In Timi’s memory, they stayed in the tree for a long time. They read books, the piles that had been left behind, and then Roberta’s mum had gone to get more. As they read to each other, the tree had grown again, in front of them.
It was only when they received a special decree that because the tree had grown in the way that it had it could not be chopped down and would always be protected, that they left its branches.
The tree stopped growing in the same 115way after that. It grew like other trees, little by little.
The old library had to be carefully taken down because of the hole in the roof, but there were plans instead to build a special new one around the tree because the tree seemed to like reading so much.
Timi and Bisi would go there every week. To see the tree, to read books, to be together.
‘Just like how we’re together,’ she said, burrowing a little further into her Babu’s lap.
She had grown heavy from hearing the story. She felt sleepy from listening to the well-told tale.
Her eyes flickered close but, as they 116did, she looked upwards towards the huge branches of the tree that the library was built around.
Children were reading, sitting in twos or threes, on its lower branches. The library had been built by a clever architect (a person who her Babu had told her had the job of designing buildings) with glass walkways, different floors and a very special design that meant it never disturbed the tree.
‘Is this the tree?’ she said, sleepily, although she already knew the answer. ‘Is this the tree from the story?’
The leaves of the tree rustled noisily as a gust of wind blew through them. It’s like it’s speaking to us, the girl thought.
‘Yes,’ her grandfather said very quietly. He picked her up gently so her head could 117rest upon his shoulder.
Her eyes flickered close and then opened just once more. She glimpsed the tree again, full of children reading, just like Timi had seen in the story.
As she slipped into sleep she heard her grandfather say, in a whisper: ‘That’s the tree and this is the library, and this is me who grew the tree. And now you can be here. And one day, if you need to, you can grow your own tree.’ 118119
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