1
No one could make out how the Cherry Tree came to be on that road. That had not been the plan. Even before the city was laid out, they had decided that every road will have only one kind of tree. This road was to have trees that bloomed red flowers. Another road would have only yellow flowers. Yet another road, orange. The next road, purple… Trees look pretty much the same when they are not flowering and some saplings look indistinguishable from each other. So, when they grew and flowered, everyone was surprised: What was a Cherry Tree with pink flowers doing on a street full of red flowers? Why was a Cherry Tree standing there with a halo of pink among the red? This was not the Cherry Tree Road! The Cherry Tree Road was on the other side of the park. Their pink flowers glowed in the spring sun. “How could they plant a cherry tree here?” they complained. The gardeners who had planted trees on that street, the officers who were in charge, came to see. They scratched their heads, baffled. “We have made a mistake,” they said. Clearly, someone had made a mistake. What could they do now, they wondered. Should they cut that tree and plant another tree with red flowers? Some of them said, “No, let us not cut a tree for so small a reason. It is not the tree’s fault that it has been planted there.” “It is not looking too bad, either,” others said. They all agreed that a tree with pink flowers was looking beautiful in a line of red flowers. So she remained. Every spring, when the street would be red with flowers, she stood alone, with her offering of pink, glowing against the blue sky. Gradually she became famous. People came to see her, the only pink-flowering tree on a street with red flowers. There was no other street like that in that city. The other trees were jealous. “I say, why doesn’t anyone come to see us when we flower?” they wondered. When, during spring, the Cherry Tree turned pink with flowers, they looked haughtily in the other direction. The Cherry Trees on the other side of the park could not understand why one of them was so far away. When the mild spring breeze blew through their branches, they whispered to each other. “Why is she on that street?” they asked. “She ought to be here, among us.” They tried to ask her, but their whispers were not loud enough to reach her, nor could they hear her reply. Slowly they stopped thinking about her. The lonely Cherry Tree on the wrong road looked at the trees with red flowers. Then she looked at the Cherry Trees on the other street and wondered, too. “Why am I here?” she asked herself. She never got to know why, though. The red-flower trees never paid her any attention. The Cherry Trees on the other road were too far for her to talk to. So she remained, alone on that road.
2
Every year, the trees shed their leaves in the winter and grew new leaves in spring. However, they did it at different times. The trees with red flowers would shed their leaves as soon as the first cold breeze of winter would blow through their branches. Cherry trees waited for the temperature to drop further. The Lonely Cherry Tree did not know what to do. She felt self-conscious standing with her green leaves after the other trees on her street had shed their leaves. She tried to be like her neighbours and began to shed her leaves earlier and earlier, till she shed her leaves along with them. The trees with red flowers got very angry, however. “Shameless,” they whispered to each other. “She is trying to be like us! One day she will try to bloom red flowers!” The Cherry Trees across from the park whispered among themselves too. “She cannot be like us,” they said. “See, she has lost her leaves already.” The Lonely Cherry Tree did not hear any of this. She kept on shedding her leaves every winter with the trees on her street, but every spring she was pink with her flowers while others were red. People came with their cameras to take her pictures. “Hmph,” said the trees with red flowers.
3
Winter was late that year. When the first shivers of cool air blew down from the tall mountains, the red-flower trees shed their leaves quickly. The Lonely Cherry Tree beside the park shed her leaves, too. The Cherry trees on the other side of the park waited. They needed the air to be colder, till it felt as if it was bringing icicles in its gusts. Then, their leaves would turn yellow and then, brown. Then they would fly off the branches with the cold breeze bearing them away far and wide. Winter would not come that year. People met each other and said that it was surprising that the calendar showed that they were in the middle of winter, yet, it was not cold! “Our world is getting warmer,” they said. “Feel the breeze. Do you realize it is not coming down from the hills? It is the warm breeze of the spring!” This is what the Cherry trees on the other side of the park had felt, too. When did winter end, they wondered! They had not even shed their leaves! Yet, the spring breeze had come, bearing the warmth they needed to bloom! Slowly, one by one, the confused Cherry trees began to bloom. Slowly their branches became pink with cherry flowers. Before long, all the trees on both sides of the Cherry Tree Road were brilliant pink in their bloom. People shook their heads sadly. “Even the trees have noticed that winter has not come this year,” said they. “So they have bloomed two months early. It is spring now!” They came with their cameras. They took pictures. The newspapers and TV were full of news of early spring. The Internet was full of pictures of flowers blooming early. “Hmph,” said the trees with red flowers. Then, not to be left out, they began to bloom too! In no time, even the street with trees with red flowers became red with new blossom. The Lonely Cherry Tree couldn’t understand what to do. She looked at the red flowers, she looked at the Cherry trees across the park. She knew it is not time to bloom, but what should she do when all the other trees are in bloom? She looked this way, she looked that way, still she could not decide what to do. Days passed. One day, two days, five, a week, ten days… Suddenly, the chilly winter breeze blew in from beyond the snow clad mountains. People dug into their boxes to bring out their sweaters and mufflers. The trees that had waited, let their brown leaves fly away in the cold breeze. Dumbly, the Cherry trees looked on as the cruel winter breeze tore at their delicate pink flowers and ripped them from their branches. They saw the pink petals on the road. On the other street, trees watched their red flowers roll in the dust. No one understood their pain and sorrow. No one, but the Lonely Cherry Tree. She had not bloomed yet. She had only watched and waited, not knowing what to do. As she let her bare branches soak in the mild winter sun, she heard the cry of the trees on her street, all the trees who had lost their red flowers. She could imagine the Cherry trees on the other street crying similarly. Only, she could say nothing to anyone.
4
One day, the winter abated. The cold mountain breeze was pushed back by the warm spring winds from the sea. “The summer is not far away,” said the breeze to the trees as it blew through their branches. Time to bloom. But, there was no flower left. Cherry trees grew new leaves. So did the trees of red flowers, but no one had a flower left. They had bloomed too early. The trees had lost all their flowers. No, that was not quite true. On the Street of Red Flowers, beside the park, was standing a Lonely Cherry Tree, glowing pink with the bloom of spring on every branch. She was the only one who waited. That is why, she was the only one who had bloomed at the right time. That Lonely Cherry Tree beside the park.
