i woke up in a strange place. i saw magazines on a table and wondered why they were in english. then i remembered that where i am now they speak english. i got home at about three pm, after crossing the cbd on foot, lowering to the shire by bus, then home quietly, another half hour on foot. when i arrived, my dad had a saw out, and had lassoed a rope around one of the small branches. it hung over the power lines. i pointed this out and he tried to positive think it away. he cut and i tugged on the rope and it came halfway down, suspended on the wire.

then there was lots of thinking time. we got a ladder. we strategised. everything we said sounded like a problem from a year ten maths exam. we each said fulcrum ten times. i made arcs with my arms that showed what would happen if we did this, or if we did that. cut it here, cut it there. in the end, dad climbed the ladder, wedged through and tied to a double-trunked tree. it slipped as he climbed it, and he was reaching up with one long arm. i saw him fall or drop the chainsaw on top of me. i imagined how he’d fall, and how useless i would be. after about an hour we figured out how to get the branch down without breaking the line. softly softly. luckily, mum was asleep the whole time.