story stick

i'd had a significant experience out in the forest above bob connard's home farm on thanksgiving. i'd told the story of this experience to many of my friends and family. while staying at tom's place, the walnut farm, i got a message from a friend back on orcas island in which he told me i should go back and get a piece of that black oak tree, because it might be an important power item. it was not very convenient at that point to make a special trip back to bob's, hike up to get a piece of this tree, and then go back to green string for one last visit. but i figured out how i could do it and decided it was important enough to me to go to the effort.

tom drove me a little ways to give me a head start. i got a flat tire almost immediately after starting towards bob's. i was really upset about this misshap, but felt determined to do what i could to make the trip. what else could i do? i ended up getting a ride with a nice geologist fellow, who dropped me and the bike off at the bottom of the road that leads up a hill to bob's place. i left my bicycle there and hiked on up. when i got to the farm i ran into bob by the house. it felt strange to be there all by myself on such a peculiar errand. bob acted like it was the most normal thing in the world. he was like, "alright, have fun!"

i hiked up at a brisk pace to the black oak which had acknowledged me. i took some time in choosing the piece i would take from the section that had fallen. all of them seemed similarly decayed, but i chose a piece that still had rigidity to it and had an appealing shape. when i got back down i asked bob if he had a patch kit i could use to fix my flat. at first he didn't think he did, but when he scrounged around somewhere he came up with one! just my luck. beaming, i headed back down the hill, patched the tube, and rode all the way to the intern house at green string, where i arrived in time to share one last meal with the new interns!