The Mechanic - a fable in six parts - Grand Finale
He pried
loose the tool and found another tree, one that looked about to topple, and
plied that with the axe until the tree fell to the ground. Then he cut the felled tree into similarly-sized
portions and stacked the wood against the cabin.
The repetition of axing and
stacking soothed him; it was nice to have a routine again. It was nice to
create a routine for himself, rather than being handed a set of instructions, with no team members to monitor for glitches. A Manager? No, a Woodsman. A surge of energy welled up in him, the way he'd
felt when his team had won awards. He decided to walk back to the
road - to see with fresh ocular input what, in concrete terms, had led him to
this moment.
In his fascination with new
perspective, the Woodsman didn't think to put down his axe but carried it with him. The
sun was brighter as the woods became sparse next to the gravel road. He could see
across the marsh, but the paved factory street was too distant to be visible
from here. He thought it a good idea to make this walk part of his daily schedule.
"Uh, excuse me?" A
voice emanated from the woods nearby. The Woodsman turned in that direction; a
human appeared. "Hey, sorry,
I've been hiking and got turned around."
"Hiking?" said the Woodsman. The human was looking at him strangely; the Woodsman thought he should offer a
greeting. He'd never addressed a human before. "Hello," he said.
"Hi, I'm Matt. Hey, are you
a robot? You got an axe...hey. Are you that robot?" The
human showed signs of indecision.
The Woodsman looked down; he was
still holding the axe. He looked back at the human. He needed to soothe Matt,
somehow.
"I'm a Woodsman," he
said. "Are you trying to find the factory street?"
"Oh. Yeah, yeah, that would
be great." Matt seemed to be soothed. The Woodsman thought it best to give
direction; he wanted to go back to his cabin undisturbed. He stepped out onto
the gravel road.
"Matt, if you go this
way," and he pointed with the axe, "you will need to cross the marsh.
Some of it is liquid and will get into your joints. But you proceed forward
continually, and the paved road to the factories will present itself." He
stepped back onto the dirt path which led into the woods, and motioned that Matt
should take the gravel.
"Hey, thanks, man, I
appreciate you. Hey, what's your name?" Matt held out his hand toward the Woodsman,
something the managers had done. The Woodsman knew he should grasp with his
hand in return, so he did.
"Leonardo." And he
turned into the woods for home.
Very nice finish!
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