A Red Ribbon on a Tree

More experimental writing for children, this time from an experience close to home....

It was autumn and the leaves were falling. The occasional aeroplane rumbled overhead on its way to the nearby airport, and two woodpeckers tapped what sounded like Morse-code messages out on a tree. The ant hill where Jonny lived had grown in height and width during the summer so that it now reached half-way up the supporting tree trunk at its centre. The ant hill looked a bit like a bell – narrow at the top and wide at the bottom. During the day the sun warmed the hill and myriads of black ants – Jonny’s relatives and friends – could be seen scuttling around on top, between the brown pine needles, leaves and multi-sized twigs. When the sun went down the ants huddled together inside the ant hill to keep warm.
Day in and day out the ants worked hard to keep their hill safe and their larder full of food. Every day the worker ants set out to collect pine needles, food, leaves and twigs to keep everyone in the heap – the queen ant, grandma, grandpa, mum, dad, aunties, uncles, cousins, brothers and sisters – warm and fed. Sometimes animals or birds tried to dig holes in the ant hills to eat the ants inside or the food they had stored. Storms, strong winds and heavy rain sometimes washed the ant hills away. Enemy red ants also attacked and try to take over the hill. Even boys and girls made a nuisance of themselves by poking sticks into the ant hill heaps. Even though the forest was a quiet and beautiful place in which to live, it also had its dangers.
One day, Jonny, a young worker ant, set out from home as usual to collect pine needles and food. As he wound his way along the ant tracks and through the humps of moss and fallen leaves he suddenly caught sight of two men wearing green jackets and yellow helmets. They were standing beside a young pine tree. Jonny wondered why they were there and what they were doing, so he climbed onto a clump of grass to get a better view. As he watched, the men tied a red ribbon around the tree.
“Hum”, thought Jonny. “I wonder why they are doing that.”
When he returned to the ant hill in the late afternoon he heard other ants talking about the same two men.
“They were tying red ribbons around different trees”, said Jonny’s father. “But I don’t know why they were doing that.”
That evening the news of the two men and the red ribbons spread rapidly through the ant hill. Nobody seemed to know who these men were or why they had tied ribbons around some trees but not others. There must be some reason why those trees had been picked, the ants thought. After all, the men hadn’t tied red ribbons around every tree in the forest. As they hadn’t tied a red ribbon around the tree in the middle of their hill, the ants wondered why that was and what that meant.
The following morning Jonny and companions woke up to a strange rumbling noise.
“What’s that?” they wondered, “and where is it coming from?”
Some of the ants poked their heads out of the little window-like peep-holes to try to see what was happening. Although the noise appeared to come from another part of the forest, it also seemed to be getting louder.
After breakfast Jonny and his friends set off to work as usual. They stopped from time to time as they trundled along the well worn ant paths to listen to the noises of the forest.
“Listen”, said Jonny to the ant next to him. “That noise is getting louder and closer! Look! What’s that, over there? It looks like a big horrible monster. And it’s eating trees!”
Although it was still a little distance from them, the group of ants could see that the “monster” was very big. It had what looked like a cab with windows and long metal crane-like arm towering into the sky at the side. It crawled slowly forwards on big caterpillar-track wheels and as it did so the big arm at the side grasped a tree, sawed it off at its base, shredded off its bark and branches, cut the long trunk into smaller pieces and threw the resulting logs into piles. A figure was sitting inside the cab controlling the monster machine.
The ants watched in amazement as the monster machine cut down one tree after another. It looked as though it was slowly working its way towards them. It was certainly eating a lot of trees – and very quickly indeed!
“Come on”, said Jonny to some of his companions, “let’s hurry back to the hill and tell the others. We need to work out a plan of action. This monster is moving in the direction of our hill and we need to act quickly.”
So Jonny and the others scuttled back to their hill as fast as their little legs could carry them. Other ants were also scurrying around on top of the hill wondering what the strange noise was and what was going on. Breathless after their run, Jonny and his pals told the others what they’d seen.
“OK”, said the chief ant. “Let’s get everybody mobilised. We need to tell the other ant colonies what’s happening so that they too can take action. Some ants can stay here to defend the hill, in case any animals sneak in and try to steal our food while we’re gone.”
The ants quickly organised themselves into teams to alert the other ant colonies living in different parts of the forest. They all knew the forest inside out and knew, too, that they had to act quickly and effectively. There was no time to lose.
“Look!” cried Jonny as he stood on top of a rock to catch his breath and get a better view of the monster tree eating machine. “The monster hasn’t eaten all the trees. It hasn’t eaten those trees with a red ribbon around them!”
“You’re right” exclaimed one of his team mates. “You know what that means don’t you?”
“No, what?” replied Jonny.
“Well, if the monster isn’t eating trees with a red ribbon around them, it must mean that the ribbon is some kind of protection.
“Oh my goodness”, gulped another of the ants. “Our tree hasn’t got a red ribbon around it! That must mean that it isn’t protected and that it will be cut down too. If that happens we’ll lose our home. And worse, we’ll probably all be killed!”
“Well in that case we’ll just have to make sure that our tree has a red ribbon tied around it as well” exclaimed Jonny triumphantly. “Come on boys, there’s no time to lose! We’ve got to find a red ribbon and tie it around our tree!”
“Yes!” agreed another of his team mates. “Let’s go!”
“We’ll have to steal a ribbon from a tree with one already on?” said Jonny decidedly, his mind busily ticking away, working out how the ants would manage to climb up a tree, untie its ribbon and scuttle back to their own tree with it in tow. “Come on, there’s one over there!”
Jonny and his friends sped towards the tree with the ribbon. Two woodpeckers, perched half-way up the tree, stared at them in amazement.
“What’s up with you lot?” inquired the woodpeckers. “What’s the hurry?”
“We’ve got to save our tree from the monster tree eating machine by tying a red ribbon around it,” gasped Jonny. “Can you help us to take this one off and carry it to our tree?”
“What?!” exclaimed the woodpeckers, “and lose our precious tree as well? No sir!”
“But, but....”, began Jonny, “we need a red ribbon – and fast!”
“Take it easy”, said the woodpeckers calmly. “We know where there’s a big bundle of red ribbons! The men in the forest yesterday dumped them when it got too dark to see what they were doing. We collected them and lined our nest with them so they’d keep us warm. How many ribbons do you need? Right then! Leave everything to us!!”
The woodpeckers plucked the ribbons from their nest and flew into the forest at top speed. They knew the forest inside out and knew where every ant hill was – they had even robbed them of food in the winter! The woodpeckers worked so quickly and so well that they managed to tie a red ribbon around every ant hill tree in the forest in next to no time.
“Bravo!” shouted Jonny and all his friends in unison. “Long live the woodpeckers! We’ll never curse them again for stealing our food!”
That very same afternoon the monster machine trundled through part of the forest where Jonny and his family lives. It cut down most of the trees in its path. But it didn’t cut their tree down. It was wearing a very special red ribbon.
The story doesn’t end there, though. That evening, as the sun disappeared over the horizon and the forest became silent, Jonny peeped out from his ant hill before going to bed. As he stood there, alone, he thought he heard someone or something whisper “thaaaank yoooo”.
© Sue Glover Frykman