A Certain Slant Of Light.
I was at an appointment when my phone buzzed. I let it go straight to voicemail because no one ever calls me about anything really important. When I left the appointment I had a message from my neighbor that said, “You really need to step outside and take a look.” Then his voice dropped away as he said to his wife, “Oh, honey, we’ve got smoke and fire.” That’s where the message ended. I rushed home, hoping my neighbors were okay.
Long before my wife and I moved into the house where we live now someone planted a hackberry tree next to the driveway. There’s a retaining wall between our driveway and our neighbor’s driveway, and I can’t figure out why anyone thought it would be a good idea to plant a tree, which would spread its roots and eventually turn into a hundred-foot tall monster, right there. And we’ve talked several times with the neighbors about removing it because if anything happened it would probably fall on their house.
Luckily what happened instead is an enormous branch fell on their driveway. It took out a power line which zapped several of their appliances and started a fire at the power pole at the street which was stopped from spreading to houses on the other side of the street by neighbors with fire extinguishers.
I have no idea how good I’d be in a crisis and have great respect for Thomas Slatin who, as part of her extraordinary life, worked as a firefighter, a profession that calls for running into danger, but I wish I’d been there to help. Instead I came home to find that the worst was taken care of. Mostly I stood around and watched while a guy came out in the dark and moved the branch so the electric company could repair the wires.
A few days later we had a crew come out and take down the entire tree. They did an excellent job, especially since the tree was in such a difficult position between houses, driveways, and power lines. I wish we’d done it sooner—as the saying goes an ounce of prevention is worth about five-thousand dollars of cure.
With the tree gone I understand why it was planted there. Our house faces west and a lot more late afternoon sun beats down now that the shade the tree was provided is gone. It’s a relief that we don’t have to worry about it smashing the neighbor’s roof anymore. It seemed so solid and stable, but, as the saying goes, the bigger they are the harder they fall. We have a much more open view of the sky now, but the tree will still be missed.