Bark

I grew up in a very small town, complete with long winding roads and a general store. Our neighbors were miles apart and the school had kindergarten through high school all in the same building. Some of our neighbors even had horse-drawn buggies to get around town. Almost everyone farmed, that’s where the town’s money came from and that money was spent at the general store. The general store was a one-stop-shop for everything everyone would need in the town. We didn’t have internet or computers, most of us kids didn’t have much in the way of toys, we had to use our imagination. To make matters worse, I was an only child, after I was born there was a complication and my mom couldn’t have any more kids. My dad left for the field to tend to his farm early in the morning before sunrise and never came back until after dark. My mom spent her days making and mending my clothes, cleaning the house and cooking. I spent most of my time alone, left to my thoughts. This might sound strange, but my best friend was a big old oak tree in the backyard.

I gave the tree the name Bark. I would spend hours playing on the tire swing attached to one of Bark’s long, thick limbs. He also had great branches to climb on. One branch was designated as the bridge of the pirate ship I captained. Complete with my eye patch and wooden sword I was sailing the great big ocean, stealing as much loot as Bark and I could from other ships. Other days I would put my bike helmet on and climb Bark as high as I could get and we would fly our space ship as far as we could into deep space.

Bark and I spent years going on all kinds of adventures until I hit 13, that’s when my relationship with Bark changed. Don’t misunderstand, Bark and I remained close, we just stopped going on adventures. Instead, I would sit down and lean up against Bark and tell him about my day and I started writing poetry. I would read my poetry out loud to Bark, even though he never told me what he thought, he was a good listener. Eventually, I graduated from high school and left for college. College was 800 miles away, whenever I came home for break I would spend as much time with Bark as I could.

While in college I met a girl, it was love at first sight. I told her about Bark, assuming she would think I was nuts, instead, she completely understood. Everybody needs somebody and when you live in such a small town and you’re an only child you find that somebody, even if it’s unconventional. Right after we graduated from college we got married. The wedding took place right in front of Bark, I insisted. To my surprise, my parent’s wedding gift was the family home, they were retiring and moving to Florida. I sold my dad’s farmland, I never had any interest in being a farmer. My wife and I commuted to the next town over for work. I landed a job as a creative writing professor at a community college and my wife worked at the same college teaching adolescent psychology. Despite my heavy workload, I always made sure I spent time with Bark.

About five years after we got settled into our new jobs and married life, my wife got pregnant. We had a beautiful baby boy. Of course, the first thing I did when we brought him home was to introduce him to Bark. I just knew that Bark and my son would become fast friends and they were. As he grew up I could see myself in him. He had my imagination and curiosity. He played with Bark much the same way I did. Despite Bark’s new friend, I still spent time writing poetry while sitting up against Bark and I still read it to him and bounced ideas off of him. I admit, seeing a man in his early 30’s talking to a tree had to be a funny sight, I just didn’t care. All these years later, Bark was still my best friend.

The day I turned 40, everything changed. My wife had the didn’t have class on Wednesdays, that was the only day of the week that I drove back and forth to work by myself. That night a nasty storm whipped up. The wind and rain made almost impossible to see, so impossible that I hit another car head-on. That car was moving about 80 mph, 40 miles per hour over the speed limit, in a storm to boot. Even though it was the law I hated wearing seat belts, when I made contact with the other car, I was shot straight through the windshield. Everything went black, I never woke up. At that same moment, a huge bolt of lightning hit bark, it almost tore him in half, but he survived. A week later, they had my funeral at the house, I was buried next to Bark. After everyone left my wife went outside and stood in front of Bark. She began running her hand slowly up and down him as she sobbed. Then she noticed something strange, he was wet, water was slowly trickling down his base. It was a bright sunny day, where was this water coming from. Our son came out and told my wife Bark was crying. As strange as it sounds, my best friend Bark, the tree, was crying over the loss of his friend.

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