A Bit of Writing

--I wrote a vignette for english. Basically, a vignette has little or no plot, focusing mainly on character development, and the writer is allowed to break a lot of the rules of writing. If you have any suggestions or editing tips, let me know. Enjoy! (hopefully)--

I stood under the tree, amazed. Shannon said you could see the squirrels playing, if you gave them the chance, chasing each other around and around the tree trunk. I joined in their game, trying to catch a glimpse as they darted around the side to avoid me. What kind of tree is it Shannon? Why doesn’t the fruit get all squishy under your feet like under the other tree? Can we take pieces of the bark and make maple syrup? The neighbors have a tree with those pokey leaves too! I was fascinated. The tree covered the whole backyard with shade, so big and peaceful. One morning I looked out my bedroom window. Why are they cutting down the maple tree, mom? “It shades the garden too much, and it’s so big, it doesn’t fit the yard.” Oh. But I like the shade, and it’s not too big! Instead of squirrels there was a big brown spot where the roots were.

The garden, the cause of my tree’s death, seemed like it would also kill me. Summer; picking beans for what seemed like hours until my back ached and my face was “drenched” with a small amount of sweat. But it was all worth it. Corn on the cob was always better when it came from Our Garden. When the season was over, only the corn stalks remained. Uprooting a stalk, we swung it around like a foxtail before letting it fly into the leafless cherry tree, to hang there until wind picked up or squirrels knocked it down hunting for food to stash for winter. For reasons known only to children, it was the best game ever invented.

That cherry tree was half dead, with the good branches up high where only the crows could get to them. The rest of the miserable raisin-cherries were usually full of worms, and sour in any case. I think the only use for that tree was to drop rotten cherries into our neighbor’s pool. At least, that was its purpose until The Rope Swing came. Andy made it, tying randomly shaped knots and loops into a rope and attaching it to one of the stronger branches. We discovered that the otherwise unscalable tree was fully accessible by means of climbing the swing and reaching for a branch or two and pulling oneself up. We had a new world at our fingertips, in our little backyard.

--Again, comments would be great but don't feel like you have to, it's still a very rough draft.--