Exposed Roots

Staring to the horizon, looking for any sign of rain clouds, Ollie spotted an outline moving toward her tree. She perched at the top of her tree tee-pee, a structure that encased the lower portion of the trunk. The tee-pee trapped condensation for both the tree and herself, and included an antechamber where she lived.

Ollie squinted. The figure moved between the larger outlines of buildings and looked like a person.

She exhaled. “Thank goodness.” Then she shimmied her way down from the top of the plastic wall, grimacing as her hand touched the hot surface. She was careful not to land on her injured leg when she reached the ground.

The outline got closer and turned into a more defined figure. She squinted at her distant savior. “Ah shit.”

***

Hank arrived with supply reinforcements, including a small amount of drinking water from the underground reservoirs.

“You know I don’t drink reservoir water.”

“And you know that you need it. You’re hurt, and you’re going to need extra water while you’re healing.”

“Using up the reservoirs destroys more trees.”

He furrowed his eyebrows together and looked directly at Ollie. “I know that, goddamn it.”

“But you continue ignoring it.”

“No, I continue to take the middle road because we all need each other, those of us who are left. And the goddamn plants need us too.” He kicked at the dirt floor, opened the exterior door, and walked out.

Hank wasn’t gone long. A few minutes after he left, Ollie heard percussions against the outside of the tree tee-pee. They started as light taps, interspersed, but quickly grew to thunderous clatter against the walls. A storm had come.

***

They’d put up the rain funnels as quickly as they could to catch the rainwater and prevent some of the erosion of the roots under the dry dirt. Tending a tree required a lot of water. The small portion left for Ollie’s drinking water would have to be rationed out carefully until the next rain. And more likely than not, she would be drinking only the small amounts of condensate before then.

With the rains being unpredictable, it was difficult to plan in advance to have them up, and keeping them up all the time would shade the tee-pee and prevent some of the condensation that was necessary to collect during the long dry periods. It was hard work, even with two people, and Ollie’s broken leg wasn’t helping them any. Although designed to be easy for one person to pop open in theory, in practice the heavy rains battered their eyes and soaked their clothes.

Right now, they were making the final adjustments, locking the funnel tubes into the openings along the sides of the tee-pee, and their boots sunk into the mud. Each time she took a step, Ollie had to rock her foot backward and then forward so she wouldn’t bend her injured knee. It still put additional pressure on the joint, and her leg was throbbing.

Then, her boot stuck in the mud, and she fell forward onto her bad knee.

Hank rushed over to her. “You all right?” He extended a hand.

She grunted, but grabbed his hand. As soon as she was up and had weight on her good leg, she dropped his hand and limped to the next tube to finish up her work.

***

Just as Ollie and Hank finished setting the funnels in place, the sky lit up. Ollie whipped her head around to look at Hank, whose eyes had also gone wide. Thunderstorms were increasingly common, with the increase in severe weather, and they were still a tree keeper’s worst nightmare.

Before they’d taken another step, a bolt shot down, close enough that they could feel the tingle in their hair. And then they heard the crack. One of the lightning rods set up a few miles away had drawn the electricity.

Ollie’s shoulders were drawn up halfway to her ears, and they’d have gone further if every muscle in her body hadn’t contracted into tight, unmoveable masses. She noticed that Hank was yelling at her, but she couldn’t make out the words.

He was gesturing away from the tree. Ollie shook her head. She turned toward the door of the tee-pee. Hank grabbed her arm, but she jerked it away from him. As she turned again, another bolt shot down and snapped her tree right at the middle of the trunk. The blast knocked Ollie out and threw her down into the mud.

***

Hank wiped the mud from Ollie’s face with a square of cloth that used to be the inside of his front pants pocket. He wrung it out and wiped her forehead. They were in one of the abandoned buildings, where he’d been trying to tell her to go when the lightning started.

Broken down, he slumped onto the floor. Ollie stared ahead, not really seeing anything. Hank reached for her hand, but she gasped and jerked it away. “I’ve got to get to Brett and his tree.”

For a moment, Hank just looked at her with his mouth hanging open. “Ollie–”

“We have to. You know it.” She turned to him, her eyes lit up and still not looking at him. “The trees are our only way to survive.”

Hank put his arms around her and looked into her eyes. “Listen. We have other options. Natalie said the algae may be able to restore an oxygen-carbon dioxide balance.”

She was shaking her head side to side.

“Yes. Come with me. We can try something else.”

“No, I won’t abandon the trees.” She shook his arm off her and backed away.

Hank picked up the cup sitting on a crate that doubled as a table and a chair. He held it out for her to see. “How are you going to get enough water? The trees need enormous amounts of it. You barely get enough to drink as it is. How can you survive sharing a tree with someone else?”

“There are other trees. I’m sure of it. Some seeds had to have germinated. I’ll find them.”

“You’re talking about saplings.”

“Maybe there are others that aren’t on the map. Maybe we missed them.”

“Face it, Ollie.” Hank slammed down the cup and it rolled onto the floor. “The trees are a lost cause. We’re not going to save them.” He squinted back tears but kept eye contact. “Come with me. We’ve got another shot.”

Ollie looked at him without saying a word. Her face was relaxed, her eyes had finally focused, and he could see the sincerity in her expression. “No.”

Hank hung his head, closing his eyes as the tears escaped. He reached for the cup. Picked it up off the dirt floor. Gripped it tight in his hand. And he got up and walked out the door.