The History Tree

By B J Le Chêne

Padraig Ryan is a man in the prime of his life. A May/December marriage with four young children brings him great joy. He is the owner of an iconic tree growing on land that is some of the best Tasmania can offer. He is popular with his friends and respected by his neighbours. His life is full until a severe windstorm leaves what he believes to be the heart of his life in danger. He must make a decision that antagonizes almost everyone he calls friend and, as if that is not enough, his much-loved daughters turn his carefully built life on its axis.

A lie is never small. It takes many years before Bridget realizes the full import of her small one word lie. The family is left to struggle with the after-effects.

• Language: English
• Publisher: B J Le Chêne
• Release date: Sep 16, 2015
• ISBN: 9780994431318

B J Le Chêne

B.J. Le Chene was born in Tasmania, Australia. After marriage B.J. lived in south-east Asia and began making stained glass windows and concrete and clay sculptures. A fun commission was the creation of a friesian cow and calf for the Dutch Lady Milk Company and B. J. is gratified to find them still standing after forty years. Other commissions included concrete bas-reliefs of Malaysia's first Prime Minister and of doctors including Sigmund Freud and Harvey Cushing, the father of neurosurgery. Watching a black and white film of Dr. Cushing operating, the only image available, was a challenge in itself. This work was for the General Hospital in Kuala Lumpur. B.J. also made busts of children and various other pieces in glass and taught ceramics at the Mara Institute of Art (now Mara University) for three years. When B.J.’s spouse became bound by work to one spot, B.J. opened a stained glass studio and followed personal inspiration in creating artwork.On retirement they returned to settle in Melbourne to enjoy their five grandchildren. B.J. found the Boroondara Writers Group and life as a retiree took a new direction. Never having written more than students’ notes and articles for various art magazines, the joys of fiction came to have a whole new meaning.B.J. summers in Melbourne and winters in south-east Asia.

Book preview

The History Tree

B.J. Le Chêne

Copyright © B. J. Le Chêne 2015

B. J. Le Chene asserts the moral right

to be identified as the author of this work

Published by Taylor Publishing

31 Mayston St, Hawthorn East, VIC 3124 Australia

Distributed by Smashwords

This story is a work of fiction. All characters, events

and locations have come from the author’s imagination.

Any resemblance to actual people, places or incidents

is purely coincidental.

ISBN: 978-0-9944313-1-8

Padraig Ryan is a man in the prime of his life. A May/December marriage with four young children brings him great joy. He is the owner of an iconic tree growing on land that is some of the best Tasmania can offer. He is popular with his friends and respected by his neighbours. His life is full until a severe windstorm leaves what he believes to be the heart of his life in danger. He must make a decision that antagonizes almost everyone he calls friend and, as if that is not enough, his much-loved daughters turn his carefully built life on its axis.

A lie is never small. It takes many years before Bridget realizes the full import of her small one word lie. The family is left to struggle with the after-effects.

For L, S and S

with love

CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

CHAPTER 1

1936

Padraig stood in the paddock well outside the entrance to the stables. The large rectangle of beautiful, old sandstone buildings glowed softly golden in the early afternoon light but they were dwarfed by the tree which stood in the centre of the space they made. Paddy tried to take in the gigantic height and the grandeur of the tree – he needed to capture its image in his mind, an image that must last for the rest of his life.

Eucalyptus regnans or mountain ash trees don’t live as long as some other species of giant trees, but they do live for about four hundred years. Paddy could only see the whole of his tree from a distance. With this tree reaching three hundred and sixty-two feet high, he needed at least three times that height between him and it, to see the whole of it from ground level. As he walked slowly forward, his sight line gradually diminished until the full splendour of it was lost. Drawing nearer he saw the middle of its trunk smooth and round; straight as a telegraph pole. The trunk was covered in bark up to about twenty feet and as he got closer Paddy could easily read the many engravings cut through the bark and deep into its flesh at eye level. It was a marvellous thing to behold.

‘God,’ he wondered, ‘what has this tree seen over its four hundred year lifetime? What could compare with its height and majesty today? The Statue of Liberty perhaps? No; no, it is half again as tall as that.’ His family had known it for only one hundred of those years. Certainly it had watched over them and the folk of the valley since 1810. More than watched, it had become an integral part of their lives. They had no fancy names for this giant, they had simply called it the History Tree.

He moved closer and ran his hands over the carved bark, feeling the dates and names, 1917, his parents, 1918, his first wife Molly and his boy James. While the tree lived, so did they. But, that was the trouble, the tree was dying.

As he stroked Molly’s name he saw her in his mind; small, gentle, serene. She had been a moonbeam girl. His love for her had been gentle as well. He sighed, so unlike the raging passion his second wife Kate elicited in him. He shook his head.

Molly’s son, James, had been like her, but their daughter, Tessa? Well, he still had Tessa, but though she was so like her mother in form, she had his own emotional, fiery temperament. He leaned his head against Molly’s name. He still missed her sorely. To fell the tree would be to cut the last link he had with her. He