Trimming the Tree
By Swellison

Blair Sandburg closed the dishwasher door gently and started it. Jim Ellison, still at the table, winced as the sound of the machine irritated his sensitive ears. The top-line dishwasher had been advertised as the quietest machine on the market, but Jim had quickly discovered that it wasn't Sentinel-friendly. He notched his hearing down as Sandburg walked back to the dining room table. "Ah, Jim, can I borrow the truck?"

"So that's why you cleared the table so fast, you want a favor. What's wrong with your wheels, this time?"

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with the Volvo!" Blair protested, running a hand through his dark curls. "It just doesn't have enough trunk space." Anticipating Ellison's next question, he continued. "I want to get a tree before they're all gone. There's only two weekends left before Christmas, y'know."

Jim stood up and walked over to the rack by the door, grabbing his brown leather jacket from one of the hooks. "Let's go, then."

"You're coming with me?" Blair hadn't expected Jim to go tree-hunting with him. "Hey, that's great, man." He walked over to the rack and fetched his black leather jacket from another hook, slipping it on over his red and green plaid shirt. "I know this really cool tree farm, less than fifteen minutes from the city."

"I'm driving," Jim said, fishing his keys out of the basket by the door.

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Three hours later, they returned with a fair-sized blue spruce tree. Sandburg hadn't planned on spending half the afternoon looking for a tree; he usually found one in under half-an-hour. Over the years, he had adopted a Charlie Brown approach to tree shopping: any tree could become a good Christmas tree. Bald spaces, bent branches or discolored patches could be turned to face a wall, or concealed by large ornaments. Jim, however, had apparently been in pursuit of the perfect tree. After he'd rejected half a dozen of Blair's choices for one reason or another, Blair had turned Jim loose on the lot, telling him to find his own tree. By the time Jim located a tree that met with his approval, Blair was wishing he'd worn his Fargo hat and a decent pair of gloves, instead of his finger-less gray ones.

Now they stood in the loft, Jim holding their chosen tree upright. He handed Sandburg his keys after Blair hung their jackets on the hooks. "Get the stand from the storage room," Jim said. He manhandled the eight-foot tree over to the far corner of the living room by the row of floor-length windows while Sandburg headed downstairs. Fifteen minutes later, they had the tree properly situated in its stand, its best side facing the street.

Jim crawled out from under the tree after checking the tightness of the stand's screws for the last time. He got to his feet and gave his red pullover sweater and jeans a quick dusting off. "Be right back." He crossed the living room to the entrance, scooped up his keys and left, returning a few minutes later with two large cardboard boxes. "Ornaments." He set the boxes down close to the tree and opened the first one. "Carolyn bought most of these when we were married." He picked up a fireplace-shaped ornament with "Our First Christmas" written in green lettering across the mantelpiece, and then set it down quickly. "Ah, I don't think I have enough here to cover the whole tree."

"Just a minute," Blair disappeared into his room and Jim heard him opening drawers and muttering, then he was back in the living room, holding a much-taped box in one hand and a shopping bag in the other. "I picked up some lights and tinsel at the after-Thanksgiving sale at Super Store." He put the items down a couple of feet from the tree and extracted three boxes of multi-colored miniature tree lights. He ripped open the first box and started laying the lights out in a straight line on the floor. "These are really cool. They're racing lights that can also be set to blink on and off. See?" He plugged the lights into the closest outlet and watched them blink.

Jim watched the flickering lights for a few seconds, and then rubbed his forehead. "I hope there's a non-blinking setting, Chief." He gestured towards the floor with his free hand. "Four of the lights are out of sync and it's giving me a headache."

"Wow, you can differentiate among blinking rates for the individual lights?" Sandburg quickly flipped the setting and the string of lights stopped blinking, but remained lit. He scanned the entire row, then unplugged them and started examining the second set for defects. After the third set had also passed the safety inspection, he connected the three rows of lights into one continuous strand and carried it over to the tree. He stood on one side of the tree while Jim stood on the other and they passed the strand of lights between them, wrapping the lights around the tree in an upward spiral. They left the lights turned on and started placing ornaments on the tree, one at a time. Jim used most of Carolyn's store-bought ornaments and Blair withdrew an assortment of hand painted bread dough ornaments, crudely shaped wood and tin ornaments and several Hallmark collectibles from his much-used cardboard box.

Jim surreptitiously watched while Blair opened the last box containing a Hallmark ornament, catching the Endangered Species: Panther Prowl title on the box. Blair lifted the black panther ornament out of the box and stood on tiptoe, placing it on the highest branch he could reach, towards the front of the tree. Then he took a few steps backwards. "Now for the fun part." Blair bent over and reached into the shopping bag, emerging with two thin boxes of silver tinsel. He handed a box to Jim and opened the other one, scooping out a handful of the tiny strands in a loosely defined ball. He tossed the tinsel towards the tree in an overhand pass and watched while the strands fell apart, landing on several different branches.

"You're making a mess." Jim protested, easily seeing a few strands slip through all the branches and land on the floor.

"Aw, c'mon, Jim. You know this is the only way that you can put tinsel on the tree and have it look natural."

"But it's not just on the tree, it's on the floor, too."

"You should try it." Sandburg bunched another ball of tinsel together and tossed it towards the tree, aiming at a slightly lower spot. "It's almost therapeutic. And I'll sweep the floor when we're finished."

"You got that right, Junior." Jim picked up a loose ball of tinsel and pitched it towards the tree, and found that seeing the tinsel spread out and alight on the branches was like watching fireworks spread open, on a much smaller scale. They worked in tandem; switching pitching positions to cover all parts of the tree. After the last clump of tinsel was placed on the tree, Blair stepped back to the middle of the living room and faced the tree, squinting. Jim joined him. "Sandburg?"

"My Aunt Debbie Mae says this is the best way to look at a Christmas tree."

Jim grinned. "Squinting through your eyelashes?"

"No, with your glasses off. She's near-sighted and she says that the colored lights all expand and smear, kind of like traffic lights reflected on rainy, wet asphalt. It's one reason she doesn't want to have lasik surgery to correct her vision. When I squint, the tree gets a little blurry, but I don't think that's what she meant.

Hey, maybe you can dial down your sight to duplicate the effect, Jim."

"Why would I want--?" 'Tis the season, after all. "Okay, I'll give it a whirl." Jim looked at the tree and dialed his sight down as low as he could. The tree grew darker in appearance, but its outline remained clear. "No, that didn't work."

"Hmm, what about if you dialed your sight up? She did say that the tree expanded, sort of."

Jim again stared at the tree, increasing his eyesight by degrees. It was like applying a zoom lens to a camera. An area of the tree popped into magnified existence, with each of the hundreds of bristling greenish-blue needles clearly delineated on the branches. The tinsel strands looked like wide ribbons of silver, draped haphazardly over the branches, and the three lights that he saw were enormous, with the well-defined light confined to the rectangular shape of the encasing light bulb. "That didn't work, either." But I have had my vision expand and smear before... when? Jim had a glimpse of red and black squares intensifying in color and blurring just before things went white. Oh, yeah, on that mined bridge with Sandburg and Brackett, right before I zoned. And before that, the red Frisbee at the University, the day I met Sandburg.

"I've got another idea." Jim put a hand on Blair's shoulder and focused on the tree. He concentrated on sight, and the room became mouse-quiet. The fresh scent of spruce that he'd been unconsciously compensating for since buying the tree, became the faintest whiff of odor. He could barely feel Blair's shoulder and knew he was close to zoning. Suddenly, the tree slid out of focus. The colored lights became pure dots of light, with thick halos of red, green, blue and yellow surrounding them. The silvery tinsel reflected the lights in gleaming rainbows of color. His eyes traveled up the tree and he spotted the panther ornament, its glittering green eyes made it seem almost life-like. The garland of ivy and holly wrapped around its neck looked real, too. At the top of the tree, the silver star caught the enhanced reflection of the yellow light directly under it and turned to gold.

"Jim!" Warmth enclosed his outstretched hand and the shoulder beneath it shook. He blinked to find Sandburg anxiously staring at him. "Did you zone?"

"Almost." Jim nodded towards the tree. "Your aunt was right. It's beautiful."

"I'll have to take your word for it. From now on, though, we'll just enjoy the tree on an ordinary senses level, okay?"

"Sure, Chief." Jim lifted his hand from Blair's shoulder to ruffle his roommate's curls. "Anything you say."

"Anything?" Blair bounced and stepped back towards the tree. "Then let's break out the holiday music. Christmas isn't Christmas without Alvin and the Chipmunks!"

"Sandburg!"

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