Under Two Shires Oak – Episode 53
Under Two Shires Oak
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- 1. Under Two Shires Oak – Episode 53
HOLLY returned to work the next day and called in at Glyn’s flat on the way home.
His flat? Really, it looked more like an office, with his desk and computer taking pride of place in the living-room, every chair piled high with leaflets, and posters from various campaigns all over the walls.
She smiled as she followed him in, but at the same time felt sad as she remembered her first visit there. They had had a mutual friend, and when something had gone wrong with his computer his friend had given him her phone number, saying she was a “wizard with machines” and might be able to fix it. This she successfully did, but it had taken a while and several cups of coffee, and that was how it started between them.
Now they exchanged a few words about her dad, although he knew the happy outcome already as he’d kept in touch with her throughout, and then she was able to get straight to the point of her visit.
“I don’t want a life of protesting and objecting,” she finished.
“OK. I’m sorry. But I understand,” he said.
And that was it. Thinking about it later, she decided it would be an exaggeration to say Glyn didn’t care. But, as he himself said, he was OK with it. She had been right, she decided. Their relationship had always been less important to him than his other activities.
Had they stayed together, even married, their home life would always have played second fiddle.
She felt relieved. She had never wished to hurt Glyn.
“Can I still call you if my computer plays up again?” he amused her by asking as she stood to leave.
“Of course you can.”
“And you know where I am,” he said, “if I can ever help you. We’re still pals, right?”
“Yes,” she replied, thinking that really that was all they’d ever been.
Still, friendship was a wonderful thing. Her grandmother, in particular, had always stressed that to her.
There followed a couple of quiet weeks, until the day her grandfather arrived home from the summer school at which he was helping with another bombshell.
She’d arrived home from work about half an hour earlier, and seeing her mother and grandmother out in the garden, had gone to join them.
The garden needed a lot of attention in the summer. Her gran was complaining that, at the speed things were growing at present, it would be like a jungle within a week if left untended.
“I blame him,” she said, pointing at her husband who had appeared in the doorway, “for overplanting. He treats it like one of his paintings, wanting colour in every corner.”
Normally Phil would have responded to this in the same joking way his wife had spoken. But it was clear, right away, that he had something on his mind.
“Listen to what I heard today from a chap on the art course!”
“Two Shires Oak? You say there’s talk of it being chopped down?” Grace spoke first after they digested Phil’s news. “Are you sure?”
“Certain. The man who told me has a son who works in planning, and apparently the land’s being sold for a housing development to be built. The tree’s in the way of a new access road, or something.”
They all sat in silence. Earlier, Holly had been enjoying the sounds of the summertime garden – birds singing, insects buzzing, trees whispering in the breeze. But now it was as if a strange quiet had descended.
When the others went inside, she remained where she was. The old oak was like a friend to them. Just so very recently it was where they had wanted to be while waiting for news about her dad. Where they had finally heard that he was OK. And she didn’t care if it sounded daft – it had cried with them!
“I won’t let them do it,” she said, and just then a blackbird sang out with what she interpreted as a cry of encouragement.
A memory of her final conversation with Glyn popped into her head.
“I don’t want a life of protesting and objecting.”
The irony of what she was now planning was not lost on her. But it was necessary.
She nodded determinedly as she stood up and strode towards the house. The tree had a place in many people’s hearts, not just her family’s, she was sure of it. It had to be saved – just had to be! And she was going to start a campaign to make certain of it. Whatever it took, she would do.