One branch had its own plans.
The Old Drawing
Mrs Lin placed the scissors beside the bonsai, then turned the pot towards the window.
The long branch came with it.
She turned the pot the other way. The branch followed, sweeping past her teacup and stopping just short of the lantern.
“You again,” she said.
Beside the pot lay a drawing she had made two years earlier. In it, the little tree leaned gracefully to the left, its branches arranged in layers above the moss. Mrs Lin had pinned the drawing above her worktable and consulted it whenever she tended the tree.
The real tree had lately sent one branch far beyond the edge of the paper.
Mrs Lin picked up the scissors. Before she could reach the branch, Mei came in carrying a fresh pot of tea.
“Grandma,” she said, “there’s a bird on your table.”
A Bird on the Table
Mrs Lin looked down. The lantern had cast the branch’s shadow across the wood. A small fork near its tip formed what might have been a beak; the leaves made a rather untidy tail.
“It wasn’t there this morning,” Mei said.
“The lantern wasn’t lit this morning.”
Mei put down the teapot and moved the lantern a little closer. The bird grew larger. She moved it back, and the tail stretched across the table.
“Now it’s flying.”
“Towards my tea,” Mrs Lin observed.
Mei moved the cup out of its path. Mrs Lin set down the scissors, and together they watched the bird tremble as Mei laughed. Her sleeve had brushed the branch.
After a moment, Mei noticed the drawing. “The branch isn’t in the picture.”
“It wasn’t there when I drew it.” Mrs Lin ran a finger along the lines. “I wanted room between these branches, so the shape of the trunk could be seen.”
“And the long one is in the way?”
“I haven’t decided.”
Turning the Pot
Mei crouched beside the table and looked up through the leaves. “There’s room under it.”
Mrs Lin bent down too. From there, she could see the curve of the dark trunk beneath the long branch. She turned the pot a little towards Mei. The branch no longer crossed the front of the tree; it reached out to one side.
“It looks different from here,” Mrs Lin said.
Mei held the drawing beside it. “Could this be the front now?”
“Perhaps.”
Mrs Lin studied the smaller shoots. Several crowded together near the trunk, hiding the space she wanted to keep. She picked up the scissors again and trimmed two of them. The long branch remained.
Mei watched a leaf fall onto the moss. “Are you keeping it?”
“For now. I’ll see how the tree grows.”
She turned the pot back and forth once more. Then she fetched a clean sheet of paper and began to draw.
A Second Sketch
Mei poured the tea while Mrs Lin sketched the trunk, the layers of leaves, and the branch that reached beyond them. When she finished, she wrote the date at the bottom and placed the new drawing beside the old one.
“May I add something?” Mei asked.
Mrs Lin handed her the pencil. In the corner, Mei drew a bird with a long tail and a pointed beak.
“It needs a name,” she said.
Mrs Lin considered the branch. “Let’s wait. It may still have other plans.”
Mei leaned over the paper again and added a tiny teacup beneath the bird.
“Just in case it comes back.”
Livora Gracely ♥
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