TE20 Migrant Mosaics

Birke

were.

While her father steered themthrough the Corinthianmountains and on towards fields of Styrian greenery, she stuck her head out the window and reported to him which trees they passed by.

Alnus clutinosa! He never answered. Fichte! He had other things on his mind. Fraxinus excelsior!

He knew each turn by heart, each Gasthaus , each thicket of trees, each swathe of green, brown, sometimes red and even yellow; he knew each bend.

Did YOU know that Birke trees can grow up to thirty-one meters high and its leaves go up to seven centimeters?

Her dad never answered, her but that didn’t matter. She knew that the trees spoke to her, that they told her their real names with funny words like Acer, Salic, Alnus. There must be something special about trees if they have a normal name and a secret name, she used to think. Everyone knows what a Birke is, but only some people know its other, secret name: Betulus pendula. She stood on the bridge, her eyes lazily scanning the topography in front of her. She smiled reminiscently, but also felt slightly embarrassed at her ridiculous childhood thoughts. Did I really think that I could smell the difference between each tree? How dumb could I have been? I hope I only toldDad that I could smell the 199