‘Aspen and Pine’ by Marie Gethins
Psithurism – the sound of wind through trees. You labelled the memory stick, left it on top of my keyboard. An audio file. I clicked and closed my eyes. Leaves rustled, aspen trunks swayed. A distant creek? No, just wind, then sun heat on my scalp, leaves feathering my face. Green-white flickers against a cloudless sky-pool.The sweetness of new foliage in the air. At five or six I used to stick out my tongue and try to taste it. Remember? My small hand folded into your warm palm, you guided me away from maverick stones and fallen branches.
Seasons shifted to drier leaves – gilded overhead, brown underfoot. Two pairs of boots forging a leaf-mould trail. We followed a steep rise into murmuring conifers. The percussion of crisp needles and squirrel raided cones. You inhaled the pine-sharp scent, encouraged deep breaths.
Later, I sent postcards of Finnish saunas and Russian roofs made from aspen. Strong, straight, dependable – planks mellowed to grey. Nails cannot split them, difficult to burn. Not like your soft pine, easily bruised, full of knots, hissing from the fire.
Last month we returned to old trails, but your walker prefers an urban landscape. The note you left beside the memory stick has detailed bullets: your navy suit and gold tie, which psalms and songs, the plot purchased long ago. But at the tapered hexagon – a shaky sketch of your final centrepiece – my hand trembled as I read: ‘Aspen or pine? I trust your choice.’
From issue #9: autumn/winter 2019
About the Author
Marie Gethins’s work appears or is forthcoming in Winter Papers, Australian Book Review, Reed, The London Magazine, Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology, The Lonely Crowd, NFFD Anthologies, Fictive Dream, Pure Slush, Bath Flash Fiction Anthologies, FlashBack Fiction, Jellyfish Review, Litro and many others. Marie is a recipient of a Frank O’Connor Bursary, a residency at Banff Center for Arts and Creativity, and a Hawthornden Fellowship. She edits for flash ezine Splonk, critiques for Oxford Flash Fiction Prize, and lives in Cork.
