Six years earlier

On the day that Nor Nor decided to begin Seng Nu’s training, she had walked with her to collect breakfast. She said she wanted to eat an apple straight from the tree. Before they left, Nor Nor asked Seng Nu to plait her hair. Like Seng Nu, she kept it at waist length, but age had thinned and washed it out. Seng Nu brushed Nor Nor’s hair through with oil and then plaited it into a thin white tail. Nor Nor didn’t normally wear her hair like this. She never worn her hair like anything. She had no reason to be vain but would comb it once a month just to remove the tangles, and then would let it get progressively more and more wild each day, until it had curled up into manic strands that made her head resemble the wiry creepers that grew inside the house. Nor Nor stooped down, groaning softly as her knees bent, and reached out into the wild grass to pluck a forest daisy. She pushed the stem through the folds of the hair braid and looked at herself in a bowl of water. She looked nice. Then she plaited Seng Nu’s hair, commenting on the rarity of its dark orange colour. Seng Nu chose a dandelion for braid. She also looked at herself. She looked nice too.

Seng Nu ran ahead. Nor Nor said the apple tree was young compared to the rest of the trees, but it didn’t look that way to Seng Nu. The trunk was as thick as an elephant’s leg, and rougher. She found easy footholds in the bark as she climbed up into the higher branches. By now she already knew which apples were ready to pick, but she waited for Nor Nor to arrive.

“See anything good?” said Nor Nor as she hobbled out of the forest towards the apple tree. She stopped underneath it.

“Yes mother, there’s a nice juicy one right here, shall I get it for you?” asked Seng Nu, grinning widely.

“I told you not to call me that” Nor Nor said with a gentle snap. “Hold on. Don’t touch it yet. Describe it to me.”

Seng Nu looked down and saw that Nor Nor was talking to her without lifting her head. Seng Nu wondered if she could if she wanted to. She had only ever known Nor Nor as an old woman and couldn’t imagine a time when her shoulders weren’t almost up to her ears. But even though she wasn’t tall or lean, she had unmistakeable kinship with the trees that she had grown old with. Seng Nu had seen birds land on her shoulders when she stood in the forest for more than a moment and sometimes wondered if moss would begin to grow up her legs or berries would grow from her fingernails if she stood for any longer.

“It’s green!” said Seng Nu, with a hint of impatience.

“I’m sure it is” said Nor Nor who stayed on the ground, looking blankly into the forest. Even if she looked up, her eyesight had become so bad she wouldn’t have seen beyond the first rung of branches. “Tell me about it, is it big? How big, what kind of green is it? What does it look like? Tell me as much as you can.”

“It’s so big, we could cut it in two and eat it for breakfast together!” said Seng Nu. “If I held it in my hand and stretched my arms fully out, it would block the sun. And the full moon too if I held it at night. It’s green...bright green, the colour of elm leaves after rain. And there’s some purple too” She tried to think of something that was purple. “Like a bruise”

“What kind of bruise?” asked Nor Nor.

Stolen story; please report.

“The kind you get when someone grabs your arm tight and digs their fingers in.” Said Seng Nu.

“Tell me about the stem” Nor Nor asked after a while.

“It’s like a fishing rod. The apple is the fish, the branch is the rod and the stem is the wire” said Seng Nu.

“That’s a good description. Just one more question then. What does the apple say to you?”

“What does the apple say to me?” said Seng Nu, puzzled.

“Yes, what does it say? Imagine it could speak to you and then feel it speak to you”

“It says ‘eat me, before I go rotten on the branch’” she called down.

“Does it now?” queried Nor Nor, all the way at the bottom of the tree. “I’m not sure it does. Apples don’t speak our language. I’m not even sure they use words.”

“So, then why are you asking me what it says?” Said Seng Nu, with a mix of confusion and exasperation.

“I suppose that was a trick question Seng Nu. I’m sorry. You won’t be able to tell me what they say yet. They speak, and I use the word ‘speak’ in the loosest possible sense in a language all of their own. A language that does not come from mouths or make sounds. Still they are talking to each other, just like I am talking to you right now.”

Seng Nu looked suspiciously at the large green and purple apple and the smaller redder one beside it and wondered if they were gossiping about her.

“They don’t speak with sounds so you have to listen with something other than your ears.” Said Nor Nor.

Seng Nu was now utterly confused. “Well what am I supposed to listen with? My...”

“Don’t you dare!” scolded Nor Nor, although she was suppressing laughter herself. She composed herself. “There isn’t a special part of the body that we can listen to the plants or the wind with. It’s more like a feeling.”

Seng Nu still didn’t understand. Why are you telling me this? aren’t you as hungry as me?”

“Make sure you are holding the branch tightly” Said Nor Nor, ignoring the question for now.

“Why?” asked Seng Nu, but she did it anyway. She looked down and saw that Nor Nor was holding a hand out, her palm open.

“If we listen, we can understand what they are saying. When we understand the language of apples, trees, or even mountains, we can make polite requests of them.”

Pip!

What was that sound? Seng Nu looked back along the branch to where it had come from and saw the apple turning in the air. At first she thought it was the wind but then saw the leaves surrounding the apple were still. She reached out , but then pulled back and gripped the tree even tighter when she realised that the apple wasn’t attached to the tree any more, but was floating, spinning in mid air.

Then it dropped, or rather glided, downwards, slowly but truly into Nor Nor’s outstretched hand. Nor Nor curled her fingers around the apple and then brought it to her mouth to take a small bite. She chewed the sweet flesh and then slowly tilted her head up, slightly straining as she lifted her eyes to meet Seng Nu whose face had the expression of shock and joy a child makes when they realise they will be living in a world with wonderful things. Naw swallowed the bite of apple and then looked at Seng Nu, with a smirk. Then she did something Seng Nu had never seen before: she leaned back her head even more and laughed. As the waves of delight shook the clearing. Seng Nu, in her wonder, began to laugh too and soon the forest, if not the whole valley, was alive to the sound of two bells, newly cast and ringing for the first time.

Seng Nu was never sure if she had dreamed that day.