Tree Girl Read Online Free PDF

if it was wrong for the church to change our names.”
    “I think the names in our language, Quiché, are beautiful names,” I said. “If our names weren’t good enough for someone else, then maybe we weren’t good enough either. I don’t think you can respect someone but still want to change their religion, their customs, and even their names. Did the church teach the soldiers not to respect us?”
    When Manuel didn’t reply, I broke into tears. “Manuel, I’m so worried about Jorge. He’s been gone a week now. I don’t know what to think of the soldiers and the guerrillas. They each say they’re protecting us, and yet I’m scared of them both. They’re coming moreoften to our cantón. I don’t think we would be so scared of them if they truly came to help us.”
    Manuel kneeled and wrapped his big arms around me and held me for a long time as I sobbed. “You need to be getting home to your family, Gabriela,” he said. “We’ll look for Jorge again tomorrow.” Before he stopped hugging me, he whispered, “It’s okay to be fearful and restless. Fear and restlessness bring change.”
    Manuel’s words didn’t comfort me that day. When I returned home it was late afternoon. I wanted to go to the forest and climb a tree. It wasn’t fair to everyone else, but I needed time to think. Quietly I dropped off my books at our home.
    Mamí called to me as I left the yard, “Gabi, would you please take Alicia with you?”
    “Mamí, I want to be alone,” I answered strongly.
    “I know you need your time alone, but so do I,” Mamí answered. “Your father is still out looking for Jorge this evening. You can’t always run and hide in the trees.”
    Mamí’s words angered me. “I’ve been looking for Jorge also,” I said. “You’re the one who decided to sendme to school.” I took Alicia roughly by the hand and pulled her toward the distant trees. Mamí didn’t understand that the forest was my sanctuary. I went there to see more than the dew shimmering on the leaves and the sun climbing into an empty sky. I looked for more in the forest than insects and lizards crawling along branches, more than woodpeckers landing to hammer at tree bark. I found trust among the trees. If I sat as still as the air, owls and eagles would fly past, close enough to be touched. I never reached for them, because I knew how that would betray the forest’s trust in me, and now, more than ever, I needed a place where I could trust and be trusted.
    “Don’t pull so hard on me,” little Alicia said, trying to free her hand.
    I gripped her hand tighter, but then let it loose. “I’m sorry, Ali,” I said. “This isn’t your fault. All of us are scared.”
    “You should be nice to me,” Alicia said in a loud voice.
    Reluctantly I smiled. If I needed to be responsible for one of my brothers or sisters, I was glad it wasAlicia. I often felt that Alicia heard voices the way I did. I watched her once in the front yard, her eyes closed and her arms spread wide like wings. She spun in circles with a quiet smile creasing her thin lips, her little body captivated and carried by a song no one else heard.
    I took Alicia’s hand gently and we walked farther into the forest to search for a small tree with friendly branches that were low and close together.
    “Did I tell you about the dog when he chased the rooster and the cat this afternoon?” Alicia asked. “The cat got so mad, she turned and started chasing the dog, and then the rooster started chasing the dog, too.”
    “And so what did you do?” I asked.
    “I started chasing all of them, and then they got in a fight. They made so much noise, Mamí came out.”
    “And what did Mamí do?” I asked.
    “She got mad and asked you to watch me.”
    As I smiled and lifted Alicia onto the low branch of a small tree, she wiggled with excitement. “Did I tell you about when—” she began.
    I held a finger to her lips. “Shhhhh.”
    Alicia squirmed with anticipation as I