The Weathervane

Chapter III - Adjusting

I lose track of the days, they go by so fast.  I miss my family and want to go home, but Enoch is a constant reminder of what is going on in his world.  I want to give up, but I look at him, eager to teach me and I involve myself in the activity.  I lose myself in the grueling workouts and training sessions.  Although there aren’t any horses, he still trains me in the rudiments of horse-back riding.  He gets a saddle from the cabin and we scout out a fallen tree, big enough to be horse-like.  He teaches me how to use the reins and what to do if it tries to buck me. 

We swim often and race from lake-end to lake-end.  At first, he beats me by twenty to thirty feet, but I slowly gain on him, sometimes I am only ten feet behind.  Racing is where I shine, we race everyday and, soon enough, I beat him.  Sometimes, though, he plays dirty tricks, like appearing in front of me so that he will win. 

“Today, you are going to watch me put together a fishing pole.  I want you to try to make one.  If you can’t get it at first, don’t worry, we have plenty of time.  Come, we will fish the lake before we swim today, that way they are not yet disturbed by our swimming.” 

He walks out the door while speaking and heads down the trail past the outhouse.  We walk deeper into the forest into a grove of young trees. 

“Find a young tree that can bend far without breaking, make sure that it can bend fast, but bend it slowly at first, then fast, to see if it can stand to be bent.  If it snaps, just put down the branch and find a different-looking tree.  Also, look for the straightest branches that you can find, the straighter the better.  When you find a good one, follow it down to where it connects to the tree and cut it off there, alright?”  

“Straight branches that bend without breaking, got it?”  I walk away, looking first for straight branches, I find one, it looks like a young pine tree.  Taking the branch I bend it slowly at first, but it splinters and breaks.  I leave it and look for another tree with a long straight branch.  Taking the branch, I bend it down and let go, it doesn’t break.  Taking the tip, I jerk it suddenly down.  It bends down and does not break, nor does it splinter.  I am satisfied with the branch.  Running my hand down the branch, I find where it connects to the main tree and carefully I pull down on the branch, cutting it where it joins the trunk.  I strip all the little branches and leaves off.  I try to locate Enoch and find him pulling a branch out of a bunch of young sapling that grew together.  He turns and looks at me.  Nodding, he starts back towards the cabin.  We take the turn in the trail that leads to the lake.  Silently we tread through the forest.  I walk behind, trying to walk in his boot prints.  We reach the lake and he stops a few yards from it.  Sitting down he takes a knife from his pocket and starts to carefully strip the bark from the branch, which is white underneath.  I follow suit and soon we have two white fishing poles.  He takes a large needle and carefully pokes a hole into the middle of the tip of the rod. 

“Only woods such as Greenheart, Hickory, Ironwood, Lancewood, and Bamboo are good trees to make poles from.  The others are not as fine, nor as flexible for making fishing rods.  Greenheart is not here in your country, it grows in Venezuela.  Ironwood is not found here either; it only grows in the Sonoran Desert.  Lancewood is found in Florida and farther south as well.  Bamboo used to be grown only in the Asian countries, but many people brought it to your country.  Now you can find it almost anywhere.  I doubt you can find it in Montana though, unless it was in someone’s front yard.  It looks like we both have hickory.  It is a fine wood.” 

“Hey, how come you know so much about the history of trees if you don’t come from here?  How are you able to tell me all about the different types of trees and the different types of animals?  Do you even have the same trees there as we have here?” 

“No, all of our trees are different, they have different names.  My world is different from yours, you will see.  However, to answer your question of how I know all this information, well I have been living here about three years, we were waiting for you to be ready, we also needed this cabin, the van, and the money for everything.  We have contacts here, but not everything was ready for us, we came through a Weathervane three years ago so that we would be ready by the time we had to get you.  We are actually earlier than our schedule.  We are doing three months more training here then we thought we would have.  Peter knew when you would be ready mentally for this trial, but we thought we would be behind schedule, so we took a Weathervane as soon as we could.”