The Picnic Table

We are a great group of bushwalkers. Today we decided to go to this remote area where someone told us there are very old trees and untouched nature. As a matter of fact, it’s not so far away from the border of the city. The landscape was welcoming and the walk, easy and without any accidents to solve. Today of all days I am feeling a little bit depressed. I do not have enough money to pay for my credit cards, but I thought that maybe the walk and the conversation with my friends would give me some relief.

The landscape angles softly up hill, imperceptibly and easily. Everything is right: the sun among the trees, the shadows on the path, but
there are some noises, like grunts. The birds are singing some sort of
warning chirp. Not a problem. Everything is OK.

To get to the big trees we have to go to the depression in the land: an easy walk. At the bottom of the depression, there is flat land, like a platform, and in the middle there is a big wooden table with eight seats. It is a sunny, enchanted place to have our lunch. Everything in this park is so clean and tidy that it amazes all of us. Everybody is laughing, light headed, happy, and contented.

Eight of us sit down around the table.
– “Funny to put a picnic table so far away in the middle of the woods,”
someone says.

– “Look at the little plants that grow under the table, they have nice
flowers and those leaves like hands. I never saw anything like that. Maybe
we have discovered a new species. Anyway, let’s eat and enjoy the moment.”

Here and now all my worries are gone, at least for a while. And I think that I will make a plan to repay my debts and avoid falling into new
ones.

Can you see them? All of them seated around a big wooden table, laughing and enjoying the sun while the little plants with leaves like hands grow and attach themselves to the legs of the eight seated there.

The table was there to feed the trees. They were some sort of carnivorous
species. That’s why the park was so clean and the reason that the birds were singing their warning song. But we did not know…

No more need for me to worry about credit cards….

I.