cookie

If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one to hear it, does it make a noise?

School sure was difficult. They were teaching a lot of things cookie didn't understand, things out of which he couldn't make much sense. For this reason he had been put in a special class for kids with an individually-paced mental development.

But this time the question seemed an easy one to him, and he would answer it right because he knew, he just knew how he could find the answer!

The next night, he didn't fall asleep as usual. He kept awake in the dark until past midnight, then slipped out of bed. Everybody else was fast asleep.

Near the school was a forest, and in the forest was a dead tree. This tree was so old and rotten that one could dig holes through its bark with a bare hand, and its trunk was hollow.

In blue pajamas and barefooted, cookie left the dormitory, crossed the playground's lawn, climbed the wooden fence, and was in the forest. The old tree was deep inside the woods, and it took some time for him to get to it. Once there, he checked very carefully the surroundings, even called - no one was there.

But there could be animals.

He couldn't see any, but he didn't want to take the risk of his experiment failing, so he started yelling and waving arms and running around the tree to scare away any animals who were around, a little boy in blue pajamas dancing in the night.

After a while, breathless, he stopped and listened. Absolute silence.

There was nobody around to hear what he was going to do. Not a soul.

He leaned against the old tree. He pushed. He pushed harder.

The tree didn't move.

cookie was disheartened. Would he get a bad grade on the assignment not because he had no brains but because he had no strength? This wasn't fair. Tears started running down his cheeks...

He pushed much harder.

And suddenly the rotten trunk broke, and the old tree fell. The night's silence made the noise the more intense, and this and the sudden fall made cookie jump back in surprise.

Startled, he didn't move for a while.

When the dust had settled, he checked around once more. Not a soul.

He was a little cold, but he was happy: tomorrow he would get a good grade. Because now he knew the answer: a tree did make a noise in the forest when it fell and when nobody was around.

He had heard it with his own ears.