RUSTLE
a small tree with a big heart and wonderful dreams for the future.
EDWOOD (WOODY)
an aggressive tree with big plans, and not much patience. 
(Can be rather cynical towards lesser trees.)
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BARK
a very arty sort of tree with his head up in the clouds.

EDWOOD Ahh!  Another long hot day!  This summer heat really saps ya.  I just can't wait to get the chop and get out of this flaming forest...If this heat keeps up, it will be a flaming forest!

J.S.BARK Edwood, I can't believe you'd want to be anywhere else than this beautiful place.  This is the stuff of life...drinking in the sun, the wind and the rain day after day...looking up at the stars on a dark cold night...providing a haven for the birds of the air and the little furry woodland creatures that tickle you as they scamper up and down our trunk.  Ahh, this is the life.

RUSTLE (inspired) Johann Sebastian Bark!  You get more inspiring with every new leaf you grow...But I just can't help but think there's more for us than just standing here and growing.  I want a taste of the real world.  I'm a tree with destiny.  The time has come to go out on a limb...To leave this place and make my mark on the world.

EDWOOD Real world!  Ha!  It's a jungle out there!  You've got to be tough to make it out there, Rustle.  And look at you.  You've barely shot through the undergrowth.  What do you think they'll make of you, Squirt?

RUSTLE (reacting) Well, I'll tell you if you stop barking at me, Woody!!

EDWOOD OK! OK! Don't get your branches in a knot!

RUSTLE (positive) Well...I know I'm aiming high...but I've always dreamt that when my time had come, I'd be made into a beautiful 5 Star Hotel... and the rich and famous would come to me from all over the world, and important conferences would be held and...

EDWOOD (laughs loud and long)  You're not serious!?  Look at your family tree, Rustle!  Your Dad was burnt down in the last bush fire... your Mum was made into that shed up on the hill... and your brothers and sisters have been used for firewood ever since.

(RUSTLE starts to cry)

J.S.BARK  There, there, Rustle, I think you have grand intentions...But never forget why we were made...to replenish the world's supply of oxygen, and to provide shade for all of God's creatures.

EDWOOD Oh, come off it, J.S...You're starting to sound like the Greenies...and if they come back here, I'll never get out-ta here!

J.S.BARK So what's the hurry, man?

EDWOOD When I get the chop, I'm going to become a great ocean liner, and many important people will come to me...and I'll show them the world!

J.S.BARK Well...For me...I just want to stay in this forest and grow tall and strong and point the way to God.

EDWOOD Oh, let's get to the root of it, Johann Sebastian Bark.  You're just afraid of being cut down to size!

(Chain-saw starts up)

RUSTLE Looks like we're all about to be cut down to size...(bracing herself) This is the moment we've all been waiting for.

(Lights go dim. Sounds of a chain-saw and a cry of "Tim-ber" as J.S. BARK protests.)

J.S.BARK No, don't take me, I don't want to gooooo...(falls down)

EDWOOD Well, he's not pointing the way to God anymore.  Ha!

(Chain-saw sound and "Tim-ber" cry as EDWOOD is felled)

RUSTLE I feel sorry for poor old Barky.  Johann Sebastian Bark...sounds musical...I hope they at least make an organ out of him.

(Chain-saw sound and "Timber". RUSTLE falls.) 
   

VOICE OVER What will become of these three trees.  Stay tuned for another exciting episode of "Forest Gums."

RUSTLE now a feed box
EDWOOD now a fishing boat
J.S.BARK now a cross

RUSTLE (enters, discouraged)  All those grand dreams...They came to nothing!  At least my mother was big enough to be turned into a shed!  Look at me...Nothing more than a trough!!  A measly little feed box.

EDWOOD (enters but doesn't notice RUSTLE...unimpressed)  I'm sick of the smell of fish!!  Ha!!  Some ocean liner I turned out to be!  That blasted apprentice at the saw mill mauled me, and the best they could do is to make a fishing boat out of me.  How humiliating!!

J.S.BARK (enters, looking dejectedly at sky)  I was going to be a pointer to God...a beautiful gum stretched towards the heavens!  And now...I'm a cross...a means of torture!!  I once helped people to breathe...now I suffocate them!!

EDWOOD (to J.S.)  Say, don't I know you?...Johann?

J.S.BARK Woody?

RUSTLE (looking over towards them with eyes lit up)  Johann! Woody!  It's me!  Rustle!

EDWOOD Rustle?...(looks questioningly at RUSTLE)  Wh...What are you?

RUSTLE (under her breath) A feed box.

EDWOOD What?

RUSTLE (loud and indignant)  A feed box!!...For animals, alright?!  (Pregnant pause...everyone looks uncomfortable)

J.S.BARK Who'd have thought we'd meet up after that horrible day.

EDWOOD Depressing isn't it!  Not one of us turned out the way we wanted.  I'm stumped!

RUSTLE We were all stumped!  I've spent my life watching cows and horses munch...About the only exciting thing that happened in our barn was when they put a family in for the night...There were no vacancies anywhere in town that night, and this couple were desperate!  She was very pregnant...and that night she had the baby...cute little thing...the poor people, they had nowhere warm to put him, so they laid him down inside me!...Fit perfectly!...Who'd have ever thought they'd put a baby in a trough?!

EDWOOD Yeah?  Well, I was going to take important people around the world!  I ended up on a lake!  About the most important person who ever graced my deck was this weirdo carpenter guy who used to travel around, and thousands of people would follow him, just to hear him tell strange stories.  One day, I was minding my own business, and he comes along with a big crowd as usual, and before I know it, he jumps on board to give himself some room to speak to them all.  He said some wild things.  And that day, he took me out and nearly sank me.  We got a catch that was way too big for me to hold!  And now I've been dry-docked, 'cos I leak!

J.S.BARK That sounds very much like the guy who was strung up on me not so long ago.  A carpenter, yeah, who said He was someone great, and the big heavies couldn't handle it!...So they killed Him...A great lot of trees we turned out to be!  (after a moment of thought)  Say Rustle...what was the name of that baby?