The House That Spoke

There once was a wood where no one went and in there you could have heard the trees almost whisper through the leaves about the secret things where fairy's dwell in a time when magic had its way .

As time passed and progress caught up with the woods some of the trees were cut down to make way for roads . The thick forest was clearing into fields and things where changing in the wood where no ever went .
Now most of the tall trees were gone and the thick forest looked barren .

What a shame the timber company never bothered to replant an area to compensate for the trees they had cut down . It was much too late now .
The damage was done .
It would take hundreds of years to renew the growth that oncer grew in the wood . For many years the glens in the wood had harboured creatures who had no habitat left and the lifestyle they once had was lost .
The Toram timber Company had set up a sawmill and dozens of men had built small huts around it . The sawmill was a hive of activity . It never stopped production . Seven days a week the noise of ripping timber pierced through the forest . Even during the night it never stopped .

Mr Toran who owned the sawmill was mean and rude to his workers . He sacked men everyday and paid those who stayed very little wages . Due to the shortage of work most of the workers remained working for him .
It wasn't a happy place to work . He refused to pay anyone who was sick or injured . There was no talking permitted during working hours .
He allowed a ten minute break and that was the only time there was quiet in the sawmill . Mr Toran never smiled . He was always on the floor watching and making sure everyone kept working .

After ten long yard years the Toran sawmill and all its workers came to the end of the line . The trees where all gone now . There was nothing left for
Mr Toran to do except to pay up his workers and shut down the mill .
On the last day of production Toran handed out the wages from a tight fist .
He wasn't happy at all . He grumbled as they took what was owed to them .
Toran watched their faces but found no sign of anger or complaint in any of them . He asked a few of his hardest workers to come into his office .
Once inside Mr Toran put to another job .
He wanted a home built where the old sawmill stood . They accepted the job and the wages that he offered them .

They drew up a plan and the work was back breaking and hard but from the profits of their hard work Toran had his house built .
Finally all the workers said farewell to him and left Torans Glen .

One cold dark night the old miser sat in front of the fireplace . The embers were barely glowing so he decided to go outside to the wood heap . As he walked outside he could hear carol singing in the distance and realised it must have been near Christmas . It was almost snowing and he wasted no time in getting some logs for burning .
He knelt down by the dying fire and threw one of the logs on top the embers .
Suddenly a loud voice screamed out

"Hey you stop what you're doing ."

Old Mr Toran jumped up to his feet and replied .

"Who is that ?"
There was no answer came back . Toran knelt in front of the fire again and put another log on the fire .

Again the voice screamed,
" Hey . I'm not just a fire for you to admire . Before you burn me, I'd like you to see how I used to be when I was a tree ."

"Who said that ?
Toran shouted back .

"Hey you on your knee, before you burn me you must understand you cannot demand anymore wood . It must be understood , we are here to collect , Mr Toran this is the big pay back .

Toran jumped to his feet in fright and said ,
"Listen if you're want money I don't have anything here . So leave me be ."
He went over to the door and reached for a baseball bat that was there on the floor .
The bat began to shake and a voice said ,
"Hey . Don't hold on to me, because you're out , strike three . I've got to make you see once I was a tree ."

Toran dropped the baseball bat and ran to the kitchen . He sat down at the table and the chair began to rock back and forward . A voice in the chair said ,

" Hey don't sit on me I once was a tree . You've taken too much and now don't you touch . We're the things that were made from you're timber trade ."

Toran began to sweat and shake but the meanness inside him made him confront the situation . He shouted back .

"No I'll never repent . Not one lousy cent will I ever repay . Not one thing I regret so don't bring me your debt . Leave me and what's mine , you are all out of line ."

He stormed out of the kitchen and decided to go to bed .
On the way up the stairs every step on the way a voice rang out ,

"Hey . Don't step on me . Once I was a tree but now I'm a stair ,it's just so unfair . It's all because of you, that I'm cut up in two and stuck together with glue and nailed here for you ."

Old man Toran was very worried now and ran to the bedroom . He jumped under the blankets and hid . But the bed head and base shook so furiously that Toran fell out of bed and a voice from the bed said ,

"Hey don't lie down on me I once was a tree . Oh yes there was I reaching up to the sky until you chopped me down . But goes around comes around in the woods no one knows where nothing now grows .

The other pieces of furniture began to come to life and they all said aloud ,
"Hey can't you see what you've done . Now we have become dead but its high time you paid . Now this is the day and we want you to lay down your weary head and become one of the dead .

'Old Toran shook with fear and ran out of the room across the floor but with each stride he took a voice from the floorboards screamed ,

"Hey . Don't run on me, once I was a tree . Now I no longer grow in the woods you know . You and your crims cut off my limbs . You took all my fruits and pulled up my roots so give them all back and learn to respect the woods around you where once we all grew ."

The stairs tossed Toran into the air and he fell to the bottom and landed very heavily by the front door . He slowly got to his feet and opened the front door but was met by another voice .

"Hey . I'm not just a door I was a tree before . A very tall tree . So before you are free to walk out the door you must pay some more . You see that old chair the one over there , to her I was wed . My son is your bed . My daughters were the wood that you burnt so good . We were tree families ,so pay up if you please . You will never be free, now become a tree ."

A blinding flash from every corner of the house sent Toran spinning into the air and he was propelled about ten feet into the front yard where his feet became roots he started to turn into a small conifer tree . In seconds he stood there all alone and the snow began to fall . From the roof the house collapsed to the ground . It had demolished itself and instantly vanished into thin air .
All the was left was a conifer tree about six foot tall .

That evening a family were out in the wood looking for a Christmas tree .
They were in a horse drawn sleigh and by chance came to the place where once the sawmill had stood . A man with a huge saw got out of the sleigh and cut down the pine tree and threw it on the back of the sleigh .
That evening the small tree was decorated with tinsel and fairy lights . The tree had gifts underneath it and for a while there was a magic presence around the tree .

When Christmas was over the tree was burned .
It seemed strange but after that Christmas new trees began to shoot up all around the wood . In a few years a thick forest appeared as if from nowhere and people from all around the country came to walk through the woods .
Birds and creatures again began to inhabit the Glens and a gentle carpet of wild flowers spread itself all the way through the paths in the forest .
Life still remains peaceful in the wood where people like to go to this very day .

By Paul Mc Cann

THE END