The Tickle Tree

The Tickle Tree
Francois Keyser

A family moves into a new home. The disabled daughter, Kayleigh, is kept awake at nights by noises from under the tree in their garden. She investigates one night and is amazed at what she finds. She makes strange new friends and is soon partying with them at night too. Even when tragedy strikes a friend the happiness cannot end and ultimately a miracle occurs which makes Kayleigh able to walk. “The Tickle Tree” was inspired by a tree in a park where we take our daughters to play. The story has been written in rhyme and it encourages us to always look for the magic in life as children and to remember to look for the magic in life as adults. It also demonstrates how powerful happiness can be in that a young disabled girl experiences a miracle and is able to walk for the first time.

Francois Keyser

The Tickle Tree

Francois Keyser

The Tickle Tree

First published by Tektime 2019

Copyright © 2019 by Francois Keyser

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

Francois Keyser asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

This children’s story is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

First edition

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The Tickle Tree

A young family moved into their new home
They had a daughter they called Kayleigh
She liked the house and loved the gnome
At the bottom of the garden under the tree.

The gnome was just a statue and couldn’t really speak
But Kayleigh pretended it could and called it No-Me
Sometimes Kayleigh thought its face had moved a tweak
But believed it was really the shadow of the tree.

Now Kayleigh was in a wheelchair because she couldn’t walk
But she did her best to be happy despite her difficulty
At school she couldn’t find friends with whom to laugh or talk
Because she was new and they could not accept her disability

When Kayleigh was tucked up tight in bed at night
She often thought she heard a laugh – or a giggle
But peering outside after turning off the light
There was nothing that moved or made a wiggle

And on days after she heard a laugh or giggle the night before