"Where did they find this boat?" The boat we were riding in was small, dirty white, and was being powered by what seemed to be the world's most busted outboard motor. It wheezed so badly and so often that I kept expecting it to die and leave us stranded in this unusual place. The river wasn't particularly wide or deep, but it did meander pretty sharply and had several areas of extremely dense vegetation and tree stands so black and dark that the area looked totally uninhabited. I knew there were people in there though, because the boat's guide told us that he came from a village in there.
The dirty blue water lapped lazily against the sides of the tiny boat, as we couldn't have been moving at more than a few miles per hour. It didn't matter though, we didn't have to be anywhere any time soon.
I was on a trip to visit a remote place located deep in the forest that had a name so difficult for most people to pronounce that they just called it "The Big Tree". I never saw the name written anywhere either, so I found this to be rather strange. Regardless, I accepted this and carried on.
The trees became thicker now, and started to overhang much of the river. Since the river was still pretty wide, nobody was worried. As we came around the next few bends, the other guides started to get visibly excited. They took me along a little further until we approached a small wooden jetty. They let me off (I had paid them earlier), I gave them a tip for their troubles, and they were on their way. I set off along a path into the trees, and walked for what felt like hours. It was wider and better kept than I had expected, so walking wasn't much of a chore at all.
I approached what smelled like another river. As I rounded a bend, I found myself looking at the most improbable water vessel that I have ever seen before. It was as if the laws of engineering and science had been suspended. This massive white boat was impossibly thin-hulled, and had no support structure of any kind inside. It looked similar to what a kiwi fruit looks like after the fruit has been scooped out. Or the way an avocado looks after the same thing happens to it. The boat looked a bit like a gigantic version of a leaf gently resting on the water. Its thin white ribs made it also look rather skeletal, like the inverted ribcage of a huge whale. Of course, way up on the bow was the smallest pilothouse, with one chair and the helm. I didn't even see where the engine was.
That didn't really matter though, because as I was standing there admiring this bizarre piece of marine engineering, a man called out "Hey there fella, what brings you here and what can I do for you?" I didn't really know what to say. I guess I had expected someone slightly more, how shall I say, "native"?
I replied "I am admiring your boat and was told to expect to find someone, I am not sure if you are that someone or not!" He said "that old boat does what it needs to do, and I'm the only person around for miles, so yes, I believe that I am." He went on to tell me that he uses the boat to haul trash. My jaw went slack. "You haul trash. To this place deep in the forest. Why?" He said, "follow me and I will show you".
After a while, I saw a shadow and turned around. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It is as if this tree appeared by magic. I was looking upon the tallest tree I had ever seen, taller than the mighty Sequoias, taller than the giant Redwoods. Its base was slightly up a hill from where I was near the riverbank, and in front of it was a massive trash pile. The trash pile was like you would imagine, white and black plastic bags as far as I could tell, some broken equipment, paper, and mounds of assorted shapeless rubbish. Kind of like the trash you might see by the side of the railroad or where a sign is posted that reads "NO DUMPING". The trash was smoldering in one area.
It didn't make sense at all. The tree was massive, it was at least 2,000 feet tall, with enormous green branches, bushy and swollen with beautiful emerald green leaves. Again, we will reference the Sequoias. This tree was similar, but much leafier at the top. All near the base, probably the lower 400 feet, were massive holes, probably big enough to fit a two-story house inside. The smoldering trash pile was sending up ashes and other material that seemed to be getting sucked into these holes in the tree. It was as if the tree was a giant chimney.
The man with the white boat stood next to me and said "do you understand what is going on here? It is taking the rubbish of 'civilization' and turning it into food for itself. It grows bigger and healthier the more trash we give it." I was stunned. This plant, this tree, this organism, was living off the waste and rubbish of our greedy and wasteful society, and our trash kept it alive. "The holes are the secret, you know." "They act like a chimney and pull material through. The inside of the tree has a thick fibrous material that filters it out, like whale baleen." Wow. "Would you like to take a closer look?" Of course I did.
I walked to the base of the tree and looked up. I felt like I could just lay down and stare at the top of the tree, particularly the little section near the top partially obscured by the mist, for a long time. As I was there thinking about that, I felt a strong warm breeze. "Whatever happens next, just stay calm." I had no idea what he meant or what would happen next.
There is no other way to explain this, so I won't bother dancing around it. I found myself lifting off the ground, pulled by the strong updraft from the tree's house-sized holes. It didn't feel like standing in a windstorm or hurricane, to me it just felt like a warm breeze. It didn't matter though. I was being lifted off the ground, being propelled up along the side of the tree, moving further and further from the base, climbing rapidly. It didn't even worry me that I might hit the branches at the top, because it felt like I could control my flight. As I moved higher and higher, the breeze got cooler, and before I knew it, I had cleared the top of the tree and kept going.
You might wonder how I was going to get back down. Of course I'll answer that little question. At the top of my ascent, I felt the breeze tug me sideways and I lazily flipped over, to point headfirst towards the ground. The fall was so gentle, and everything seemed slow and wonderful. Euphoric. A few seconds later I was on the ground next to the strange man. "That is what I do all day. Find trash, feed the fire, and fly." I asked if I could go again. He nodded. Up I went, over and over and over. It was wonderful.
Eventually I realized that I couldn't go on like this forever and I asked the man what I could do. He told me to start mining the landfills of the world to feed this tree. This tree, this magnificent old giant plant, is actually holding much of the rock of the earth together! Without it, tremendous earthquakes would wreak havoc on the planet and life as we know it would be destroyed. I took it upon myself to return home, tell nobody of what I had seen, and make it my mission to return with an even larger boat to feed the fire. Why am I writing this now, you wonder? Well, this all happened thirty years ago. I am getting old, and I will need others to come here to take care of the tree but not exploit it for monetary gain. Please come soon.
-The Keeper
By Ben Kromphardt, c. 2016.
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