Natalie's Grove [Paperback]

Mikal Trimm (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 13, 2004

It's love at first sight when Mason meets Natalie. As they begin spending more and more time together, Natalie finally takes him to the woods to show off her secret place... a grove where the trees sing to her. But Mason hears a discordant note in the melody.. and his life begins to fall apart.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Mikal Trimm's stories and poems have appeared in several publications, including SAY..., Gothic.net, Star*Line, Andromeda Spaceways Interflight Magazine, and NFG. He is also an editor for the online speculative fiction magazine Ideomancer.

He lives with his wife and two daughters in a small town on the outskirts of Austin, Texas, where the trees have only managed to attack with allergens. So far...

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

It stood apart from the rest of the woods, as if it had priority over the more common flora. Seven trees, clustered in a ragged semi-circle around a small clearing. I'd never seen trees like them before. They resembled willows; they had that same mournful quality, that sense of unknowable tragedy, but their bark was almost completely smooth, fleshy. They looked resilient but spongy, as if you could press your hands into the trunks and leave a momentary impression. They were sad and beautiful, like ghosts of long-dead lovers.

Natalie's eyes were wet, shining. "Listen."

I stood very still, trying to hear whatever it was she heard, registering only the wind whispering through the leaves, almost like voices. Then I realized how completely still it was. No breeze shook the branches; they were motionless, surrounded by dead air. Still I heard the sounds, the voices of the trees, an endless conversation of limb and leaf.

"Listen," Natalie repeated, and I watched her as she entered the small bowl of ground guarded by the seven trees, watched as she slowly sank to her knees and closed her eyes. And, listening, I heard the song.

It started as soon as she'd taken her place in their midst; the whispering changed, gathered itself into an orchestrated whole, rose in volume and pitch as it became a music too incredible for any words to describe, too painfully honest for man to create. It was the sound of pure love, pouring out from the heart of the grove. Natalie's grove.

Product Details

• Paperback: 32 pages
• Publisher: Scrybe Press (January 13, 2004)
• ISBN-10: 0974834009
• ISBN-13: 978-0974834009
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.9 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,991,940 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)