Tree of Contention

Jerry didn't notice the tree right away. He bought the house mid-winter, when the oak, hickory, and sweetgum were bare of leaves, and all looked dead.

His first improvement involved the property markers on the corners of his lot. They were something of an eyesore. Each was a rough, wooden stake stapled with pink ribbon that caught the breeze. These went into the trash.

Spring brought new foliage - except for a sixty-foot hickory. It proved to be black and rotting. At its base, the trunk was thick as a man's chest. Most of the branches had snapped off, their ends splintered. Bare of bark, pockmarked and weathered, it looked like a massive piece of driftwood rammed into the earth. Each day, woodpeckers hammered on it well into the afternoon.

It stood against the fence in his next-door-neighbor's backyard. If it should fall just right, it would slice through the ridgeline of Jerry's new home.

Jerry hailed his neighbor. "We need to talk about your tree." He pointed out the obvious danger.

Sam shrugged. "You can cut it down."

Jerry was flabbergasted. "Me? It's YOUR tree and it could fall on MY house."

Sam shook his head. "You own the fence and the tree. They're inside your property line."

"The tree is on your side! And I need you to cut it down."

"You should hire somebody. They can use my yard if they need to."

Jerry stalked off. He called a tree service for an estimate. Seven hundred dollars!

He phoned his insurance company. Nothing they could do. If the tree damaged his home, his insurance - not Sam's - would pay the claim. And then his rates would go up!

The remnants of Hurricane Ivan were approaching. Even as far as they were from the coast, predictions placed wind speeds at eighty miles an hour. Sam's family hung a poster from their carport. "PRAY OUR NEIGHBOR'S TREE DOESN'T FALL ON US!"

Ivan came and went, uprooting trees, taking down power lines. The hickory remained, though not completely undamaged. Two of its limbs, thick as a man's thigh, crashed into Jerry's yard. If they hadn't been so big and heavy, he would have tossed them over the fence. So instead, he bought a chainsaw.

Jerry had had enough. He paid three hundred dollars for a land survey, and gave instructions to resolve ownership of the tree. He'd PROVE it was on Sam's property!

The stakes reappeared.

Jerry ended up paying another nine hundred to cut down his tree. The tree service offered Sam a hundred for use of his yard.

Learn more about this author, Charles Hightower.
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