Colours Of Life

Colours of Life

A short story by Paul McCann

Mucker River flowed peacefully through Noller park , home of the beaver family. There were birds, squirrels and swans .There were ducks and also it was the home for Nacker who lived in a tree trunk on the west side of Noller park 

Each day Nacker opened up the door of his tree house and worked until the evening , touching up all the flowers and tree leaves .

As it was Nacker who coloured all the flowers and trees even though no one knew or saw him at work .

Nacker painted the buttercups yellow and the bluebells blue .

He painted the grass green and in fact every living thing was coloured by Nacker around the banks of Noller Park,

The wild flowers scattered wildly around the meadows in crimson colours and lilac shades splattered with blotches of cream .

Sure it was a credit to Nacker who splattered every flower and every leaf with bright glossy colours that made a pretty picture for one and all to see. No one knew you see, about Nacker who lived in the tree, that’s why I’d like to tell you the story about a certain springtime , not so long ago in Noller park .

A long long time ago just after the snow had fallen  and the ice had latched itself on to the top of Mucker river, Nacker began mixing up  batch after batch of spring colours for all the flowers and trees .

When this was done he sat looking out his little knot window for the very first sign of springtime.

 

Slowly as the ice began to melt on the top Mucker river , the sides of the river welcomed back the duck and the swan families/

Foxes began to chase rabbits into their burrows and the bees began to make their honey in their hives .

Sure enough it was spring . 

Spring again the time Nacker had been looking forward to all year .

He rubbed the winter sleep away from his eyes and packed away all his winters clothes then without any more adieu he opened up the front door of his tree and very carefully went outside he had to be sure no one else was around as he didn’t want anyone to know where he lived in case they would cut down his tree or stop him from painting the colours on the With a set of paint brushes and pots and pots and pots of paint Nacker went off to work   .

What a beautiful sight it was . A carpet of blue and white daisy’s with yellow buttons covered the emerald green grass  .

It was all taking shape around Noller park .

Nacker splattered green and gold upon leaves of not sick any more trees, while deep shades of red were spread upon the plum trees .

Silver oaks reached up among tall maple trees .

Here and there honeysuckle trees lay like little sunsets through the privet hedges . Just while Nacker was finishing off the last strokes upon a pink pansy he heard  a very frightening sound .

The ground trembled and the wild wind blew the river into a rage of ripples . The blue sky turned into grey and black that was very very dark and Nacker knew that something was wrong .

He ran back to the safety of his tree house and looked out his little knot window .

He was only able to appreciate his handy work around Noller park when a wall of water came thundering from out of nowhere .

He felt helpless as the torrent of water washed away the flowers .

He sat and watched all of his work being destroyed by this freak flood.

Nacker quickly went up to the very top of his tree house and waited and waited for the flood to disappear.

“Now I’ve got to start all over again”.

Nacker said in a sob .

“Don’t worry .”

Said a thrush .

Don’t worry .Don’t worry.”

Said a dickybird .

 

“We’ll help you “

Said a few squirrels .

“So will we .“

Said a couple of old beavers .

“We’ll help too “

Said the ducks and the swans .

 

Nacker sat astonished, sunned and said .

“How do you know about me ?”

“We see you each spring. “

Said the squirrels ,

“ We hear the birds sing about all the wonderful work you do around Noller park”.

said the ducks and swans .

“The whole of Noller park knows about you. “

“Yes and we want to help you clean up the nasty mess that the flood has left .“

Said the dickybirds and the bees as the rest of the birds chirped in as a chorus

 

“Ok everybody, lets get to work “

The beavers bored paths for the water to get away .

All the swans flapped their wings creating a gust of wind that made ripples that turned into a series of waves that ushered away the flood waters into the beavers paths towards the sea .

Nacker sat and watched the birds picking up the flowers and replant them again all around the park .

The squirrels also helped to scatter the leaves back on the trees as the sun broke through and shone down over the pretty new picture of colour again around Noller park .

 

Nacker was never so happy. He was delighted at the way mother natures little helpers had restored life and colour to the scenic picture again .

“Thank you very much for helping .“

Said Nacker , fighting back the tears of elation .

“We’ll help you each spring from now on “

Everyone said .

“Will you really ?”

Said Nacker.

 

“We’re your friends and don’t worry, we won’t tell anyone where you live.”

 

“Thank you so much”

Said Nacker .

Now the flowers each year are a different colour around the park and people come from everywhere to look at the beautiful colours of life .

 

The End

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