Victoria’s Adventure in the Land of the Purple Queen (Nature Knows Best: A Wise Nameless Tree)

             The force was unbelievable.  She was desperately trying to resist, to pull herself away.  You see, Victoria was stuck to a tree.  It wasn’t that her clothing was stuck to a branch, or that she was glued to the tree by sap.  By some force beyond her control, like magnetism, her hands and feet were attached to the tree.  This might not have disturbed her as much had she been the only woman attached to this tree.  But, in fact, there were about thirty other women experiencing the same predicament.

            There were all sorts of weird aspects to this situation.  These other women were not resisting their situation.  They had accepted it and were not concerned.  Victoria just could not fathom how content these women were being bound by invisible chains to this tree.  Who in their right mind wants to be grouped together in an unflattering category or even an ordinary category when each person can be extraordinary?

            Victoria was also concerned because all these other women on this tree were in black and white.  It looked like female characters from black and white movies had been captured and instead of being tied to railroad tracks, they had been attached to this tree.  Victoria wondered to herself, “If I stay attached to this tree, will I lose my color, my identity as an individual?”

            Spurred by the panic associated with losing her identity, Victoria pulls strength from within her that she did not know she had and starts to slowly and robotically slide her body down the tree.  She tried to focus her first moves in her feet.  She shifted her feet one after another towards the ground.  Once she got her body as stretched out it could be, she then shifted her hands lower along the tree.  She continued this process with a hopeful heart and the strength of a lioness.

            There was the sound of church bells that Victoria heard in the distance.  She wondered for a second what the bells were for, but she quickly got her focus back on the task at hand.  It didn’t take long before Victoria saw an unusual sight.  There were men in black and white walking in a procession holding bouquets of flowers heading towards the tree.  Victoria was a little apprehensive, wondering what these men were up to.  Her jaw dropped when she watched these men, one at a time, pull a woman off the tree.  What was truly horrifying about this process was that it wasn’t a quick procession.  These men would stand appraising the women, analyzing their curves groping the women to check their physical attributes.  Some of the men even lifted up skirts and looked down shirts before they chose a woman.

            Victoria felt so offended for these women, but she was astonished by all these apathetic faces these women maintained through the process.  One or two women would look down their noses at the men during this process, but they would say nothing.  Victoria was beside herself watching this.  Deep within her soul, she was silently screaming for justice.  These women were being picked off trees like fruit.  These women didn’t have a choice.  Men made the choice and to Victoria, that was wrong.

            Even though these women were successfully pulled off the tree, the tree would draw them back to it.  As such, the men would keep trying to take women, but they’d be unsuccessful.  Once all the men had a turn, the procession would do a u-turn in the road near the tree and head back toward the sound of the church bells.

            The base of the tree was approaching and Victoria was relieved.  She thought to herself, “Finally, I’ll make it out of this nightmare.”  What Victoria didn’t know was that Tonya, the Purple Queen of this world, had been watching her and was planning to unleash more nightmares upon her.  Tonya was irritated because until this time, she was the only inhabitant in this world who had color to her.  Since she was different from everyone else, the inhabitants agreed that she could be queen.  Furthermore, these people worshipped her.  Granted, it was an indifferent kind of worship, one of obedience, but Tonya didn’t like the idea of someone new showing up who might take any part of that away from her.

            The only surefire way to end this nonsense would be for Tonya to send in a squad of people to bring this strange newcomer to her castle.  Tonya figured that once she had this woman in her grasp, she could choose to keep her hidden away in the castle for entertainment purposes or have her executed in a creative way.  Surely, this colorful speck of dust would be no match for the great Tonya, the Purple Queen.

            Victoria had finally detached all of her limbs from the tree.  The last yank of her hand from the tree caused her to lose her balance, causing her to stumble and fall hard on her butt.  She said, “Ow!” and proceeded to stroke her behind trying to comfort herself before standing up.  Meanwhile, a smaller procession of men had appeared out of nowhere.  A man had linked arms with her on either side of her and she had been pulled to her feet.  Victoria was bewildered to say the least.  She was just about to thank the men for helping her up, but these men started dragging her along almost immediately.  She found herself breathing really hard as she tried to keep up with the inhuman pace she was forced to endure.

            Suddenly, Victoria found herself thrown into a dark majestic room.  Victoria was in awe of how spacious it was because the room had a high ceiling.  There was a small porthole type window six feet above her on the front wall.  She was a little disappointed that the window wasn’t set lower, so she could look out on this land’s landscape.  However, given that this window lit up the dim room, she appreciated it.  A little light in any situation was always a blessing.

            Since Victoria could not focus on the building’s outer surroundings, she found herself focusing on the room itself.  She was immediately struck by the abundance of purple hues in the room.  There was a queen-size bed with a canopy.  This canopy frame had intricate woodwork with leaves carved into it to support this purple curtain that could be drawn around the bed to give the sleeper privacy.  The bedspread was also purple and the sheets were lavender.

            After that strenuous trip here, Victoria was feeling tired and parched.  By the canopy bed, there was a white pitcher containing water and a clear empty glass sitting beside it on a wooden table.  She strode over to the table and eagerly poured herself a glass of water.  She also noticed to her delight that there was a piece of toast on a plate on that same table, so she started nibbling at the bread and taking in more of the room.  There was a small loveseat in the room that was black with two purple throw pillows set upon it.  Compared to the luxurious bed, the love seat was rather ordinary.  However, Victoria was in a state of appreciation after her day.  After she finished her bread, she crashed into her bed and took a nap.

            Tonya was sitting on her throne musing to herself at how smart she was.  Since she wasn’t sure what she was going to do with the outsider, she had her guards put her in a simple room in the castle.  The bed was exquisite in that room, so this might entice the outsider to serve the queen at the possibility of additional comforts.  However, Tonya had also instructed the maids to put just bread and water in the outsider’s room.  This was a way of saying that the outsider was a prisoner.  While she hoped the outsider was becoming more pliable in lieu of her situation, Victoria was sleeping deeply and smiling softly finally resting.

            She didn’t know how long she’d been sleeping, but she knew she felt well-rested upon waking.  She knew this because when she woke up, she sat up, stretched out her arms with hands fisted gently and both wrists bent.  Then, she made a noise akin to a sigh with her mouth shut.  She then glanced over at the bedside table and saw that new toast had been placed on the plate and the pitcher of water was full again.  She decided to eat her breakfast and she wondered who her captor could be.

            Tonya was eating her lavish breakfast gleefully.  She had bowls of fruit and fresh-squeezed juices.  She sat at an obnoxiously long wooden table in a room full of portraits hanging on the wall.  These portraits all had purple backgrounds and were of the queen in various poses.  She loved to look upon beauty when she ate and she honestly considered herself the most beautiful person to look at.  She wasn’t really into landscape pictures, but she didn’t see anything wrong with that.  She figured she would let her prisoner eat her breakfast alone and hoped lunch with the queen would soften her up a bit.  Anyone who could pull herself off that strong tree could do with some softening up.  No woman had ever been able to pull herself off the tree before.  The queen shuttered to herself, thinking about it.

            Victoria had been in a reverie, imagining who she was going to meet when she met her captor.  She was sitting on a the loveseat hugging a pillow, thinking about meeting a kindhearted princess or a dashing prince charming who would kneel and kiss her hand gallantly.  Personally, she was hoping for a prince.  After seeing those barbaric men take women off that tree, Victoria was really hoping decent men existed in this world.  Suddenly two of the escorts from before opened the room door, grabbed Victoria, and before she knew what was going on, she was sitting in the chair facing a throne.

            The throne itself was purple with a golden frame.  It was sitting stage-like, two stairs above the rest of the room.  Victoria’s chair was sitting on the floor below the throne.  The floor of the room itself was black.  Victoria chuckled to herself thinking, “Black and not purple”.   Queen Tonya spoke in a deep assertive voice as she walked towards the throne from behind Victoria, “Magnificent, the throne room must seem to you.  I don’t know who you are or where you are from, but you are here and we must talk.”  As the queen strode beside Victoria’s chair, Victoria mostly noticed the purple billowing cape trailing the queen.  At first, Victoria wondered what sort of woman spoke so deeply.  Once the queen had turned in a flourish to sit on her throne and looked at Victoria from her seat appraising her, Victoria could not help but start laughing.  The entrance, the billowing cape, and the flourishing had been so dramatic that it was comical.  Victoria had never thought anyone spoke like this, let alone wore a cape.

            Tonya was less than amused by this reaction, so she spoke again.  “My name is Queen Tonya, the Purple Queen.  I rule over the people here and I make it my business to know what sort of people live here.  You are different in many ways from my people.  What shall I call you?” Victoria had stopped laughing due to the force in Tonya’s voice and she responded, “Victoria”.  Tonya responded, “What a detestable name! I’ll have to give you a new one.”  At this remark, Victoria was offended and said this, “It is not your place to name me, as you are not my reason for being.  Furthermore, as long as I correct you with my real name, the name you give me will not hold power.”

            Queen Tonya huffed under her breath and said, “Fine, Victoria.  How did you get here?”

            “I do not know.  I was just suddenly attached to that tree.”

            Queen Tonya shuttered to herself slightly and replied, “Yes.  I am aware that you were in that part of the land.  What sorcery do you have that you were able to escape the pull of the tree?”

            Victoria replied, “I do not know sorcery of any kind.”  Victoria thought to herself, “I still don’t know myself how I managed to have the strength to get off that tree.  Strategically, the sliding of the limbs incrementally was my doing, but otherwise I’m just grateful I managed to escape the fate of the other women.”  Tonya noted that Victoria was having some sort of mental dialogue with herself, which irritated her.  Thus, Tonya spoke again in a barking manner, “What are you thinking?!”

            “I was thinking to myself that the tree we’ve been speaking of is unsettling.  As Queen of this land, why haven’t you done anything as a fellow woman?”

            At mention of the tree, the queen started to look like she was going to be sick.  Her face turned a little green and there was a slight twinge of terror in her eyes.  The queen stood up and turned her back on Victoria.  She spoke again and said, “Any men not of the procession who approach the tree to harm it are repelled.  Any women who approach the tree are attracted to the tree like a magnet.  Once attracted to the tree, the woman cannot free herself and any color she had fades over time.” 

Queen Tonya thought about her mother then, one of the tree’s victims.  She remembered standing on the road near the tree.  Her mother had been upset about this tree for a long time and approached it to try and pull the women off.  As she tried, the force of the tree increased.  There was a sudden intense pull and before Tonya knew it, her mother was stuck to the tree.  Tonya started to scream, “Momma, Momma!” and she moved towards the tree.  Her mother assertively yelled, “Stop! Don’t come any closer, Tonya!”  Her mother’s tone softened and she said, “Go home and tell your father what happened.  Never ever approach this tree, little one.  I love you.”  Queen Tonya’s eyes welled up and she waved her hand at the guards to take me to the dining room to eat lunch.  She was glad she had her back to Victoria, so Victoria could not see her tears.

However, Victoria knew the tree upset the queen because while she was lost in thought, she kept shivering ever so slightly.  Shrewdly, Victoria decided to let the issue rest and bring it up later.  The guards took her to the dining room in their usual abrupt manner.  The food was nice.  There were loads of options, but Victoria elected to make a BLT from the options in front of her.  Victoria didn’t need much to be happy.  A simple BLT was plenty for her.  As long as she had choices, life was something to be appreciated.

Queen Tonya was bothered that her conversation with Victoria had not gone as planned.  Furthermore, she was bothered that she found herself wanting to do something about that tree.  What was she supposed to do about an ancient tree that was made up of forces beyond her control? How is it that this girl, this outsider, was capable of being stronger than the strongest woman that she had ever known, her mother.  The state of all this irritated her.  She found herself storming into the dining room and glaring at Victoria.  “If you want me to do something about that infernal tree, you figure out what I am to do! If it’s reasonable, I will consider your plan and we can discuss putting it into action.”

Victoria was taken aback by the sudden entrance and obvious anger emanating from the queen.  She was wondering how she was supposed to come up with a plan when nobody had one that worked before this.  Victoria decided to ask a question “Is there anything else I should know about the tree?” The Queen replied, “That tree is ancient.  It possibly has origins in the time of the dinosaurs.  The legends say it didn’t always just attract people.  It is said that every species that came into being was once attracted to the tree and that their behaviors were shaped in regards to mating by it.  If you can believe it, rhinos used to be attracted to that tree.  The male rhinos used to try to pull the female rhinos off of it with their horns.  However, the female was always given enough leeway by the tree to scramble away.  When the rhinos were finally released from the tree, the females ran away from potential mates to test their endurance.  Rhinos still mate like that today.”

Victoria replied, “Wow.  By this account, the tree releases species at a certain time.  Maybe the time of people will be over soon.”  The queen laughed and shook her head.  “Humans have been on that tree since the human species arrived into existence.  It has been a long time, so that theory is doubtful.”  Victoria then said, “I wonder why the tree has been holding onto people so long.  If the tree releases species at certain times, perhaps the tree has a mind of its own.  Perhaps it is dissatisfied with how humans behave and does not want women and men to mate based on physical assessment alone.  Maybe the tree only lets go of species once it believes the mating strategy is reasonable.”

The queen was astounded with Victoria’s exceptional assessment and replied, “Well, then what do you believe will stop the tree from wanting to hang onto women?” Victoria replied, “Well, there seems to be only two possibilities.  Since I pulled myself off the tree and I know no sorcery, it may be possible to sway to women to leave the tree of their own accord with enough encouragement.  The other option is to have men approach the tree, talk to the women, connect with them mentally, and then pull a mate off.”

Given these options, the queen decided to ask a question of Victoria, “Was there a woman on the tree with curly hair and a beauty mark slightly above and to the right of her left eye?” Victoria thought about it and nodded.  Victoria continued, “She kept giving the other women dirty looks and raising her eyebrows at their apathy.  I was more concerned with the majority of apathetic faces, but I did notice the woman you describe.”  The queen’s expression brightened a little bit and she said, “I know a man who would be willing to talk that woman off the tree.”  She proceeded to explain the tragic story of her parents and how her father was still heartbroken without her mother.

The Queen, Victoria, and the haggard remnants of Tonya’s father rode in a carriage to the road near the tree.  Tonya’s father’s name was Anthony and her mother’s name was Samantha.  Anthony slowly approached the tree and spoke to Samantha so softly.  He told her about Tonya ruling the kingdom and he told her what had been happening in their village while she was gone.  Samantha told Anthony how she’d been feeling watching the women being pulled from the tree and how she had missed him and Tonya.  As they were talking, the color that had faded returned to her and she blushed.  Anthony held her hand, interlacing his fingers in hers.  Anthony said, “Samantha, you are my whole world.  I’ve been so lost without you.  I love you more than anything.”  He kissed her hand and the tree released her.

The moment between Anthony and Samantha had been so touching that the other women had regained their color too.  They also found themselves blushing and wanting what Samantha had with Anthony.  Not long after Samantha was released, all the other women were released.  The tree was smart enough to gently let the women float down to the ground through its force powers.  The limbs of the women were out of practice of use and had they fallen to the ground, it could have caused broken bones or even death.  Queen Tonya summoned her guards and ordered them to assist the women, based on what the women wanted.  The guards were so used to direct orders that they were unsure of how to handle the situation.  One guard saw a woman rubbing her ankle, so he asked if he could do that for her.  She said yes.  They proceeded to talk.  The other guards followed suit.  Before Victoria knew it, everyone had regained color and the atmosphere around the tree changed.

Queen Tonya was reunited with her parents, so she no longer felt so self-absorbed.  She vowed to be a kinder ruler.  Victoria was thinking everything was going to be okay here, when suddenly she got pulled towards the tree.  She expected she’d be stuck to the tree’s surface again, but the tree sucked her into itself.  Victoria woke up in her bed at home and she was a little startled.  However, she was happy to be home.  She had her family, her color, and most importantly her choices which would get her through any obstacle.

Often Victoria wondered to herself about her adventure.  She wondered if it was a dream or if it was reality somewhere else.  She wondered if her adventure was completely the doing of her imagination or if the tree had chosen her.  She liked to believe that the tree brought her to that other world because it knew a modern woman’s perspective would bring a solution. 

Victoria had faith that the women of her time would make the right decisions, but the idea of a wise and compassionate tree having an influence did not bother her.  Every once and awhile, she would think fondly of the tree that had once terrified her.  She tried to name the tree in her mind, but her own words came back to her.  She might not be the tree’s reason for being, so she could not name it.  As such, she satisfied herself by thinking of the tree and nature itself with appreciation and love.