10 Pound Bag Ch. 026-030

I sat there and smoked my cigarette trying to get a mental handle on the situation; nothing I could come up with made any sense. I kept hoping that this was all some elaborate prank, but the Linden tree and that tree-line told me different. And why was the weather different?

I decided it was best to let everyone see the situation for themselves and led them off down the field road to see our new tree line. The dogs accompanied us, staying close to heel; even the rooster followed us for a little while before losing interest and scurrying back to his hens. It was a five-minute walk, and everyone was looking around in wonder, but that huge Linden tree finalized the situation. Something serious and permanent had happened; maybe the Wizard of Oz wasn't just a children's story after all.

We walked back down to the creek and arrived in time to witness the last of the drive-over giving way and our new pond began to recede as the creek ran free again. I'd have to figure out something for crossing it, a future problem.

On the other side of the creek was mostly field with another tree-line visible in the distance. Whatever happened to us sure seemed to be good for the local tree population.

We retired to the campfire and resumed our individual musings; it was a lot for everyone to take in. I smoked another cigarette and decided I wanted a shot of bourbon in my coffee; everyone seemed to agree with me, and I spiked the coffees all around.

The faces around the campfire looked drawn and anxious; the clock on my phone told me that it was getting close to 1:00AM so I suggested that we all probably needed a nap as we didn't seem to have slept. I set an alarm on my phone for four hours later and we all trundled off to bed.