Sometimes We Get What We Want

A single golden maple leaf rose on the wind twisting reflected sunlit flickers from her polished upper side, dancing in wind flung ecstasy of autumnal flight. Rising to disappear over the rooftop to wherever gusts took her. I watched from the bubbling hot tub, soaking in the massaging waters and almost feeling the leaf's freedom. Yesterday morning a friend left on just such a breeze. It had taken almost 40 days in hospital to lighten his soul for the ride. There will be no services. He will be cremated. His ashes will rest on the bar in his cellar throughout his annual Christmas celebration. This is what he wanted. Sometimes we get what we want. Several years back he'd had a small furniture business, bookshelves, tables, benches, that sort of thing. He'd also finished unfinished furniture for a company if their customers asked for it. at the time I was carving figures, birds, dragons, fish, whatever the grain led me to find in odd pieces of wood. "Take any piece that's on the floor" he'd said. I'd pointed to a four by twelve standing on end about four feet high. He'd laughed and turned it around. It was rotted and eaten away by ants or termites so that the knots stood out in odd dimensions. "I'll take it " I'd said seeing something that may be done with it. A week later I brought it back and we dipped it into his stain tank. He looked at it as it rose from the tank and almost dropped it back in. I'd carved the last supper on it, following the grain and using the knots as flagons or people depending on their location. The bottom of the board had been intact making the table the easiest to carve. The ants had done eighty percent of the work. I gave it to a friend who said he knew a priest who'd love it. I found out later his nephew got it. Sometimes we get what we want