Robert P. Herbst
10-10-2007, 03:59 AM
DEAD LEAVES
Written October 9, 2007 Fiction 1121 Words
Copyright © 2007 Robert P. Herbst. All rights reserved.
By
Robert P. Herbst
This is the Fall of the year, my season or should I say the Herbst Season as Herbst means Autumn or Fall in German. What could be more natural than to find dead leaves falling from the trees around Mount Perry as the days grow shorter. You did know the leaves fall according to the length of the day and not the temperature, didn’t you?
Anyhow, I began to find shreds of leaves on the floor of my flat. Being a bit disabled and finding it hard to get around on my one bad foot, I suspected the leaves were there because I had not been careful about cleaning my feet as I entered my home. I made up my mind to be more observant and make sure no dead leaves were stuck to the bottom of my feet when I came in from outside.
This was the season, here in Mount Perry, when the early morning dew was heavy on the ground and leaves would naturally stick to the bottom of your shoes. Each time I returned from the outside, I would park myself in my chair lift and examine the bottoms of my shoes before pushing the little lever to go upstairs. I get a certain amount of pleasure out of riding my stair lift up those twenty three steps. I used to dread the trip before. There was always the chance I’d slip and fall the whole way down and wind up in a heap at the bottom.
Much to my surprise, the number of dead leaves on my floor increased, not decreased as I had expected. Where were these leaves coming from? The question vexed me as I contemplated the conundrum. Granted, my home is built of wood over brick and all the walls, floors and ceilings were made of wood, was there any possibility water had seeped through the brick and gotten to the wood?
The lumber we get now a-days is of questionable quality. Some of the lumber, although Kiln Treated has been received, by me, with colonies of live Carpenter Ants in it. Granted, this happened mostly up North during the cold Winter months, but could it be, some of the lumber I used to build my flat was still alive when I nailed it in place? Then with the advent of just a few heavy rain storms, water has seeped through the brick exterior of my flat and gotten to some “Green” lumber, causing the lumber to take root and the lumber was once again growing?
These thoughts bothered me greatly as I moved around my flat picking up the dead leaves as I found them on the floor. Anything can happen in Mount Perry, why not reanimated lumber? There was even the possibility, some seeds had been pressed into the flake board I used on my walls and ceilings. With just a little water, maybe even just high humidity, these seeds may be growing into mighty trees in some obscure corner of my flat.
The thought of these mighty trees growing unnoticed in my flat drove me to more careful inspections of every corner of my abode. I could find nothing living in my flat except myself, the cat, a few Palmetto Bugs and the occasional Grey Rodent. None of these last few remained very long as I have a very efficient exterminator who arrives on a regular basis to rid my happy home of unwanted visitors.
So just where were these leaves coming from? As I slept at night I dreamed as these mighty trees, enraged at being cut up as lumber, made ready to wreak revenge on me for my part in the demise of not only the one tree, but whole forests of trees. I woke in the morning covered in sweat after dreaming once again of narrowly escaping the clutches of whole army’s of enraged trees.
There just had to be at least one tree living in my flat somewhere and there was no question in my mind, the tree was getting ready to lash out at me. This really made no sense, as I like my little green buddies. I even like my big green buddies and during the dry seasons I carry big buckets of water out to them if they look thirsty. Why would they now seek revenge against me. If anyone was guilty of causing them pain and suffering, this would have to be the lumber companies. Night after night I suffered through the agonies of trying to out run mighty trees as they chased after me threatening to nail me in place for the rest of time.
Now, as a matter of course, I take my shoes off as I sit down in my stair life and carefully inspect the inside, outside and all for any sign of attached vegetation. There is never any trace of leaves on my shoes, so with a heavy heart I push the switch to carry me up to my den of horrors to search again for the tree I know must be hiding in plain sight in my flat disguised as a sheet of flake board.
Each morning I go back down to collect my mail and water some interesting plants I have growing in the front of my shop. One of the plants is a vine like thing I have growing up over and around an old tree, my son found at the bottom of a river and hauled into my shop. Not knowing what to do with the thing, I cut the bottom off square and nailed it to a small sheet of ply wood. Then I trained this vine like thing to grow on my prize. I believe it’s called a Philodendron.
Anyhow the thing is a bit on the dirty side as when it gets really hot, some leaves fall off of it. Yesterday, as I rode my stair lift up to my flat, I watched as my ever loving kitty cat raced up the stairs with a dead Philodendron leaf in his mouth. Once in the flat, kitty proceeded to shred the leaf into unrecognizable bits.
The mighty tree living in my flat slowly turned back into sheets of flake board as did the multitude of other trees ready to pounce on me from every angle. My mind now free of menace was able to think clearly of vacuuming the shredded leaves into the dust container on the vacuum cleaner so they could be returned to the outside where they belong.
I slept well for the first time in many days.
Written October 9, 2007 Fiction 1121 Words
Copyright © 2007 Robert P. Herbst. All rights reserved.
By
Robert P. Herbst
This is the Fall of the year, my season or should I say the Herbst Season as Herbst means Autumn or Fall in German. What could be more natural than to find dead leaves falling from the trees around Mount Perry as the days grow shorter. You did know the leaves fall according to the length of the day and not the temperature, didn’t you?
Anyhow, I began to find shreds of leaves on the floor of my flat. Being a bit disabled and finding it hard to get around on my one bad foot, I suspected the leaves were there because I had not been careful about cleaning my feet as I entered my home. I made up my mind to be more observant and make sure no dead leaves were stuck to the bottom of my feet when I came in from outside.
This was the season, here in Mount Perry, when the early morning dew was heavy on the ground and leaves would naturally stick to the bottom of your shoes. Each time I returned from the outside, I would park myself in my chair lift and examine the bottoms of my shoes before pushing the little lever to go upstairs. I get a certain amount of pleasure out of riding my stair lift up those twenty three steps. I used to dread the trip before. There was always the chance I’d slip and fall the whole way down and wind up in a heap at the bottom.
Much to my surprise, the number of dead leaves on my floor increased, not decreased as I had expected. Where were these leaves coming from? The question vexed me as I contemplated the conundrum. Granted, my home is built of wood over brick and all the walls, floors and ceilings were made of wood, was there any possibility water had seeped through the brick and gotten to the wood?
The lumber we get now a-days is of questionable quality. Some of the lumber, although Kiln Treated has been received, by me, with colonies of live Carpenter Ants in it. Granted, this happened mostly up North during the cold Winter months, but could it be, some of the lumber I used to build my flat was still alive when I nailed it in place? Then with the advent of just a few heavy rain storms, water has seeped through the brick exterior of my flat and gotten to some “Green” lumber, causing the lumber to take root and the lumber was once again growing?
These thoughts bothered me greatly as I moved around my flat picking up the dead leaves as I found them on the floor. Anything can happen in Mount Perry, why not reanimated lumber? There was even the possibility, some seeds had been pressed into the flake board I used on my walls and ceilings. With just a little water, maybe even just high humidity, these seeds may be growing into mighty trees in some obscure corner of my flat.
The thought of these mighty trees growing unnoticed in my flat drove me to more careful inspections of every corner of my abode. I could find nothing living in my flat except myself, the cat, a few Palmetto Bugs and the occasional Grey Rodent. None of these last few remained very long as I have a very efficient exterminator who arrives on a regular basis to rid my happy home of unwanted visitors.
So just where were these leaves coming from? As I slept at night I dreamed as these mighty trees, enraged at being cut up as lumber, made ready to wreak revenge on me for my part in the demise of not only the one tree, but whole forests of trees. I woke in the morning covered in sweat after dreaming once again of narrowly escaping the clutches of whole army’s of enraged trees.
There just had to be at least one tree living in my flat somewhere and there was no question in my mind, the tree was getting ready to lash out at me. This really made no sense, as I like my little green buddies. I even like my big green buddies and during the dry seasons I carry big buckets of water out to them if they look thirsty. Why would they now seek revenge against me. If anyone was guilty of causing them pain and suffering, this would have to be the lumber companies. Night after night I suffered through the agonies of trying to out run mighty trees as they chased after me threatening to nail me in place for the rest of time.
Now, as a matter of course, I take my shoes off as I sit down in my stair life and carefully inspect the inside, outside and all for any sign of attached vegetation. There is never any trace of leaves on my shoes, so with a heavy heart I push the switch to carry me up to my den of horrors to search again for the tree I know must be hiding in plain sight in my flat disguised as a sheet of flake board.
Each morning I go back down to collect my mail and water some interesting plants I have growing in the front of my shop. One of the plants is a vine like thing I have growing up over and around an old tree, my son found at the bottom of a river and hauled into my shop. Not knowing what to do with the thing, I cut the bottom off square and nailed it to a small sheet of ply wood. Then I trained this vine like thing to grow on my prize. I believe it’s called a Philodendron.
Anyhow the thing is a bit on the dirty side as when it gets really hot, some leaves fall off of it. Yesterday, as I rode my stair lift up to my flat, I watched as my ever loving kitty cat raced up the stairs with a dead Philodendron leaf in his mouth. Once in the flat, kitty proceeded to shred the leaf into unrecognizable bits.
The mighty tree living in my flat slowly turned back into sheets of flake board as did the multitude of other trees ready to pounce on me from every angle. My mind now free of menace was able to think clearly of vacuuming the shredded leaves into the dust container on the vacuum cleaner so they could be returned to the outside where they belong.
I slept well for the first time in many days.