In Ravens Cove improbable happenings are just another day in the Cove. Including an unlikely revival. I thought I’d share this small excerpt from the report I received from Bart and Ken. They ventured to Arnie Thralling’s workshop when he flew into the station like his pants were on fire, frantically relating a story about some old woman who almost attacked him. This excerpt starts with Bart calling me at the station:
“Thanks.” Bart put the phone back into his pocket. “It’s the hag tree.” Bart touched the pale-gray bark. “Is it me or is this thing seeping?”
Ken followed Bart’s finger. A black and red liquid oozed from the trunk. Ken pushed an index finger into the soggy wood. Yellow light sparked in response.
“That does not bode well.” Bart shook his head. “Not well at all.”
The tree shivered, then quaked. Ken jumped back when a gnarled root burst out of the trunk’s base and snaked toward the corrugated metal of the workshop’s ceiling.
“It’s regenerating itself!” Bart hit speed dial on his phone.
“Who are you calling—a tree service? The thing’s lying on its side.”
Bart punched end and pointed again. “Not anymore.” The root dropped to the floor. It burrowed through the sawdust covered wood planks. Half of the tree pulled itself upright. A deafening crack filled the air. “You’ve got to be kidding.” Ken’s face paled when the twin half of the trunk sprouted a large tuber and
tunneled into the floorboards. Ken and Bart shuffled backward in an unprepared dance step when the trunk sprouted tendrils and knitted itself back together.
“How can this be happening?”
“What do I look like? A dictionary for the strange and awful?”
Excerpt from Gorgon, An Alaska Iconoclast Thriller
To make a long story short, the hag tree not only pulled back together after being chopped to the ground a day earlier, it also replanted itself at the head of Ravine’s Ravine — where it has stood for as long as we can remember.
So, in answer to Bart’s question: Yes, I believe our entire town is the very definition of the words strange and awful. And, if you’d read other accounts of our town, also the wonderful and miraculous. Which brings me to ask as the season of miracles approaches: Do you believe in miracles? I’d like to know I’m not the only one.
Until Next Time,
Kat