Up Up Up and Down Down Down

By Ashleigh Hicks

Based on the short play, Up Up Up and Down Down Down, written by Ashleigh Hicks with Sarah Emslie and Moses Kouyaté

Before the biggest storm you’ve ever seen hit the biggest tree in the forest, a Creature of the Sky lived all alone at the tippy-tippy top of the biggest tree in the forest. To get to their home, you had to climb up up up, past the birds’ nests and the squirrels’ nooks, through the canopy of branches, as high high high as you could go.

The Creature of the Sky didn’t have a care in the world – they danced around the tree top, with no one to tell them what to do or where to go. Theirs was a world full of sunlight and moonlight and starlight, shining and twinkling and glowing every day and every night, with nothing to block their view. Sometimes they would knock the tree’s tallest branches to and fro, just to watch some teeny pieces of light slip through the branches and fall down to the middle middle middle (right about where you’re standing right now).

The middle middle middle became a very special place… but we’re not at that part in the story yet.

Before the biggest tree in the forest was hit by the biggest storm you’ve ever seen, a Creature of the Earth lived with all their friends and family at the tippy-tippy bottom of the biggest tree in the forest. To get to their home, you had to climb down down down, past the coyotes’ dens and rabbits’ warrens, through the tangle of roots, as deep deep deep as you could go.

The Creature of the Earth had a thousand things to do – they hurried around the underground, helping their friends and family to build beautiful sculptures! The creatures of the Earth were experts at building sculptures – but it was so dark so deep deep deep down, that it was almost impossible to see their incredible work! So the Earth creatures worked hard, searching far and wide for the teeniest scraps of light that had slipped between the roots of the tree, and they gathered up those pieces of light and tucked them inside their sculptures, so they would glow from within and everyone could see their wonderful artwork.

And that’s what life was like at the tippy-tippy top and the tippy-tippy bottom of the biggest tree in the forest… until the biggest storm you’ve ever seen came crashing down!

The storm turned the sky inside out and turned the earth upside down! Wind, rain, thunder, lightning – the storm was so powerful, it pulled the biggest tree in the forest right out of the ground! By the time the storm had passed, the tree was lying on its side, and all the creatures from up up up and down down down were suddenly found… in the middle middle middle.

The creatures of the Earth were overjoyed. There was so much light in the middle middle middle! They could make a thousand sculptures! They could make them bigger and brighter than ever before! Immediately, they got to work, happy as could be.

But one Earth Creature noticed someone who wasn’t very happy at all.

The Sky Creature was terrified! It was so much darker in the middle middle middle, with all the other trees blocking the sunlight and moonlight and starlight. And all the Earth creatures were so busy, but the Sky Creature had only ever been bored. Everything was unfamiliar. The Sky Creature wanted things to go back to the way they were before. So, they went right up to where the biggest tree in the forest had fallen, and they tried to lift it back up.

The Earth Creature saw the Sky Creature struggling to lift the big big big tree, and realized what they were trying to do. But the Earth Creature knew they couldn’t help them – no one could put the biggest tree in the forest back where it was before. So, the Earth Creature took the Sky Creature by the hand, and tried to make them feel better. The Earth Creature showed the Sky Creature how to catch pieces of light, and how to tuck them into sculptures; the Sky Creature learned to work hard, and how to make incredible things by working together with others.

Together, the creatures of the Earth and of the Sky made all kinds of bright, beautiful sculptures, and hung them up all around the middle middle middle. Together, the creatures made the middle middle middle a home for all creatures.

The end.

About the writer