Advertisement

firehouse pizza banner

Cheryl Hughes: What The Tree Saw

There is a giant pine tree in Agnes’ (Garey’s mom) front yard.  It has lived there for over sixty years.  The tree was just a baby when Agnes and J.D. started building the small house in the small yard in Corner Alabama, where they moved with their young son, Garey, when the basement was completed.  The tree saw the completion of the house.

The tree saw Garey play in the sand beneath as he talked to imaginary friends who kept him company.  And a few years later, it saw Agnes and J.D. arrive home with a second child, a baby girl, Garey’s sister, Charlotte.  

The tree saw Garey and Charlotte play and Garey and Charlotte argue, and Charlotte cry and scream, and J.D. get aggravated enough over Charlotte’s crying and screaming to whip Garey with a branch from the tree, because he believed Garey was the problem, but the tree knew better.

The tree saw the years of work the little family did in the surrounding fields in order to raise crops they took to the farmers market.  It watched as the watermelons and cantaloupes and tomatoes and squash were loaded on to the truck, and it saw Garey return the next day or the next with an empty truck and a small roll of bills that would be tucked away for the years of draught, when there were no watermelons or cantaloupes or tomatoes or squash.

The tree smelled the smoke of brush fires that plagued the area during extreme dry times and took note that the little family fought the fires that threatened their farm and kept the fire away from their house and their yard and their tree.

The tree saw the family take turns turning the crank on the ice cream machine on the front porch on hot July afternoons, and it saw watermelon drip down the chins of the children and their cousins from next door.

The tree saw Garey and Charlotte get on the school bus in the mornings and off the school bus in the afternoons.  It saw Garey run and lock Charlotte out of the house, and it saw Charlotte beat on the door until Garey relented.  The tree saw Garey go off to college and Charlotte left behind to ride to school alone, and to be embarrassed alone when she had to herd her father’s cows out of the road while the other kids on the bus looked on and laughed.

The tree saw Garey return from college, only to leave again, this time for the army.   The tree saw Charlotte turn into a beautiful young woman while her brother was gone, and it saw them reunited when Garey’s military service was complete.  

The tree saw Garey’s and Charlotte’s children, and it watched as J.D. turned from a hard man into a kind and gentle grandfather.  The tree saw J.D. battle cancer and lose, and it watched the paramedics carry his lifeless body from the house he had built with his own hands over forty years before.  The tree saw Agnes and her children and her grandchildren leave for his funeral.  The tree saw them return and leave again, except for Agnes, who would stay to carry on alone. 

The tree has watched as Agnes grows older.  It has even seen her great granddaughter.  The tree has listened to arguments and laughter.  It has seen tears and heard cursing and prayers, and these are now part of its rings, safe inside its bark.

The tree is a youngster by tree standards.  After we’re gone, it will still be here.  It will watch another family move into the small house, and it will do what it does best.  Stand as a silent witness.

 
Tags: 


Bookmark and Share

Advertisements