Ty Kennedy
01-09-2016, 02:58 AM
“The Lumberjack”
There existed a place where valleys would grow fields of the greenest grass the world could see and these magnificent rivers that would run clear. It was a place where the birds would sing in the early morning sunshine and leave you breathless at symphony they would create. Animals of all kinds would frolic in the fields with bliss while others simply lazed around in the beauty. This place was wonderful, a full forest filled with stunning trees, some old and some new. Yet all lived in a peaceful and innocent life with the only hardship being the wind blowing a little too hard on some rare days that the weather wasn’t perfect. It was here in this forest that existed a tree, a young tree of only 80 years. This tree, he, saw this world with such bliss. His days were full of watching the sunrise and listening to the music of the birds, the soothing sounds of the rivers off in the distance, the warmth of a sunny day, and sometimes that cool breeze that would sweep on through and rustle his leaves.
Yes he was a kind and marvelous tree, full of such youth that the older trees envied. It was this innocence that allowed him to see the beauty of the world. Until one day the world that he knew was about to be ripped away in manner that he had never experienced. Trudging through this forest was what this tree had known to be a lumberjack. The horror stories had him as the evil that uprooted all the happiness of the forest. Yet there was never a sighting of such a man in this part of the world, so none knew that it was even possible for the lumberjack to step foot in this sacred and serene land. This tree saw the man looking up and down all the trees he was passing and as the lumberjack laid his eyes of the tree, this tree knew the lumberjack was coming for him.
He didn’t see it until now but the lumberjack had a weapon, a weapon so crude in its display. There were these sharp edges on a blade that started to rumble, to rotate as the lumberjack loomed even closer. The sound was obnoxious, deafening to this tree. Feelings the tree had no words for were born and grew from his roots, a terrible feeling. Then the lumberjack stopped steps away and the crude weapon made contact with his trunk. He could feel his connection to his roots being severed, being cut away from him. In seconds the sunny world went black. When the tree regained his sight he was covered in darkness, there was no sun, no moon, nothing. All that he could hear was the overwhelming screeching of a place he did not want to be.
Suddenly there was a light, not of the sun or the fireflies that filled the forest at night; no it was something not natural. It shined enough to revel that surrounding him were others like him. No that wasn’t true; these other trees were without any life, any spirit. He looked ahead and suddenly the terrible wordless feeling re birthed inside him, but this time he didn’t have any roots for it to grow from. He could see blades, sharp rotating edges just like the lumberjack had used on him. Except these were huge and terrifying as they rotated faster and faster and produced an atrocious sound that screeched as the tree in front of him was cut in half. It was then the tree realized his fate, a fate with no control.
That other tree was gone and now it was his turn, his turn to face the fate that soon all the other trees here would face. The blades touched the base of him and the blackness engulfed him once again. The absent of natural light had robbed him of telling time. Now suffocating in this darkness he was lost. He was nothing. Time and life had no meaning in this place, only existing in soundless and meaningless agony.
There, suddenly was an artificial light that bloomed into his vision. Disoriented he was but he took to absorb his new environment. First, he was no longer a vertical tree that towered over everything; no he was now a horizontal tree overlooking the ground below him. He could see just under him were these disfigured trees, manipulated into these weird and unnatural shapes, and there off to what looked like an opening was a man, not the lumberjack that uprooted his life, but a bearded and ruff looking man. These men wandered in and behind were a slew of others just like him. These men started to bring more unnatural and disfigured wood, and they placed them all around this floor.
After sometime the tree noticed that off to the side of him was a small opening that had a light shining through. It left a shadow of this window on the floor. He wasn’t sure what was producing this light until he saw it, the sun! He could have cried if he had tears to cry. His natural feelings of bliss were returning as he reminisced about his life in that gorgeous forest of his kind. He had hope, now that he could see the sun and count the time he could handle this. After a few days had passed the bearded men had stopped coming. Their work was evident in what was laid below and placed around him. These malformed trees were everywhere now. The tree had observed the bearded men using them to sit, to lay, and to place items on. He had heard them refer to the trees as furniture and it seemed very useful to their way of life.
The tree began to count the cycles of the sun and moon, and there were many days without and sound or any movement. It was quiet, it was almost soundless, almost but not quite like the soundless agony he had just experienced. It was different. Almost relaxing, it was peaceful. The days seemed to pass by without any real difference between them and soon he had lost count and just let the sunlight from the window be his escape to the time when he was free. After many more days had escaped by, a new day came by that was about to bring it all this mindless peace to an end. Just after the sun had rose and the tree was basking in his memories, there was a sudden creek of what he had learned was the door. He looked and what he saw brought the terror surging through all that he was. The lumberjack.
In stepped the lumberjack and following behind him was a smaller human, a child, and behind the child was a woman. They wandered in with their arms and backs full of bags. Once they had placed all of their belongings down, they all smiled and embraced each other and let out yell of such good emotion that the tree was taken back. This lumberjack that had taken away his life didn’t seem to be so bad. Over the next few days the family, as he had learned to refer to them as, happily plopped around the house together sharing laughs, sharing smiles, hugs and kisses. The tree could feel the joy and love that the family had for one another radiate throughout the whole house. Yes, house is the term that the family used frequently and it was in that that the tree had discovered what he had become, a house.
The next few years rolled on by in waves of ups and downs. Slowly the house, the tree, grew closer to this family and developed cherished memories. Like in the first few weeks where the child would cry out from his crib in the middle of the night. He would wale and wale as though his world was crashing down upon him and yet after a few minutes the lumberjack would emerge with the child in his arms in cradle rocking him back and forth with so much tender care. The house could see the lumberjacks eyes swell up with such warmth that even the cold night was warmed. Or that other time when the child was a few years older and the woman would chase around her child around with this ginormous smile as he laughed hysterically. Games after games the house was witness too and not just an observer he had become a part of these games. He had come to realize that the furniture, the other trees, were a part of him now. So every time the child hid under the sofa the house was participating, every time the woman would open the closet door to pretend she couldn't see her child hiding, the house was a part of it.
Those nights where the family would stay home and snuggle on the couch, bundled up in blankets with the fire roaring in that cozy fireplace, and sheltered by him; the house. The lights would flare on the television and the happiness never seemed to fade from the family as they were cuddled together. Of course some bad times were expected. Like the time the child ,who wasn't so much a child anymore, came back to the house with his arm in a sling, and cuts and bruises littered his body. The lumberjack and the woman had told him to be careful on his bike, and the not so child refused to listen. The house found it hard to see the child in such bad condition, to see the hurt in the lumberjack and woman's eyes. The child had become a huge part of the house and when the child hurt, the house ached along with him.
That one time when the lumberjack had woken up with a terrible cough and for days all the house could hear was the sounds of agony and when the house would check on the man he was unconscious. The woman did all she could to take care of him, and every night would fall asleep holding him in her embrace. A few more days passed just the same until that one day when the lumberjack awoke and hugged the woman and his child with a force of love. The house over those days when the lumberjack was very sicks was depressed and had a gloom cast down the whole house. Yet when the lumberjack woke, the house lit up like it was the sun itself.
Then there was that one memory which was the house's favorite. The day when the lumberjack brought to the house for the first time a Christmas tree many years after the first day the family had moved in. It had seemed over the many years to the house that the lumberjack never chopped down another tree besides the house when he was just a tree. The house had grown suspicious over the years that the lumberjack was never really a lumberjack at all. That the taking of the tree was a special occurrence. So when the lumberjack brought home a Christmas tree the house was at first appalled to see this man and this family that the house had grown to love would commit such a crime again, but as soon as the child walked in and saw the Christmas tree standing there by the window, the child erupted with glee. Following suit was the woman and the lumberjack. The house at that moment realized something that had taken these many years and this family to realize, there was much more to life than just swaying freely in the breeze and wasting days away in solitary bliss. No, what was important was the happiness you could bring to the world and in that Christmas tree the house realized the potential he and that tree and all other trees could bring to everyone. He realized he served a much greater purpose than just himself, he sheltered this family, he watched over this family, he bonded with this family, he loved this family, and in what had become his wooden heart he knew he had become this family's home.
The lumberjack for sometime now had not really been the lumberjack at all to the home, but the home called him that out of habit. Yet as more and more years flew by the home had eventually taken to calling him the man. The man had this wonderful family, a wonderful life, and a wonderful home. The home no longer looked at the man with fear or anger, no the home now saw this man that he had come to love and a man that had become a part of the home's life.
It was a numerous amount of years after the child had left to forge his own life, that the woman became sick. The home had seen the family sick many times throughout the years including when the man was sick for days in bed with that horrendous cough, but this sickness was very different. The home could tell something was not right, something was wrong and the man rushed her to the doctor. A few dim nights and days passed and the home was getting extremely worried. This was the longest time since the home had become to be that he was alone. The soundless agony seemed to make a return, a feeling the home had not remembered for so many many years. The home was lost in this agony and had stopped counting the sunsets and sunrises. Instead the home simply existed in fear and worry for the family he loved.
Suddenly the door opened and in staggered the man, distraught with his faced covered in tears. The man crashed to the couch and the home felt the immediate loss. The man sobbed and and sobbed his soul out for countless days. The sound of the man was the worse sound the home had ever heard. Worse than those saw blades all those years ago and the home had thought there could never be anything worse. Now he had heard what was worse, the sound a man who had lost a part of his heart. The home had never known pain like this and in this feeling the man and the house together consoled each other over the loss of a loved one.
The years now crept on by and the man aged much faster now. The wrinkles in the man's face resembled the rings inside the tree, the home. They were both older now and had a lifetime of memories that they shared, some horrible and many marvelous. The man now had stopped moving as much and spent most of his day rocking back and forth in his chair with the home and the home loved the simple days and time together but the home had grown wise in these years of life with the family and the home knew that the man was almost gone. The time eventually came when the man rose one day from bed and slowly limped his way over to his chair, here he sat and simply stared at the tree. Yes the tree, the actual tree that the home was, this beam that had overlooked the family all of this time. A few minutes passed by as the tree and the man gazed at each other, telling a million emotions without a single word. The tree knew then that the tree was special to the man. The home now understood The lumberjack was never a lumberjack at all he was simply a man that had come to find that special tree that he could take for himself and make it part of his home, a part of his family as he had lacked the ability to completely build a home by himself. The man needed all those bearded men to construct the home and the man had simply wanted to give a part of himself to the home for his family.
With this revelation, the home knew now he was chosen because the man had loved the tree way before the tree had ever loved the man. It was this that gave the home the most absolutely pleasurable feeling the home had ever felt, he was loved. The man began to ever so slowly shut his eyes as the color began to fade from his body. One final smile as the man remembered his wonderful life and he was gone. The home cried in a magnitude he never knew possible. The man that had given the home this marvelous life had gone. It was a long time before the home could compose himself and when he did he looked down at the man for one final time and said his goodbye. For this man even though he had gone would always be this home's lumberjack.
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Hey everyone this is my first story in 6 years and my first time on here, let me know what you guys think!!!
There existed a place where valleys would grow fields of the greenest grass the world could see and these magnificent rivers that would run clear. It was a place where the birds would sing in the early morning sunshine and leave you breathless at symphony they would create. Animals of all kinds would frolic in the fields with bliss while others simply lazed around in the beauty. This place was wonderful, a full forest filled with stunning trees, some old and some new. Yet all lived in a peaceful and innocent life with the only hardship being the wind blowing a little too hard on some rare days that the weather wasn’t perfect. It was here in this forest that existed a tree, a young tree of only 80 years. This tree, he, saw this world with such bliss. His days were full of watching the sunrise and listening to the music of the birds, the soothing sounds of the rivers off in the distance, the warmth of a sunny day, and sometimes that cool breeze that would sweep on through and rustle his leaves.
Yes he was a kind and marvelous tree, full of such youth that the older trees envied. It was this innocence that allowed him to see the beauty of the world. Until one day the world that he knew was about to be ripped away in manner that he had never experienced. Trudging through this forest was what this tree had known to be a lumberjack. The horror stories had him as the evil that uprooted all the happiness of the forest. Yet there was never a sighting of such a man in this part of the world, so none knew that it was even possible for the lumberjack to step foot in this sacred and serene land. This tree saw the man looking up and down all the trees he was passing and as the lumberjack laid his eyes of the tree, this tree knew the lumberjack was coming for him.
He didn’t see it until now but the lumberjack had a weapon, a weapon so crude in its display. There were these sharp edges on a blade that started to rumble, to rotate as the lumberjack loomed even closer. The sound was obnoxious, deafening to this tree. Feelings the tree had no words for were born and grew from his roots, a terrible feeling. Then the lumberjack stopped steps away and the crude weapon made contact with his trunk. He could feel his connection to his roots being severed, being cut away from him. In seconds the sunny world went black. When the tree regained his sight he was covered in darkness, there was no sun, no moon, nothing. All that he could hear was the overwhelming screeching of a place he did not want to be.
Suddenly there was a light, not of the sun or the fireflies that filled the forest at night; no it was something not natural. It shined enough to revel that surrounding him were others like him. No that wasn’t true; these other trees were without any life, any spirit. He looked ahead and suddenly the terrible wordless feeling re birthed inside him, but this time he didn’t have any roots for it to grow from. He could see blades, sharp rotating edges just like the lumberjack had used on him. Except these were huge and terrifying as they rotated faster and faster and produced an atrocious sound that screeched as the tree in front of him was cut in half. It was then the tree realized his fate, a fate with no control.
That other tree was gone and now it was his turn, his turn to face the fate that soon all the other trees here would face. The blades touched the base of him and the blackness engulfed him once again. The absent of natural light had robbed him of telling time. Now suffocating in this darkness he was lost. He was nothing. Time and life had no meaning in this place, only existing in soundless and meaningless agony.
There, suddenly was an artificial light that bloomed into his vision. Disoriented he was but he took to absorb his new environment. First, he was no longer a vertical tree that towered over everything; no he was now a horizontal tree overlooking the ground below him. He could see just under him were these disfigured trees, manipulated into these weird and unnatural shapes, and there off to what looked like an opening was a man, not the lumberjack that uprooted his life, but a bearded and ruff looking man. These men wandered in and behind were a slew of others just like him. These men started to bring more unnatural and disfigured wood, and they placed them all around this floor.
After sometime the tree noticed that off to the side of him was a small opening that had a light shining through. It left a shadow of this window on the floor. He wasn’t sure what was producing this light until he saw it, the sun! He could have cried if he had tears to cry. His natural feelings of bliss were returning as he reminisced about his life in that gorgeous forest of his kind. He had hope, now that he could see the sun and count the time he could handle this. After a few days had passed the bearded men had stopped coming. Their work was evident in what was laid below and placed around him. These malformed trees were everywhere now. The tree had observed the bearded men using them to sit, to lay, and to place items on. He had heard them refer to the trees as furniture and it seemed very useful to their way of life.
The tree began to count the cycles of the sun and moon, and there were many days without and sound or any movement. It was quiet, it was almost soundless, almost but not quite like the soundless agony he had just experienced. It was different. Almost relaxing, it was peaceful. The days seemed to pass by without any real difference between them and soon he had lost count and just let the sunlight from the window be his escape to the time when he was free. After many more days had escaped by, a new day came by that was about to bring it all this mindless peace to an end. Just after the sun had rose and the tree was basking in his memories, there was a sudden creek of what he had learned was the door. He looked and what he saw brought the terror surging through all that he was. The lumberjack.
In stepped the lumberjack and following behind him was a smaller human, a child, and behind the child was a woman. They wandered in with their arms and backs full of bags. Once they had placed all of their belongings down, they all smiled and embraced each other and let out yell of such good emotion that the tree was taken back. This lumberjack that had taken away his life didn’t seem to be so bad. Over the next few days the family, as he had learned to refer to them as, happily plopped around the house together sharing laughs, sharing smiles, hugs and kisses. The tree could feel the joy and love that the family had for one another radiate throughout the whole house. Yes, house is the term that the family used frequently and it was in that that the tree had discovered what he had become, a house.
The next few years rolled on by in waves of ups and downs. Slowly the house, the tree, grew closer to this family and developed cherished memories. Like in the first few weeks where the child would cry out from his crib in the middle of the night. He would wale and wale as though his world was crashing down upon him and yet after a few minutes the lumberjack would emerge with the child in his arms in cradle rocking him back and forth with so much tender care. The house could see the lumberjacks eyes swell up with such warmth that even the cold night was warmed. Or that other time when the child was a few years older and the woman would chase around her child around with this ginormous smile as he laughed hysterically. Games after games the house was witness too and not just an observer he had become a part of these games. He had come to realize that the furniture, the other trees, were a part of him now. So every time the child hid under the sofa the house was participating, every time the woman would open the closet door to pretend she couldn't see her child hiding, the house was a part of it.
Those nights where the family would stay home and snuggle on the couch, bundled up in blankets with the fire roaring in that cozy fireplace, and sheltered by him; the house. The lights would flare on the television and the happiness never seemed to fade from the family as they were cuddled together. Of course some bad times were expected. Like the time the child ,who wasn't so much a child anymore, came back to the house with his arm in a sling, and cuts and bruises littered his body. The lumberjack and the woman had told him to be careful on his bike, and the not so child refused to listen. The house found it hard to see the child in such bad condition, to see the hurt in the lumberjack and woman's eyes. The child had become a huge part of the house and when the child hurt, the house ached along with him.
That one time when the lumberjack had woken up with a terrible cough and for days all the house could hear was the sounds of agony and when the house would check on the man he was unconscious. The woman did all she could to take care of him, and every night would fall asleep holding him in her embrace. A few more days passed just the same until that one day when the lumberjack awoke and hugged the woman and his child with a force of love. The house over those days when the lumberjack was very sicks was depressed and had a gloom cast down the whole house. Yet when the lumberjack woke, the house lit up like it was the sun itself.
Then there was that one memory which was the house's favorite. The day when the lumberjack brought to the house for the first time a Christmas tree many years after the first day the family had moved in. It had seemed over the many years to the house that the lumberjack never chopped down another tree besides the house when he was just a tree. The house had grown suspicious over the years that the lumberjack was never really a lumberjack at all. That the taking of the tree was a special occurrence. So when the lumberjack brought home a Christmas tree the house was at first appalled to see this man and this family that the house had grown to love would commit such a crime again, but as soon as the child walked in and saw the Christmas tree standing there by the window, the child erupted with glee. Following suit was the woman and the lumberjack. The house at that moment realized something that had taken these many years and this family to realize, there was much more to life than just swaying freely in the breeze and wasting days away in solitary bliss. No, what was important was the happiness you could bring to the world and in that Christmas tree the house realized the potential he and that tree and all other trees could bring to everyone. He realized he served a much greater purpose than just himself, he sheltered this family, he watched over this family, he bonded with this family, he loved this family, and in what had become his wooden heart he knew he had become this family's home.
The lumberjack for sometime now had not really been the lumberjack at all to the home, but the home called him that out of habit. Yet as more and more years flew by the home had eventually taken to calling him the man. The man had this wonderful family, a wonderful life, and a wonderful home. The home no longer looked at the man with fear or anger, no the home now saw this man that he had come to love and a man that had become a part of the home's life.
It was a numerous amount of years after the child had left to forge his own life, that the woman became sick. The home had seen the family sick many times throughout the years including when the man was sick for days in bed with that horrendous cough, but this sickness was very different. The home could tell something was not right, something was wrong and the man rushed her to the doctor. A few dim nights and days passed and the home was getting extremely worried. This was the longest time since the home had become to be that he was alone. The soundless agony seemed to make a return, a feeling the home had not remembered for so many many years. The home was lost in this agony and had stopped counting the sunsets and sunrises. Instead the home simply existed in fear and worry for the family he loved.
Suddenly the door opened and in staggered the man, distraught with his faced covered in tears. The man crashed to the couch and the home felt the immediate loss. The man sobbed and and sobbed his soul out for countless days. The sound of the man was the worse sound the home had ever heard. Worse than those saw blades all those years ago and the home had thought there could never be anything worse. Now he had heard what was worse, the sound a man who had lost a part of his heart. The home had never known pain like this and in this feeling the man and the house together consoled each other over the loss of a loved one.
The years now crept on by and the man aged much faster now. The wrinkles in the man's face resembled the rings inside the tree, the home. They were both older now and had a lifetime of memories that they shared, some horrible and many marvelous. The man now had stopped moving as much and spent most of his day rocking back and forth in his chair with the home and the home loved the simple days and time together but the home had grown wise in these years of life with the family and the home knew that the man was almost gone. The time eventually came when the man rose one day from bed and slowly limped his way over to his chair, here he sat and simply stared at the tree. Yes the tree, the actual tree that the home was, this beam that had overlooked the family all of this time. A few minutes passed by as the tree and the man gazed at each other, telling a million emotions without a single word. The tree knew then that the tree was special to the man. The home now understood The lumberjack was never a lumberjack at all he was simply a man that had come to find that special tree that he could take for himself and make it part of his home, a part of his family as he had lacked the ability to completely build a home by himself. The man needed all those bearded men to construct the home and the man had simply wanted to give a part of himself to the home for his family.
With this revelation, the home knew now he was chosen because the man had loved the tree way before the tree had ever loved the man. It was this that gave the home the most absolutely pleasurable feeling the home had ever felt, he was loved. The man began to ever so slowly shut his eyes as the color began to fade from his body. One final smile as the man remembered his wonderful life and he was gone. The home cried in a magnitude he never knew possible. The man that had given the home this marvelous life had gone. It was a long time before the home could compose himself and when he did he looked down at the man for one final time and said his goodbye. For this man even though he had gone would always be this home's lumberjack.
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Hey everyone this is my first story in 6 years and my first time on here, let me know what you guys think!!!