Tuesday Writings No #33 - Henrik the Red

Prompts: Strangely, consequences, greedy

Henrik the Red

        Henrik the Red, the woodcutter wandered into the woods and began to cut down trees he took new and old, any and all trees for the money . He finished and loaded his wagon with kindling and logs. As he finished a beautiful woman appeared before him and asked, “Can you help me find them? My children are missing.”

        He was about to tell her he’d seen no children when she stared at his wagon and asked, “Woodcutter, did you replenish the woods of which you took?”

         Wanting to please such a beautiful creature he nodded. She then smiled and offered him seeds and water. He promptly fell asleep. When he awoke he tried to stretch his arms and felt the air move through them strangely. He looked at his feet and found them strangely rooted. Seeing the woman again he asked, “What have you done to me you witch?”

“My name is Kaileith and I’m a wood sprite. You greedy evil human, you took my children.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You took the wood and did not replace them with saplings.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s too late for that, now you must face the consequences of your actions.”

     Henrik felt his body quicken and become wooden. Henrik was trapped forever in the Red Douglas fir. He hoped and prayed that no woodcutter would tear him down. For two hundred years he stood tall and proud until a windstorm brought him down. As he felt his life force bleed put of him Kaileith appeared and said, “You’ve learned your lesson. Live again.”

      Henrik was reborn into a baby boy. As Henrik grew up he guarded trees nearby  watched them grow and read everything he could about them. When he became an adult he became an arborist protecting the trees he once harmed. when Henrik became a father his children too were taught to value trees. 

  ©Sheilagh Lee February 27, 2018

Tuesday writings #No 31~Heaven Sent

        Tuesday writings #No 31~Heaven Sent

 Prompts this week: dire, Ponzi, cossack

          My eighty year old grandmother cried into the phone and I too wanted to cry. Grandmother said she had sent a prayer up to god and a voice told her to call me. My grandmother had brought me up sacrificed much and when I done well in my career I’d set up a retirement savings plan so that she could retire in peace and with enough money to leave comfortably. She had moved into a retirement community where she could play bingo and enjoy herself with others her age and now she found herself in dire straits. All because she trusted a man who claimed to be a man of God; I was appalled this man calling himself a minster of God had bilked my grandmother and many of her friends out of their retirement savings all in the name of God. I didn’t quite understand how he’d done this but I knew it was illegal. It had to be!! I decided I would hire a P.I. after talking to the police who said they didn’t have anything on the good Reverend Tom. I went to my grandmother’s a as luck would have it she said, “You don’t have to google anything here’s a phone book.”

I told her the phone book must be outdated and that I hadn’t seen one in years but she insisted that some of the numbers hadn’t changed and I should use it to find the private investigator. We sent up a prayer to God to help us find the right man or woman for the job.

       To humour her I did just that opening the pages at random I turned to private investigators and Grandma looking over my shoulder said, “You should call that one dear. It says if you’re in need of an angel to help you in time of turmoil and trouble, call him.”

The name was Jack Chaumel on the ad and I dialled. We talked and he said he’d look into it a week went by and I received a call to come to his office. I went to a nondescript office in a poorer part of town mounting the stairs I entered a dingy office with a table and two chairs taking a chair I asked, “Did you follow the money?”

“I followed the money. That creep is bilking all of his parishioners not just your grandmother and his friends out of their money in a Ponzi scheme,” Jack Chaumel answered.

“I can’t believe this. I thought he might be up to something but aren’t Ponzi schemes on a grand scale. ”

“He’s done this before.”

“Where?”

“Better to ask where he hasn’t. He’s done this all over the U.S.”

“Is there any way to get the money back?”

“The money is still in his bank account we’ll see.”

“We need to stop him from fleeing with tonight’s proceeds,” I said looking down the aisle at the Reverend Tom.”

“Just watch.”

As he said this several people came out of the audience with guns raised yelling, “Police Officers “ and then telling Reverend Tom to get on the floor of the revival tent.  They searched him for weapon surprisingly he had a gun in a holster he had at his thigh under his Cossack. When I turned around Jack Chaumel was gone.

Several months later “Reverend” Alexander Tom was sentenced to twenty years for mail fraud, money laundering, and fraud. The money that was in Reverend Tom’s bank account mysteriously disappeared, but envelopes with the exact amounts missing appeared in his victim’s mail boxes. As for the P.I, people in the neighbourhood say they never saw his office there and he has disappeared as if he never existed. Some say they saw an Archangel Chaumel who helped us solve our problem the day of the arrest, maybe they were right. All I know is that Jack was heaven sent.

A Mother's Love

          A Mother's Love

            Scurrying out the door I noticed with dismay that the snow flurries were now doing a merry dance blowing sideways and accumulating at an astronomical rate. Seeming to be the only car on the highway, I almost pulled over but instead I travelled on. Hitting a rough patch the car spun around flipping end on end and finally landing upside down in the ditch. I tried to get free but my seatbelt held me fast. My head hurt and my insides hurt. Hours went by and still I was stuck. I felt faint and the pain in my middle had gotten worse. I cried out for my mother. I feel like I’m talking to the air after all she’s dead.

Fading in and out and awaking to feel pain crying out again for my mother. I feel hands touching me, comforting me and I think I’m saved; but when I look over I see no one. I close my eyes against the pain and I hear my mother’s voice, “Hang in there baby. Help is coming.”

Minutes later I hear the door open and another voice say, “An ambulance is coming don’t worry you’ll be okay.”

I feel my mother’s hand leave mine when I reach the hospital and I’m afraid but in my ear I hear,” I love you baby and I’m always with you. You’ll be okay. Believe.”

The doctor says he doesn’t know how I survived all those hours but I do, my mother’s love saved me.

©Sheilagh Lee February 6, 2018