The big oak tree

When Thomas was a young boy, he used to sit under the great oak tree that towered over the hill, about 300 meters from his house.

Summers were long and hot, but the breeze that swirled around the tree carried the fresh air from the cold grass that grew in the shade of its giant friend.

Hours would pass while Thomas told the great oak stories about distant mountains covered in snow, sailors from faraway seas, and characters who had made life journeys around the globe. One of those stories he kept coming back to: the story of a girl with an extraordinary gift. She could grow a very special kind of flower. A flower so unique that it only lived through one winter before dying. So delicate that, if she was lucky, it would leave just one seed so she could plant it again the next year.

Years passed, and the boy grew up to become a fine piano player. The old oak tree, now more than a thousand years old, began to die. One day, while returning from a tour in Russia, Thomas climbed the hill and sat beneath his old friend of many adventures. He spoke of the flower girl, who had become the only woman in the world capable of growing that rare and delicate flower. In fact, she was the only woman, but not the only person. During his trip to Russia, he had met an old man who had the same gift, but whose flowers had stopped producing seeds years ago. The old man was heartbroken, for his life’s purpose was coming to an end. So Thomas decided to search for the flower woman, hoping she could share her secret and restore the old man’s joy.

By then, the oak tree could no longer feed itself from the minerals of the earth and eventually died. Thomas was devastated, but determined to bring it back to life.
“How?” — you may ask.
By cutting it down and building from its wood the most beautiful piano ever seen. With it, he would travel the world in search of the flower lady.

Fifteen years passed, and Thomas had become a world-renowned composer. But he never stopped looking for her. One day, just before deciding to stop traveling so much due to a kidney problem, after a concert in Vienna, he stopped by a lovely little flower shop and saw it. A crystal flower standing proudly in the middle of the room. He knew what it was. He had found his flower lady.

He asked for the woman who had grown it, and the shop girl told him she had gone to the State Opera House to hear the world-famous Thomas Birch. He ran back to the Opera, and at the door stood the most beautiful woman, with her unique flower in her hair. He knew it was her. He introduced himself. She was so surprised to see that the composer of the music she loved was standing before her, speaking to her.

They talked for hours. He told her about how he became a composer, about his old oak friend, the summers, the stories, and the old flower man with his sadness. He asked if she could help him bring joy and purpose back to the old man, if he was still alive. She was astonished, frightened, and happy all at once, and told him yes — she would go with him and reveal the simple secret behind the seed.

They traveled all day and all night, by plane and by train, and when they finally arrived at the old man’s house, he was very frail and dying, but he still remembered Thomas and the promise he had made to himself. When the old man saw the lady, he cried and said:
— “Thank you! Thank you for coming. I don’t need to grow more flowers, but I do need to know your secret.”
— “It’s simple,” she said. “When I plant the seed in a vase, every day from dusk till dawn, I play a record of the most beautiful oak piano you’ve ever heard. And when the seed blooms, I climb the hill near my house and plant it beneath the big oak tree.”

The old man passed away, but today a mighty oak rises thirty meters above his grave, the tree Thomas and the Crystal Flower Lady planted, where they chose to spend the rest of their lives together.