Actually, it comes from an old man she and her children encountered one day while walking in Forest Ranch soon after establishing residence there. They passed an old tree with a sign that read “World’s Largest Cherry Tree.”
“The roots of it twisted beneath a rectangular shaped cement watering trough,” she writes, “with the words ‘Diamond Match Co.,’ imprinted into the side.” Then they saw the man, in red suspenders and with a long white beard, and though the tree couldn’t talk, he certainly did.
It's all recounted in “Harmony: Legend Of Forest Ranch” ($7.76 in paperback from ReadersMagnet LLC; also for Amazon Kindle), with more than two dozen of Forester’s whimsical illustrations depicting a young gold miner named Harlan, a Native American woman named Melody, and a creature called a Harmony.
A Harmony, Forester writes, “is a tiny playful horse-like creature that looks like it’s made of glass. It has a white fuzzy mane and tail, two sparkling bright eyes and wings like a dragonfly. Since they are only about four inches tall, they may easily sit in the palm of your hand…. Listen, did you hear a soft haunting melody or is it just the water bubbling over the rocks?”
When Harlan and Melody, riding in what is now Bidwell Park, and admiring Big Chico Creek, fall in love, Melody’s brother puts a curse on Harlan, who promises to return to marry Melody but, mysteriously, stays away for years.
“You see,” writes Forester, “Harmonies were originally created to send out feeling of happiness and good will to everyone … but it wasn’t working. Because of the terrible battles and bad feeling between the White man and the Indians, all Harmonies were ordered to leave the West. Only two were left and they were grieving and sad.”
Would Harlan ever return? Only the Harmonies Dusty and Silky can help and, fortunately, a happily-ever-after is not far behind.
