God is Very Near

God is Very near

fiction
edward w pritchard

A very old Indian is sitting in Southern Ohio in 1858 looking at a train travel across a strong White Man's bridge near where the Indian used to swim as a boy. As the powerful train rumbles by the Indian notices the slight barely perceptible movement of the pine trees as they move and lean ever so slightly toward the powerful passing train; the trees having learned over the last 10 years or more that the train burns and emits something that is beneficial to the trees. As the train roars off the Indian who is very perceptive notices that the shadow of the trees is now slightly changed following the passing of the train and the minuscule movement of the pine trees.

Later, a few days before he dies the Indian sees an eclipse of the moon at night while in deep reflection sitting at the same spot near the iron bridge where he had seen the train pass a few days before. As the eclipse ends and the moon returns to his view in the sky the Indian notices that the moon's light now has again barely perceptibly changed the shadow left by the trees, as visible to him sitting near the bridge.

The day that the Indian died, again sitting looking across at the bridge and at the spot where he strongly swam and swiftly ran as a boy the Indian notices three deer crossing the small river under the bridge walk past the pine trees. The deer enter the area of the field that had previously been marked by the pine tree's original shadow, originally visible to the Indian sitting by the bridge. The Indian watched the three deer as they walked on the original spot of the trees shadow, before the trees barely perceptibly moved toward the train, or before the change to the pine trees shadow following the eclipse. Suddenly, as the Indian watched, the deer began to run very fast and very powerfully until they disappeared from the old Indians sight up over the ridge and beyond the shadow of the pine trees.
End