Chapter Three Sample

The tips of my fingers trace the spherical pattern of rings across the top of the stump as I wait for Soren to return. Toom says the rings inside a tree trunk will reveal the age of the tree that stood atop it, if you have the patience to count them. ... The number of rings had been tallied long ago, by Soren and I, when he was three and I was teaching him how to count, but until today, I never thought about the significance of it all. Before today, they were just rings on a tree marking the passing of cycles. In reality this tree had been guardian of the past, keeper of memories and secrets, but this guardian was finished watching the day it was taken for fuel and lumber. As a seed, the tree didn't decide where to be planted. As a sapling, it didn't decide how it would grow or what its role in life would be or when it would end. Maybe that's the way my life is suppose to be, someone else deciding my fate.