Excerpt #7 from “The Death and Adventures of Jackie”: Grandmother Oak

Jackie was trying to pay attention in class, she truly was. The women were sitting in a circle, looking inward and outward. A beehive hum of chanting and toning permeated the room. Jackie tried so hard to “be good” and get into the hum that surrounded her, but the harder she tried, the more dangerously close she came to bursting into laughter. It was the same when she was alive. Her circle would get just a touch too “into” what they were doing, and she would lose it. Once she started, there was no stopping her laughter. Well, things were getting far too serious and she was on the verge of pissing everyone off and letting out a great big snort of laughter. That was when she heard it. From somewhere out beyond her left of center, she heard it; huge waves crashing over and over, full of raucous laughter. She tried to turn her attention back to the circle, but buried inside of the laughter was a very noisy woman exclaiming and proclaiming some sort of story. She only caught snatches of it, something so familiar, and then…Anna?  

She turned and looked. Sure enough, there was Anna circling round and round a blazing fire in that familiar circle of women, doing her stand-up comedy, truth-telling, story-telling thing that she did year after year at the women’s camp. “Good lord, is she going to take off her clothes again,” mused Jackie.  She let herself linger in her memories of experiences at this camp; this sacred gathering that she travelled to, to be with her daughter and granddaughters year after year. As Jackie rested in these swirling snapshots, effortlessly melting into them, she was jolted back to attention by a chorus of hundreds of women shouting, “Hi Mom!” She turned to this ocean of sound and there…gazing up at her, body arching skyward, arms extended, brilliant, beaming, glow-smile on her dark features was her daughter. Her daughter, looking right at her with love and solidity. “Well…hello darling.” Jackie said. “I love you.”

She stayed with her daughter through her performance, flowing ever closer to the familiar fire. Her daughter’s edges seemed somehow blurred as she circled and spoke, a soft border of energy that pulled her in…just to the edge, where they mingled and swayed and danced together. When Anna finished, Jackie watched her join her granddaughters, snuggled in with the multitudes of women, marveling on how the energy around her girl seemed to draw in, collecting itself as her body became more and more substantial. Jackie slowly retreated from the circle, spiralling gently higher and higher, floating on subtle currents of laughter and melody, when she brushed by a gorgeous, ancient, green soaked oak tree. The tree groaned and trembled, as if holding on to an enormous weight. Meridians flowed down its’ trunk and out into branches the size of trees themselves. At one point, where one of these enormous limbs joined her deeply rooted body, the meridians began to crackle and splinter, illuminating a multitude of fissures, as if they were tinder, and someone’s breath was coaxing it to glow, only to recede in between each gentle breath.

“Oh no,” Jackie thought, “this simply will not do.” She reached her enormous “hand” to the crackling veins, supporting the weight of the limb as the fissures deepened, looking upon the circle of unsuspecting women and children gathered by the fire. The limb grew heavier in her “hand” as the ancient grandmother oak sighed and let go of her burden…

~~~~~~~~~~~

Anna sat snuggling her daughters, zoning out and inward, resting and collecting herself after her performance, listening to a lovely young woman singing a song that she’d never heard before, yet felt instantly familiar. She snapped to attention as she heard a deafening crackle like gunshots. Her very marrow trembled at the realization that a tree was falling, right in their midst, in the darkness…and then there was screaming and scrambling bodies and women fleeing, not knowing where the sound was coming from or where to flee to. Anna flung herself backwards, twisting over her children’s bodies, instinctively trying to cover them, shield them from whatever might fall. It was over in an instant, as the earth literally shook, vibrating with the impact of the tree. “Is everyone alright!?!” A voice shouted from across the fire. Choruses of “Yes!” punctuated the darkness…

The next morning, woman after woman, child after child, walked by the enormous limb, easily five feet thick. It lay across the main path between two teepees, although it did not block the way. Somehow it had split and separated, preserving the walkway. Next to it stood a bicycle, with branches draped over the pedals, barely touching the frame. The bicycle, which should have fallen with the impact, stood unsupported and completely unaffected. Unaffected as well, were the myriad of flyers and posters on the bulletin boards and tables next to the limb on the opposite side. Not a single sheet of paper was misplaced. In fact, a smaller branch coming off of the limb was delicately draped across the top corner of the bulletin board, as if someone had decorated it. “There were definitely angels about last night, making sure everyone was safe,” remarked one woman.

“Thanks mom,” smiled Anna.