Bram’s Backward Guessing Game — Under a riverside branch, Bram pressed his new wings together and invented a game called Backward Guess. He would choose one thing he could see, then guess what it had been before. Read the full story →
Under a riverside branch, Bram pressed his new wings together and invented a game called Backward Guess. He would choose one thing he could see, then guess what it had been before. The leaf had been a folded green whisper. The branch had been a brown line of rain. The silky case beside him had been a snug, quiet room that smelled like damp bark.
The breeze made the leaf tick-tick against its stem. Bram touched the empty case and asked, “What were you before me?” A silver thread flashed inside it, pointing to rings in the branch, then to the leaf veins, then to the tiny dots on his wings. Suddenly Bram saw the game had started before he opened his eyes.
The tree had been guessing him all along: root, twig, leaf, chrysalis, wing. Bram opened wide into the warm air, carrying every clue at once. Next time you see the silver thread by his old room, can you guess what the breeze will become?
