A. Tree's Arc

Chapter 6 of 6

A. Tree stood on the platform, catching his breath. His shoulder throbbed where he had torn the apple free. The line stretched ahead of him again, patient now, faces watching and waiting. He lifted another apple from the basket at his feet and handed it forward. But someone near the back was shouting. A. Tree looked up and saw a man pointing toward the mudslide, toward the far side where the gap still gaped wide and empty. A. Tree followed the gesture and his branches went cold. Across the mud, people had gathered — twenty, maybe thirty of them, maybe more. They had stacked logs and vines into a crooked pile that reached halfway down the slope. They were building a bridge. They were going to try to cross. A. Tree stepped off the platform and moved toward the edge. The gap was fifty feet of liquid earth, too wide to jump and too deep to wade. But the crowd on the far side didn't know that. They only saw him here with apples, and they were hungry enough to risk it. He needed to stop them before someone stepped onto those logs and disappeared beneath the mud. A. Tree grabbed the tall crystal monument that stood near the road's edge — someone had placed it there weeks ago, back when the road was whole. He dragged it forward until it caught the last slant of afternoon sun. Light shot across the gap in a clean beam that swept over the far side like a signal. The people on the other side stopped moving. A. Tree waved both arms, branches creaking, and pointed down at the mud. He shook his head hard. No. Don't cross. The crowd hesitated, then someone raised a hand in return. They stepped back from the log pile. A. Tree pulled the monument away from the edge and let the light fade. His roots ached and his bark was cracked in three new places, but the far side was still. The log pile sat abandoned on the slope. He had reached them before they tried. He turned back toward his line, where faces watched him with new quiet. They had seen what he'd done. They understood now that he wasn't just handing out apples — he was keeping people alive on both sides of the mud. A. Tree walked back to the platform and picked up another apple. The line began to move again.