{"id":8224,"date":"2013-06-14T06:00:12","date_gmt":"2013-06-14T11:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/?p=8224"},"modified":"2013-06-14T06:00:12","modified_gmt":"2013-06-14T11:00:12","slug":"timber-flash-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/?p=8224","title":{"rendered":"Timber"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"http:\/\/www.thetortoisetable.org.uk\/common\/files\/catalogue\/55\/large\/falseacacia%20_lr_nov092.jpg\"<\/a>I held still.<\/p>\n

The forest all around me soughed with the gentle breeze and I closed my eyes and listened to the symphony of oaks and maples and larch and locust and poplar. Each leaf gave an individual sound, the wind breaking through the different shapes and sizes and positions. I understood the complexities of playing a clarinet or bassoon suddenly even though I\u2019d never picked up a musical instrument in my life.<\/p>\n

Tools I understand. I\u2019m a Builder. That\u2019s why I was in the forest.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to do this for me,\u201d my brother said. He lay in a hospital bed dying of colon cancer. He was too young for this and younger than me. Life isn\u2019t fair. \u201cYou have to.\u201d His voice was not even a fourth what it had been when he was strong. Now it was reedy, full of too much air and almost hollow.<\/p>\n

He held on to my hand with a strength he\u2019d always had but never showed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will, Ollie. I promise.\u201d I hated this. I was crying and I didn\u2019t want my little brother to see me crying. Our sister would have torn me up for showing emotion like that. Susan was a bitch but I loved her and Ollie more than almost anything. My own family were the only ones above them. I sniffed and stopped trying to hold back the tears.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t go until you do, Jamie.\u201d Ollie always had a penchant for gravitas and that\u2019s what made him good at what he did. He could write copy like no one else and he had that shelf of awards to prove it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll go out there first thing in the morning,\u201d I said. I sniffed again.<\/p>\n

Ollie nodded and let go of my hand. The drugs finally took him and let him rest.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Out in the hall I stopped to hug Ollie\u2019s wife. We both cried and held tight to each other. In another world, I might have won her affection if I hadn\u2019t met Marta around the same time. Charlene chose Ollie, picked him from all her suitors and made sure he knew just how much she loved him. Being a former Miss Texas USA, she attracted all sorts of men – and women – just by being in a room.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat does he want you to do?\u201d She hadn\u2019t put on any makeup and her face was blotchy from crying.<\/p>\n

\u201cA small thing,\u201d I said. I looked at the floor. \u201cTomorrow morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh god.\u201d Charlene wiped her eyes with the heel of her hand. \u201cJesus.\u201d<\/p>\n

I took a step back. \u201cHe\u2019s sleeping now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou haven\u2019t told me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d I shuffled to my left half a step.<\/p>\n

The glare she shot me withered away any resolve I might have had. Still, she didn\u2019t need to know everything. I sighed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a tree out on our parents\u2019 property. He wants me to use it in the house.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her face melted from stern reproach to confusion. \u201cI don\u2019t understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t really have to, Char,\u201d I said. \u201cThis is what he wants me to do for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d she said, shaking her head. \u201cNo, you\u2019re not going to finish the house, are you? Really? Because I\u2019m not moving into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s paid for.\u201d I put my hands in my pockets and kicked at the hospital floor. Immaculate, I couldn\u2019t even scuff it with my boot. \u201cIt\u2019s what he wanted. Wants. This is him, Charlene.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charlene narrowed her eyes and tightened her lips. \u201cAre you sure, Jamie?\u201d She held the glare for almost a minute and I had learned to not say anything in these sorts of situations.<\/p>\n

Eventually she broke the glare and her face fell, her shoulders slumped. \u201cIt\u2019s not fair.\u201d<\/p>\n

She started crying again.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

I let my breath out, long and slow in time with the soughing trees. I tried to match the notes but they were on a scale I didn\u2019t know. Still, my best would have to be good enough.<\/p>\n

It had been before.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

\u201cThis one,\u201d Ollie said, still a little of the teenager in his voice. \u201cThis is the wishing tree.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a black locust,\u201d I said, my arms crossed and my impatience showing.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow old do you think it is?\u201d<\/p>\n

Home from college, we both had decided to take a walk on the outskirts of the parental homestead and smoke some dope. Ollie got some really good California indica from god knows who but he always shared with me. I was home for another week before I started my new job in Oregon and he was in between his sophomore and junior years. We were already halfway through the second joint.<\/p>\n

\u201cI dunno\u2026 Pretty old. Maybe a hundred or so.\u201d I held the smoke as long as I could then let it go.<\/p>\n

\u201cCool,\u201d Ollie said. He took off his shirt and pulled out a Swiss Army knife.<\/p>\n

I coughed and laughed. \u201cWhat the hell, Ollie?\u201d<\/p>\n

My brother shaved off a five inch by five inch portion of the tree\u2019s bark. The skin underneath was smooth and yellowish. When he turned back to me, I barely recognized him. \u201cCharlene Parson.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat about her?\u201d I squinted.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou went out with her,\u201d Ollie said. \u201cDid you do anything?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you mean? We had dinner. Is that a big deal?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou went back to her place!\u201d Ollie came undone and threw the knife at me. I ducked to the side but he missed by a good four or five feet. \u201cDid you fuck her?!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo! Jesus Christ, no! We drank some wine and made out was all. What\u2019s the deal with you?\u201d<\/p>\n

He relaxed a little, seemed to come back into himself. Ollie looked around for his shirt and walked over to pick it up. Through the haze of my buzz I watched my brother wander around in a circle three or four times wadding his shirt into a tight ball and shaking it loose again. He talked a mile a minute but nothing made sense. It was almost like a chant though I didn\u2019t understand the words.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are you doing?\u201d I took a step toward him and Ollie held a hand out to stop me while he completed his circuit and chanted the words that weren\u2019t quite words I knew.<\/p>\n

When he was done I noticed his shirt was dripping with blood.<\/p>\n

\u201cOllie,\u201d I said, \u201cyou\u2019re bleeding.\u201d<\/p>\n

He ignored me and went to the tree and unwrapped the shirt. His hand was definitely covered in blood and he recited some more words with a singsong that sounded Middle Eastern to me. On the bare wood of the tree, he drew a cross and then a cartoon heart. He put his initials on the left and CP on the right.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you see this?\u201d His voice was calm but he didn\u2019t look at me.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah,\u201d I said. Completely brilliant in the face of my brother\u2019s madness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my wish,\u201d Ollie said. \u201cThis is what I want more than anything and this tree has the power to grant me this wish but you\u2019re my witness so I need you to finish it off when the time comes. Do you understand?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot a fucking thing,\u201d I said. \u201cWe need to get you to a hospital, brother. You\u2019ve lost a lot of blood there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ollie looked down. \u201cThat\u2019s part of it, my blood on its roots and my wish on its wood. That\u2019s how it\u2019s going to happen.\u201d When he turned to me, he was smiling weakly.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t look so good,\u201d I said. \u201cCome on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to promise,\u201d Ollie said, his voice rose with urgency. \u201cYou have to promise!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI promise to do what needs to be done when the time comes,\u201d I said but I didn\u2019t mean it. At least back then I didn\u2019t think I meant it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll right,\u201d Ollie said. \u201cGood. Thass gooddd. I\u2019m feeled a lil wibblee.\u201d His eyes rolled up white and Ollie fainted.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

I dropped my coat on the ground and hefted the axe. This was the right tree. It had to be. There was a healed up spot about five by five a foot or so over my head. Almost thirty years since Ollie drew his heart in blood on the tree so that was about right. If this was a wishing tree, it had at least made one wish come true. I hoped I lived long enough to find out if the second half worked.<\/p>\n

\u201cHello,\u201d I said to the tree. \u201cI was here with my brother Oliver when he drew his heart onto you. He\u2019s asked me to do this, I hope you don\u2019t mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

So Ollie and Charlene got married when he finished college and they had a life together. Twenty-seven years is a good long run. Once, about ten years into the marriage, Charlene had come to see me with a bottle of wine. I knew I shouldn\u2019t have but I was lonely. Marta had been home exactly three days in the last sixty and wasn\u2019t coming home for another two weeks. Charlene knew and I let her take advantage of the situation. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I participated wholeheartedly, and we definitely enjoyed ourselves. But we never spoke of it again. It was the implied question she wanted answered in the hospital.<\/p>\n

I love Marta. I never cheated on her again. I had opportunities – more than my share – but I didn\u2019t. After that second night with Charlene I never felt good about lying to my brother and my wife. And Charlene, too.<\/p>\n

Anyway, they had a happy life. No kids, but a happy life. Neither one wanted kids but they both doted on mine and Marta\u2019s. Jake and Lexy both spent summers with Uncle Ollie and Aunt Charlene while Marta had her career and I became a Builder of Great Houses.<\/p>\n

He never reminded me of my promise until he lay on his deathbed, though. I thought it was something crazy he did to give himself the courage to chase after Miss Texas USA but what if it wasn\u2019t? What if he was dead serious about all of it?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I was chopping down a hundred year-old locust tree with only an axe. Because I didn\u2019t want to take that chance and I owed it to my brother to carry out his dying wish. I stopped every so often to drink some water but otherwise I chopped and chopped and chopped with that axe until my forearms were numb and my shoulders ached. I hadn\u2019t worked this hard in a long, long time.<\/p>\n

When the tree fell it crashed through its neighbors like it was trying to be careful, like it was sorry it was hurting them.<\/p>\n

Everything was silent.<\/p>\n

I turned and drank the last of my water, picked up my coat and made my way back to the car.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Ollie was dead.<\/p>\n

When I got to the hospital, Charlene sat in the room holding his cold hand.\u00a0 \u201cAbout an hour ago,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

I nodded. That\u2019s about when the tree finally fell. I had my confirmation that this was, aside from being fantastic and beyond belief, as real as anything else. Ollie\u2019d made a wish on a tree and he\u2019d gotten everything he told me he\u2019d asked for.<\/p>\n

I sat on the other side of the bed and looked down on my dead brother. \u201cI\u2019ll finish it, Ollie. I promise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charlene growled at me, here eyes closed. \u201cThe hell you will. I\u2019m canceling the contract. I\u2019ll never live in that house. It was too big for us, anyway. You\u2019ll find a buyer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now wasn\u2019t the time to argue with her. I\u2019d finish the house.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Three months after we buried Ollie, I persuaded Charlene to come out and at least tour the finished house. It didn\u2019t take much, but she made me work to get her into the truck.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s impressive,\u201d she said as we came up the long drive.<\/p>\n

She didn\u2019t say anything else until we got inside. Our footsteps echoed through the halls, the kitchen, up the stairs. I gave her the details, the kinds of wood we used, the care that had been taken with everything in the house. I didn\u2019t tell her that the house would serve as a kind of way station for travelers from other – well, she didn\u2019t need to know any of that and I really should be writing any of this down. Except I can\u2019t help myself. Maybe I owed it to Ollie.<\/p>\n

I took her to the upstairs study, the one Ollie expressly instructed me to frame with the boards I cut from his locust, his wishing tree. The shelves remained empty but the desk was one Ollie had picked out. The only chair was behind the desk. I pulled it out and held it for her to sit.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo thank you,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease,\u201d I said. \u201cYou\u2019ll want to be sitting down for this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n

Charlene\u2019s suspicion was a sharp thing that stopped its point at the top of my heart. If Ollie hadn\u2019t made his damned wish, I might have pursued her\u2026 but that was long ago. And there\u2019s really no use pretending I\u2019m honorable. My debt to Ollie was tainted. I had to do what I could to carry it through. I nodded at the chair. \u201cPlease.\u201d<\/p>\n

She sat and I walked back to the door, closed it and stood in front of it. \u201cIt\u2019ll only take a minute.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now she was frustrated but resigned to whatever it was I had brought her here for.<\/p>\n

The light didn\u2019t pop in, it didn\u2019t make a sound. It was just there, hanging on some unseen breeze, a will o\u2019 the wisp. It lengthened into the shape of a man and came to the floor. It didn\u2019t touch the carpet.<\/p>\n

Charlene, dazed, put her hands on the desk and nearly came up out of her chair. \u201cOh Jesus\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Ollie turned toward me and smiled. \u201cThanks, Jamie. You did good.\u201d His voice was even, calm. It contained all the sounds of the forest and yet was still his. I shrugged and gave him a thin smile. My brother looked happier than he did on his wedding day. Charlene fell back in the chair and covered her mouth but not the tears rushing down her cheeks.<\/p>\n

I held still until he turned back to his wife.<\/p>\n

Then I left them alone in their house.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I held still. The forest all around me soughed with the gentle breeze and I closed my eyes and listened to the symphony of oaks and maples and larch and locust and poplar. Each leaf gave an individual sound, the wind breaking through the different shapes and sizes and positions. I understood the complexities of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[130,216,459,1076,1135],"class_list":["post-8224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","tag-brothers","tag-confabulation","tag-ghosts","tag-straeon-manor","tag-the-builders"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8224\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}