I thought I should give you all something to read for a change. But I'm trying to sort out my photo album at the moment (something I should have done ages ago). So, this is another cheat entry... one of my short stories.

Gracie’s Tree.

    It was only the very topmost leaves of the tree that Gracie could see from the window of her cell now.  Apart from the sky, the confining walls around her and the creatures that had brought her here, the tree was the only thing that she could see.  It was outside, it was free, and as silly as it seemed, it made her feel a little better to think of it as being her tree.

    It was a weird looking tree, one of the weirdest that she’d ever seen. The leaves were long and thin, reaching up towards the sky like elongated green fingers.  She couldn’t see the tree’s trunk anymore, but she knew that it was tall, thick and had no branches.  At first the sight of it had intrigued her, but over the years she had become used to it being there.  Now she spent hours on end just staring at it. 

    There was a time when she would pull herself up to the small barred window and look out, but now she didn’t bother. Gracie was sure that she would die here, inside the smooth, cold rocks that had become her prison and she just wanted to get it over and done with. 

    It was no use dreaming of being free.  Gracie had lost all hope that she would ever see any of her family again and she had long ago tired of wondering about all the unknown and scary things that she saw outside.  She could still remember what she had seen though. 

    Outside was a strange and alien world.  There had been many bizarre looking trees out there.  Some were just like her tree and some reminded her of the ones she had known and played in as a child.  There were tall thin ones, short squarish ones and others that were shaped like things that she couldn't even begin to imagine. 

But the most abundant of the trees had no leaves at all.  She would have thought that they were dead if not for the long vines that stretched from one to the next and the next.  If the trees had been dead the vines would have wilted and crumbled, but they didn’t.  Even the strongest of winds hadn’t been able to break them from the trees.

Then there was the grass.  There were patches of ground where it refused to grow, and Gracie often wondered if the ground there was poisoned.  From what she could see it was black and packed solid, so she figured that it probably was.  She wondered if the grass here knew that, maybe it could think.  Maybe it knew that it would die if it ventured out onto the black ground.

Gracie had learned to accept the trees and the grass, but it was the other things that she saw that continued to frighten her.  The most frightening, of course, were the creatures that had brought her here.  They were ugly creatures with almost no hair and multi-coloured skin.  It might not have been so bad if there were only a few, but they were everywhere, hundreds of them, maybe even thousands. 

These strange creatures kept monsters as pets, savage monsters with deep growly voices.  They were of all different colours and shapes.  Some had two legs, some had four, but they all worked with the creatures happily, carrying them safely from one place to the next.  It seemed that these monsters were afraid of the grass because they kept to the areas where the grass wouldn’t grow.  They scuttled along very quickly, even though their short fat legs never seemed to move at all.

There were other monsters flying high up in the sky and occasionally in the distance she would see even more, all following each other like ants.  They chased each other along, never passing each other or changing their course… always following the same path, nose to tail.  Gracie had no idea what they were doing but she thought that it was probably a mating ritual of some sort.

There were other monsters as well... the grass eaters.  The creatures would take these monsters out onto the grass to eat.  They were blind, Gracie knew this because the creatures had to push them around to show them where the longest blades of grass were.  They were much smaller than the other monsters but they were by far the noisiest of all.

Even the mountains, if you could call them that, were like none that Gracie had ever seen.  They were more like rocky growths that jutted up out of the ground.  There seemed to be hundreds of them, all clustered around her prison.  Some were taller than others and no two looked exactly alike, but all of them were perfectly straight and had many eyes.

During the day they seemed to sleep, Gracie knew this because their eyes were dark and shiny, but at night the mountains woke and their eyes lit up.  They glowed so brightly that even the ground around them shone.  Sometimes she could see the creatures inside their eyes and she found herself hoping that the mountains had eaten them... and that they had died very painful deaths.

Gracie hated these vile creatures that had taken her freedom away from her.  She would be perfectly happy if they all died.  She knew that the creatures were the ones who brought her food, but it wouldn’t worry her to starve… she had stopped eating anyway. 

It wasn’t just that they had abducted her from her home, they had treated her badly as well.  She had ugly scars all over her body from the times when they had beaten her and her hair was limp and thin from malnutrition.  But the worst was that they had forced her into having babies... babies that she hadn’t wanted... babies that had been taken away from her soon after they were born.

When she thought of how much she hated these creatures it made her feel ashamed.  She had never felt that way towards any creature before.  Not even her bratty brother Cal, who used to get so much pleasure from teasing her until she cried. 

Cal had always been their father’s favourite, even though he was younger.  Gracie’s father had been fiercely protective of his family but he rarely spent time with any of them except for Cal.  Cal was the strongest, the fastest and the smartest.  Their father spent a lot of time with him, preparing him for the possibility that he might one day have to take over the task of looking after the family.

Gracie hadn’t been jealous of Cal because of that.  He was a boy so it made sense that he would take over their father’s responsibility.  It even made a kind of sense that her father all but ignored the rest of them in favour of Cal.  But Cal had abused the privilege and he had teased her and her sisters ruthlessly because of it. 

Whenever he had made her cry Gracie would crawl up onto her mother’s lap and tell her all about what he had said.  Her mother would never chastise Cal but she would hold Gracie tightly, singing to her as she rocked her gently in her arms.  No matter what happened her mother always knew how to make Gracie feel better.

Gracie felt like crying as she thought of her family.  She missed them so badly.  She missed her mother, her sisters, and her new baby brother.  She even missed her father’s gruff presence.  Gracie felt so alone that she would welcome even Cal’s boasting voice if it meant that she had someone to talk to. 

But all Gracie had was her tree.

Gracie’s eyes were closing of their own accord… she was very tired.  She’d been tired a lot lately but this wasn’t the same.  Before, her tiredness was because she had refused to eat for many days, but now she felt as though she couldn’t move even if she wanted to.  It was probably the big feathery mosquito that had bitten her earlier.  Maybe the mosquito had a poison.  Gracie hoped so. 

Over the last couple of days Gracie’s body had barely moved, except for the soft rise and fall of her chest as she breathed.  If she’d had a mind to she could have reached down and felt her own ribs, but she couldn’t be bothered with that either.  She just wanted to die. 

She had been so still that several of the creatures had come to look in on her as she’d lain listlessly on her crude bedding.  One of them was a creature that Gracie had never seen before.  It was smaller than most of the others so she assumed that it was a female, although it had always been hard to tell. 

It had been next to her cell for almost all of the time, speaking to her gently and offering her delicious looking pieces of fruit that she never accepted.  She wished that it would just leave her alone but this one seemed different... it seemed to want Gracie to live.

Gracie could hear the noises that the creatures made as they spoke to each other. Vaguely she wondered what they were saying to each other.  She had been here for a long time now, but she had never been able to understand their speech.  It sounded cruel and unfeeling to her and it grated on her nerves.  Even if she had been able to learn their language she wouldn’t have wanted to. 

They were probably wondering why she refused to eat.  Gracie could have told them that it wasn’t because of the food that they gave her... although it never had been all that good.  They gave her mostly fruits and vegetables, many of them foods that she had never tasted before and most of them way too ripe.  No, Gracie had lost her will to live.  What was the use of living like this?

Gracie turned her head to look out at her tree as she fell down into the darkness of sleep.  At least she could count on her tree, she knew that it would be there when she woke… if she ever woke.  As Gracie finally fell asleep she began to dream.  It was the same old nightmares that she dreamt every night.  It started with her family…

“Come on Gracie, I’ll race you,” Cal said.  “Let’s see who can make it to the top first.”

“No I don’t want to,” Gracie replied sulkily.  “You know that you’ll win, so what’s the use?”

“Ok I’ll give you a head start,” he said, his eyes twinkling cheekily.  “You start climbing and I’ll wait until you reach the third branch.  If you beat me you can sit next to Dad at dinner.” 

Gracie looked at Cal solemnly.  It was a great honour to be able to sit next to their father when he ate, an honour that was usually only bestowed upon Cal or their mother.  If she was quiet and well behaved during the meal he might even share a little something with her.

Gracie jumped up, reaching for the first branch and pulling herself up.  She looked down at Cal, who was smiling at her as he waited on the ground.  Gracie had a plan.  She would take her time until she reached the third branch, then she would climb for all she was worth.  She really wanted to sit next to her father tonight.

She pulled herself carefully up onto the second branch and then she looked down again.  Cal was still waiting on the ground, but Gracie knew that as soon as her fingers touched the next branch he would start climbing.  She took a second to look upwards, mentally mapping out the route that she would take. 

Taking a deep breath, Gracie leapt upwards, pulled herself up and scrambled for the next branch.  She pulled herself up onto it, and the next, and the next, quickly falling into a steady fluid rhythm.  She began to breathe heavier and her arms began to ache, but she kept going, knowing that Cal was just below her.  She could hear him, his breath a little more even than her own.

“Come on Gracie,” he taunted from behind her.  “You’ll have to go faster than that if you want to beat me.” 

Gracie tried harder, she really did, but it wasn’t long before she saw Cal on the branch next to her.  Then he was on the branch above her.  He was laughing as he climbed and she could see that he wasn’t even trying hard.  She wanted to quit, but she kept going, hoping against hope that he might suddenly lose his grip and falter.

But he didn’t, he was too sure footed for that to happen.  He reached the top branch before she did, and then he turned to look down at her.

“Oh, too bad Gracie,” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.  “It looks like I win again.  You’ll never get to sit next to Dad at this rate.  He doesn’t like losers.”

Gracie felt like crying, but she didn’t.  She was getting too big for that now.  She could have gone to her mother and she would have held her tight, but Gracie didn’t do that either.  Her mother had been very busy with the baby lately and Gracie knew that she would be tired.  She didn’t need another teary brat to worry about.

Gracie sat down and tried to ignore Cal as he danced around on the branch above her.  It was hard though, he had started to chant, mocking her in a loud voice.

“Gracie’s a loser, Gracie’s a loser…”

She was sitting quietly, hoping that Cal would just give up and go away when they heard the first of the thunder.  It didn’t sound like any thunder that Gracie had ever heard but she couldn’t think of anything else that would make such a loud banging sound.  It made her jump, and it frightened Cal so badly that he almost fell from the tree.

Suddenly all hell broke loose.  Gracie could hear her father calling out loudly, telling them that there was danger, that they should run and hide.  She looked down to see her mother and sisters coming towards her, her mother calling for her as she ran.  Her father ran off in the other direction, towards the sound of the thunder. 

Cal jumped down through the branches, leaping quickly from one to the next until he dropped nimbly down to the ground and raced after their father.  Gracie’s head told her that she should follow her mother... but her heart had other ideas.  Maybe if she showed her father how brave she was he would treat her with a little more respect.

Gracie’s feet touched the ground before she knew it and she followed Cal and her father.  Her heart was hammering but she forced herself to keep going.  That was when she had first seen the creatures.  They were the ones who were making the loud thundering sound.

Her father was running towards the creatures, yelling fiercely that they should go away and leave his family alone.  Then she heard the thunder again and her father fell to the ground with a heavy thud.  Gracie called his name but he didn’t move.  He lay dead on the ground, his blood flowing from his body and soaking the ground beneath him.

Gracie watched as Cal stood up straight and roared his anger at the creatures.  He’d been nowhere near as tall as their father, nor as solid, but he was an imposing sight nonetheless.  For a moment Gracie felt proud of her brother, impressed by his bravery in the presence of these scary creatures.  Seconds later Cal fell too, after another of the thundery sounds.

Gracie cried out her anguish at the deaths of her father and brother. What would they do now with no men to look after them?  One of the creatures saw her and called to the others.  They turned towards her so Gracie fled.  She ran as fast as she could but she didn’t get far.

Suddenly Gracie was scooped up off the ground by what appeared to be a mass of tangled vines.  She had no idea what was happening but she could hear the creatures getting closer.  She had never been so afraid in her whole life.  What would they do to her?

Gracie wasn’t even sure what happened next.  She knew that the creatures were all around her... she could see them, smell them and hear their constant chatter.  She was so scared that she lashed out at them whenever they came close.  She hit one of the creatures and it fell down, bumping its head on a rock.  Gracie laughed when she saw its blood seeping onto the ground... but then another of the creatures touched her and she fainted. 

When Gracie woke up it was dark and she was inside a tiny cage... it was so small that she couldn’t even stand up.  When she looked around she could see more cages, all lined up in a row.  Her mother was inside the next one, the baby crying fearfully as he held onto her, his arms wrapped around her neck.  Gracie couldn’t hold her tears and she reached out to her mother through the bars.  She gently took hold of Gracie’s hand and they cried together all through the night.

The next morning several of the creatures came and lifted the cages onto the back of one of the growly monsters.  Gracie had never seen one before and she wondered if it was going to eat them.  The monster didn’t eat them but it did take them a long way away before it stopped. 

Several of the creatures took her cage off the back of the monster and it sped away with her family still on its back.  That was the last time that she’d seen any of them.

Gracie was taken into the prison that she’d spent the rest of her life in.  It was cold and Gracie hated it, but at least it was bigger than the cage.  Over the years she saw no one except for the creatures and the strange men that they brought to her… the fathers of her babies.

The first man that the creatures brought to her was much older than she was, older even than her father.  They put him into her cell and he stayed with her for several nights.  He forced himself on her as often as he could and Gracie cried out in pain and fear... but no one came to help her. 

Gracie couldn’t eat, she couldn’t even sleep she was so afraid of him.  One night she cracked and as the man slept she killed him with her bare hands.  She waited until he was deep asleep and she hit him over and over again.  He hardly even moved.  Gracie wasn’t even sure if he ever woke up.

In the morning the creatures came and took his body away.  They had long sticks that filled Gracie with the greatest pain she had ever known, otherwise she would have killed them as well.  Some time later Gracie noticed that her stomach was bulging and she knew that she was pregnant.  She gave birth to a girl baby but she would have nothing to do with her and eventually the creatures took her away.

Much later the creatures brought another man to her.  This one was not much more than a boy, but he was strong.  Gracie couldn’t fight him when he forced himself on her but when he went to sleep she killed him too.  Another baby resulted, a boy this time, but again Gracie ignored him, leaving him lying on the cold ground.  The creatures took him away from her as well.

Gracie only ever saw one other man, but this time the creatures didn’t leave them alone.  One of them stayed near the door to her prison, one of the long sticks in its hand.  She knew that it would use the stick on her if she tried to kill this man.

But this man was not like the others.  He talked to her softly and he told her that he would never try to take her by force.  He told her that she was pretty, and when he touched her his hands were very gentle.  His name was Brin, he was handsome and kind but Gracie still refused him, and soon the creatures took him away again.

After that Gracie was all alone in her prison for a long time.  She refused to call it living... in her mind she was only existing.  For a while she hoped that she would one day taste freedom again, but finally she gave up.  She wanted to die... so she just stopped eating.

Gracie’s head was fuzzy when she opened her eyes again.  She could see the creature sitting next to her, the one that had tried so hard to get her to eat again.  It placed its hand on her head, gently stroking her hair as it spoke softly to her.  For a second Gracie stared at it, suddenly wishing that she could understand what it was saying, but when she moved the creature stood up quickly.  As it left her prison Gracie could almost taste its fear of her.

Groggily she turned her head, looking around to see her tree outside the window.  But the window wasn’t there and neither was her tree. She looked around her frantically.  Where was it?  It had been the only thing that she could count on and now it wasn’t there.  What had happened to it?

It took Gracie a few seconds to realise that she wasn’t in her prison any more.  She was still in a prison, but not like the one she had lived in for so long.  This one looked like a cave.  There were bars at the entrance, but outside she could see grass, water and trees… many, many trees, even some that looked just like her tree.

She could smell the grass and the water, and she could feel the air moving around her, blowing gently through her hair.  She stood up and walked unsteadily over to the opening, her feet not quite wanting to do as she told them.  She was almost there when the bars slid to the side and Gracie stumbled backwards fearfully. 

Soon the bars were gone and she could see that she was free to go outside.  It had been so long since Gracie had been outside that for a moment she wasn’t sure that she wanted to.  Nonetheless, she slowly inched towards the opening of the cave and poked her head out.  She couldn’t believe her eyes.

There were trees all around her... and rocks... and even a sparkling clear river.  She couldn’t believe the amount of space in this prison.  But what was that?  Could it be?  Yes… yes it was.  There in the trees, on the ground, on the rocks… there were at least a dozen gorillas in the enclosure with her... men, women and children of all ages. 

Was this a dream?  Was she in heaven?  Gracie didn’t care.  She looked around her and her heart sang.  At long last she had someone to talk to.

“Gracie? Gracie, is that you?” 

Gracie turned towards the voice and tears sprung to her eyes.  After all this time… her mother was standing right there in front of her. Gracie reached out and her mother took into her arms, just like she had all those years ago.  They rocked gently backwards and forwards, laughing and crying all at the same time. 

Soon her sisters joined them, and the baby boy who had grown up to be such a handsome young man.  After all the hugs and tears were done with they introduced Gracie to the other gorillas in their group.  It was then that Gracie noticed Brin sitting on top of a tall rock, his silver back glistening handsomely in the sunlight. 

Brin climbed down off his rock and came towards her.  The group parted as he came closer and Gracie suddenly felt a little afraid of him.  Would he remember her?  Would he hurt her for rejecting him all those years ago?

“Hello Gracie,” Brin said with a smile.  He held his hand out and offered her a ripe fat mango, the most beautiful mango that she had seen for years.  Gracie accepted it with a broad smile… he did remember her.  She was so happy to see him again.  The other gorillas started whooping and singing, rejoicing loudly the fact that Gracie had joined them again.

Many of the creatures were there to see Gracie’s first meeting with the other gorillas… it had been all over the TV, the newspapers and the radio.

“Come and help us to welcome Gracie, the newest edition to our zoo,” the ads said.

Gracie could see them but she barely acknowledged their presence.  They were no threat after all, they were on the other side of the river peering at her through tall metal bars.  There were the big ones that she’d become so used to seeing, but there were small ones as well... their children maybe? 

Up until this moment Gracie hadn’t thought of the creatures as having children.  To her they had just been cruel and unfeeling creatures... creatures that could have been dredged up from the very depths of her worst nightmares. 

The creature that had been so kind and gentle towards Gracie was there too. Her name was Ellen, and she was feeling very pleased with herself.  She was glad that she had rescued Gracie from that cold and forbidding place.  She must have had such a pitiful life.

It was plain to Ellen that Gracie would settle nicely into her new home.  She seemed to have made friends already.  Not bad, considering that she had been kept in virtual isolation within an illegal breeding program.  She hadn’t encountered a gentle soul for over fourteen years... and it was no wonder that she had killed the males that they’d brought to her.

When the men running the program had been jailed, Ellen and her colleagues had rescued several gorillas, including Brin.  Gracie had been ill, so they’d kept her isolated until they had assured themselves that she wasn’t contagious.  She was the last to have been brought here.

Ellen knew that she would have a hard task ahead of her to win Gracie’s trust... but once she did, she was sure that they would become good friends. They’d told her that Gracie had been savage but she could see that she wasn’t. 

  How can anybody possibly be so cruel to such a beautiful and intelligent animal? she wondered as she watched the gorillas playing inside their enclosure.  She understood that Gracie must have been terrified when the poachers had invaded her home.  It wasn’t her fault that she’d killed one of them.  Besides, there were times when Ellen felt like doing just that herself.