02 Loggers: Chapter 2 - Daylight

Chapter 2 - Daylight

"Come on ya lazy head," shouted Mikey toward where Jake was lying asleep. He kicked the ground, and the dust that came up hit Jake in the face.

"Hey!" he shouted. "No need for that!"

Looking up toward where he had seen the face the night before, all that he could see now was the gnarled bark of the tree, weathered by age and no sign of the wooden face that he had seen so clearly the night before. Something had changed, but he was glad that daylight did not affirm the notion that they were being watched.

"Get your gear together and grab a coffee; it's the last one you will get until after the felling is done," Ed shouted. Jake moved toward the coffee can, which was almost empty now, but which held just enough coffee to wake him up enough to see that the gang were all ready with ropes and equipment to tackle the enormous oak tree that would be their prize. Part of Jake didn't want to do this, but he knew that the mill had been quiet for too long and that the families of these guys were hungry.

It was his job to reach up to the higher branches and to trim out the excess. He was good at that job, and as he finished the last of his coffee, he picked up his tools and followed the rest of them. Looking up one last time, though, he saw the face again, and it filled him with a sense of apprehension.

"Are you sure we should be doing this?" he asked Ed, and the lads laughed.
"Are you sure you want food on the table?" said Mikey, and somehow, Jake knew that they didn't really have a choice. He hated the idea of destroying that magnificent oak that had been there for hundreds of years but knew that the reality of the situation was that they wouldn't get an opportunity like this again.

From the boughs of the tree, Jake looked out across the forest beneath him, his chainsaw in his hand. He had never seen such a magnificent tree. It was much larger than those they had felled in the past. If he didn't trim the branches, it would be too violent a rumble against all of the other trees in the forest. Little by little, he cut the branches and called out as the wood fell toward the earth below, shouting to make sure that no one was hit by flying debris.

The lads moved the branches to one side. These would be good for firewood and would be cut into short lengths. These were not the treasure. These were simply a bonus from cutting down the tree. Oak lasted longer in the fire, and even though they would need a couple of seasons to dry out, it was sure that they would make their homes warmer and help them through the misery of a Midwest winter.

The noise of the chainsaw was enough to make the birds fly off in different directions. As the branches fell, the lads collected them and moved them into a growing heap away from the main trunk of the tree. Ed was impatient to cut the tree trunk. He had sized it up and had chosen the right ax to start the cut. Sure, chainsaws were faster, but there was something of a tradition when it came to cutting a tree of this stature. The ax marked the spot that the chainsaw would follow.

Jake loosened his grip on the rope and gradually made his way down to the forest floor, looking at the tree in awe as he descended, then making his way toward where the others were working on smaller trees. "You can help pile up this lot," said one of them, and he could see that Mikey was sawing through the base of many of the giant trees and could hear that familiar "whoosh!" as the trees fell to the ground with a thump.