“Dad, how come some trees turn red like that?”
“They’re shy.”
“Shy?”
“Yeah. It’s autumn, and everyone knows all the leaves fall off the trees in autumn. Look, some of them have already started.”
“So?”
“So, the trees know they’ll be naked soon. The shy ones are blushing.”
The autumn monster has awoken. Hungry after three long seasons of hibernation, she stretches and gets to work without delay. First, she chooses a maple, her favorite, to begin, and puts her lips to the bottom of a leaf where it meets the stem. She takes one last look around to make sure no one is watching and – she sucks out all the green. SLURP!
His mother’s jaw dropped when she saw the little boy’s stash of maple samaras hidden under his bed. “There’s an entire generation of maple trees here,” she said.
The boy gathered them into his arms and shook his head. “No, mom, don’t you know they’re helicopters?”
Jennifer Shelby 