred years old." My mouth gaped open with a gasp and the ranger let out a hearty laugh as he saw my reaction. "Mighty is far older than even my great, great grandfather, and he was born in 1851!" He exclaimed. I wonder if Old Mighty is still alive, looking the same as it did those forty years ago, towering above everything else and reaching for the sun...

After I returned from admiring the giant oak, I ran up into the loft were Maria was sleeping. Up a flight of stairs, the loft was secluded in its own zone. The stairs started behind the lounge area and traversed behind it, parallel to the wall at the front of the cabin. At the top of the stairs, one side of the loft was enclosed in a bathroom, and the rest of the loft went by that bathroom to two small beds at the back of the loft. Looking from the front, the bathroom was at the front right side of the loft, and the stairs went down in front of the small room.

Since I planned to go back outside, I kept my sneakers on, making padded steps against the carpet as I approached Maria's bed. I first thought that she was sleeping. A turn of her eyes in my direction showed otherwise.

She let out a yawn, her mouth opened wide like a rose in full bloom. "Maria?" I asked softly. Her blue eyes gave me attention. "There is a giant tree just outside. Do you want to go outside and look at it?" Rays from the sun highlighted her back through the window behind her, making her face seem darker. She nodded, causing me to jump in anticipation. I waited for her to put her shoes on, and then we walked outside. I chattered excitedly as I opened the door into the cool and fresh autumn air.

The outside was an allurement to me. I spent a lot of time outside as we stayed at the cabin. As we walked across the small deck, I paused. I turned around and smiled back at Maria. "The Earth is so cool! Everything here is alive!" I yelled in triumph, causing Maria to laugh. I grabbed her hand and we raced down the stairs to the variegated ground below.

Leaves rustled under a pair of footsteps as we ran to the front side of the cabin where the giant old oak was. The tree was secluded by smaller ones, but Maria noticed it as we approached. "You were not joking, Shadow. That... is huge." Maria marveled at the sight of the tree.

I ran up to the tree and leaned against its solid trunk, propping my arms behind my head as I looked back at my sister. "Maria?" Maria's golden hair swayed as she glanced at me. "How old do you think this giant is?" Her face contorted in thought as she stared at me. "I don't know. Maybe it is a hundred years old." I could not help grinning, and she noticed. "What is so funny? One hundred years is old!" She kept a lingering scowl on her mouth.

I started to laugh. After knowing the age of the tree, her guess seemed to be a bit young! Maria stepped up to me, patches of sunlight glimmered on her head. "Shadow! What is the big deal?" She stopped in front of me. "This tree is a white oak. It is proof of what Dad told me one time." Maria sat down on the soft moss of a root of the stately tree that protruded above the ground before plummeting into the earth below.

"Why is that?" I looked from the shady canopy of leaves to her beautiful eyes. "Mighty oaks from little acorns grow." A gust of wind caused the leaves to rattle in chorus before settling down a moment later. The crescendo of the performance faded into silence as birds chirped in the distance. It was as if Nature agreed with my answer.

"The Declaration of Independence... is one hundred and ninety two years old. This oak is..." Maria leaned forward to hear me. "...Three hundred years old," I finished. "How do you know?" Maria asked after a moment of silence. "A park ranger told me." Maria thought about the answer I had provided. "How does the park ranger know?" I thought for a moment.

"A scientist found out how old it is. He estimated with the size of the oak, and then he drilled a core from the tree." Maria let her eyes wander back from my own to the ancient tree. Maria smirked at me, causing me to stop daydreaming and stare back at her. "What is so funny?" I asked with a grin. Maria looked into my eyes mockingly. "Oh, it is nothing," she replied as she stroked strands of her hair back from her face. "...Tree hugger." My grin disappeared as my eyes widened. Maria then added with a playful sneer, "I mean; you like a tree."

"Is that a crime?" I retorted as I arched my eyebrow. "Tree hugger," Maria teased. A twig snapped. I looked back at Maria just in time to witness an acorn bonking her head. "Ouch! Hey!" I looked above her to see if a squirrel or bird was causing the mischief, only to see the fingered leaves swaying lazily with the wind. As I continued to watch the branches, I spotted a grey squirrel with two acorns in its paws and another clamped in its mouth. The fuzzy critter dropped another, and it looked down as it fell, making an angry little barking noise.

"What was that for?" Maria asked me angrily as she rubbed her head. I pointed with my thumb back at the trunk that I was leaning against with a smirk. "A fuzzy squirrel did not like your comment. It dropped a nut on you," I replied with a soft laugh that gradually grew louder. Maria looked up incredulously and saw a small brownish face watching her from a branch above. My sister joined me as we both laughed in a loud chorus to the wind around us.

I guess I am a tree hugger, but I cannot help it. In this bleak world of glass and steel, asphalt and concrete, something as pretty and serene as a tree is a nice blessing to have...

In addition to the giant oak, there were two other equally impressive trees that were alive and well. One of the trees was near the oak. This tree had bark that was the color of dark chocolate and was severely furrowed. The tree had fruits that looked like slightly fat limes, stray ones were hanging on the branches and dozens more littered the ground.

The leaves of the tree were impressive. The leaves each had many leaflets, which were attached in a row to stalks that were half a meter long. The leaves yellowed and several were falling onto the ground, the little leaflets separated from their leafstalks. The crown of the tree looked like a mass of gold.

The 'limes' smelled pungent. Dad thought they smelled too strong, but I found the smell to be rather pleasing. The aroma was somewhat spicy, smelling like newly mown hay. The green balls of leather had brown and much wrinkled round fruits that were hard like rocks. The leather husks were full of pulp and dye that was orange and brown, but it did not show up on my black fur, although it did stain my skin yellow. I recall that Dad called the tree a black walnut.

I tried to eat a few by using a hammer, but it was frustrating. I could not get the nut meat out in one piece because the stupid shell went in between the parts of nut meat, but each little nibble of the nut was worth the effort. The meat was sweet and ...nutty. You may not understand my desire for nature, but you certainly did not grow up as the prisoner of a boring soda can floating in space!

The third tree was not like the other two. The tree was not really so massive, but it was tall. The tree was a towering, straight pole that made even the massive oak and walnut appear short. I guess it was 40 meters tall, or about 130 feet. I remember waking up to it for the first time and finding brown needle leaves scattered on the ground. The tree was a thick gray pillar that rose ten meters into the air before its first branches jutted out.

The lowest branches were bare, and the ascending ones were longer than the ones below them. The branches that were halfway up to the top of the tree had needles. The branches were arranged in such a way that they erupted from the trunk at the same height in distinct rows. I noticed a smell that I had never smelled before. The smell was unique, but it had a hint of spearmint to it. The other trees around it were the same type of tree, but not as tall as this giant. The needles of the tree were delicate tufted sprays of bluish-green, and they climbed skywards in a steeple shape.

The tall evergreen swayed with the wind, and its tip seemed to tickle bellies of the fluffy clouds in the blue sky. A brief wind rushed around me, and the tree did not sing the same way the oak and other trees did. Instead of rattling and shaking leaves, it had a different song. Its needles flowed with the wind in a graceful way and made a soft hushing noise, like soft whistling. I was enjoying the tree's melody when a snapping noise startled me, causing my ears to twist towards the sound.

A branch as thick as my arm hit the ground. It seemed to bounce as the wood in it flexed from the impact with the layers of needles beneath. Blue-green needles were on it in thick plumes, and the smell of spearmint strengthened. On the branch's end were several brown woody things that were long and skinny like bananas. The objects had scales that overlapped, and clear and white liquid oozed on the scales. I looked up to make sure the tree would not break more limbs, and approached the branch. I poked one of the woody things and the liquid stuck to my finger like honey, inciting an annoyed moan from my mouth. A laugh from behind me caused my form to jump.

Dad was walking up to me with a grin on his face. "What are you doing, kiddo? Find yourself in a sticky situation, I see." He chuckled as his amber eyes flicked over my hand and the woody thing on the branch. I instinctively raised my sticky fingers to my nose and sniffed. The smell was like nothing I had ever smelled before! The minty smell was strong and fresh in my nose, compelling me to rub my fingers together to enhance the scent even more. I took a deep sniff to savor the cool fragrance. I let out a content sigh, resulting in a reply from my father. "I see you like your meeting with white pine," he chortled. My relaxed ears perked up. "Pine?" I asked.

"Pine is a certain tree with cones." I arched an eyebrow, unfamiliar with his terms. "The pine is an evergreen tree -a tree that does not drop all of its leaves in the winter- with leafs that look like tied up bundles of needles and makes cones, like the one your hand got sticky on." I picked up a sticky 'cone' and examined it. The thin scales were spread out like petals on a flower, but they were stacked on each other in rows. A brown stalk about four centimeters long curved off the top end of the sticky object, and under the scales were tiny round seeds that had feather things attached to them. As I tilted the cone to look under it, a little seed fell out and started to spin as it floated away from me and landed on the ground. "Why do the seeds spin, dad?" I looked into his observant eyes of amber.

"The spinning makes them fall slowly, Shadow. Wind pushes them around as they fall so they can spread out and become more little pines." I did not notice at first, but a little pine with blue needles about a meter high was next to my father. The springy sapling looked like a tiny Christmas tree. I noticed my dad was soon appreciating the minty aroma as he took a long sniff of the air. I remembered his comments on the walnut tree not long before.

"At least you like the smell of white pine," I commented. Dad turned to face me. "What makes you say that?" he responded. I held up a finger in gesture to a fact. "You do not like the smell of walnut," I replied with a laugh. "It smells strong! I do not like the smell of hickory either," he added as he rubbed his chin. "Hickory? What is a hickory?" I responded. "Hickory is a cousin of walnut. It has several leafs on one leafstalk like walnut, and has edible nuts."

I turned around as I heard a bird chirp and the fluttering of wings. The bird flew into a tree that was spire shaped, but the needles on it were small and dark green, almost black. The dark silhouette of the trees stood out like a sore thumb among the orange and golden leaves around us. It was among others of its kind and the grove of them cast a shade of darkness on the ground.

"Dad, what are those?" I said. Dad looked up as he was holding a branch of the little pine. I pointed to guide him to the trees of black. "Those are hemlocks, Shadow." I paused on his answer. "Isn't hemlock the poison that Socrates killed himself with?" I wondered aloud. "There is a small herb of the same name that is poisonous, but the hemlock tree is not related, and it is edible."

I wandered casually to the black trees, and as I approached realized the dark intensity of their shade. I went into the grove. The ground was dim and dull. Trunks of the trees were cinnamon brown and had shallow ridges winding vertically on them. The lighter shade of the woods surrounded the grove in red and golden ambience. Many tiny flat needles were littering the ground, and tiny egg-shaped cones were here and there. "Father, is hemlock a cousin of pine?" I asked as the thought wandered through my mind. "Yes, they are related."

The shade of the dark hemlocks was not burdening or oppressive; it was actually calming and quiet. I saw a chipmunk run along the branches of a hemlock, holding a little cone in its mouth. I smiled as the critter made a crunching noise and watched me, its cheeks fat with cone scales. I then noticed the underside of the needles as I looked at the bright sky through the top of the trees. The needles were white underneath, in two bands on their undersides. I thought the white pine and the hemlocks were beautiful.

There was one other tree that was a giant. I noticed it behind the cottage, surrounded by smaller oak trees. The tree was bare, and at first I thought it had already dropped its leaves, but I later found out it was dead. The tree had the same form as the Mighty Oak, but the bark was tan and furrowed. Pieces of it fell of the mammoth trunk, revealing sandy-brown wood beneath. The wood had what looked like termite holes in it.

I decided to show the tree to Dad. As we walked under the shade of the numerous oaks, I noticed that some of the oaks had white scaly bark with rounded leaves, and others had black bark that was roughly furrowed with pointy leaves. I was not sure the latter were oaks, but the scarce acorns on their branches proved they were. Patches of sunlight were spaced between them, and leaves were thick on the ground. The sunny patches had islands of grass in an ocean of leaves and scrawny bare bushes.

When Dad first laid eyes on the dead titan of wood, he hastened his pace and rustled leaves as he walked right directly to it. "Shadow," Dad started. "Do you know what this is?" I shook my head and watched him for a reply. My father noticed a small branch sticking out of the bottom of the trunk and rubbed it with his fingers. A couple of leaves clung to the sprout, and the leaves were shaped like a wide feather. The leaves were orange and brown, ready to fall of the tree. The leaves were long, they had distinctive veins that were parallel to each other but angled towards the front of the leaf, and the veins ended in distinctive triangular, pointed teeth. "Son, this is a dead American Chestnut. It is a cousin of oak."

I stepped on something hard that rolled under my foot, causing me to nearly fall over. I looked down and saw a thing about the size of a baseball that was spiny and round like a hedgehog - like me! The thing was split down the middle, and a thing that looked like an acorn was inside of it. I gingerly picked up the object and pulled it open with my hands, and in it were three nuts that were shiny and brown. The nuts looked like acorns, but they were flattened on the sides to fit together, the middle one was flattened on two sides.

I pulled them out of the spiny husk and looked at them closely. The nuts were fuzzy with white hairs, and they each had a little white tail on their pointed tips. I looked up at Dad, and he smiled back. "You have a souvenir, kid. Do not take any more, because this is a protected area." The husk of the nuts was woody like an acorn cup, and it had points where the nuts attached to it. The husk was sort of like a cup that folded over the acorn.

"Why did it die?" I asked. Dad looked up in awe to the thick limbs of the tree that much like an oak sprawled over the sky in a dome shape. Dad answered me as he continued to search the bare branches of the tree. "A disease killed it. The disease is one from Asia. People here call it chestnut blight. It has killed nearly every last chestnut that was easily countless in number fifty years ago.

Before the blight came in 1904, there were even more chestnuts in 1800 than later in 1900. A disease called root rot killed billions of chestnuts in the warmer places after 1850. The blight following it killed billions more." Dad pointed in a direction behind the tree and down a small slope. I gasped as I saw what was below us. A sloping hill joined many sloping hills, and they were covered in an entire forest of dull, dead trees. As far as I could see in that direction, the landscape out to the very horizon was a grey, cheerless graveyard that was a vast ocean of skeletons...

I saw two trees in the distance that had orange leaves in the grey gloomy trees, and turned back to Dad. "Dad," I said with a hint of determination. "I will be right back." I rushed over to the orange landmarks. The grey limbs and trunks spread over rocks, fallen branches and ditches that I jumped over and weaved through in blazing speed, making the outlines blurry.

In order to run fast and do it well, I must act quickly, lest I trip and fall into a hole or trip over a log. I skidded over leaves to a stop and fell over a pile of rocks, causing my body to thud into the ground. My head jolted as I landed gracelessly and sent a dozen leaves and twigs into the air. "Gah!" I yelped as my skull hit the blunt earth. If it was not for the carpet of leaves the landing would have hurt worse. I cursed the rock I tripped on in my head.

The smell of cool damp earth was around me, and I scrambled, placing my scraped hands against the ground to stand up. My hands and knees stung with pain, but I had gotten to my goal. The trees had ended up only meters away from me. Cool soil collected on my knees and arms that took my fall. I brushed myself off. I will wash it off later.

My shoes had untied, so I squatted down to tie them. Deciding that I would remove them when I got home, I tied them in a simple bow. I looked over the ground to find any prickly husks, but not finding any, I wandered closer to the tree and looked again. Plenty of pointy chestnut leaves were littering the ground, but no husks were anywhere.

I looked into the branches in a continued effort to find any chestnuts. I had a reason to look at the trees. Since there are two trees still alive in this dead forest of chestnuts, maybe they are two of a kind. They might have a strong immune system like the one my designers gave me. Husks were on the branches in clusters. There were twin, triplet, and even quadruplet husks on the ends of the many branches. I wanted to get two husks from each of the two wonder trees, to keep as a trinket or plant later. The husks were green, yellow and brown.

I sighed. If only some where on the ground! As if God had heard my wish, a twig snapped overhead and a husk plopped on the leaves at my feet! The husk was greenish yellow, and I picked it up. I then had an idea. Placing the husk back on the ground, I pressed it between the heels of my feet in an effort to split it open.

It took a while for me to achieve breaking the husk open. I picked up the four nuts and examined them. They were whitish in color, a creamy white. I shoved them deep into my pocket and dashed over to the tree's mate. Chestnut usually has three nuts in a husk, but it can have two, three, or four nuts. A certain type of chestnut, called a chinquapin, is not a big tree and has only one nut in each husk.

After my little adventure of nut gathering, I looked around to spot my father. He stood as a small shape among the trees. I rushed back over to him, eager to go home and ask my science teacher at school about my nutty discovery. Maybe I will help people who miss the chestnut grow a new forest... with white oaks, black walnuts, pines, and hemlocks too! Diversity, I have been taught, makes an ecosystem more stable. After all, standing on two feet is more stable than standing on one...