That Saturday started as any normal day. I came downstairs to see my mother putting away the groceries. She always woke up early on Saturday morning to go shopping, hoping to beat the crowd. She was usually back home before lunch.

But this time I noticed that she had way more grocery bags than usual. I opened one and saw two bags of flour.  Not bad.  I opened another to find two more bags of flour.  I found a total of eight bags of flour.

“Uh, ma…..”

“Yep!”  Mom chirped was she whipped around the kitchen putting away groceries.

“I understand stacking up, but is there a reason for the eight bags of flour?” I asked as I helped to put away the groceries.

“You know there hasn’t been any new wheat that grew this season, don't you?”

I nodded.

“While the world does have a large wheat storage and they say we don’t have to worry about a famine, flour is flying off of the grocery shelves. I thought it would just be prudent to make sure we have some extra.”

I nodded again.

“So, I figured it was time to handle that.  There were only two bags left after I got my eight.”

I forked an eyebrow, “I’m surprised you left those two. How kind of you!”

“Not really…..” Mom grinned, “.....Ran out of coupons.”

I burst out laughing, “Ma!”

With a grin, she shrugged as she put food into the refrigerator. I turned to the counter and saw of four extra large bottles of honey. This wasn’t a surprise.

Earlier that spring there was a concern about the very low, almost nonexistent, number of bees. I had heard that the beekeepers were flipping out. There were still bees in the hives but very few would come out to pollinate the flowers.  PBS had done a special on it at the start of the summer. This seemed to be a worldwide problem. Honey had also been flying off the shelves in fear of a shortage.  I’m surprised my mother managed to find as many bottles as she did. We already had three large bottles in storage, not counting the one already opened.

But Mom's wheat and honey reminded me of what we had talked about this week in Psych class. What if the Earth decided to take back the things that humans have taken for granted? What would happen then? I felt the hairs on the back of my neck prick up. It was scary to think about. We have mis-used this Earth in so many ways. Was it finally going to do the same to us?

But honestly, if it did I couldn’t fault it. It took Humans a millennium to get to where we are now. There were so many times we could have done better but didn’t. Collectively we didn’t. Was it too late now?

And then a radical idea popped into my head...well, maybe it wasn’t so radical. The news about the logging boss who was found with a tree root wrapped around him like a python... could…could that tree have known of this man's intentions?...known and fought back?...is that what happened?

Naturally, trees could not come alive like that...I thought. That would be pure fantasy. But since I met Avi...wellll.  If Avi was some kind of bird spirit that was self aware then what did that say about the tree? And if there were bird spirits, were there also tree spirits?  Water spirits?  Fire spirits?  

And if they all had the ability to be self aware……?

Fear washed over me as I took my usual evening walk around the park. I had thought about these things earlier in the day but now these thoughts were with me on my walk.  I was suddenly hit with a constricting feeling. I couldn’t help but to look at each tree as I passed by and wonder if it had this self awareness. Was it aware that I was walking by at that moment? Usually I relished a walk in nature; but on that day I became anxious.

I found myself at my usual, most loved place. But instead of finding my usual peace I became anxious at being surrounded by trees.  A bird flew overhead. It was not too close to me but its shadow caused me to duck slightly.  I looked up to see that it had parked itself on a nearby branch and turned towards me.

For some reason I calmed down as I watched the little bluebird. I felt a sense of excitement. We rarely saw bluebirds in our area so it was nice to see one again.

But then I noticed the sun glinting in a way that made its eyes shine. I squinted and stared for a long while. Then my eyes widen as I realized that bluebird had amethyst eyes. I slowly walked closer to the tree. Although I was on the ground, a few feet below it, I expected it to fly away. Instead, it just watched  me; it’s eyes never moved.

“Avi?”

In response, it ruffled its feathers and pushed off the tree branch. Before I could react, it had aimed itself at me but seemed to just hang in the air.

I watched in wonder as it shifted and changed its shape right before my eyes. Its wings spread out to become arms. Its short legs lengthened and contorted. Its head shifted until finally a familiar man slowly glided downwards.  His bare feet finally touched the ground lightly.

I just stopped breathing. Instead of dark eyes, Avi’s amethyst eyes shone. He was wearing all blue and his hair seemed waver than normal. I wasn’t sure but he seemed slightly taller than I remember despite not wearing shoes.

Avi gave a small smile, “I said we would meet again.”