any breeze to help it. Even if she wanted to convince herself she was hearing things the darn tree’s mouth had opened — wide…and it moved! No eyelash in the eye could explain that.
As if to drive the point home the tree continued, “Where are the petals from your garden?”
Jane scrambled backwards until her tailbone hit a root.
“What…what’s going on?” Jane went to stand but tripped on another root.
“Settle down little sapling.”
“Sapling?” Jane stopped mid crouch. “Sapling?” her mouth twitched into a half smile of its own accord, “I’m not that young.”
“To me you are.”
Again Jane’s face gave a reflexive smile. She didn’t feel young, she felt old beyond her years.
“The lines on your face are not from age.”
“What do you know about age? I’m a human with my best years already spent.”
The tree smiled, its bark snapping as it did so. “I admit, my time doesn’t move like yours. For me it is measured in centuries not by years. However, make no mistake, I know of humans and their short years. I have seen many. I know all about the heartache of a woman who is stuck in an unmoving union.”
Jane rubbed at her unshed tears. “How do you know about my marriage?” Jane was sitting back down. The ground seemed to rise up to meet her. She ran her hand along the root that was next to her leg as if she was testing to see if it was real.
“Because I know what brought you together.” The tree chuckled; it was like a dozen branches rubbing together. “And I know it was not meant to bring you together with that Mum of a boy.”
Jane let out a snort, “He really is a momma's boy.”
“Not momma’s boy,” The tree shook, the sound was like wind rustling through its leaves, “Mum of a boy. A Mum is a show off of a flower. He wasn’t ever going to be anything more than a pretty face. But you were always meant for more.”
“Really?” Jane smiled to herself. The compliments were what kept her there. That and the utter belief that she must be dreaming.
✧ ✧ ✧
“No really,” Kayla said to her. “The trees really talk to me.”
Sure, metaphorically, but actually, Jane scoffed.
“You have to believe me.”
“How much of your Nan’s brew do you have left?” Jane asked lightly.
“None.” Kayla said, her eyes showing the hurt she felt. “It ran out a week after she died.”
“Are you sure? Maybe you should have this house checked for fungus growing in the walls.”
“I already did.” Kayla slammed her fist against the table. “You wan’t proof? I can give it to you.”
“Sure,” Jane continued to laugh.
“Ok, you are stuck in your marriage with Greg because of what we did, together on that hill — with those rocks.”
This stopped Jane’s laughing short. There was joking, then there was too far. “I’m stuck married to Greg because of the prenup. He had good lawyers back then and I wasn’t one, yet.”
Kayla leaned forward, “But you are now. And a good one. So why aren’t you divorced already?”
“Because his money put me through law school. If I want a divorce I have to return all the money he gave for it.”
“Surely you can find a way out of that?”
“I’m working on it.”
Kayla stared out her window to the woods behind the house. They were breathtakingly beautiful. The most beautiful ones around. Of course they were the only ones left and if Jane wasn’t willing to help they too would be gone soon.
“Why did you invite me here?” Jane’s voice had taken on her business tone. “You said you had important things you wanted to discuss?”
Kayla’s lips turned down, “We just aren’t going to be good friends, not like we used to be.”
“I don’t think we can.” Jane said trying not to sound hurt. “It’s hard. You and I, we believe in very different things.”
“But we believed those things before and it never got in the way of our friendship.”
“Before was a long time ago.” Jane rubbed her neck.
“Not so long ago.” Kayla pulled her hair out of her eyes. She might have also brushed away a tear. “I don’t understand what went wrong. I did everything I could to make you happy.”
Jane’s felt the scowl set into her brow, “You had nothing to do with it.”
“Yes, yes I did. It was me. I did it.”
“No you didn’t!” Jane stopped hearing herself screaming. She started again, “It wasn’t you. Taking me up a cliff and spelling out mine and Greg’s names in rocks — that’s wasn’t anything.”
“It worked.” Kayla’s lower lip jutted out a fraction. “You got the boy. Out of all the girls in school he ended up with you.”
“Sure…” Jane heard her voice falter, “But he already had a thing for me.”
“He looked at you once when he walked up the hall a week earlier. A week and how many girls earlier? Almost as many girls as days?”
“Ya, but after he talked to me he didn’t want anyone else. He told me he’d found his soulmate.” Jane’s hands folded over her chest.
“That was Monday, after we’d…”
“I know. The rocks.” It always came back to those stupid rocks. Whether they brought her and Greg together was always the debate, but there was never a question that they had torn her and Kayla apart. “It wasn’t the stupid rocks. Even if we hadn’t done the rock thing he would have still gotten me.”
“But that’s easy for you to say, we can’t go back in time and not put up the rocks to see what would have happened.”
“Kayla,” Jane pushed herself away from the table. “Is this the only reason you invited me here? To have this same old argument, again? Because if it is, I’m tired of it.” Jane flattened down her pants to stand, “Besides, I need to go home. Greg will be there soon. I wanted to catch him before he gets too settled in his show. I’ve drawn up some new papers. I’m hoping he’ll sign this copy.”
“Don’t go home.” Kayla beat Jane to standing. “Come out with me. We can undo the rocks. If we take them down, and plant some grass in their place, then I promise you Greg will grant you a divorce without holding you to any of your prenup agreements.”
“Kayla, you are crazier than your Nan.”
“You used to like that about me.” Her lip jutted further out.
Jane stood and pulled her jacket off the back of the chair.
“Don’t!” Kayla grabbed Jane’s arm, “Please, don’t. I need your help. I need your legal advice. They want to take my land — Nan’s land. They are going to file a suit against me and I can’t fight it. Not without you.”
“You know my fees.” Jane slipped her hand out of her friends grasp.
“I can’t afford them.”
She had figured as much.
“I’m on the edge of declaring bankruptcy. Please.” Kayla said.
“You want my expert advice?”
Kayla nodded.
“Take the package they offered you. It’s probably better than anything they’ve offered to anyone else. Take the money and buy yourself a place on the edge of some new woods that aren’t surrounded by city lots on all sides.”
“Jane…” Kayla’s eyes were filled with tears.
“That’s my best advice.”
“Fine.” Kayla turned away, “I will take your advice if you take mine.”
“Fine.” Jane’s jaw snapped together. She regretted the word the moment it left her lips. But she followed it up with, “And what’s that?”
“Go to the rocks. Take them down and replace them with grass. Then put the rocks back in my woods. Once that’s all done go sit under the tree with a face. Sit and talk to him with a pocket full of petals from your garden.” Kayla looked up at Jane, her eyes pleading, “If you don’t feel anything after that, then I will do what you’ve told me to and I’ll even give you half the settlement to cover your expert advice.”
>
✧ ✧ ✧
It had been the money that was the deal maker. Jane had done her research; with half of Kayla’s settlement she could get out of her marriage even with the prenup intact. If she was able to get out of it, then she’d be laughing.
She was laughing now, but it wasn’t for the same reasons she’d thought she would be. “If this is real then I’m going to have to help Kayla with her law suit.” She said to the talking tree. “If it isn’t, I might not be practicing law anymore — at least not in the real world.”
The tree's boughs swayed, “If you have done all that your friend has told you then your union will no longer be written in stone. You will be freed from that bond.”
Jane was about to retort with a smart-assed sure but her cell phone vibrated. She put her finger up and answered, “Jane Maipool speaking.”
“Not any more it ain’t darlin,’” her husband’s voice chimed on the other end.
“What?”
“I signed the papers.” Greg said.
“What?” Jane repeated dumfounded.
“Momma convinced me it was time to set yawl free. We’ve been miserable long enou’,”
“What?” All her law degrees and she was left with only one word to describe her utter surprise — and it wasn’t even a good word.
“I’m think’n yawl heard me just fine. I’ll be gettin’ on my way.” He hung up before Jane could say what again.
She didn’t remove the phone from her ear until she heard the dial tone on the other end. Then she slowly lowered it to her lap.
The tree groaned as if under the weight of a heavy snow fall, “So, my little sapling, does that mean you’ll fight for my woods?”
Jane nodded. This was a dream come true — and if it ended up being just a dream it was one she never wanted to
Written In Stone Page 2