Page 86 of Peaks and Promises

I smiled back. “Let’s go.”

We walked past the shop and into the trees. My parents’ property extended well beyond the house, and the guy who owned the next parcel had never minded if we tromped around on his land.

The ground sloped downward then rose again. A hint of pine hung in the air, and a few squirrels darted away at our footsteps. Fir trees were scattered among the pines, but the undergrowth was sparse, giving us plenty of room to walk. We passed the dilapidated remains of a fort my brothers and I had built. All that was left were a few weathered boards and a warped piece of plywood.

Finally, I found what I’d been looking for. A fallen tree lay on the ground, its bark a dull gray.

“Why did it fall?” Nate asked.

“Not sure. Probably wind, but it might have had a poor root system to begin with.”

“Are we gonna chop it up?”

“We’re gonna use it as practice.”

I pulled the safety glasses out of my pocket, handed a pair to Nate, and put the other ones on. He slipped the glasses on and turned his head from side to side, as if testing them out. Fortunately, they fit.

I took the sheaths off both axe blades and set them aside. “Hold the axe like this.” I demonstrated, putting my left hand just above the swell at the end of the handle and my right closer to the blade. “Your left hand will stay firm and your right will slide down when you swing.”

“Like this?” he asked, mimicking my grip.

“You got it. Remember, that blade is sharp. You need to stay aware of your surroundings. Know what’s behind you, to your sides, and in front, especially if there are other people around.”

He took a big step away from me, parallel to the log.

“Good. Watch me first. On the upward swing, your hands are apart, and you lift the axe like this. Then swing downward and let your right hand slide down the handle toward your left.” I sunk the axe into the log to demonstrate. “Don’t worry too much about how hard you hit it. Just work on your technique.”

I watched while he took a swing. The blade bit into the bark.

“That was good. Keep going, but reset in between. Take your time.”

He took more swings with varying degrees of success. A bit of bark chipped off, and after a few tries, he was able to put some power into it. I waited until he started breathing harder before telling him to stop.

“You’re learning quickly,” I said. “I think it took me longer to get it.”

“Did your dad teach you?”

“Sure did.” I paused. “Listen, chief, there’s something I need to talk to you about.”

He gave me a wary glance. “Am I in trouble?”

I grinned. “I don’t think so. Should you be in trouble?”

“No. But you sound serious.”

“Yeah, this is serious.”

I took the axe from him and sunk them both into the trunk. Then I sat, and Nate did the same. I hadn’t brought him out there to talk about me, but my gut told me he needed to know. And he needed to hear it from me first.

“You know how Axel is in a motorcycle club?”

He nodded.

“I used to be in one, too. I’m not proud of that. But it was a long time ago, and I got out. Getting involved in the first place was a mistake. But I made a lot of mistakes back then. Some of them were pretty big.”

“So you were like, a bad guy?”

“I was.”