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The crowd decided to have a meeting. The lady took charge because she had the loudest
voice. She said it would be a good idea to present a petition. Everyone stood in line. They
signed their names on a large piece of paper. Some of our neighbours signed their names
too. I looked up at grandpa. He grinned down from the tree. At three o’ clock, the crowd
packed up and left.

Soon after, grandpa was suddenly leaning out of the tree. He was shouting, ‘Here come

the enemies again. Let us be ready.’
There were five Council men. All of them were wearing dark suits. These were not the
workmen who came before. These were deskmen with briefcases. They came striding

across the grass. There was a sudden crash. The leader of the group tripped over the
ladder and fell flat.

I said sorry several times. The leader got up and glared at me. He had bushy eyebrows
and a bald head. Then he looked above and stared at my grandpa. His eyes were small.

‘Good afternoon, old man,’ he called up. He seemed to speak through his nose.
Grandpa did not answer. He was eating an apple with great relish. The man walked round

the tree. Then he stopped. ‘I am from the Municipal Council. My name is Mukherjee.’
Grandpa spat out a pip. ‘That is your problem,’ he said.

One of the men laughed. ‘We have come to order you to get off that tree,’ said Mukherjee.
The man standing behind him chipped in. ‘Yes, we order you off that tree now!’

Grandpa was very angry. ‘Listen, you officers,’ he said, ‘You can’t order me to do
anything. Here I am. And here I shall stay.’

Mukherjee took a deep breath. He smoothed the few hairs on his bald head. ‘You can’t
stay up there, Sir.’

‘I can and I will until I have a promise that you will leave the trees alone.’

Mukherjee made an ugly face. His mouth became a thin, hard line as he opened his
briefcase. ‘I have here a piece of paper,’ he said. He began to read from the paper, ‘Part
one, section three states that...’

Grandpa stopped him. ‘I don’t care about your section three. I care about trees,’ he said.
‘Now, look here, my good old man,’ he began.

Grandpa snapped, ‘I am not your good old man.’

petition: a document signed by a large number of people demanding or asking for some action from the government
or another authority
striding: walking confidently with long steps
glared: looked angrily at somebody
pip: a small fruit seed
chipped in: (here) interrupted a conversation by making a remark
snapped: uttered sharp words angrily

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