Wishtree

The slender boy, whom Red recognizes as a local high schooler, approaches Red once before walking away and then returning to carve something quickly and purposefully into Red’s trunk. He’s careful to scan his surroundings while doing so. Red explains here that, despite the common misconception, trees do not appreciate people carving them up. They want to yell at the boy to stop—but that is against the rules of nature: “Trees are meant to listen, to observe, to endure” (45). Before the boy surveyed his work happily, Red realized that the metal object he held in his hand was a yellow screwdriver. 

Bongo reveals to Red the actual damage that the boy did to their trunk. Despite Red’s philosophizing that “time heals all wounds” (48), Bongo offers to exact revenge on the boy by squawking outside his window late at night or making “a deposit on his head” (49). Red immediately declines the offer, while Bongo muses that perhaps the boy’s action is an early act of wish-making, as May 1st is approaching. Red remarks that wishing day is always a bit of a disruption for her and the animals she shelters, who usually relocate in order to allow the humans their bustling time with Red, the wishtree.

However, Red understands that the day, in which humans articulate their longings, is an important one: “I understood [the day’s] history and my role in it,” they offer, “I knew people were full of longings” (50). By listening to an uncomfortable conversation that a passing mother has with her toddler, Red learns that the slender boy carved the word “LEAVE” into Red’s trunk. The book also contains an illustration of the threatening and emphatic carving. 

Red ruminates about the surrounding houses, for which Red feels a deep affection. Long before humans built the houses, Red stood on the street. According to Red, “Roots can be unruly. Mine explored the earth below both houses, pirouetted around their plumbing, anchored their foundations” (54). Red recounts that many families had come and gone from those houses over the years—each with their own unique cultural traditions, languages, and food. Red sees this diversity as a key element of their neighborhood—and a beautiful one at that.

Red recalls that Samar’s family is just the latest transplant from a faraway country: “Their ways were unfamiliar. Their words held new music” (55). However, this time, the surrounding families do not welcome them kindly. Samar would sometimes arrive home with a gaggle of bullies in tow. Red puzzles over this seemingly arbitrary cruelty, trying to figure out if it is Samar’s mother’s headscarf that causes this treatment. Throughout it all, Red maintains their impartial silence. But their patience eventually begins to wane. 

Soon, neighbors worry about the word carved into Red’s trunk, and it isn’t long before Francesca, who technically owns Red due to Red’s placement in her front yard, calls the police. Red is familiar with the two officers who arrive—Sandy and Max—because they have come previously to fetch Francesca’s two naughty kittens named Lewis and Clark from Red’s branches.

In conversation with the officers, Francesca reveals that she sees Red as a persistent inconvenience: “Every year, the day after Wishing Day, I swear I’m going to cut that thing down” (59). Although Francesca muses that the vandal could want her gone, Sandy asserts that that is most probably not the case. The officers begin to erect caution tape around Red. While the officers guess that the vandalization could be an early wish, Francesca corrects them: “People are supposed to make their wishes on a rag or a piece of paper, not carve it into the trunk [...] that’s why, back in Ireland, they called these ‘raggy trees’ [...] In any case, ‘LEAVE’ is not a wish. It’s a threat” (59). 

Upon surveying Red, Francesca tells the officers that Red is disrupting the pathways and also causing problems for her home’s plumbing. She also tells them that perhaps it is finally time to get rid of Red and end the tradition of Wishing Day, which she views as a nuisance more than anything else. The officers inform her that they will wrap up their investigation in a few days, after which Francesca will be free to do as she wishes with Red. She tells them that her father wanted to cut the tree down long ago, but that her mother would not allow it, on the grounds of family lore that Francesca calls “soft-hearted nonsense” (63). She resolves to take the action upon herself, after grousing unhappily about the vandal’s message. 

Red intimates that they have heard Francesca toy with the idea of cutting them down in the past many times over the years—and that they do feel bad about disrupting the pathways around them with their roots. While Red remains basically unphased, the animal babies that Red shelters, on the other hand, are not. The family of skunks, whose mother, named FreshBakedBread (as skunks always name themselves after pleasant smells), must field her babies’ urgent and worried questions. They ask her if Red will be OK, and FreshBakedBread assures them that Red is resilient. Red listens to this conversation and frets that Harold, the smallest owl baby and the family’s greatest worrier, will worry greatly from this turn of events. Bongo assures Red that she will smooth things over with the various animal families that Red shelters. But when Bongo refuses to jibe Red about a corny joke the tree makes—as is customary in their relationship—Red begins to worry. 

Samar is the most salient of Red’s concerns. Red wonders if Samar will assume, as the officers did, that the vandal’s message was meant for her and her family. Samar arrives home alone from school the next day, and a local newspaper reporter has begun interviewing passersby. When the reporter asks Stephen if he knows why someone might have carved “LEAVE” into the trunk, he only glances “behind at Samar, sending her the shadow of a sad smile: “Without answering the reporter, he [heads] toward his house” (70). When Samar sees Stephen interacting with the reporter, she draws closer to Red, and gasps when she sees the vandal’s message. Although the reporter tries to get her comment, Samar turns and enters her house silently: “Standing tall, reaching deep” (71). 

At about 6pm that same day, the police arrive to question people. Red watches as they try to extract information from Stephen’s parents, who only shake their heads, close their front door, and draw their curtains. They also have a conversation with Samar’s parents, who also eventually close their door and draw their curtains.

Red has spent the afternoon consoling her animal friends, who are worried both about themselves and about Red. Red’s sense of unease is beginning to grow. Red love their life and wants to continue witnessing the beauty of life that surrounds them. By the same token, Red accepts that if their time has come, then it has come. Red has already enjoyed a rich, full, and long life. Red is, however, very worried about the new babies living in their hollows—but their concern for Samar is paramount. They reveal that this concern is most probably because Samar reminds them “so much of another little girl from another time long ago. A little girl [they’d] managed to shelter successfully. Francesca’s great-grandmother” (75). 

Samar journeys out to visit Red well after midnight, sitting at Red’s base on a blanket. As always happens, “one by one, the babies [venture] out to see her” (78). The raccoon babies, who are all named You because “[r]accoon mothers are notoriously forgetful [and] don’t bother with traditional names” (78), are the first visitors.

Bongo lands on Samar’s shoulder and greets her with a mimicked “hello.” which Samar returns. She gently deposits “a tiny silver key attached to a long, faded red ribbon in Samar’s open hand” (79). Samar accepts the key graciously, calling it beautiful. Red sorrowfully wonders how much longer they will be able to relish such lovely moments. Although Red firmly believes in the dictum, “We must grow as we grow, as our seeds decided long ago” (80), Red simultaneously feels that something has been missing from their generally safe life. Red notices that Stephen is watching the scene from a window in his greenhouse, then recalls that they saw something very familiar in Stephen’s eyes as he watched: A wish.