A Sticky Situation | Ep. 306

Ever heard the term, “poetic justice”?

Poetic justice is when, at the end of a story, goodness gets rewarded and misdeeds get punished… often in a very fitting way!

Spoiler alert: that’s exactly what happens in this week’s tale. But our misbehaving character doesn’t just receive poetic justice; he receives it from an actual poet!

Our tale is called “A Sticky Situation.” It was inspired by tales from the East Asian island nation of Japan.

We recorded this episode before a live audience of excited kids and grown-ups at the Dale F. Halton Theater in Charlotte, NC. Joining host Rebecca Sheir on stage was a trio of local actors: Frank Dominguez, Caroline Ly and Phil Vavra. And playing live music on the taishōgoto (learn more about this Japanese instrument below) was Eric Shimelonis.

This episode was adapted for Circle Round by Rebecca Sheir. It was edited by Amory Sivertson. Original music and sound design is by Eric Shimelonis. Our artist is Sabina Hahn.

GROWN-UPS! PRINT THIS so everyone can color while listening. We’re also keeping an album so please share your picture on Facebook and Instagram, and tag it with #CircleRoundPodcast. To access all the coloring pages for past episodes click HERE. Our resident artist is Sabina Hahn and you can learn more about her HERE.

Now It’s Your Turn

Just like our rhyming pine tree, you too can write poetic verse!

Pick a topic, then write a short poem about it: just four lines. If you’d like, you can use our pine tree’s rhyming scheme of A-B-A-B; so the first and third lines will rhyme, as will the second and fourth.

Once you’re done, share your poem with someone you love. Then, share it with us! With your permission, we may feature it in your monthly Circle Round newsletter, “The Lion’s Roar”! Ask a grown-up to help you email your rhyming verse to circleround@wbur.org.

Musical Spotlight: Taishōgoto

The Japanese stringed instrument known as the taishōgoto (a.k.a. Nagoya harp) first appeared during Japan’s Taishō period (1912–1926). Interestingly, it’s also become popular in East Africa, where it’s known as the taishokoto.

Musician Gorō Morita developed the taishōgoto in 1912. The story goes that he decided to combine a musical instrument… with the mechanics of a typewriter! Thus the taishōgoto has both strings and buttons. You pluck the strings with one hand, while using the keys to press down on the strings to change their pitch. You can also hear Eric playing the taishōgoto in another live episode, “The Doggies in the Window.”

Script:

NARRATOR: Reo lived in a humble hut in a quiet village beneath a tall mountain.

Reo earned his living by collecting wood from the pine trees that covered the mountain’s slopes, then selling the wood at the market.

REO: (as if hawking wood at market) Firewood! Get your firewood here!

NARRATOR: Reo was not technically a “woodcutter” or a “woodchopper.” Because he never cut or chopped any of the wood he sold.

Instead, as he trekked up and down the mountainside, he gathered up dead branches that had fallen to the ground.

One day, while out collecting fallen wood, Reo met a fellow named Ren.

REN: Hiya, Reo! I’m your new next-door neighbor! I just moved to the village yesterday. And I have to say: the pine trees on this mountain are amazing! I mean, look at all this beautiful wood I collected! It’s going to fetch a pretty penny at the market!

NARRATOR: Reo glanced at the thick limbs of wood in Ren’s wagon. Then he glanced at the shiny steel axe on Ren’s belt.

REO: Ren! Did you actually chop this wood? …With your axe?

REN: (sarcastic, snide) Ummm, how else would I chop it? With my pinky finger?

REO: But – but the pine trees on this mountain are alive! Just like you and me! Why would you chop off their limbs?

REN: It’s called “making a living,” Reo! Something you clearly know nothing about, judging by that ramshackle hovel you call ‘home’!

NARRATOR: Reo ignored the dig.

REO: Ren! Don’t you realize what happens when you hack a branch off of a living pine tree? The sap of the tree – its rich, sticky lifeblood – will drip and drip! And if it drips too much, the tree could die!

NARRATOR: Ren rolled his eyes.

REN: You are way too tenderhearted, Reo. If you want to succeed in this world, you’d better toughen up!

NARRATOR: And with that, Reo’s new neighbor gripped the handle of his wagon and marched away.

Reo sighed and continued up the slope, gathering fallen sticks in his sack. He was about to reach the mountain's summit when he suddenly heard…

TREE: (ad-lib crying)

NARRATOR: …crying!

REO: (gasp!) Somebody is in distress! I must find them! And help them out!

NARRATOR: Reo wound his way to the top of the mountain. And there, standing tall and proud, was the most majestic pine tree he had ever seen.

It was so tall and lofty it looked like a bright-green steeple, with its crown reaching up to the sky. Its delicate needles sparkled like emeralds. And each and every one of those needles shuddered and shook… as the tree let out sob after sob.

TREE: (ad-lib crying)

REO: Pine tree! Are you… crying? (beat) Can trees actually CRY?

TREE: (melodramatically teary-eyed) YES trees can cry! / If, like me, they’re cursed! / I’m doomed and I’m done for! / Unless my FATE is REVERSED!

NARRATOR: Reo froze.

REO: (startled) Uh, hang on a sec. (beat) Pine tree…? Are you actually… TALKING?

TREE: YES! / How’d you guess?

REO: I dunno. Because you just SPOKE…?

TREE: (with an eye roll) I was being COY! / Boy oh BOY!

REO: Oh! And you’re a POET…?

TREE:  Don’t you KNOW it!

REO: I should have seen that coming.

TREE: Listen, friend / What I said was true / I’m done for and cursed! / I know not what to do! / I used to be splendid / But I’m not anymore / Thanks to these wounds / I am at death’s door!

NARRATOR: Reo cocked his head as he took in the tree’s words.

REO: “Wounds”?? What “wounds” are you talking about?

NARRATOR: The tree bent one of her branches toward her trunk, as if pointing. And that’s when Reo saw them: a series of wide, gaping gashes and cuts where thick, sturdy limbs used to grow. And now, those gashes and cuts were dripping with sticky sap.

REO: (GASP!) Oh Pine tree! Did somebody come and chop off your branches?

TREE: You bet they did! / Earlier today! / One look at my limbs and their axe had its way! / Now sticky, sticky is my sap… / where my tender branches were snapped!

NARRATOR: It didn’t take long for Reo to figure out who had done the deed.

REO: Ugggh. REN! (beat) Hang in there, pine tree! I’m going to help you!

NARRATOR: Without missing a beat, Reo yanked off his jacket, tore off his shirt, and began ripping them into strips! Long, thin strips – like bandages! Carefully and quickly, he wrapped the bandages around the tree’s oozing trunk, and held them gently in place.

REO: I’m so sorry this happened, pine tree! But I think the bandages are sealing the wounds. Do you feel any better…?

NARRATOR: Reo expected the tree to respond with more poetry. But instead of producing a rhyming couplet, it produced a real curveball! An utter surprise that seemed to defy all RHYME and reason!

What do you think the tree did after Reo bandaged its wounds?

We’ll find out, after a quick break.

[BREAK]

NARRATOR: I’m Rebecca Sheir. Welcome back to Circle Round, live at the Dale F. Halton Theater in Charlotte, North Carolina!

Today our story is called “A Sticky Situation.”

Before the break, kindhearted Reo tended to the sticky, sappy wounds of a rhyming pine tree.

Once the makeshift bandages were in place, the tree did NOT let out another round of verse. Instead, there was a tinkling, jingling sound. And all of a sudden, what should come cascading down from the treetop, but a shower of tinkling, jingling…

REO: …COINS!

NARRATOR: That’s right! Bright, shiny silver coins were dropping from the tree and pooling on the ground in sparkling piles.

REO: Pine tree! Are you really giving me all these coins?

TREE: (happier now, amused) The coins are yours! / Oh yes indeed! / For helping out / a tree in need! / So take the coins! / And thank you, friend! / For saving me / From a sad, sad end!

NARRATOR: Reo wrapped his arms around the tree and gave it a hug. Then he gathered up the coins into his sack and headed home.

On the way, he passed the house of his new neighbor. Ren was just getting back from the market. His wagon was now empty, but– thanks to the pine tree's wood – his wallet was full. Still, when he spied the coins glittering in Reo’s sack, he turned green with envy.

REN: Reo! I thought you went up the mountainside to collect dead, fallen wood! Not cold, hard cash! (beat) Where’d you get the loot?

NARRATOR: Reo paused. He was hesitant to tell his new, greedy neighbor the truth. But he was also too honest to tell a lie.

REO: Well, Ren…? If you really must know… These coins were given to me… by a pine tree.

REN: A pine tree?

NARRATOR: At first, Ren kept a straight face. But then…

REN: (ad-lib laughing)

NARRATOR: …he doubled over with laughter.

REN: (laughing) A pine tree gave you money? You have GOT to be joking! You know the old saying, right?? “Money doesn’t grow on trees”….?????

REO: Yes I know the old saying! But a pine tree DID give me this money! Every single coin!

NARRATOR: Ren stopped laughing and stared into Reo’s eyes.

REN: (sobering up) Okay wait a minute. You’re actually being serious, aren’t you? You actually got these coins… from a pine tree????

REO: Yes! I did!

NARRATOR: Ren paused. Then he tilted his head and tried to act casual.

REN: (trying to act casual) So uhhhh… Just out of curiosity… which pine tree was it? As you know, the mountainside is covered with them!

REO: It was a tree way up at the summit. The one so tall it looks like a bright green steeple?

REN: (trying to remember) A bright green steeple…?

NARRATOR: Ren’s eyes lit up.

REN: Ohhhh! You mean the really big one! The one with all the thick, sturdy branches!

REO: Yup! (beat) And speaking of those “thick, sturdy branches,” you really should have thought twice before you took your axe and –

NARRATOR: But that’s as far as Reo got. Ren had already taken off for the mountain, eager for the pine tree to give HIM a sack of money, too!

When he reached the summit, his heart was pounding – from exertion, of course, but also from excitement! After all, he was moments away from swimming in silver!

REN: Hey there, tree! Now that you’ve given Reo his prize, it’s MY turn to be showered with coins! So whaddya say you do your thing and SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!?!!!

NARRATOR: Ren closed his eyes, waiting for the tree to unleash a torrent of coins. But instead… it spoke!

TREE: You’re the man I met today! / The one who took my branches away! / Sticky sticky is my blood… / So give me a pat, and get a flood!

NARRATOR: Ren felt a surge of excitement. “A flood”??? The pine tree must be talking about a flood of coins!

REN: Alright, tree! I’ll give you a pat! A nice, big one! Here!

NARRATOR: He stuck out his palm and smacked the tree’s trunk, as if giving it a high five.

REN: Now bring it on, tree! Have at it! Unleash that FLOOD!

NARRATOR: And wouldn't you know it, that’s exactly what the pine tree did. Only it wasn’t a flood of coins. Instead…

REN: Ewwwwww!

NARRATOR: …it was a flood of SAP! Sticky, syrupy, tree sap, slooshing and sluicing all over the place.

REN: Yuck! This is NOT the flood I was talking about, tree! Stop it! STOP IT!

NARRATOR: But the tree did NOT “stop it.”

TREE: It was a flood you wanted! / So a flood you shall know! / As I drip and dribble! / Gush and flow!

NARRATOR: The sap kept coming… like an ooey-gooey waterfall, sticking all over Ren’s hair and face and clothes.

REN: Cut it out! Leave me be! Lay off the sap, you silly tree!

TREE: Oh! So YOU’RE rhyming now! / Isn’t that great? / But thanks to your greed / this is your fate!

NARRATOR: The sap oozed down Ren’s body. It began to pool around his feet: a thick puddle of gloppy, gluey syrup, rising past his ankles…

REN: Eeek!

NARRATOR: …past his knees…

REN: Yuck!

NARRATOR: …and when it rose past Ren’s waist, he was stuck!

Trapped.

Fixed to the spot.

REN: I can’t move! Somebody help me! HELP MEEEE!

NARRATOR: But nobody came to help. And Ren was stuck in his gluey prison for the rest of the day and all through the night.

Come morning, the sap softened enough for him to break free. He let out a sigh of relief…

REN: (ad-lib sigh of relief)

NARRATOR: …and remorse…

REN: (ad-lib sigh of remorse)

NARRATOR: …then scrambled down the mountainside, scurrying as fast as his gummy, squishy feet could carry him.

By the time he got home, he had made himself a promise:

REN: I will never chop wood from a living tree again! I’ll only gather FALLEN wood. Just like Reo! (beat) My neighbor's tender heart may be SAPPY. But better a sappy HEART than a sappy head… and face… and body!

NARRATOR: It took days for Ren to wash off all the sap. But it didn’t wash away his resolve. Because after the poetic justice he got from the rhyming pine tree, he refused to be in another sticky situation again!