Short story: The man who was jailed for hugging a tree

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Charles had always been a lonely type, always keeping his thoughts to himself, and yet one particular day, he met a lady in a park, who sat next to him on the park bench, and she started talking to him, about trees. It was rather late at night, for a lady to sit down next to a man, here like this, who she never knew. She simply said, that she was a tree hugger, and that embracing a tree with your arms stretched out wide, around its trunk, can give you an instant high, or connection, of almost a feeling of connective love to it, as you feel its life moving through the tree, and into yourself. “You should try it sometime, yourself,” she said, as she got up, and simply walked away. Charles, researched this idea himself, right away, on his mobile phone, as he continued sitting on the park bench, and what he read sounded quite plausible to him. When we walk towards a tree, and hug it, certain vibrationary waves are felt by the tree, from us walking towards it, and hugging it like that. For us too, we feel, a certain high, brought about by the calming effect of certain hormones being released in us, from our performing this exercise. It was claimed that oxytocin, serotonin, and dopamine, were all released within us, by this simple act. These hormones help us to feel happier, more peaceful, and relaxed, and our stresses are let go of too, and so hugging a tree is actually healing for us to do. Charles then got up, went over to the nearest tree, and he hugged it. Just then, a policeman came along, and arrested him for molesting trees. "You tree huggers are nutters, and I am sure that you are the serial park flasher too, who jumps out from behind trees, and bushes in this park, and displays his wares to unexpecting young fry too," he rather aggressively said to Charles, as he put his handcuffs on him. Who ever knows, for sure, how our day will turn out. Charles, through no fault of his own, spent a night in a cell, simply for hugging a tree. He was released the next day on bail, when lo and behold, this same lady had turned up at the jail, and paid his bail for him too. She disappeared again, quickly too, before Charles could thank her, but she had written some words on a card, folded over, so that only he would read it, which was given to him by the releasing constable. The words were: “Trees love to be hugged, but not at night time. They like to be left alone during the night, but at such times, Policemen love to be plugs, to you sometimes too, to plug up your chugs.” Charles researched what she had said too, and she was right, we should not hug trees at night, and sleeping under one at night is even worse. Plants carry out respiration at night, releasing carbon dioxide into the air around them, which is harmful for us. During the day, however, this carbon dioxide is used by the tree for photosynthesis, and so, no carbon dioxide is released. "Not only that", Charles thought to himself, "we might wake them up from a sound sleep, by hugging them at night too." A tree sleeps and dreams, and would, like ourselves, rather not be disturbed at night. Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com Hugging a tree brings to you a connective response from one soul to another soul, and you feel the love pass between you.