Fernando Ficus

Psst! Fernando thought he heard something. Pssst!!!! There it was again!! "Hey you -- new boy." Fernando looked up and saw another plant all the way across the big space shaking its leaves.

"Hi," said Fernando. "What's your name?"

"I'm Roger Rubbertree," the plant said. "Been here a long time - maybe two or three years. I saw when they brought you in last night. You must have been in a pretty deep shock from being transplanted. I was wondering when you were going to start stretching your stems."

"Hi, Roger. My name is Fernando Ficus. Where am I?"

"Well," said Roger, "best as I can tell we're in a big office building where lots of people come and go every day."

"What's an office building?" Fernando asked.

"I don't rightly know, " said Roger, "but whatever it is people sure spend a lot of time here. They come in like crazy in the morning rushing through that thing they call a revolving door. Then they stick around until it starts to get dark and go back through that same revolving door."

"Why do they bring all that cold air in with them? What happened to the nice warm air I had on the farm?"

"Well, Fernando, I don't rightly know the answer to that either. What I do know is that sometimes they come in with layers of leaves on so you can't even see their noses and that's when the cold air comes in. Other times they come through the door with all their stems showing and that's when it's lots warmer air. It must just be time for the cold air now."

This is me...My Graduation picture


Fernando Ficus felt a draft. Where is that cold air coming from, he wondered. Fernando yawned and stretched. He had just settled back into his nap when -- there it was again! And this time he heard a noise - a whooshing sound with the air. Fernando opened his eyes and looked around. He blinked, shook his leaves and blinked again. "Where am I?", he asked, but no one answered. He looked around and saw he was in a very large open space. His roots were in a big pot with nice rich soil. There was a person sitting next to him at a long desk. "Hey mister," Fernando said, "where am I?" Maybe the man didn't have good hearing. "HEY MISTER," Fernando said a little louder, "Where am I?" But again, the man ignored him.

What place is this where people don't hear, Fernando wondered. Of course, what he didn't know is that the man could not understand Fernando's language. He thought rustling leaves meant air was blowing, not words.

Fernando now looked all over the big space. All he saw was very shiny floors. Lots of people kept coming into the big space through a big turning thing. But they just walked right past him! Couldn't they see he was trying to talk to them? Every time someone came in, he felt the cold air. So that's where it's coming from, he thought. Why is it so cold? It's so warm at the farm. Aren't I at the farm anymore? Where are all my friends? Where are my brothers? Fernando was very confused and started feeling sad.