Episode #34: 2 Christopher - Chapter 13 - The agent

Jan,15 2026

<-#33: 2 Christopher - Chapter 12 - Trees

On the great dust, the wall of green, and a fear spoken only once

13:1

By the time my children reached their middle years,

the dust had found its name.

13:2

The storms came like night at noon,

and the sky learned the color of ash.

13:3

Fields vanished in places where men had sworn

they would last forever.

13:4

Whole towns packed themselves into wagons,

and roads became rivers of leaving.

13:5

Yet our town stood.

13:6

Not untouched,

but breathing.

13:7

The trees bent,

but did not break.

13:8

The soil moved,

but did not flee.

13:9

And where others lost their fields,

ours held.

13:10

This did not go unnoticed.

13:11

One morning, a man arrived in a government car,

his coat powdered with dust

that did not belong to him.

13:12

He said his name,

and then said his purpose.

13:13

"I am here to understand

why this place still feeds itself."

13:14

The council gathered,

and the agent listened.

13:15

He asked about crops,

about rotation,

about yields and rainfall.

13:16

Christopher stood apart,

as he always had.

13:17

At last, the agent turned to him and said,

"You."

13:18

Christopher did not answer at once.

13:19

The agent said,

"They tell me you decide where trees grow

and where fields rest."

13:20

Christopher said,

"I listen.

The land decides."

13:21

The agent frowned and said,

"This is not enough."

13:22

Christopher answered,

"Then you are asking the wrong question."

13:23

They walked the edges of the town together,

past windbreaks grown tall,

past lanes left empty on purpose.

13:24

The agent said,

"Why here?

Why in rows?

Why not more?"

13:25

Christopher said,

"Because wind is not stopped.

It is argued with."

13:26

He said,

"A wall that defies the wind will fall.

A wall that tires it will stand."

13:27

The agent knelt and touched the soil,

still dark beneath his fingers.

13:28

He said,

"You knew."

13:29

Christopher replied,

"No.

I watched."

13:30

They spoke then of grasses long plowed under,

of roots that once stitched the earth together.

13:31

Christopher said,

"The land was skinned,

and now it bleeds."

13:32

He spoke of trees planted not for harvest,

but for mercy.

13:33

He said,

"Plant them where the wind enters,

not where the eye prefers."

13:34

"Plant them thick enough to quarrel,

thin enough to survive."

13:35

The agent wrote furiously.

13:36

He asked,

"Could this work elsewhere?"

13:37

Christopher hesitated.

13:38

Then, for the first time I had known him,

I saw worry cross his face.

13:39

He said,

"It must."

13:40

"For a field may fail alone,

but a continent failing feeds no one."

13:41

He spoke of lines of trees stretching for miles,

of shelter belts crossing states,

of soil held long enough

to remember itself.

13:42

He said,

"Teach the land to breathe again."

13:43

The agent said,

"This could change everything."

13:44

Christopher answered,

"It must change something."

13:45

When the agent left,

he carried more than notes.

13:46

The town returned to its work,

and the dust moved on.

13:47

That evening,

I found Christopher alone at the edge of the field.

13:48

He knelt,

as I had rarely seen him do.

13:49

He said softly,

"Forgive me."

13:50

I said,

"There is nothing to forgive."

13:51

He did not look at me.

13:52

He said,

"I spoke beyond my ground."

13:53

I answered,

"You saved many."

13:54

Christopher replied,

"I hope so."

13:55

I said,

"Who are you asking forgiveness from?"

13:56

He answered,

"God."

13:57

"For I was given a field,

and I spoke of the world."

13:58

He said,

"May I not mistake urgency for calling."

13:59

The wind passed over us,

slower now,

as if listening.

13:60

And I understood then

that wisdom is not proven by how far it reaches,

but by how carefully it steps beyond itself.

<-#33: 2 Christopher - Chapter 12 - Trees