"The Tree Spirit"

Punyakante Wijenaike

Three women walk to the pond prepared to bathe. While bathing, they notice that a tree’s branches are shaking. They think it is a tree spirit watching them.

One of the women tells her husband, who goes to chop down the offending branches with the tree spirit. When he reaches the tree, while the women are bathing, he climbs the tree, ready to chop, but suddenly convulses in laughter. In the tree, watching the women, is as an old grandfather who has six grandchildren. The grandfather was the women’s tree spirit.

Rating: *** out of *****.

About the Author: “Punyakante Wijenaike was born in Sri Lanka in 1933. As a child she was quiet, introverted and lived in a world peopled by imaginary characters of her own making. She took to writing about her creations only after her marriage in 1952, her stories began to appear in local newspapers and magazines; collections of her short stories and novels have been published. Her work has been translated into Russian and German.” P. 139.

Short Story International #27. Ed. Sylvia Tankel.  (August 1981), pp. 133-139.