The Great Oak

markblackburn

(Here’s my short story which was longlisted for the 2021 Fish Flash Fiction Prize)

THE GREAT OAK

The storm took forty trees from the golf course, its nine holes carved from a corner in the grounds of the crumbling estate in a forlorn attempt to eke out some revenue. The golf club dragged in a few euros, but Peter, possibly the last of the Cleave family who’d live in the place (well, a wing), wondered if it was worth the effort.

The golfers moaned on Facebook that the storm had only blown over the conifers around the edges, shame it hadn’t taken the big old tree on the fairway. This imperious oak blocked the route to the green, but Peter was damned if he would chop it down.

The online frenzy came to a head when Paudie Cahalane posted the veiled threat that ‘strange things happen at night’, telling members not to be too concerned about the tree.

Peter knew what Cahalane was thinking, and when the next in the endless onslaught of storms swept through, he was installed in the lookout tower the golfers used to check if the green was clear. This tempest came with thunder and lightning. In a burst of white light he could see Cahalane scurrying across, chainsaw in hand.

Peter rushed down the ladder and ran towards the tree as a phenomenal gust almost took him off his feet. There was a fearful crack, and freeze-frame lightning showed the tree splitting half way down its trunk, with an enormous branch hurtling down towards the upturned and terrified face of one Paudie Cahalane.

                        *                      *                      *                      *                      *

Next morning the Fire Brigade couldn’t get the tree off the body. They called in Kennedy Tree Care; even they took three hours.

Published by markblackburn

Mark was born in 1958 and grew up in Berkshire. He went to school at Bradfield College, near Reading, and then studied for a degree in Economics at the London School of Economics. Mark’s career was in retail, working for small and large companies, before he opened his own chain of shoe shops, which he sold in 2007. Aside from politics, Mark likes to keep fit with running, cycling and trekking. He has run several marathons, completed the Coast to Coast Walk and the Two Moors Way in Devon for charity, and cycled from Bangkok to Angkor Wat for the Cambodian Red Cross. He is a member and supporter of the National Trust. He also has an addiction to older Lancia cars, but is trying to keep the miles down! Mark is married and lives in the Westminster North constituency, in St John’s Wood. He is an active member of the Friends of Regent’s Park and Primrose Hill and a patron of London Zoo. He is also a member of the St John’s Wood Society, and regularly attends Westminster council's St John’s Wood Forum. Mark supports a north London football team - he is a Tottenham Hotspur supporter, but gave up his season ticket last year as it was becoming too painful! Before moving to St John’s Wood four years ago, Mark lived in Camden, where he rejoined the Liberal Democrats after a long gap since his LSE days. While in Camden, Mark was instrumental in the campaign to save the area around Camden Town Tube station from the developers, helping to stop the destruction of Trinity Church in Buck Street, the Electric Ballroom and part of the market. These would have been replaced by a 16-storey office block. Since moving to Westminster he has been Treasurer and is now Chair of the local Liberal Democrats. He fought the Abbey Road council by-election as the LibDem candidate in May 2007. He was very involved in the campaign to stop sixty mature trees being cut down and meadowland being concreted over in Regent’s Park to provide Astroturf football pitches. He was selected as the Liberal Democrat prospective parliamentary candidate in January 2009.