I am in a logging camp where I owe someone 5000 dollars. The camp is like a village. There is a hit man after me (my old boss, Fred, who hated me.) I know that if I’m caught he’ll take me to another man, who I envision as big & bald, who’ll beat & torture me, so I go to the bank machine (in the woods, yes) & take out 1300 dollars. Even though I have more than 5000 in the bank, for some reason I feel the need to leave most of it there, & risk getting off the hook with the 1300 if caught.

Later, at an outdoor vegetable market, I spot the hit man, & he spots me. I duck in & around the produce bins, weaving & bobbing, until he loses me & I escape. I am terrified of being caught. I sneak off into the woods & orchards as the sun is going down.

In the woods I find a young man, 20 years old at most, who says he can help me. He’s thin with long black hair. He brings me to a small bunch of trees that are planted in 4 or 5 rows, hidden in the middle of the woods & orchards. He says that they are blue pines, but they are small & bent & gnarled, not like blue pines at all. They have blue leaves & dark black trunks. He tells me the trees belong to someone else, but that he’ll help me log them—steal them—so that I can sell the wood to pay off my debt. He pulls the black branches down to eye level, twisting them over so we can see the undersides of the leafy boughs & I can determine their quality for myself. He thinks that these are great trees, & that he & I can get away with logging them in secret. I think to myself about how I should have just taken the money out of the bank...

Then there is a sudden sense of danger; there are black animals watching us from the woods. We see something big & dark slip into the bushes, & know that we have to leave. Maybe we can return once the animals have gone.