Chapter 10: Falling for You

Before the Fall

Gee arrived to start shaking in the morning, only to find all his picking crews waiting for him. Around him, other shakers and their crews converged on the last remaining area of the forest to pick.

“We’ve got all little trees this morning, but there are a lot of them,” Jonathon said. “They shake fast, but the picking takes just as long, so all the crews will be working.”

“Your pickers are waiting for you, Gee. You’ve worked with over a hundred children this week and they all adore you,” Coretta added.

“I’ve scarcely had anything to do with the children,” Gee laughed. “I’m always in a tree and they are picking under the previous one.”

“Oh, but the shakers are the most inspiring people at Harvest. To see a big, strong man leap into the branches makes my heart flutter. I married my shaker,” Coretta said. “One of the couples being married today includes a shaker and her forester.” She giggled like a little girl. “It’s a wonder she ever waited for him!”

“Coretta!” Jonathon moaned. “This is embarrassing.”

“The first time Jonathon tried to be a shaker, he fell off his ladder,” Coretta explained. “Jessie stripped off his gear and put it on herself in a matter of seconds. He was still lying on the ground when she started knocking nuts out of the branches.”

“We kind of traded places,” Jonathon admitted. “Heights make me dizzy.”

“She might have been the wedding shaker today except that she can’t be up in the tree and get married at the same time,” Coretta laughed.

“Okay, so shall we get some trees picked?” Gee asked as he finished strapping his own gear on.

“Yes. The catchers are out spreading canvas under the trees as we speak and will be moving stepladders from tree to tree to stay ahead of you. One of the catchers will hold the ladder as you climb.”

“Anything else I should know about this that’s out of the ordinary?”

“Just be your usual fun and entertaining self,” Coretta said. “Anytime you call out to the kids, they’ll respond. Sing! Laugh! Knock the nuts out of those trees!”

And so he went to work.

Gee ran from tree to tree and ladder to ladder. He sang the songs they’d learned and called out encouragement to the kids who were laughing and picking as fast as they could. He made jokes with the parents, teachers, and foresters who surrounded this final section of orchard as they worked their way toward the wedding tree.

At noon, the last nut had fallen, and the kids, parents, foresters, foremen, catchers, and spectators cheered.

“And now we come to the last tree,” a voice said over a loudspeaker system near the wedding tree. Gee looked around and saw Jonathon’s father, David Lazorack, on a small platform just beyond the tree’s canopy. “The closing ceremonies here at the wedding tree will begin at one o’clock. Please abide by the rules and stay outside the roped area. We will resume in one hour.”

Karen met Gee at the foresters’ coordination tent.

“Look at you! You’re soaking wet!” Karen laughed. “Come in here, big strong shaker man.” She took his shirt and worked his wet undershirt over his head. Then she led him to a basin with warm water and began washing his chest.

“Karen, it’s uh ... You don’t have to ... uh ... I mean ... I can...” Gee stammered, his body involuntarily responding to Karen’s gentle washing.

“I can’t let you go out there and charge up your ladder looking all sweaty and bedraggled,” she giggled. “And I’m certainly not going to let any of the other volunteers wash your sweaty pits. Here, put this towel over your shoulders and lean over the basin so I can rinse your hair.” Karen laughed about Gee’s discomfort and told him she’d caught the last half hour of his shaking and it was no wonder that all the kids loved him. She let him towel dry.

“I couldn’t do this part,” she said, “but I brought you your mug and razor. Do you want to shave?” Gee looked at his reflection in the little mirror over the basin in the tent and stroked his chin.

“I guess I’d better. Just make sure no one comes bouncing into the tent while I have a razor at my throat, okay?”

Gee lathered and Karen held his belt while he stropped the razor. His practiced fingers made quick work of his stubble as Karen watched in fascination.

“And that’s why your face is always so silky smooth when I come to bed at night,” she whispered after Gee had rinsed the remaining soap off and dried his face. She stroked his cheek and closed in for a kiss. One hand stayed on his face while the other ran through the soft hair on his chest. Finally, she took a deep breath and stepped away from him.

“Here’s a clean shaker shirt and your hat. I’ll pack your Dopp kit.” He pulled on the shirt and smiled patiently at Karen as she buttoned it. He tucked it into his pants and returned his belt to its loops as Karen placed the hat on his head.

Gabe Truman, one of the older foresters, collected them and led Gee to the staging area to explain the process.

“I’ll see you after the ceremony,” Karen said. She gave him one more kiss on his smooth cheek and left to find her place in the crowd.

“Okay, so here’s how the order goes,” Gabe said. “David Lazorack will welcome everyone and do opening remarks. He’ll recognize the volunteers by group and then turn it over to Clark Cavanaugh. Clark will go through the numbers. How many tons of nuts, cords of deadwood, and expected board feet of lumber to be cut for this year’s Harvest. Jack LaCoe, who chairs the festival committee, will take up space for a few minutes and bluster about how this was the best festival ever and invite everyone to the parade tomorrow.”

“You don’t like Jack much,” Gee said matter-of-factly.

“He’s fine. But ... he’s an outsider. Married Gretchen Nussbaum and got into the Family, but he’ll always be an outsider.”

“Like me,” Gee said. The forester looked at Gee as though just realizing that he wasn’t born in Rosebud Falls. He pursed his lips as he considered this a while.

“You’re a strange one, that’s true,” Gabe said. “You’ve been in town around three months, but ... as far as anyone knows—including you—you were created whole that day you walked into Rosebud Falls. Then the Forest claimed you. Most people don’t know about the nut, but the foresters do. No one thinks you’re an outsider now. You wouldn’t be going up that tree today if they did.”

“There were ten foresters who didn’t vote for me,” Gee reminded him. The forester laughed.

“That’s all they told you? The ten who didn’t vote for you voted for Jessie Sims. They thought it would be a great joke to make her shake her own wedding tree.” They shared a laugh. “I’ve been a forester out here for forty years. We have our own sense of humor. Now, back to the ceremony. When LaCoe is done rambling, he’ll turn the show over to Judge Warren. The judge will call forward the couples to be married and their witnesses. ‘Do you? I do.’ That kind of thing.”

“I think Coretta is more excited about that than even Jessie and Jonathon.”

“She was married under a wedding tree close to sixty years ago,” Gabe laughed. “Once the couples all kiss, they’ll spread around the tree with big umbrellas over them. You’ll come running up the path, grab the rope on your shaker pole and climb up to the perch. Attach your flipline, just like usual, and pull your pole up. Your responsibility is the same as it was in the rest of the Forest. Be entertaining and shake the tree. Nuts will cascade down and bounce off the umbrellas. It’s the hickory blessing. After the cascade starts, others will open umbrellas and join the newlyweds under the tree. Just keep shaking and singing until the last nut falls. Now let’s check your harness and safety gear. You still need your goggles, gloves, harness, and flipline.”

The ceremony began. Clark finished his assessment of the year’s harvest. Jack LaCoe was mercifully short, simply welcoming all the tourists and inviting everyone back again next year. Judge Warren was introduced, and he called the wedding parties forward. While the couples and their witnesses moved into place, a bagpiper played somewhere deep in the Forest. Gee watched the simple but moving ceremony with a sense of joy for his friends.

“I now confirm the marriages of those here presented,” Judge Warren intoned. “Ladies and gentlemen, take your spouses to the wedding tree and open your umbrellas.”

As the couples fanned out around the tree, leaving a good space for Gee to approach his ladder, he tightened the chinstrap on his hat and ran toward the tree. Ten feet from the foot of the ladder, he did a front flip that landed him a step away. The crowd applauded his antic as he fastened the pull line for the shaker pole to his belt and began climbing. At the top of the heavy-duty extension ladder, Gee shifted to tree limbs and continued climbing to the place where Gabe had told him he would find secure limbs to rest on.

Gee tossed his flipline around the tree and fastened the carabiner to his safety harness. Turning to look away from the tree, he began hauling up the shaker pole. With the pole in hand he took one more look at the crowd below before yelling out, “A Hickory Wind is...”

Gee stopped short as his eyes locked on movement near the children who would gather the nuts. A man moved deliberately toward them and Gee saw Sally Ann just a few steps ahead of him.

“That’s him!” Gee yelled out. “Sally Ann! Behind you! Mead, arrest that man. It’s Reef!” There was a shift among the spectators in the direction Gee was pointing with his shaker pole, most wondering at the shaker’s unusual behavior. Foresters and police, however, were moving. Gee twisted again to keep his eye on the man and felt a sudden snap away from the tree as his flipline broke. Screams sounded all around the clearing as Gee hit his shaker pole, caught between two limbs halfway down the tree. He could feel his ribs crack as the pole gave way and flipped him over.

One-point-two seconds later, Gee hit the ground, fleetingly wishing he’d worn his hardhat.

After the Fall

Brother Reef underestimated the power of a child.

Sally Ann’s scream when she saw the ‘bad man’ riveted her classmates so they missed Gee’s spectacular fall from the tree.

“Get ‘im!” Sally Ann yelled at her classmates. Reef easily caught and restrained the fifty-pound dynamo when she launched herself at him, but when multiplied by thirty, he was quickly bowled over. By the time Mead and two foresters had reached the scene, Reef was crying out and pinned down by the second grade class. It took a blast from Coretta’s whistle and a shouted “Form up!” from Colleen Zimmer before the children backed off enough for Mead to cuff the man and turn him over to two uniformed policemen to transport to jail.

That was when Sally Ann noticed the ambulance wasn’t coming for the bad man, but that Gee was being loaded into the back, accompanied by a doctor and nurse.

“No! Gee!” cried the girl. She tried to run after the ambulance but was caught by her father.

“He’ll be okay,” Dale Metzger comforted his daughter. “We’ll go see him in the hospital. He just fell ... um ... coming to help you.”

“I want to see Gee!”

“Honey, I’m sure he’s very proud of you,” Ruth Ann said. “Though that was a very foolish thing for you to do.”

“Come on,” Dale said, “We’ll have to go back to the school to get our car and then we’ll head to the hospital. We need to sign you out with your teacher.”

Jonathon and Jessie were closest to Gee’s fallen body and rushed to his aid, yelling for a medical team. With a crowd like this, EMTs were only a minute away, fighting their way through the panicking crowd. They strapped Gee to a backboard and the crowds parted. Dr. Poltanys and his nurse sister, Julia, intercepted the EMTs at the ambulance. They rode with Gee as the ambulance sirens screamed to clear a path out of the Forest.

“Let me through!” Karen screamed. “That’s my fiancé!” People near her in the unyielding crowd finally turned and tried to clear a path to the scene, but by the time Karen got through, the EMTs had already moved him to the ambulance. Like Sally Ann, Karen ran after the wailing siren.

Strong arms grabbed Karen as she stumbled—Jessie on one side and Wayne Savage supporting her on the other.

“I have to get to the hospital,” Karen cried. “I have to see him.”

“This way,” Jessie said, leading her past the tree in the opposite direction.

David Lazorack, without any equipment, was already at the top of the ladder and swinging to the first limb.

“Dad! Get equipment and a spotter!” Jonathon yelled.

“Go!” his father yelled back. “Gabe is on his way. That flipline was cut, it didn’t break. I’m going to find out what cut it.” Gabe, the old forester who had helped Gee prepare for the ceremony, raced across the clearing and hit the bottom rung of the ladder with a spring that belied his age.

“I’ve got this,” Gabe yelled as he climbed to meet David with safety gear. They roped themselves together and climbed. Jonathon pulled up in a golf cart and Jessie seated Karen in it.

“What’s going on?” Karen cried. “I have to get to the hospital!”

“We had this waiting to take us through the Forest to our car,” Jessie said. Wayne steadied Karen in the back as the cart lurched forward. “It will be faster to go through the Forest to our car than to get through the crowd.”

Karen could only sob as Wayne held her, the image of Gee falling from the tree seared into her brain. It seemed to take forever.

Jonathon had to pull over for the flashing lights of a police car while he was still two blocks from the hospital. Karen recognized Detective Oliver’s car with Judge Warren riding shotgun as it sped by. Jonathon was upset and frustrated when he was directed away from the emergency access by a uniformed policeman.

“Unless you are bleeding, you need to go to the parking lot,” the officer shouted. “We can’t get another vehicle into the drive here.” The emergency room entrance was blocked by vehicles with flashing lights crowded into the access area. Jonathon pulled up in the adjoining parking lot as close as he could get and waved his passengers out of the car while he went to park it. Jessie and Wayne supported a stumbling and crying Karen as they rushed toward the emergency room doors.

Inside, the hospital was almost as chaotic as outside, though no one seemed to be injured. Judge Warren and Mead Oliver were standing near the door into the heart of the emergency room arguing with a nurse who stubbornly refused them access. Sheriff Johnson pushed his way through the doors behind Karen and rushed to join Mead and the judge. Karen frantically tried to get the attention of the receptionist as another officer came out of the emergency room.

“He’s dead,” the officer flatly addressed the detective.

“No!” Karen screamed. Wayne and Jessie caught her as she collapsed between them.

“How could you let that happen?” Mead yelled at the police officer.

“What the hell?” Warren said at the same time as he looked over toward Karen. An emergency light flashed over the door as Nurse Ellie rushed through and over to the unconscious woman.

“You were there when we put him in the car, Detective,” Officer McCarran said. “I was on my way to the station when I saw him go into convulsions in the back seat. That’s when I radioed for backup and changed course for the hospital. As soon as Officer Jacobs arrived we opened the back and got the prisoner onto a cart. Dr. Gaston was here on duty and pronounced him DOA as soon as we got into the emergency room.”

Judge Warren spun away from the police and strode across the room to where Ellie was holding a glass of water to Karen’s lips.

“Dead? No! He can’t be dead!” Karen wailed as she regained consciousness.

“Karen! Karen, listen to me!” Judge Warren was kneeling over her as Ellie tried to grasp what was happening. “It wasn’t Gee! It was the prisoner who died. Karen, listen. Gee is all right,” Warren pled. Then he looked at Ellie. “Isn’t he?”

“Gee is in surgery with Dr. Poltanys,” Ellie said. “Julia is assisting him.”

“Surgery?” Warren asked.

“I can’t say much, but the doctor had to cut his chest to pull a broken rib away from his lung,” Ellie said.

“I need to go to him. I need to be with him,” Karen pled.

“I can’t get you into surgery, Karen,” Ellie said. “I don’t know if you can even be admitted to the recovery room.”

“Karen has Gee’s medical power of attorney,” Jack LaCoe said as he paused inside the door. He caught the exchange and addressed both the judge and nurse. “That is as close to next of kin as we can get and should be all that’s necessary to get her in to see Gee as soon as possible.”

“Good. Drink some water and sit, Karen,” Ellie said. “If you feel faint again, put your head between your knees. We’ll get you to the recovery room as soon as Gee is out. I’m being beeped by Dr. Gaston. I need to go.” Wayne helped Karen to a seat while Jessie got a bottle of water from the vending machine. Jonathon came into the waiting room and spotted them.

“What a mess out there. Even after I parked, they started stopping everyone coming into the emergency room to verify there was a reason to be here. It looks like half the town is out there. I even saw the little girl who spotted Reef earlier in the week. She’s crying like crazy, but the police won’t let them through.”

“Ms. Weisman, I’m sorry I blurted out the words I did without looking to see who might hear me,” Officer McCarran said as he came up to the little group. “I hope you are aware by now that Gee is in surgery and it was the suspect who died. I apologize for causing you unnecessary stress.”

“You’re forgiven,” Karen struggled to say. “Thank you.”

“If there is anything I can do...”

“Yes. There is,” Karen said rapidly. “There is a distraught little girl and her parents out there. Her name is Sally Ann Metzger. Please go out and reassure her that Gee is all right. If you can get her family in here, that would be appreciated. I know Gee will want to see her.”

“Karen, you have enough to deal with. Let us handle the little things,” Jack said. “I’ll make sure the Metzgers are treated well. Gretchen will stay here with you to run interference. Gee will be okay.”

“He will be. Won’t he?” Karen was still babbling and looking for assurance. “I’ll die if he isn’t okay.”

“Thank you for getting me here so quickly,” Karen said to Jonathon and Jessie. “Um ... You should go and um ... start your honeymoon.”

“Oh, we started last night,” Jessie giggled. Jonathon turned red. “We can wait for round two until we know for sure how Gee is.”

“Waiting is always the hardest part,” Wayne agreed. Jonathon’s phone buzzed and his face lost color. He spun to locate Mead talking to the Judge and a doctor and rapidly crossed the waiting room to him.

“Dr. Gaston, as our county medical examiner, I want you to get an autopsy underway immediately,” Judge Warren said.

“We don’t have any family information for permission,” Mead protested.

“I’ll have a court order drawn up as soon as I get to the office,” Warren said.

“I can tell you what we’re going to find,” Dr. Gaston said. “Ruptured organs. Appendix for sure.”

“Jacques, get the body down to the morgue and document everything, but keep it under wraps. All information regarding the cause of death is to be suppressed.”

“Detective Oliver,” Jonathon said. The men turned sharply to him.

“Not a word of this to anyone, Jonathon,” the judge snapped. Gaston turned and headed back into the emergency room.

“No, sir. I didn’t hear a thing. But my father just sent me pictures from the tree. Gee’s flipline was cut. Falling wasn’t an accident.” Jonathon held out his phone with the pictures his father had just sent. “That’s a fifteen-inch sharpened blade you see in this picture. Dad says Gabe got cut on it when he reached around the tree with the line and they suspect there was a drug on it. Gabe is woozy and they’re bringing him here.”

“Tell Gaston to put the perp on ice and get back up here ready to receive another injury,” Warren snapped at the overwhelmed receptionist.

“Gee must have tossed his flipline around the tree and fastened it without ever knowing it was against a blade. After all the thrashing around he did up there pulling up his shaker pole and then pointing out that bastard, the line was severed enough to break,” Jonathon concluded.

“I’ll need to get someone up there to collect the blade as evidence,” Mead said. “Damn it, I don’t have enough officers!”

“Get backup from Sheriff Johnson,” Warren said. “Also release word that this Brother Reef was wanted on suspicion of attempted kidnapping and two counts of attempted murder. There is no newspaper until Tuesday, but if you put it out on the police blotter, there will be plenty of busybodies listening to get the word out.”

“Ah, the reception committee or fan club?” Dr. Poltanys said as he stepped into the waiting room after finishing with Gee. Gabe Truman had already been taken into an examining room by Dr. Gaston.

“How is he? Is he awake? Can I see him now?” Karen said. She started to step around the doctor but he held up a hand to delay her.

“He’s in recovery. You’ll be able to wait in his room and I expect he’ll be there in about fifteen or twenty minutes. Julia will show you where. I’ve never had so many nurses competing to tend to a patient. I think my mother is even hovering around recovery.”

“So, what’s the prognosis?” Warren asked.

“Gee has two cracked and one badly broken rib, a dislocated shoulder and bruises over most of his body. After x-rays, we moved immediately to surgery because the broken rib was impinging on his right lung. I was afraid any shift would cause a puncture if I didn’t go in and set it. Now that it is set and wired in place, all we can do is let it heal. I also managed to put the shoulder back in place. Apparently, he tried to break his fall by keeping hold of the pole and the force pulled the ball out of the socket. It probably saved his life. If he’d fallen the full seventy feet without anything to break the fall he’d have ended up much the same as your grandfather did, Jonathon.”

“Any damage to his head?” Judge Warren asked. Poltanys let out an uncharacteristic laugh.

“With Gee, how can you tell?” There were several unsuppressed titters. “He seems his same old self. He was awake during x-rays. He looked at me and said, ‘The first thing I remember is seeing the Pub and Grub.’ I think he was trying to be funny.”

“May I go see him now?” Karen pled.

“Go to recovery and Julia will tell you when. I need to look in on Dr. Gaston and the other injury now. I understand we lost one.”

“Not a great loss,” Judge Warren said. “Gaston will tell you about it.”

Recovery

There had been a long line of well-wishers, who had been limited to three or four at a time and for only five minutes each. At least one representative of each Family had come to deliver their Family’s get well wishes. Ellie and Julia took turns controlling the stream of visitors and no one was allowed to stay longer than the nurses would permit. Jonathon and Jessie were the first to come by his room.

“You should be off on your honeymoon!” Gee said. His friends hugged each other.

“It’s not like we’re leaving town. We’ll do that after the parade tomorrow,” Jonathon said.

“We have a special place we’re going in the Forest tonight,” Jessie said, looking up at her new husband adoringly. “The perfect place to start our family.”

“Jessie!” Jonathon hissed. It was apparent that Jessie could get Jonathon to blush every bit as easily as her grandmother could. The red in his face began to subside when he turned back to Gee. “We brought you this. It was supposed to be presented after the shaking and we had it on our cart. I told you there were rewards to be had in the Forest.” Jonathon held out a rod of polished hickory, five feet long. “You picked this up in the Forest the first day I met you. I had it made up into a walking stick by Luke Zimmer. It might not be the exact same stick, but it’s the thought that counts. Traditionally, the wedding shaker receives a gift from the married couples and we all agreed to give you this.”