"Light Over Islands"

Key West short stories: "Of Life and Limb" continued:

    

Henry says, “I always knew they were hypocrites.”

     Margaret says, “Why do people like them come to Key West?”

     Henry swallows the last of his green tea. “Why can’t they just cut off the corner of the house? Why should a house have more right to exist than a tree?”  He laughs bitterly. “Why can’t they just live in a tree house?”

     Margaret says, “One of us could climb up it and refuse to come down.” But, both in their eighties, they ruefully give up this idea.  They had a friend, back in the last century, who climbed a tree on the green expanse that was Peary Court, in order to protest against the place being taken for housing by the Navy. He had a home-made explosive device with him and was rewarded with a year in jail.  Now, in this century, both Henry and Margaret know that any kind of explosive device would land you with a lot more than a year in jail – and anyway, neither of them has climbed a tree for years, even though Henry still goes up on a ladder to mend the roof, Margaret carefully not watching.