It was mid-morning on a Friday so the place wasn’t exactly packed. The man running it was sitting on a fold out deck chair.
“Good morning! Need any help?”
“Nah, I’ll have a wander,” I said, smiling.
He went back to reading the paperback he was holding.
I walked around the lot, enjoying the crisp morning air and the smell of pine.There were so many different ones on offer, some short, some very, very tall.
I should have measured the height of the ceiling, I realised, too late now.
Instead, I let my choice be directed by intuition. My heart would find me the right one.
Sure enough, I found the most beautiful tree on my second tour around the offerings. It wasn’t perfect, in fact, it was a bit lopsided, but the branches were fluffy with needles and it was a pleasingly dark green colour.
It was a little taller than me, and not overly spread at the base. It should fit in the corner of the room nicely.
“You’re coming with me,” I murmured to the tree, then went to make my purchase.
“Nice tree,” the guy said, when we went over to look at it together. He was wearing a fleece-lined vest with the name tagMickeyon it.
“I’m only like, a block and a half that way.”I jabbed my thumb back in the general direction. Although now I considered it, I didn’t really want pine needles sticking into my neck for the entire walk.
“I’ll carry it for you.” Mickey said. “I cut all these trees down, I can handle it. Besides, it’s not like I’m packed with customers right now.”
We both looked around the lot, it was empty aside from the trees.
“Oh and I’ll need one of those stand thingies for it. I don’t think we have a bucket...”
“Bucket won’t counterbalance the weight right.” Mickey stood and grabbed a wrought iron tree stand from the back of his truck. “It’s an extra twenty for this but you only ever need to buy one.”
Now that he’d stood up and I could see the size of the muscles under the man’s plaid shirt I could easily believe Mickey could carry a tree for miles. I also thought he was probably undercharging for the tree stand, it looked homemade and quite beautiful.
“Extra twenty is fine, and yes, delivery would be awesome.” I paid for the tree and stand, and passed the guy an extra twenty on top. “For the delivery.”
He pocketed it without checking, wrapped the tree and hauled it onto his shoulder. “Lead the way.”
We made small talk on the way. I told him about recording music and Mickey told me about his farm, out of town. “Half forest, half Alpaca.”
“Alpaca? They’re like llamas, right?”
“Kinda, but they’re cuter and their wool is pretty valuable. They’re sweet.” Mickey smiled. The way he talked seemed to entirely contradict the tough lumberjack exterior. I found myself liking the guy.
“You alone out there?”
Mickey nodded. “Yeah, my last partner took off after a month, farm life didn’t agree with them, even though as farms go it’s pretty low maintenance. That was more’n a year ago now.”
Mickey brought the tree up the stairs and helped me get it set up in the tree holder. He even showed me the correct amount of water that should be in the base to keep it looking fresh.
“Thanks, you truly went above and beyond.” I passed him another tip as we shook hands.
“Thanks, appreciate it.”
With Mickey gone, I was left with a beautiful, bare tree half-filling the living room. My online order wouldn’t arrive for at least another day, but I couldn’t quite handle leaving it bare.
I could text Dillon and ask him where he kept his Christmas decorations, but I really wanted this to be a surprise.
Snooping around, I found some construction paper... Ma had taught me how to make Christmas angels out of paper when I was a kid. Time to re-remember.
