Siamese Twin

By Najat

The tree opened its eyes, yawned lazily looking at the sky. 

‘What a foggy day,’ it said. ‘Oi you! Good morning, are you still sleepy?’ 

The letter box answered annoyed, ‘You again! Leave me alone.’

The tree laughed provocatively and said, ‘Do you think we can separate from each other??’

The letter box was very upset. ‘How can you be so annoying?’ 

‘Oh dear,’ said the tree. ‘You ought to be happy. Everyone wants to hug each other now, but at least we don’t need to keep a distance, do we?? But I would like to know why you are angry?

‘Yes, I am angry and depressed. I’ve started to hate myself too.’

‘Oh, my friend, don’t say that please! Why? Can you tell me, what is wrong??’

‘I feel miserable.  Every day I receive letters, and everyone’s faces are anxious, sad, and upset too. Before they were smiley, excited, and their letters were love letters, greetings, congratulations; but all of them now are letters of complaint.  This affects my psyche, and in addition, they all prefer emails to letters. I am afraid that in a few years, no one will want to look at my face!!’

‘Oh, my sensitive friend, why are you thinking like that? It isn’t your fault, what can you do? That is just the way life is, nothing stays the same. And don’t worry, we are both in the same boat, mate.    The tree took a deep breath and added, ‘However, there are still people who are optimistic, and they hope that the situation will get better. The most important thing is, there are people who love the smell of paper, and they will not replace it with emails, never ever. Because with just a wrong click on a button or a virus, they could lose all their emails, while a paper letter is forever.’

‘[You aren’t just saying that to make me happy, are you?]’This isn’t a compliment, is it?’  said the letter box happily.

‘Of course, not. Furthermore, you are eternal; after a hundred years you will transform into a London tourist attraction, you still always attract people, and they will have their photo taken with you. In contrast if I die no one will care about me.’

[How can you say such terrible things!]bad are you!!’ the letter box said almost in tears. ‘Shut up, I can’t imagine myself without you, silly.’

‘Okay, okay, that’s fine.’ The tree wanted to change the bad mood. [tried to change the subject.]‘Oh, look over there, there’s a lady coming towards us. I bet she will take a picture of us, maybe she will put it on Facebook or Instagram and we will be famous. Oh my gosh!!’ The tree laughed excitedly, ‘Smile my friend, cheese. Did you see, I was right!!’

‘Don’t talk to me, you want to die and leave me alone!’ said the letter box sadly.

‘Come here close to me, silly thing, I will never ever leave you; you are my Siamese twin!!’