As the man gathered his thoughts and tried to clear his head, he was coming to the realization that he had just witnessed Newton’s third law of motion in action, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. As he knelt in the soft soil of the trees and listened to the almost mocking sound of the contrary chain saw idle beside him on the ground he wished there could have been a less painful way to experience it.

The afternoon, like so many before it,  had started with such promise. He had seen what he felt could be a problem and had set out to correct it himself. While his soon to give birth wife was away at a mother/ daughter function at their church, he decided to trim a tree. In his mind this tree presented a very eminent danger to the playhouse his father, the grandfather of he and his brothers children, had just purchased and had delivered to the tree line behind their adjacent houses. The problem in his eyes was a branch that would hang over the playhouse when it was finally pushed into its permanent position. This branch was about three to four inches in diameter and extended horizontally out from the tree he guessed about twelve to fifteen feet. His fear was that a windstorm could snap it and drop it on the playhouse.

The plan was simple in its execution as far as he was concerned. He would simply lean an extension ladder against the tree approximately half of the way around the tree opposite of the offending branch. He would mount the ladder and with a borrowed chainsaw, ascend to the proper height of about fifteen feet according to his calculations,  to attack the branch with said chainsaw. The branch would be separated from the tree and drop to the ground where he would drag it into the tress away from the new playhouse. The first problem he encountered was the chainsaw. It would start easily enough and run well when the throttle was applied, but when left to idle it would sputter and die. He was finally able to start it and keep it running as he ascended the ladder by nursing the throttle.

Upon reaching the proper height on the ladder he hoisted the chainsaw into position and while keeping his balance reached around the tree to attack the offending limb. All went well at first. The chainsaw was quickly chewing through the branch as chunks of sawdust were flung into the air and drifted down to the leaf covered ground like snowflakes on a wintry day. It was when the chainsaw finished its path through the branch and it was released from its connection with the tree that things took a decidedly unfortunate turn.

It was at this moment that the man realized his miscalculation. The whole process probably only lasted a few seconds but until the end everything seemed to happen in slow motion. As the branch fell away and the exposed cut end of the branch came into view he recalled how it had a rosy red tint to the wood and the varying shades it presented going from its center out to the very edges of the bark. It was when the outward end of the branch touched the ground that the logical side of his brain suddenly kicked into action. What he had failed to take into consideration was that when he cut through the branch it would not simply drop straight down to the ground and land flat like it did in the cartoons.

The outermost end would hit first and due to the flexibility of the branch cause it to lunge like a coiled snake looking for a target. As his brain quickly calculated the vectors and probable flight paths of the branch it came to a sudden realization that the ladder he was standing on would soon not be vertical and he along with it. That branch was going to lunge at the ladder like an enraged bull and remove it from under him. It wasn’t a question of if he was going down but whether he was going to land under his terms or flat on his back. His brain quickly decided it wanted to land on its feet. He somehow managed to twist himself around and jump to the ground. As he jumped he somehow managed to toss the chainsaw clear so as not to land on it further risking bodily injury.

Since no one was present to witness this moment the man can only imagine what it looked like as his 6′-3″ body jumped away from the ladder and the chainsaw flew through the air along side him. Due to his quick thinking he did indeed land on his feet. The landing was unlike anything he had ever experienced. He landed solidly on both feet and as the mass of his body continued downward, drawn by the earths gravity, his knees buckled and were driven into the soft, leaf covered ground. His upper body continued forward and down as his hands reached out to stop his forward progress. When his hands came down they scraped against the bark of a tree which had fallen sometime in the past due to a storm or maybe weak roots. As he draped over the fallen tree his hands reached earth and were able to stop his forward progress before his body was slammed against the tree.

As stated earlier, the landing was unlike anything the man had experienced in his life. Upon touchdown, and the sudden deceleration, it felt like all the air in his body was forced up through his lungs, through his neck and out through his hair follicles. The force of the landing was so great that his glasses were thrown from his face and deposited on the ground. He knelt there trying to gather his thoughts, get his breathe back and assess the physical damage to his body. It seemed as though everything inch of his body hurt. Judging from the pain he was experiencing he was confident that even though he landed on his feet that he may have broken his back. So without thinking he decided to try and stand up, which if his back was injured was the last thing he should be doing. With considerable wincing he was able to stand and establish that nothing major was broken besides his pride.

It was as he was standing there that he became aware of a sound. The sound was the chainsaw. It was sitting on the ground, idling without any assistance from him, almost in a mocking tone………