Cayearthia

A young witch named Winnie started chopping down a small dead tree using an axe in the woods not far from where she lived. She hit it a few more times and noticed the tree was about to fall. “TIMBER!” she cried out giving the tree one final hit with the axe, she then ran out of the way as it began to tumbled down.

Another witch named Muriel had been sitting on a large rock nearby watching Winnie, jumped down from the rock and ran to Winnie’s side to avoid being struck by the tree. Birds flew off, reptiles ran or slithered away. The tree fell down with a thud on the rock that Muriel had been sitting on, cracking it in half. Muriel was relieved to know she didn’t get squashed by the tree.

“That was close!” Muriel commented as she looked at the tree leaning on the rock she was sitting on. “You need to be more careful, Winnie. I could’ve been squashed!” she added.

“I did call out timber and you got of the way in time. There’s no safe way chopping a tree down, Muriel” Winnie said as she returned to the tree with the axe still in her hand.

Winnie looked to the tree and looked at Muriel. “Muriel, could you please help me?”

“What doing?” Muriel wondered lazily as she sat down on the ground. She picked up a dead leaf nearby and started playing with it in her hands then gradually started to tear it into pieces. She repeated that with other leaves she saw around her.

“Could you please cut the tree into logs?” Winnie asked, wanting to have a bit of a break from chopping, after all it was hard work. She felt sweat dripping from her forehead onto her eye brow, she wiped it with her forearm.

“Wouldn’t it be easier to use our magic powers to turn the tree into logs and put them in the wheel-barrow?” Muriel suggested as she continued fiddling with leaves.

“We can’t use it in this area, Muriel. Nobody can use magic as it doesn’t work here and can you please help me fill the wheel-barrow?” Winnie said.

“Um, no. I can’t use the axe, I’m terrified of it” Muriel replied, as she crossed her legs as she continued to fiddle with leaves. “And I’m not able to do this kind of work” she added. Muriel thought chopping the tree into logs was going to be really difficult and time consuming. The thought of her getting splinters made her shudder.

“You say that all the time Muriel, with whatever we do for other clients and leave me for all the hard work and you’re the one who gets thanked for it” Winnie replied in anger. Winnie believed that pushing the wheel-barrow along was an easy job and didn’t realize that it was heavy to push when it was full of logs.

“But Winnie, I’m not a strong person which is why I can’t do the job. I can however, push the wheel-barrow and I’m unsure why people don’t thank you, they should. I’m sorry if this upsets you” Muriel said as she jumped onto the now broken rock with a bunch of leaves in her hands to fiddle with.

Winnie let out a sigh and started chopping the small fallen dead tree, making several logs out of it. She was annoyed with Muriel not wanting to help her, after all, she did ask Muriel the day before if she was interested in coming with her to the woods to help chop down the tree and turn it into firewood for a client, Muriel said she’d help out. It took Winnie at least three hours to finish chopping the tree, and when she did, it didn’t take long for her to put the logs into the wheel-barrow without Muriel’s help.

Winnie had just finished the job of putting the chopped logs in the wheel-barrow and wiped the sweat off her forehead. “I hope this pleases our client” Winnie said changing the subject.

Muriel jumped down ignoring what Winnie said about her doing nothing and threw the leaves onto the ground, then took hold of the wheel-barrow. “That was hard work, I’m exhausted. I’m sure it will please them. Well, shall we go?” Muriel said.

Winnie held onto the axe and looked around to ensure she hadn’t missed anything and smiled when she saw that they had everything. “Your exhausted? I did ALL the chopping and that’s the hardest part of the job and yes, we’ll go” she said. Winnie and Muriel left the woods to go to their client’s house which was a few hours away. Muriel wheeled the wheel-barrow while Winnie carried the axe.

Muriel was surprised by Winnie’s sudden outburst. “Well, yeah, I mean watching you was hard work. You could’ve asked me for some help” she said.

“I DID ask you earlier and YOU said you weren’t interested” an angry Winnie retorted.

“I did, did I? Well then, you wouldn’t have been grateful even IF I helped you” Muriel snapped back, after that comment, the two started bickering all the way to the client’s house.

When they got to their client’s house which was a hut, Muriel knocked on the door and stopped arguing with Winnie. “Ma’am, your fire-wood is ready” she called out while knocking then stopped.

Winnie stood next to Muriel and watched as the door opened a few minutes later an elderly lady gnome appeared with a smile on her face. “Thank you so much, Muriel. Here’s your money for it. This should keep us warm for the upcoming winter season” the lady only seemed to have noticed Muriel and didn’t see Winnie who was standing next to Muriel. Muriel thanked the lady gnome for the money and put it in her dress pocket. Winnie didn’t know that the lady gnome was blind in one eye and had short vision in the other so she could only see Muriel because of that.

Winnie noticed that the gnome lady didn’t thank her and was frustrated about it, considering she did what she was believed the hard part of the work.

“Would you like me to put the firewood inside for you?” Muriel offered thinking it would be heavy for the gnome to lift out. Muriel planned to use her magic to lift the logs into the hut, she wasn’t going to carry it and get splinters.

Winnie wondered if Muriel would have actually lifted the firewood or would she have used her magic if the gnome accepted her offer.

“Oh no thanks, darling. You’ve done enough already. My husband will do that instead” the lady gnome answered and yelled out for her husband who came as soon as he could. Winnie scoffed when the lady gnome said Muriel had done enough already.

Moments later, the wheel-barrow was emptied by the elderly male gnome, Muriel took hold of the wheel-barrow once more. The elderly gnome couple said a quick good-bye to Muriel, but not Winnie and hurried back inside their hut.

“Thank goodness that’s done! I’m beat” Muriel said as she walked with Winnie and wheeled the wheel-barrow.

“You’re beat? That will be hard to believe. I did all of the hard work, Muriel and all you did was just sat there then pushed the wheel-barrow” Winnie clenched her fists and yelled at Muriel in anger. She wanted to throw a punch at Muriel but figured it wasn’t worthwhile. She unclenched her fists and let out a sigh.

“I wheeled the wheel-barrow to the gnome’s house and did my fair share of work. All you did was chop down the tree and cut it into logs” Muriel said.

“Pushing the wheel-barrow is the easiest part of the job” Winnie said, believing it was light as a feather.

“No, it’s not! It was very heavy and the reason why I refused to help was because I am afraid of getting splinters and the wood is heavy” Muriel retorted angrily.

“Splinters? You’re afraid of getting splinters?! What a baby! Splinters are easy to get out. I have a few of them in my hands, and they don’t bother me. I’ll remove them when I get home and as for the wood being heavy, that’s a lie! It was a small dead tree” Winnie said and showed Muriel the splinters in one of her hands, she was holding the axe in the other hand.

“My skin is fair and sensitive” Muriel told her hoping to end this argument. “And I’m a weak witch.”

“You could have worn gloves. You knew we were going to the woods today” Winnie said.

“But that wouldn’t stop the logs from being heavy for me to carry over to the wheel-barrow!”

“You’re unbelievable, Muriel!” Winnie said in anger. “Whatever, I’m going home! I find it rude that that old gnome lady never thanked me for the work” she said.

“Didn’t you know she was blind in one eye and short sighted in the other?” Muriel asked in surprise.

Still feeling angry, Winnie believed that Muriel was making that up. “She is not and you’re a fibber!” Winnie yelled at her then tossed the axe into the wheel-barrow and took the wheel-barrow from Muriel and ran off home without another word.

Muriel shrugged; she knew the truth about the lady gnome they helped. Muriel walked back to her house, humming a tune to herself.

To be continued...