Tangled Yarns: Flashback

It had been more than twenty years now, since Tom's father had worked in the forests. His job had been pit sawing, and his work had aged him all too fast. Lawrence his name was, but his mates called him Larry.

The camp boss ordered a new incursion into the trees and a track had been opened up. A new tree, a small but stately kauri, was ready to be felled, a pit was dug and the long saw was sharpened and ready. Axes cut into the trunk in a circle while Laurence and his mates waited. Long saws cut into the trunk. The tree began to totter as the sawing continued, wedges were hammered in, then it shrieked and squealed, like a wounded animal, and crashed to the ground. The forest shook with the impact. All the birds went silent.

Now the log had to be trimmed. Axes chipped and gouged the smaller branches off, then the bullock team was brought in to drag the tree across to the pit.

Laurence helped fling the ropes and secure them, then the teamster cracked his whip and the bullocks strained, tearing up the forest floor with their hooves. Gradually, the cabin-sized log slid forwards, gouging the rich, black forest floor soil, until Laurence held up his hand.

"That'll do!" he shouted.

The team relaxed and the ropes fell slack, allowing the men to untie them. But something spooked the team and it lurched forward, pulling the ropes tight as iron bars. Laurence was ready to halt the bullocks, but the man beside him was new to the job. He didn't know about this danger. The ropes snapped taut across his chest and pinned him like a moth in a glass case, to the side of the tree.

"Get them off!" he whispered, as his chest crumpled. It was the last words he ever spoke.

The team-master shouted and cracked the whip, forcing the frightened animals backwards, but it was too late. Laurence's friend fell to the ground, all his ribs cracked, and blood coming from his mouth.

"That could have been me," thought Lawrence the next day, as he stood beside the freshly turned earth of the grave. The minister read from the Book and the other men, and some wives, silently watched and wondered. Some cried. Others bowed their heads and bent their hats in gum-speckled hands.