WEBVTT - CZM Book Club: "Spring Woods Spring" by B. Pladek 0:00:01.720 --> 0:00:03.240 Cool Zone Media. 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:13.440 Book Club book Club book Club. Welcome to CZMBC. The 0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:18.160 only podcast that I introduced this way, also the only 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:23.040 time I'll ever introduce the podcast that way. I mean 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:25.440 host Margaret Kiljoyan. This is the Cool Zone Media book Club. 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:27.920 Every week I read you a story that I like. 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:31.160 That's it's pretty much it. That's the idea of it. 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:34.400 Stories I like that I think you might like too. 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:36.000 That's a big part of it. I have to think 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:41.199 that you'll like them. Also, well, it's pretty easy for 0:00:41.280 --> 0:00:43.720 me to think that you'll like this week's story. This 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:50.200 is really good and I don't know, gets at stuff 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:55.160 about modern life and the future and how things are going, 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:58.680 but in a way that I think you'll appreciate. This 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:03.040 story is called spring Wood Spring and it's by b. Pladick. 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:10.200 Here's a biography of Ben. Who's B Platick. Ben Platdock 0:01:10.319 --> 0:01:13.440 is a writer and literature professor based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:16.360 His debut novel, dry Land, came out in twenty twenty 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:19.280 three and was shortlisted for the Crawford Award. You can 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:22.559 find him sporadically on most socials at B Pladock, which 0:01:22.600 --> 0:01:28.480 is bp LA, D E K This particular story was 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:32.480 first published by Strange Horizons in twenty twenty three. I 0:01:32.520 --> 0:01:35.160 think we've done some other Strange Horizons stories before, and 0:01:35.240 --> 0:01:37.959 there's a reason for that. Strange Horizons is a really 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:41.399 good magazine, has really good stories. Y'all should check it out. 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:44.679 I'm not just saying that because they've published them of 0:01:44.720 --> 0:01:47.200 my fiction, but they have published them of my fiction 0:01:48.160 --> 0:01:54.840 as well as this story. Spring Woods Spring by B. Pladock. 0:01:56.440 --> 0:01:58.880 Harry first noticed the trees in May when he went 0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:01.280 out in the purple dusked to hear the woodcocks dance. 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:05.200 The sun had set an hour ago. Along the maple's 0:02:05.240 --> 0:02:08.680 tangled arms flickered a slight luminescence, like the nave of 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:12.000 a candle lit church. By its glow, he could see 0:02:12.040 --> 0:02:16.400 what he usually couldn't, the male woodcock bulleting upwards, wings 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:21.519 whistling to his parabola against the blue clouds. He watched 0:02:21.560 --> 0:02:24.119 for another hour until he was confident the light came 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:27.760 from the trees themselves against Knight's dark lid. The canopy 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:31.960 shown so soft an untrained eye might not notice. Maybe 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:35.760 it was some new foxfire spreading north with the dying winters. 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:39.639 Or maybe an electrical disturbance, an ozone fit kicked off 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:43.240 by the burning tiger. He'd lived in the little cabin 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:46.560 beside the field station for two decades, watching it change. 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:52.960 Aging beside it, very little surprised him any more. At home, 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:55.160 he shucked his boots, then settled in with a book 0:02:55.160 --> 0:02:59.440 on bioluminescence. He ignored the cardboard boxes heaped neatly in 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:03.000 the corner. The university had not officially asked him to leave, 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:05.840 but he was getting too frail to maintain the field 0:03:05.880 --> 0:03:10.440 station by himself. Undergrads came to chop and dig every weekend, 0:03:10.800 --> 0:03:14.520 as well as often his granddaughter Ava, who was too 0:03:14.560 --> 0:03:17.760 polite to call him old, but whose regular visits it 0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:22.640 was a five hour drive, spoke for themselves. Ava's father, 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:27.320 Harry's son in law, had brought him the boxes. Bill 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:30.840 had been sober for four years now. Last year he'd 0:03:30.840 --> 0:03:34.200 invited Harry to live with him. Harry couldn't decide if 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:36.320 it was a genuine offer or a bid to get 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:39.680 Ava to speak to Bill again. He wondered if she 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:43.360 resented him for considering it. He wondered if he resented himself. 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:46.560 But he was old, he would have to leave some time, 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:49.600 and maybe he didn't have to forgive Bill to live 0:03:49.640 --> 0:03:54.800 with him. He'd begin tomorrow. He was always beginning tomorrow. 0:03:56.400 --> 0:03:59.160 Setting down the book, he switched off the light through 0:03:59.200 --> 0:04:02.480 the window saw to starshine. The tree's orange glow touched 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:05.360 every corner of the room, the old photos and books, 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:10.480 four walls, the exact size of a life. The next morning, 0:04:10.680 --> 0:04:13.360 when dawn still stood white and chilly in the Lowlands, 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:17.560 he visited his wife's and daughter's graves. They grew at 0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:20.320 the bottom of the maple slope in a wind sheltered dell. 0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:25.080 For Lisa, he'd planted an arch of raspberry canes. When 0:04:25.120 --> 0:04:28.640 she'd learned the cancer was terminal, she'd demanded it, making 0:04:28.680 --> 0:04:31.960 some black and unrepeatable joke about him eating her fruit. 0:04:32.960 --> 0:04:36.120 She'd even helped him choose the spot, bare head wrapped, 0:04:36.360 --> 0:04:40.200 shaking with pain and laughter. He'd never had the chance 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:43.719 to ask Junie what she preferred after the crash. She 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:47.000 hadn't woken up, and juniper would have been too on 0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:50.200 the nose, and besides, it wouldn't grow in such wet woods. 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:54.120 So he chose nanny berry because it's dry fruit tasted 0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:58.000 like bananas, which Junie had loved. He hoped he wasn't 0:04:58.040 --> 0:05:01.640 being selfish, burying her here instead of an enormal cemetery 0:05:01.760 --> 0:05:05.080 like Bill had wanted. He wished Lisa had been there 0:05:05.120 --> 0:05:07.920 to advise him, though he was grateful she'd never had 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:11.799 to watch her daughter die. He touched the Raspberry's naked 0:05:11.800 --> 0:05:15.839 whips every day he visited the dell. When his undergrads 0:05:15.839 --> 0:05:19.240 had found out, they'd thought he was morbid. One eighteen 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:23.239 year old had even suggested therapy to process. You can't 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:27.599 mourn forever, she'd said, very young and benignant, it's not healthy. 0:05:29.200 --> 0:05:32.200 A thump from up the slope startled him, the familiar 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:35.520 sound of Ava's civic door. Of course, she'd come to 0:05:35.560 --> 0:05:38.000 talk about the lights. He heard the plash of her 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:40.799 boots as she crossed the brook, then the bright, dry 0:05:40.880 --> 0:05:44.360 snap of a branch as she entered the hardwoods. Five 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:48.080 minutes later, she'd found him. Her face was clouded before 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:50.960 she spoke. As always, she brushed the furled buds of 0:05:51.040 --> 0:05:57.440 Junie's nannyberry. Hi Mom, She turned to Harry, hugged him. 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:00.280 Have you seen the trees? She said? My pa is 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:03.760 freaking out. She says it's not fungal and not atmospheric, 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:06.960 it's worldwide, did you know? And the Amazon It's so 0:06:07.000 --> 0:06:10.159 bright you can read a book by it. Even now, 0:06:10.279 --> 0:06:13.080 the glow was faintly visible, an orange thrumb on the 0:06:13.080 --> 0:06:17.200 bellies of the branches. He said, some things in nature 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:21.400 resist explanation. Don't give me that crap, She laughed. What's 0:06:21.440 --> 0:06:24.400 your theory? You think I've got a better idea than 0:06:24.440 --> 0:06:27.919 your pi? Is it because I'm old? She laughed again, 0:06:28.080 --> 0:06:31.160 then socked him gently on the shoulder. Ava had moved 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:34.479 out two years ago when she'd started her PhD. He 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:37.159 had never asked about living with her. He knew she 0:06:37.160 --> 0:06:40.800 couldn't afford it. Hey, I peeked in the window and 0:06:40.800 --> 0:06:43.400 saw you haven't packed yet. I thought you were moving out, 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:47.479 Moving out, she said, carefully, rather than moving in with Bill. 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:52.640 Her circumspection shamed him. He wished she would just be angry. 0:06:53.080 --> 0:06:55.000 He wasn't sure if he wanted it for her sake 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:58.600 or because it would license his own anger. I haven't decided, 0:06:59.600 --> 0:07:03.840 She gave a small paint smile. Right, Can I bird 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:08.559 watch with you for a little? Of course? Above them, 0:07:08.680 --> 0:07:11.600 a clutch of yellow rumped warblers was twitching along a 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:15.960 big hickory the trunk, shaggy bark seemed pearly smoothed by light. 0:07:16.520 --> 0:07:19.720 The bird's black claws stood out as if unfrosted glass. 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:24.200 Ava swung her binoculars around on her shoulder. Harry raised 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:27.880 his too. For her last two years of high school 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:31.040 and all four of undergraduate, Ava had lived with Harry 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:33.560 at the field station, helping him with the monitoring he 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:36.480 conducted for the university. That least, the reserves three hundred 0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:40.920 acres of maple, hickory woods, cattail marsh, and wet meadow. 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:45.040 She was fleeing Bill, whose drinking had gotten worse after 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:47.880 the accident, and who could barely offer his daughter the 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:50.080 solace of a hug for the loss of her own mother, 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:53.240 So deep was he sunk in his own self recrimination 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:58.000 all those years, as Bill's guilt had hardened into denial, 0:07:58.960 --> 0:08:02.400 Ava had wandered the dappled shadows of the reserve, gathering 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:05.880 the woods around herself. Their green light had held her. 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:11.160 Harry's chest pinched. He watched her as she gazed up. 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:14.280 You can see it, she said. Her voice had a 0:08:14.320 --> 0:08:17.440 quaver he hadn't heard in years. A light in the 0:08:17.480 --> 0:08:21.600 woods like burning. It took two more weeks for the 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:24.760 world to pay attention. First a third pager in The 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:28.240 Times by their reporter on the quirky nature beat, then 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:30.520 a below the fold feature on the light's effect on 0:08:30.640 --> 0:08:36.480 rural industries. Then finally a headline trees ruined sleep across nation. 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:40.400 This was an exaggeration. The light was too subtle to 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:44.559 keep anyone but birds awake. Still, he knew the story 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:47.000 had gotten big when Bill used it as an opening. 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:50.480 You see these tree lights crazy, but Ava has some 0:08:50.559 --> 0:08:54.600 good theories. Even by text. He could smell Bills craving 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:57.920 for pardon, which had never quite extended to an apology. 0:08:59.080 --> 0:09:01.640 So you think about my awe, it's a limited time. 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:05.719 Maybe he was too hard on him, Harry thought sometimes. 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:11.080 After all, Bill had loved Junie too, Going once, going twice. 0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:16.320 He put down the phone without replying. By day, the 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:19.880 trees glow was still muted, but at night the woods 0:09:19.920 --> 0:09:23.720 shimmered in perpetual twilight. The naked branches shone like the 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:27.440 white pith of a flame. He was surprised there wasn't 0:09:27.480 --> 0:09:30.200 more panic. Maybe it was because of the quality of 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:33.280 the light diffused through the new leaves. It length the 0:09:33.280 --> 0:09:37.560 maple slope a hazy, underwater feel, or the cloth soft 0:09:37.600 --> 0:09:42.160 atmosphere a fairy in an Edwardian novel. It did not 0:09:42.240 --> 0:09:48.520 blaze like a burning bush, vengeful foreboding. It merely seemed sad. 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:51.640 The locals seemed to agree. One evening, Harry found a 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:54.040 group of them standing in a circle among the trees, 0:09:54.080 --> 0:09:58.840 wearing sage crowns and holding tapers. Forgive us, they chanted, 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:04.520 forgive us. He didn't bother, asking for what. Every week 0:10:04.720 --> 0:10:08.520 the trees grew brighter on the news, the ecologists, grumbling, 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:12.600 turned slowly to alarm. Gouts of confused bats poured from 0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:18.120 caves at midday, flapping themselves to starvation. Leopards missed their pounces. 0:10:18.800 --> 0:10:22.599 Some night flowering trees stayed tightly furled while their pollinators 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:26.839 buzzed past. The talking heads avoided calling it climate change 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:29.679 for fear people would stop paying attention, but they were 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:34.040 clearly worried. They were joined by the astronomers, whose dark 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:38.440 sky areas were being polluted. Harry wondered at their calling 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:41.760 at pollution when it seemed so natural, distinct from the 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:44.760 glare of a city's skyglow. It gave the trees so 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:48.439 little agency. Maybe they had just decided it was time 0:10:48.480 --> 0:10:53.480 to burn. Only the agricultural and industrial sectors celebrated the 0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:59.679 tree lights. More light meant longer hours. Harry hated agreen 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:03.120 with bit businessmen, but he liked the lights too. For 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:06.240 half the night, he wandered the dimly greening woods, tracing 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:09.360 their worn paths like a thumb, brushing a familiar cheek. 0:11:10.280 --> 0:11:13.560 Up the cane, spiked with oaks, down the sandy kettle, 0:11:14.120 --> 0:11:16.920 threading the damn the beavers had heaped in the marsh's mouth. 0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:20.079 Here was the dell where Junie and Lisa had taken 0:11:20.080 --> 0:11:23.480 Ava for picnics, which Ava had cleared of buckthorne the 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:26.840 weekend she'd first left home. You let it grow over, 0:11:26.960 --> 0:11:30.360 she'd accused. She had not cried, only hacked at the 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:34.640 glossy shrubs for hours, over and over, destroying their foundations, 0:11:34.800 --> 0:11:38.640 uprooting everything. And here was the yellow birch. Harry had 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:43.600 seated alone after he tried to imagine his life without 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:49.040 these things, waking to different birds, song alien leaves, Sprain refused. 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:52.839 Maybe he was just unable to face change. Though he'd 0:11:52.880 --> 0:11:55.680 known what his life would become without Ava when she left. 0:11:56.440 --> 0:11:58.559 Though he guessed what might happen to him now if 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:02.360 the trees continued brightening. What might happen to him now 0:12:02.520 --> 0:12:06.120 is that he might get a chance to support our sponsors. 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:10.120 What a sweet deal that totally has nothing to do 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:13.160 with the economic system that has caused climate change. That 0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:15.320 if I mentioned you all would stop? Well, not you all? 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:16.480 Y'all are that you. 0:12:16.520 --> 0:12:18.880 All pay attention to some of the climate change stories. 0:12:20.080 --> 0:12:36.240 Here's ads and we're back. Bill's weak old text still 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:39.520 blinked on his phone. Harry knew Bill wanted Eva to 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:42.959 absolve him, and he hoped caring for Harry might convince her. 0:12:43.920 --> 0:12:48.360 The thoughts stung. Juny might have wanted it too. She 0:12:48.440 --> 0:12:52.560 forgave and forgave right up until her death. Did Harry 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:55.120 cling so close to her because he felt guilty for 0:12:55.240 --> 0:12:58.120 keeping her from Bill? Or did he simply feel guilty 0:12:58.160 --> 0:13:02.160 for clinging? Most people mourned their loved ones in graveyards, 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:07.560 dedicated ceremonial spaces they visited only sometimes. Surely, living atop 0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:11.679 the dead among Lisa's raspberries and Junie's nannyberries was excessive, 0:13:12.679 --> 0:13:16.439 not healthy. As his student had said, he brushed the 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:20.240 birch's boughs as he did every spring, smoothing back its 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:24.160 new leaves like a child's soft hair. In the tree lights, 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:28.800 they shone gold. By the time Ava returned three weeks later, 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:31.600 twilight had brightened to the pale glove of a winter's 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:37.080 cloudy afternoon. Her face was haggard. No one knows, she said. 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:39.920 We've run every test we can, checked our results against 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:43.600 teams in Brazil, Russia. Nothing. If we can't figure this out, 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:46.199 what good are we? He guessed she had come to 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:49.320 him for comfort. For Ava, that had always meant action, 0:13:49.880 --> 0:13:52.680 proof that she had a handle on things. He loved 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:55.880 that she trusted him enough to give her this not solace, 0:13:56.240 --> 0:13:59.400 but a whetstone. Do you want to help me chop 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:02.400 a dead mape, he asked, It's a test I've been 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:06.000 meaning to do. This was a lie. He could no 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:09.160 longer fell a tree by himself, much less bucket for testing, 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:13.160 and after that first book on bioluminescence, he had done 0:14:13.200 --> 0:14:16.800 no more reading experimenting. Every time he tried, his mind 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:21.640 slid away towards the light. If Ava saw through him, 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:24.840 she didn't say. Together they tramped to a sugar maple 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:28.680 whose trunk had been recently split by lightning. It would 0:14:28.680 --> 0:14:34.800 die soon. We've tried this, she protested, but weakly. Hafting axes, 0:14:34.840 --> 0:14:39.560 they chopped. Harry hacked the undercut. Ava taller and more solid, 0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:43.360 sawed through from the other side. Though he tried not to, 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:46.840 he had to keep stopping to pant. He saw Ava 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:50.520 WinCE watching him as they leaped back to let the 0:14:50.560 --> 0:14:55.720 maple fall. She took Harry's shoulder watched the canopy. The 0:14:55.760 --> 0:14:58.920 trunk creaked, snapped clean, and landed with a shudder, and 0:14:58.960 --> 0:15:02.120 the leaf litter. At just the same moment, a pulse 0:15:02.160 --> 0:15:06.000 of light fizzed through the woods. After Harry could swear 0:15:06.080 --> 0:15:10.240 the trees burned brighter. Following Ava, he leaned over the stump. 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:13.840 She traced the rings with practiced fingers. The wood was 0:15:13.880 --> 0:15:18.360 pale gold, all light quenched, snuffed, he said, and she 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:22.640 nodded like I said. We've tried it. Every time one's cut, 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:26.040 the rest get brighter. It makes no sense. And you've 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:32.480 ruled out pathogens, fungi, we've ruled out everything. She sat 0:15:32.520 --> 0:15:34.840 back on her haunches and pressed her hand's heel to 0:15:34.880 --> 0:15:37.960 her face. And it's not as if they've stopped logging. 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:40.160 I guess you don't see it much here, since this 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:44.280 is a reserve, but in manias it's getting unlivable. What 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:46.640 are your next steps? If you got her to talk 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:49.720 through it, you could help her find her strength. It 0:15:49.800 --> 0:15:54.160 was how they'd survived those first awful years. My next steps. 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:56.880 She laughed a little, then looked at him. He knew then, 0:15:57.680 --> 0:16:00.560 I live in the city. I'll be fine, but you 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:05.000 should leave. Ava. I came to tell you that you should, 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:09.720 that it's okay. She held his eyes, balancing her own 0:16:09.760 --> 0:16:13.800 pain up and away like a karatid. When had she 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:16.320 become such an adult to carry the stone of her 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:19.360 hurt while freeing a hand to help someone else. Harry 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:21.960 had not taught her to do it, nor had Lisa, 0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:25.200 whom she hadn't really known, and Juni had died too soon. 0:16:26.120 --> 0:16:29.160 Maybe the woods themselves had this remnant of a once 0:16:29.200 --> 0:16:32.280 great forest which grew straight and did not bend nor mourn. 0:16:32.840 --> 0:16:37.080 Despite the press of so much humanity. He was drifting. 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:40.520 He shook his head, then looked at her. It's not 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:45.560 I wish we could offer. I'm so sorry, but even 0:16:45.600 --> 0:16:48.760 with your Social Security check in Katy's salary, we could 0:16:48.800 --> 0:16:52.480 still just afford a one bedroom. The perils of dating 0:16:52.520 --> 0:16:56.280 a history PhD, he joked, because her face was wet marble. 0:16:57.080 --> 0:17:00.200 She looked down. He touched her shoulder. You never have 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:04.840 to apologize to me, I know, but this tree thing 0:17:04.880 --> 0:17:07.600 is going to be bad, so just promise me you'll 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:12.200 go all right. I don't have to see him, It's fine. 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:13.959 Have you ever considered that. I don't want to live 0:17:14.000 --> 0:17:19.600 with Bill either. I can't lose you too. The knife 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:23.399 was swift and unexpected. His heart cramped on it. He 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:27.080 looked at Ava and knew she'd meant it that way. Yes, 0:17:27.480 --> 0:17:30.119 she was an adult, now, unafraid to use the weapons 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:34.919 he'd given her against him for his protection. Okay, I 0:17:35.040 --> 0:17:40.960 promise good. She slumped forward, elbow on the damp stump 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:43.680 on her back. The orange light pressed like a stone. 0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:47.720 She slept over that night in the trundle bed Harry 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:50.680 kept for her. He pulled a blanket over the window 0:17:51.200 --> 0:17:54.040 for the first time in weeks. The cabin eased into darkness. 0:17:55.400 --> 0:17:57.800 He thought of the decades he'd lived at the field station, 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:01.600 the long shudder of Lisa's death, the brutal punch of 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:05.840 Junie's Like a torn mimosa. He'd curled up and withered 0:18:05.880 --> 0:18:11.120 into himself. His heart became a closed fist. Outside life 0:18:11.119 --> 0:18:14.359 went on. The cattails clicked in the marsh. The yarrow 0:18:14.400 --> 0:18:18.680 lifted its balmy perfume through his silence. The robins whistled. 0:18:19.400 --> 0:18:23.040 He had shut them all out like a cuckoo clock marionette. 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:26.000 He'd left his cabin on the hour, taken readings for 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:31.760 the university, then swiveled to march back inside. Until Eva 0:18:31.880 --> 0:18:35.280 came sixteen and betrayed her heart so hard he was 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:38.399 afraid for her. Taking her hand, he had led her 0:18:38.440 --> 0:18:41.520 beneath the softening sea green of the maples. He had 0:18:41.520 --> 0:18:45.159 given her birds, eggs, coin, bright mushrooms, tubes of loamy 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:50.360 soil until her eyes softened. She opened, relearned how to trust. 0:18:51.080 --> 0:18:54.680 He swore it would be her strength. But to believe 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:57.560 in her openness he had to face his own. So 0:18:57.600 --> 0:19:00.600 he let the spring woods cut him. The green light 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:03.720 pierced him with arrows. Their green smell split him in two. 0:19:04.560 --> 0:19:08.280 In his sealed heart, a crack widened. He walked in 0:19:08.640 --> 0:19:11.159 and through. He entered his grief as if for the 0:19:11.200 --> 0:19:14.800 first time, and it did not feel like death. I 0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:18.800 could live here, he thought, kneeling between Lisa's Raspberry and 0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:22.639 Junie's nanny Berry, their cool leaves touching his shoulders like 0:19:22.680 --> 0:19:27.920 a laying on of hands. I could live here. Later 0:19:28.000 --> 0:19:31.560 that day, Bill texted again, if Ava's the problem, just 0:19:31.640 --> 0:19:34.560 explain it to her. I've changed, Harry. Don't you get 0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:37.639 that I'm trying to help you. He did not reply. 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:43.520 As July passed, the corporate world's delight eroded to a 0:19:43.560 --> 0:19:49.159 panic matching the ecologists. Forest industries stopped functioning to operate 0:19:49.200 --> 0:19:54.639 their bunchers, loggers donned blackout sunglasses. Trucks keeled off service roads. 0:19:54.640 --> 0:19:58.840 In British Columbia, Maine's pulp mill workers struck, and mass 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:04.359 light was blinding eye melting in the Amazon. Companies tried 0:20:04.400 --> 0:20:07.399 sending automated loggers to clear cut space to dim the 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:12.240 margin enough for manned machinery. When that failed, they tried burning. 0:20:13.520 --> 0:20:17.159 The trees just blazed brighter. The news did not know 0:20:17.200 --> 0:20:21.680 how to talk about it. Active nature, active god, reaction, revolution. 0:20:22.520 --> 0:20:25.919 No one said climate change anymore, because the light seemed 0:20:25.920 --> 0:20:29.720 to be the tree's decision. Even if it wasn't, they 0:20:29.720 --> 0:20:34.000 were clear cut anyway. In vaster and vaster retaliatory swaths, 0:20:34.800 --> 0:20:37.440 no one mourned them, save the people who always had, 0:20:37.880 --> 0:20:41.560 who had never been listened to anyway. At first, Harry 0:20:41.600 --> 0:20:45.840 wondered at this, how could the world willingly slaughter millions 0:20:45.840 --> 0:20:48.919 of living beings without remorse or a breath for grief? 0:20:49.920 --> 0:20:53.639 Then he thought, oh, when at first seemed to be 0:20:53.680 --> 0:20:57.320 a local effect quickly turned global. Even in reserves with 0:20:57.400 --> 0:21:00.720 no logging, the trees grew steadily brighter, as if sympathizing 0:21:00.760 --> 0:21:03.960 with their fellows in the dying rain forest. In the 0:21:04.000 --> 0:21:08.240 small towns near the field station, farmers began shrouding orchards 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:12.240 in blackout or toppling their lines of wind breaks. Harry 0:21:12.320 --> 0:21:14.640 knew because he still had to drive for groceries once 0:21:14.640 --> 0:21:18.720 a week. He wore sunglasses now too, especially when facing west, 0:21:19.080 --> 0:21:21.720 where an amber halo beat on the sky over the 0:21:21.720 --> 0:21:25.720 state forest. In one place, an arm of smoke reached 0:21:25.720 --> 0:21:30.080 ominously up to strangle the light. When he pulled up 0:21:30.080 --> 0:21:32.639 before his cabin, he was not surprised to see a 0:21:32.640 --> 0:21:36.520 bank of cars beached on the grass like fish. Atop 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:40.040 them sat his neighbors and hats and dark glasses, cannisters 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:44.000 of gasoline under their arms. His heart shivered like a flame. 0:21:45.200 --> 0:21:47.800 We came to warn you, said one man, sliding off 0:21:47.800 --> 0:21:50.480 the hood. These woods are getting too bright. We can't 0:21:50.480 --> 0:21:54.439 live like this. You have to understand. It's a reserve, 0:21:54.520 --> 0:21:57.920 said Harry, You saying trees are more important than human life. 0:21:58.560 --> 0:22:02.280 They're not killing you, they're killing our livelihoods. That's the 0:22:02.320 --> 0:22:06.960 same thing. Not these trees, Harry said slowly. He shouldered 0:22:06.960 --> 0:22:10.000 his grocery bags and walked towards the cabin. Whatever you 0:22:10.080 --> 0:22:13.160 do here, you'll do with me in it. Think about that, 0:22:13.760 --> 0:22:18.439 you and your human life. Beneath his glasses, the man's 0:22:18.440 --> 0:22:21.919 mouth scowled. Harry didn't realize how ready he was for 0:22:22.000 --> 0:22:24.560 them to do it, to lie down and be swallowed 0:22:24.600 --> 0:22:28.160 by the glow. Until still scowling, they packed their gas 0:22:28.200 --> 0:22:31.040 canisters in their cars and left with an indignant rip 0:22:31.080 --> 0:22:34.880 of turf. He was left alone before the cabin, every 0:22:34.920 --> 0:22:39.159 cell in his body shaking with light. As he was 0:22:39.240 --> 0:22:42.960 unloading the groceries, his phone beaped. Did you get my last? Text? 0:22:43.080 --> 0:22:45.800 Said Bill? I'm not going to ask again. What did 0:22:45.800 --> 0:22:52.960 av Us say, Harry? Are you getting these? Harry? That night? 0:22:53.880 --> 0:22:56.600 What the clock said was night. Harry put on his 0:22:56.640 --> 0:23:00.000 sunglasses and went out. He lay down between Lisa's red 0:23:00.040 --> 0:23:04.879 Raspberry and Junie's nannyberry. Squinting, he looked up, Light pooled 0:23:04.920 --> 0:23:09.000 in his eyes and mouth warm, surprising. He was seventy 0:23:09.000 --> 0:23:11.760 four now, like a middle aged hickory or a very 0:23:11.760 --> 0:23:15.440 old willow. No elder in these woods, but no upstart either. 0:23:16.320 --> 0:23:21.240 Raspberries lasted a decade, nanny berry's four juny shrub would 0:23:21.240 --> 0:23:25.560 outlive him, as JUNI should have. If he raised his arm, 0:23:25.800 --> 0:23:29.439 the glow smoldered through his sleeve. It could almost have 0:23:29.480 --> 0:23:37.960 been bark, much like our advertiser bark. Get your bark 0:23:38.520 --> 0:23:43.280 from the Bark Store. Listen to this new podcast about 0:23:43.359 --> 0:24:00.359 types of bark. Here's ads, and we're back. True to 0:24:00.400 --> 0:24:03.040 his word, Bill did not text again, but at the 0:24:03.080 --> 0:24:06.160 beginning of August, Ava called Harry assumed it was her 0:24:06.200 --> 0:24:08.680 because she did it five times in a row, refusing 0:24:08.680 --> 0:24:12.560 to be fooled, insisting he pick up. When he finally did, 0:24:12.600 --> 0:24:19.560 she said, you're still there. Yes, for fock's sake, you promised, 0:24:20.080 --> 0:24:23.120 but her anger sounded tired. Are you all right? Can 0:24:23.160 --> 0:24:27.040 you still drive? Get food? I have enough, he said. 0:24:27.600 --> 0:24:30.480 After the neighbor's visit, he had only made one grocery run. 0:24:30.840 --> 0:24:35.119 He'd bought in bulk, brown rice, vitamins. Meat was easy. 0:24:35.200 --> 0:24:40.280 The light confused the rabbits. What about you. I'm all right. 0:24:40.800 --> 0:24:42.920 Katie bought tinch for the car windows so we can 0:24:42.960 --> 0:24:47.320 still drive. But my eye's hurt all the time. Mine too. 0:24:48.359 --> 0:24:50.600 We still don't know what it is. They convince people 0:24:50.640 --> 0:24:53.159 to stop logging the Amazon at least, but it's not 0:24:53.200 --> 0:24:56.880 getting any dimmer. The supply chains are all fucked. He 0:24:56.880 --> 0:25:01.119 heard her swallow. It feels like an apocalypse. How do 0:25:01.160 --> 0:25:06.639 we do this? You'll figure it out, you always have, sure, 0:25:06.960 --> 0:25:11.640 she said. He wished he could hug her. Phone reassurances 0:25:11.680 --> 0:25:15.320 sounded cheap. He cannot twist his imagination into the anxious 0:25:15.320 --> 0:25:18.520 shape Avas must take every morning as a young woman 0:25:18.560 --> 0:25:21.280 with years ahead of her, who had been promised a world, 0:25:21.760 --> 0:25:25.440 a broken one, but a world His words had never 0:25:25.480 --> 0:25:29.720 been equal to her losses. As for himself, he needed none. 0:25:31.000 --> 0:25:33.960 All the world he wanted stood outside among the trees. 0:25:34.760 --> 0:25:37.760 The thought should have bothered him, Then it bothered him 0:25:37.760 --> 0:25:40.600 that it didn't. Then he gave up and simply let 0:25:40.640 --> 0:25:43.760 it be what it was, a comfort, like warm light 0:25:43.840 --> 0:25:48.119 through a window. He told Ava about the woods. The 0:25:48.160 --> 0:25:51.920 heliotropic plants aren't fooled, but the mammals are. The deer 0:25:52.000 --> 0:25:54.120 run into things, and the rabbits just stay in their 0:25:54.119 --> 0:25:57.720 burrows until they're so hungry they can't What about the 0:25:57.720 --> 0:26:02.240 birds we'll see during the micro They talked for another 0:26:02.280 --> 0:26:06.600