The beginning, roughly
They were never supposed to drink.
What follows is the whole of the historical record. It is not much, and most of it is hearsay from trees who were present but not paying attention.
Nobody knows when it started.
There is no first account. No witness who stayed sober enough to be useful. The grove simply changed one season and nobody thought to write it down.
Some say it was the oak.
Others blame the mushrooms.
The oak denies everything. The mushrooms have never denied anything, which the older trees find far more troubling.
All we know is that once a tree takes its first sip…
It is not dramatic. Nothing splits open. The tree just stands there a little differently afterwards, and the forest quietly makes room for it at the bar.
…it never stops.
Four thousand four hundred and forty-four of them are out there now. They have names. They have opinions. Most of them have a tab.
