The Fallen Tree

Violet challenges us: This piece is written in 50-word increments. The literary quote I have chosen for this week is:“A fire can’t burn forever. Eventually, it consumes itself.”― Jodi Picoult, My Sister’s Keeper. If you are inspired by this line- and would like to use it in your own creation, please do and link back to this post.

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The tree was two to three hundred years old, it had a massive trunk and was stretched out a hundred feet on its side where the wind had pushed it down, and it lay now, across their long gravel driveway, its roots pointing at the sky beside a giant hole.

Jacob looked at the tree, his wife Helen wringing her hands beside him, and suppressed his anger and frustration since it would do no good – the tree had to be dealt with today and he knew his chain saw would only cut through some of this monster, not the base.

They heard it fall last night, during the storm in the inky darkness, a terrible sound that shook the ground, but it would have done no good to see what happened until after the sun rose and the storm had moved on, there was nothing he could do until morning.

Jacob finished his coffee, and with his 12 year old son, Matthew, he took chain saws, hatchets and large clippers down to the where the tree lay and they began cutting the tree into pieces, beginning with the limbs, then moving to branches, stacking the pieces in a burn pile.

Jacob wanted to get the fire going, but the wood was green and wet so they would need the propane torch and large can of propane to try to get the fire started – a rather dangerous job but one that Matthew would have to do while he cut the trunk.

Matthew burned pieces of limbs, adding larger pieces of wood in a teepee around the flames while Jacob tackled the trunk with his chainsaws, cutting down to within ten feet of the bottom, the rest of the trunk was too big for his equipment, the job too big for today.

Helen came out with drinks and told them it was time for lunch, eyeing the bonfire nervously since it was burning hot and high – Jacob saw her face and said, “A fire can’t burn forever, hon. Eventually it consumes itself. The wood in this pile will be gone by tomorrow.”

“Just make sure the driveway gets cleared by today,” she said with a smile, “I don’t know what I’d do without the both of you – there’s nothing you can’t do – and Jacob,” she said just for his ears, “some fires do burn forever, I’ll show you tonight, you sexy lumberjack.”

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