Flash, BOOM, Craack, the Oklahoma storm has been brewing all day, there have been alerts and a Tornado Watch, no sirens but be ready. The sky has turned from blue to gray to green to gray and then black. The rain has come in waves along with the wind.
The tree was one of three in the front yard when we moved in, fifteen years ago, Christmas of 2007.
The trees made a nice triangle, where I had previously stretched a hammock between two of them and had enjoyed relaxing in the gentle breeze and the sunshine, I had recently constructed a fire circle in the center, and used it twice on crisp winter mornings for warmth and a place to enjoy my coffee.
One tree has a wisteria bush growing next to it, with tendrils intertwining among the branches.
The wisteria is five years old and has not bloomed yet, but I have been hoping that each successive year would be ‘The Year’ of the magnificent show of blossoms.
One tree has a companion garden of Morning Glories at its base, each year they are reseeded from the previous year. The fast climbing vines clambering up a chain in order to display their glory for a season, then leaving the withered vine for the next generation to climb.
You had a new bamboo planter.
It was home to Sweet-peas that never bloomed last year.
An attempt was made to grow MoonFlowers that died in the sweltering heat.
This year was the year for carrots, direct sewn into the soil and sporting tiny carrot tops , staying alive as the weather made drastic swings, hot and dry to overcast and wet.
You and your companions weathered many a storm through the years as you played host to hummingbirds, finches, cardinals, woodpeckers, jays, and mockingbirds. You occasionally lost a branch or a limb to the wind as it swirled during an Oklahoma storm that threatened a tornado but usually produced the equally damaging straight-line wind.
That fateful night there were many of the usual flashes of lightning with their associated claps of thunder, some with a distinguishable lag in between, and some with almost no delay between flash and crash.
Then, in the midst of the torrential rain, flashing lightning, and crashing thunder, there was a long craacck and thud.
The morning light revealed that one-third of you was resting in your companions, like friends doing a Trust-Fall, and the other two-thirds were splayed around a seven-foot-tall stump, like friends who had partied too hard and passed out in the yard.
Neighbors helped dismember the remains and stack it so that the collection truck could remove it to make mulch.
And now there are two...
