April 2003

Natalie only had the idea because, on Wednesdays, she had CDT right after English, and one particular scene from Macbeth was fresh in her mind as she filled in the section of her coursework that had to do with robotics and motors.  Macbeth thought he was safe because the witches had promised he’d be king until someone moved Great Birnam Wood across the country, but then Malcolm’s army went and did exactly that.  Natalie looked at the motor part she was sketching, and thought, Fear not, till Birnam Wood do come to Dunsinane.

Then she thought, Holy shit.

Abbie Chamberlain was the first person she told about her plan.  Just before registration on Thursday morning, Natalie took what she’d made out of her bag, and got it to walk across the table.  Abbie watched its jerky movements, totally mesmerised.  A remote-control figure made entirely out of twigs.  “That’s the most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen.”

Natalie nodded.  “The remote and the mechanical bits all come from an old toy me and my sisters had.  This robotic tiger thing.”  Natalie had felt a bit guilty about that, in case sometime this week Stephanie decided- as she sometimes did- that she wanted to play with an old toy, and found it dissected.  She’d compromised by taking out as few of its parts as possible, and hoping that Stephanie would put its lack of movement down to the fact that it was five years old and the gears had probably rusted.  “I was thinking we could use this down at Crowe’s Wood.  A bigger version, I mean.”

Abbie grinned.  “What, like Treebeard?”

“Yeah!  If we do it right, we could have an army of hawthorn trees moving towards the builders.  It’ll really freak them out.”

“Especially if it’s dark,” agreed Abbie, patting the twig man on the head with her finger.

*

It was three more days before they got everyone together at David and Amelia’s, discussing the plan.  Natalie had barely been able to think of anything else- it had been like a fever burning through her.  Whenever she’d had a spare moment, images of walking trees and terrified builders filled her head.  If they were lucky…  If they did it right…

“Are you sure you can get it to work with the bigger branches?” asked Johnny.

Natalie nodded.  “I think it’s mostly a matter of knowing where to put the motors.  As long as the joints move OK, the rest should take care of itself.”  Beside her, Abbie was calmly drawing something in her notebook, but Natalie felt like her heart was about to burst.  She’d wanted to impress Abbie, and she had.  She wanted to impress Johnny and Amelia, and it looked as if she had a good chance of doing so.  But David….  Who knew what it took to impress him?  Who knew what was going on in his head?

He sat in the big armchair in the corner of the room, deep in thought.  As if it wasn’t just a matter of listening to what Natalie had said and saying whether or not it was a good idea, as if he’d have to take the vibrations of the universe into account before he made his decision.  Then- wonder of wonders- he smiled.  “Give me a lever and a place to stand, and I will move the earth,” he quoted, “But where are you going to get enough motors to do it?”

Amelia waved a hand airily.  “We can scrounge up enough between us.  We’ve all got some old toys in the attic.”

Abbie finally finished what she’d been drawing, and turned her notebook over to show the others.  It was a gang of trees line-dancing, holding up a sign that said, SAVE CROWE’S WOOD!

“I’ve been thinking,” she explained, “We’re going to want to do this at night, right?  So that people won’t see what we’re doing in advance?”

“Yeah?” said Natalie.

“Well, the builders will all have gone home by then, won’t they?”

“Oh.”  That thought was like running up against a brick wall.  Natalie could only mumble, “I hadn’t thought of that.”

Abbie continued.  “So I thought, instead of trying to freak out the builders, we could pick a place next to the main road and have the trees dance and hold up signs where people driving by can see them.”

“Well…”  Natalie was torn.  She’d really wanted to freak out the builders.

“It’d get more attention,” said Johnny, “If it’s just the builders, they might just get embarrassed and decide to keep it quiet.  Not much chance of that with the great British public.”

“And we’d be less likely to get caught,” added Amelia.

Fair enough.  Natalie let her dream of terrified builders go.  “So… is everybody in?”

The others nodded.  Even David gave them a sage smile and a thumbs-up gesture, which gave Natalie butterflies in her stomach.

“Right,” she said, “So when are we doing this?”

(To Be Continued)