Sandra stood in the kitchen. She looked at the mustard. The mustard had expired in . She threw the mustard in the bin. She threw a jar of pickles in the bin. The pickles were soft. She threw away a bottle of salad dressing. The dressing had separated into layers.
She felt like a person who did not pay attention. She felt like a person who let things go bad. She looked out the kitchen window. The window showed the backyard. The yard was bright. The yard was too bright.
Sensory Input: The Kitchen Window
Sandra had lived in this house in Campbelltown for . The house was a good house. The yard had a large ironbark tree. The tree was older than the house. The tree had a wide canopy. The canopy covered the back of the house. The canopy kept the kitchen cool. The canopy kept the pergola in the shade. The pergola was made of timber. Sandra and her husband built the pergola in .
Light Sells Houses
Now the tree was gone. Sandra looked at the mulch. The mulch was red. The mulch covered the ground where the tree had lived. The mulch was a circle. The circle was three meters wide. The sun hit the mulch. The sun hit the kitchen window. The glass of the window was hot. Sandra touched the glass. The glass burned her finger. She stepped back from the sink.
Marcus was the real estate agent. Marcus wore a blue suit. Marcus had a white car. Marcus had a camera with a wide lens. Marcus had visited the house ago. Marcus stood in the backyard. Marcus looked at the tree.
Marcus said the tree made the yard look dark. He said the tree made the house look small. He said the photos needed to be bright. He said the tree must go. Sandra believed Marcus. Sandra wanted the house to sell. She wanted a high price. She wanted the photos to look like the photos in the magazine. She called a man to cut the tree.
The men arrived in a large truck. The truck was white and green. The truck had the name Campbelltown Tree Care on the side. Two men got out of the truck. They wore orange shirts. They wore heavy boots. They had chainsaws. One man was named Dave. Dave looked at the ironbark tree. Dave walked around the trunk. Dave touched the bark. The bark was thick. The bark was hard.
“The tree was healthy. He said the tree was a fine specimen. He said the Western Sydney summer is hot. He said the tree lowered the temperature of the house.”
– Dave, Campbelltown Tree Care
Dave said he could prune the tree. He said he could thin the branches. He said thinning the branches would let the light through. He said the tree would still provide shade. He said the tree would still look good in photos.
Sandra told Dave to remove the tree. She told Dave that Marcus wanted the tree gone. Dave looked at the tree. Dave looked at the house. Dave did not say anything for a moment. Dave nodded. Dave and the other man started their saws. The saws were loud. The saws cut the branches. The branches fell to the grass. The grass was green. The men cut the trunk. They used a machine to grind the stump. They turned the tree into mulch. They spread the mulch over the dirt.
The house was quiet now. The birds were gone. The birds used to sit in the ironbark. The birds used to make noise in the morning. Now there was no noise. There was only the sun.
Avery S.K. and the Turbulence of Bare Earth
Avery S.K. is a wind turbine technician. Avery works on the tall towers in the central west. Avery fixes the blades. Avery fixes the gears. Avery knows about the wind and the heat. Avery visited Sandra on Tuesday. Avery looked at the yard. Avery looked at the red mulch. Avery told Sandra about the turbine sites.
The mechanics of heat: Clear ground creates rising turbulence that wears out expensive bearings.
Avery said that the developers clear all the trees. The developers want the ground to be flat. The developers want to see the horizon. Avery said that clear ground is a mistake. Avery said that the bare earth gets hot. The heat rises from the ground. The heat creates turbulence. The turbulence makes the turbines vibrate.
The vibration wears out the bearings. The bearings are expensive. Avery said that the metal in the towers expands in the heat. The towers grow taller in the afternoon. The towers shrink at night. Without the shade of the trees, the ground stays hot long after the sun goes down. Avery said the machines miss the trees.
Sandra looked at her kitchen floor. The floor was tiles. The tiles were white. The sun hit the tiles. The tiles were hot. Sandra had to wear shoes in the kitchen. She usually walked in her socks. The socks were not enough. The heat came through the socks.
The Reality of a Filtered Life
The listing photos arrived on her phone. Sandra opened the email. She looked at the photos. The photos were very bright. The yard looked huge. The yard looked like a park. The kitchen looked like a showroom. There were no shadows. Marcus had used a filter. The sky was very blue. The grass was very green. The mulch looked like a clean red circle.
The photos did not show the heat. The photos did not show the hot glass. The photos did not show the hot tiles. Sandra looked at the photos. Then she looked at the yard. A bird landed on the pergola. The bird was a magpie. The magpie looked for the tree. The magpie hopped on the timber. The timber was hot. The magpie flew away. The magpie did not come back.
The Cattle and the Tool
In the , the farmers in the Macarthur region kept the trees. The farmers kept the trees for the cattle. The cattle needed the shade. The farmers knew that a cow in the sun loses weight. A cow in the sun gets sick. The trees were a tool. The trees were an asset. The trees were part of the value of the land.
When the developers came, they kept some of the trees. They kept the trees to make the suburbs look established. They knew that people buy houses, but they live in neighborhoods.
The first open home was on Saturday. The day was a typical Campbelltown Saturday. The temperature was . The air was still. The sun was high. Potential buyers arrived in their cars. The buyers wore sunglasses. The buyers walked across the driveway. The driveway was concrete. The concrete reflected the heat.
The buyers entered the house. They liked the kitchen. They liked the new paint. They liked the white tiles. Then they walked to the back door. They walked onto the pergola. They stopped. The buyers looked at the yard. They saw the red mulch. They saw the sun hitting the grass. They felt the heat coming off the ground.
“A young couple stood on the back step. The woman held a brochure. She used the brochure to fan her face. She looked at the man. She said it was very hot. She said there was no place to sit outside. She said the yard felt exposed.”
The man looked at the red mulch. He asked Marcus if there used to be a tree there. Marcus said there was a tree. Marcus said they removed the tree to show the space. The man nodded. The man did not look happy. He looked at the sun. He looked at the kitchen window. He saw the glare.
The couple left the house. They did not leave their names. Other buyers came. They did the same thing. They liked the inside. They hated the outside. They spent only a few minutes in the yard. They retreated back into the air conditioning. They said the yard was a lot of work. They said they would have to plant a tree. They said a tree would take to grow.
A Home Has a Climate
Sandra stood in the corner of the living room. She watched the people. She saw them squinting. She saw them sweating. She realized that Marcus was wrong. Marcus saw the house as a photo. The buyers saw the house as a home. A photo does not need shade. A home needs shade. A photo does not have a temperature. A home has a climate.
She thought about the ironbark. The ironbark had been there when the house was built. The ironbark had seen her children grow up. The ironbark had protected the kitchen from the afternoon sun for . She had traded the tree for a bright photo. She had traded the comfort of the house for a wide-angle lens.
The mulch was still there. The mulch was dry. The wind blew some of the mulch onto the grass. The mulch looked like a wound. It was a red circle in the middle of the green. It was a reminder of what was missing.
The red mulch stays hot long after the camera leaves the yard.
Sandra decided to wait. She did not sell the house that day. She did not sell it the next week. She took the house off the market. She called Dave back. She asked Dave what kind of tree grows fast in Campbelltown. Dave told her about different species. He told her about trees that handle the heat. He told her about trees that give good shade.
She bought a new tree. The tree was small. The tree was in a pot. She planted the tree in the center of the red mulch. She watered the tree. She watched the tree. She knew she would not be the one to sit under its canopy. She would be gone before the tree was tall. But she felt better. She had replaced the missing thing. She had acknowledged the mistake.
She went back into the kitchen. She looked at the bin. The expired condiments were gone. The bin was empty. The kitchen was still hot. The sun was still hitting the window. But the small tree was in the ground. The small tree was a start. She would not cut down another tree for a photo. She would not let Marcus tell her how the light should look. She would listen to the wind turbine technician. She would listen to the farmers. She would listen to the birds that had no place to land.
The house would sell eventually. It would sell to someone who understood the value of a tree. It would sell to someone who was willing to wait for the shade. Sandra sat at the table. She drank her tea. The tea was hot, but the room felt a little different.
The red mulch was still there, but the center of the circle was green. It was a small green point in a very bright world. She liked the green point better than the photo.