Under the Canopy

DAWN J. WILSON

Under the Canopy

"What about, 'Hell no, we won't go'?" "Shut up, Moonflower," said Boulder, rolling his eyes. "We are supposed to be creating an atmosphere of peace! Shut Up doesn't foster peace," Moonflower screamed, blowing a lock of her hair away with the corner of her mouth. "People, people! We are creating a lot of negative energy here. Let's join karmas and engender a feeling of togetherness. Please." Zephyr crooned clicking the handcuffs tightly around Ivy's wrists. "As members of "Friends Until The Insensitive Leave Earth" we must set an example of togetherness and love. So knock it offl" "Zephyr is right!" said Ivy, moving her wrists around and checking out their give. "How will we oppose the political machines tearing this country apart if we can't come together enough to come up with a simple chant?" "Now, Moonflower, while your suggestion holds a lot of passion, we don't want to be biased. We promised that we would be completely without bias and racism towards anything real or imagined. The use of "Hell" excludes Heaven and could possibly hurt some deity's feelings." Zephyr said, holding out her hands in front of her and fumbling the handcuffs onto her own wrists while trying to brush away the leaves that were in her face. "What about, "Trees Today, Wal-Mart Tomorrow?" said River quietly. "It's not punchy enough, dear," said Quail sweetly. "We have to make an impact! We need to get our point across!" "Oh, and we're not doing that by handcuffing ourselves to this grove of trees?" River retorted. "I mean, here we are, hugging trees (figuratively and literally,) with only one bag of water apiece. What if the tree-killers just come up and take our water? How long can we possibly stay here anyways without water? How can we stop them with our hands tied? I still think we need guards! We need .. ." "We are the guards, River!" interjected Zephyr. We are the guardians of the trees. We dwell in them and they dwell in us." "Well, if we don't look alive, People, then some insensitive tree-killers are going to be dwelling on us," said Nimbus.

A dozen voices started mingling together, humming like cicadas. "Look alive." "Here they come." "Do you think they'll stop this time?" "Did we think up a chant?" "Oh! I should have listened to my parents." "There's a bug on my ass!" "Quiet everyone! Are there any news crews among them?" asked Quail, dragging her arm up to cover her eyes, her head prairie-dogging around

her tree, then ducking back around as the foreman of the landscaping company came stomping through the leaves littering the ground. "Not you morons again!" he screamed. "For once I'd like to complete a project on time without you bunch of idiots showing up!"

At once, a cacophony of voices chimed in from the trees until an older man in the group who wore only an outback hat and a loincloth that hung around his rump like a wet diaper, and showing off more cleavage than most of them would've cared to see, piped in, "These trees are a part of the largest organism in the world. To cut them down would disgrace our Mother!" "What are you talking about, you idiot?" yelled the foreman looking at his clipboard and rubbing his forehead with his free hand. "What part of that was difficult to understand, you no-neck tree killer?" yelled Moonflower before ducking back behind her tree when the foreman growled at her. "What? Do you know what you're doing? Have you guys consulted a lawyer? You know what you're doing is illegal. You don't have the title to this land or these trees, they're owned by the Wal-Mart Corporation!" the foreman asked while trying to calm himself and the protesters down. "You know it's going to be done. You can't stop progress. Come on people; let's just make this easy and all go home." "This is our home!" "The land belongs to everyone!" "You don't have more rights than the trees!" "Shame on you!" they all began screaming. "Look people; I don't know who you think you are, but I need those trees to finish my job and if you don't get out of the way, then I'm calling the cops," the foreman said, beginning to lose his temper. "We don't answer to your police! We answer to a higher authority," yelled Ivy.

Suddenly they heard a pleasant but robotic voice echoing around them, "Attention Wal-Mart customers, we have a sale going on in our automotive department on tires. Check out the roll-back prices there". "It's the Higher Authority! She's calling! To Automotive!" they all screamed and picking up their 1 O" potted trees, left.