The Angry Vine

The Tomicraw people had a myth about the end of the world. They believed that the gods made the world for all mankind to enjoy save for one plant, a leafy vine that kept to one tiny patch of dirt in the forest.

“Do not touch this vine, for it is a plant of anger,” warned the gods.

But people did not know what anger was, for the world was still peaceful in those days, and they did not understand the danger. Thus, when two young lovers strolled through the forest one day, mindful only of each other, they thought little when they accidentally stepped on the plant, crushing the vine to the dirt.

Though the plant brimmed with anger, it had never had an opportunity to grow until then. When it was brought low to the earth, it reached into the dirt and took hold, and this was its first runner. As the lovers returned to their village, and one tripped on the runner, and was angry at the other for not warning her, and the plant grew. And families quarreled over who was at fault, her for not looking or him for not telling, and the plant grew, and soon it had reached the fields where crops grew and overtook them, and the farmers were angry, and they looked at the fields of other farmers whose land was not blighted, and from their anger grew envy, and in the night, as their babies cried for hunger, desperation grew, and from that grew theft, and the vine grew. In the morning the other farmers rose and saw what had happened, and they too became angry at the first for bringing the vines to the edge of their lands, and from their anger grew hate, and from their hate grew violence, and violence grew to war, and all the while, the vine spread, covering everything in its path.

The world, the Tomicraw said, would end when the vine finally covered the world completely. Scientists laughed until the vine spread and began choking out native plant species, which disrupted entire ecosystems leaving only vines in their wake. And they were angry at the Tomicraw for not warning them sooner. And the vine grew.

- Originally mailed to P. Mathis in Hattiesburg, Mississippi