Albedo Chapter Four
Alpha Pinene, The Arborists
One of the cars got hoisted up onto land as they rode the elevator back to road level. The plain
white paint shiny against the dirty brown metal of the platform. Oil and dust caked on raw steel.
The guy from the small company that rented the cars discount to the centre stood smoking old school
cigarettes while he held down the lever running the crane. The drive itself took them along an old
stretch of condemned motorway interceded by a small dam and a gravel covered service road leading
diverted traffic around land lost to the water. Spraying stones behind them with the torque in the
electric motor, passing by a small cluster of houses that marked the edge of their own estate, the
girls rounded on a turning marked off by a cheap sign and some temporary barriers. After being under
the roof of the centre and the confines of the car for most of the day, the three of them were glad
to step out into the fresh air, surrounded by sun. Jostling fragments of jade and chartreuse played
each other, a spectrum of green to white from leaf to light through the branches. Sprays of
illuminated flies, a glistening zoetrope of trees and sun. Dense in certain clusters, allowing
subtle graces of the light to reach the eyes. Suppurating liquid from the leaves and needles gifting
it a delicate aroma. Sleepy pigeons giving a chortle as the three of them eventually walked by. The
sounds all dying back in deference to the three, calling out to each other as they marked trees with
a can of orange paint. Passing the docket and the can between hands, reading drawings and figuring
coordinates. Fliss crouching behind a tree, knock kneed and bare-assed, listening to Connie.
"They're gonna plant more trees Marnie. I never took you for such a tree-hugger" Marnie replying
from just beside Fliss "That sounds like exactly the sort of mentality that got us into this mess.
Paddling around in floodwater. Wading around in our own piss" shooting a wry grin down at Fliss.
Connie had a way of nipping at Marnie, especially over the last few months. Jabbing at the soft
spots. The two of them seemed to be drifting as friends. Maybe Connie hadn't changed that much, but
Marnie had been feeling adrift of her for a while. They'd been close when they'd both started
working together, especially after Marnie's younger sister died. A freak accident, knocked out
slipping on slimy algae, falling into water. Unnoticed by friends under the sounds of a departing
water-taxi. Lungs full of water, discovered after eight minutes. Unable to be resuscitated. Connie
had looked after her, visited her often, eventually organised their flats and situated them both in
their own places. Fliss coming along to join and soliciting the care of the both of them in her own
way. Lifted up from the ground now at Marnie's pull, yanking jeans and underwear up and scooching
away from the puddle.
Then a moment, a meagre few seconds worth, arrived to surprise them. Two distinct experiences, one for
Marnie and another for the other two. A tree hidden from their notice as they worked, decided all of
a sudden, as if prompted, to shed its seeds into the air. Thousands all at once. Floating, white,
fluffy seeds hidden up under the leaves until their release. Seed pods strung in their own cotton to
lift and disperse. They alighted on the ground amongst small shrubs and plants and, as if
transferring a great energy from within them, caused little blue flowers to bloom in a thick
brushstroke across the earth where the wind had laid them. Connie and Fliss walked forward, a spark
of simple joy burst between them, on the cusp of laughing. Marnie, holding the can of paint to mark
the trees, felt tired all at once. The weight of the damage she was shepherding into this soft,
sacred little place had the effect of burying her. She could only look outwards from within a tunnel
of shame towards that tree, something old and fearsome lurking up amongst the branches, in the
places the sun couldn't reach, naked to the human eye, formless and clad in shadow. Held there by
unease, she felt a sudden impulse to fix her harrowed face before her friends turned to her. Pasting
a mirror of their own placid emotions over the flashing kernel of shadow buried inside. The bead of
sorrow and doubt suffusing all throughout her, teaching her what it knew, abandoning thoughts to the
contrary, bleaching her of all doubt as to what it was she wanted to do.
The walk back took twice as long, maybe triple, winding between the lines they'd scribed and marking
each individual tree that came between the two vectors. By the time they'd returned the car and
gotten squared up for pay with S.P, it was almost night. Most of the businesses in the centre were
shuttered, only the restaurants and bars still illumined. S.P's final words ringing in their ears as
they headed for home "Anyone for a 9 AM start at Periwinkle?" to no reply. The brasserie would have to
do without the help. The tree job cheque sat heavily in their accounts, the long day heavily on
their shoulders. The dense little seed within Marnie told her that she wouldn't have time for the
usual habit she shared with her friends, no wasting away in the flats now that they were decently
funded.
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