Chapter Two
Disclaimer: I do not own the Lorax.
The Once-ler highly resented the completely untrue assertion that his family dictated his actions. They worked for him not the other way around. He was not, however, detached from reality to the extent that he didn't realize that they would not be happy and thus he'd have to listen to their spirited attempts to convince him not to go. They wouldn't be changing his mind, of course, but why deal with their disapproval for any longer than strictly necessary? He'd dealt with it for long enough as it was.
As such, it was late Thursday afternoon and he had yet to tell anybody of his plans. He briefly toyed with the idea of just slipping out and going off with the Lorax without telling anybody but that was no good. People would panic and convince themselves that he'd been kidnapped or killed and he didn't want to worry anyone.
He decided that his secretary would definitely need to know and so stopped by her desk before leaving for the day.
"Hello, Mr. Once-ler," she said brightly. She showed him the drawing she'd been working on.
"W-what happened to his head?" the Once-ler asked, a little horrified.
"His hair caught on fire when he was struck by the lightning," she replied as if that were the most natural thing in the world.
"Uh-huh. Of course it was. And the arm?" the Once-ler inquired.
"He was standing just a little too close to one of your tree-cutting machines," she explained. "His hearing has never been the same since that time his head was trapped in a beehive a few years back."
The Once-ler frowned. "Norma-"
"What?" Norma asked innocently. "I'm not judging you; you just asked what happened and I'm telling you. I could lie if you want but do you really want to create that kind of workplace environment?"
It wasn't worth it. "And his feet?"
"A falling tree crushed them," Norma answered cheerfully.
"And that isn't even slightly judging?" the Once-ler asked skeptically.
"I don't see how my brother's misfortunes are in any way a judgment on you," she said, wide-eyed.
Well if that was how she wanted to play it...
"It's just that I didn't think you even had a brother," the Once-ler said delicately.
"As of this afternoon, I have five," Norma informed him.
"Planning on making some more?" the Once-ler asked politely.
Norma blinked at him. "I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Of course you don't," the Once-ler said, sighing.
"And poor Billy's misfortunes are probably just because the tree-felling has the potential to cause some of the most dangerous accidents around," Norma elaborated.
"We have safety codes!" the Once-ler protested. "And people to make sure that they're followed!"
Norma shrugged. "I mentioned Billy's hearing difficulty, didn't I?"
He sighed again. "It's a lovely picture, Norma."
She beamed. "That you! I've been trying to teach myself to draw in my spare time but it's hard to tell if I'm making any progress."
"You've certainly got the graphic injuries part down," the Once-ler told her, finally managing to tear his eyes away from Norma's little scene of horror.
"Did you need something, Mr. Once-ler, or did you just want to talk?" Norma asked him.
It was a fair question since on any given day he was likely to seek her out to speak to her whether he needed something or not. Norma always had something interesting to say and his job, while very gratifying, could get a little monotonous at times so sticking his head into her world for a few minutes was usually a welcome break.
It wasn't as if Norma was the one person in his life who didn't want anything from him (or that he really thought that such a mythical person could exist) but he'd come to appreciate that all she wanted was a steady paycheck. She wasn't looking to become rich since she knew him and that was the novelty.
She didn't live in fear of losing her job (particularly after she had started expanding her family tree) and so she wasn't as stiff and reserved or outright obsequious as most people were around him. He fully believed that a little further difficulty with human action (not that he had ever really excelled at that in the first place) was worth it for his growing success but that didn't mean that he couldn't be glad when he found someone he didn't have to worry about that with.
"I wanted to let you know that I'm not going to be in tomorrow," the Once-ler finally replied.
Norma leaned back in her chair. "Really?"
He knew why she was so surprised. He never took time off. Ever.
He forced a smile. "Well, the company's not going to fall apart if I'm not there for one day." Or at least that was what he hoped. Secretly, he wasn't so sure but he had to start having faith in what he'd built one of these days.
"No, I don't think it will," Norma agreed, smiling encouragingly. The Once-ler had the disquieting impression that she knew exactly what he was worried about. "Are you not feeling alright or are you just taking a personal day?"
"Um…" the Once-ler hesitated. He wasn't sick but… "Personal, I guess."
"The Lorax?" Norma asked knowingly.
The Once-ler was stunned. "How'd you know?"
"He's usually hunched over when he leaves and muttering about blind, short-sighted promise-breakers," Norma replied.
And the Once-ler did not feel guilty about that, not at all. He had made that promise after an attempt on his life and the situation had changed quite a bit since then. Any sane man wouldn't hold him to that.
"Two days ago, though, he was dancing on his way to the elevator. He normally takes the stairs," Norma confided, "but I was worried that he could hurt himself with stair-dancing so I talked him out of it."
"His celebration's a bit premature," the Once-ler said uncomfortably.
"What happened?" Norma asked simply.
"I told you how he thinks that thneed production is going to destroy all the trees and ruin everything despite all the evidence to the contrary, right?" the Once-ler asked rhetorically.
"No, but he's been here often enough that I got the general gist," Norma replied. "Does he think that you're going to stop cutting trees down or something?"
"Not even that," the Once-ler replied, shaking his head. "I agreed to spend the day with him tomorrow letting him prove his case to me."
Norma eyed him carefully. "Are you sure you're prepared for what you might find?"
The Once-ler groaned. "Don't tell me you think I'm going to destroy everything, too! You actually work for me. Would you really do that if you thought I was going to be such a disaster?"
"Oh, I don't know. I'm the only bread-winner in my ever-expanding family as you know," Norma said casually. "But honestly, I don't know. It doesn't seem like things are that bad and yet…"
"And yet what?" the Once-ler asked curiously.
"And yet it seems like the Lorax is wasting an awful lot of time and putting a lot of effort into this for him to just be completely wrong," Norma said slowly.
The Once-ler shrugged. "He's the kind to hold tree funerals. I don't doubt that he means what he says, I just don't think his idea of catastrophic destruction is really in line with anyone else's."
Norma nodded. "Be that as it may, you know what you'll do if he's wrong. Have you stopped to consider what you'll do if he's right?"
"He's not," the Once-ler said quickly.
"If he's not then you have nothing to worry about when planning for the worst," Norma replied. "But one of you is wrong and if it's you and not him…what then?"
The Once-ler didn't have an answer to that.
"What?" his mother cried out, horrified. "Oncie, tell me that this is just an awful joke!"
"It's not, mother," the Once-ler assured her, feeling the beginning of a headache coming on and they hadn't even really started yet.
"But this company needs you, Oncie," his mother said urgently, latching onto his arm.
It was difficult to stand up for yourself and feel independent when your mother was clinging to your arm and so he gently detached her and took a step back.
"I'm not planning on abandoning it, Mom," the Once-ler promised. "I'm just taking one day off. Everyone takes days off. It's very healthy or so the company psychologist keeps telling me."
"This is all that horrid Lorax's doing, isn't it?" his mother accused. Was he really that obvious? "Grizelda!"
"I keep him away whenever I can," Aunt Grizelda swore from the other room. It was nice to know what kind of privacy he could expect. "But I can't control who that secretary of his lets in."
"You should really fire her," his mother said seriously.
The Once-ler sighed. "We've had this conversation before. Norma's not going anywhere."
His mother crossed her arms and huffed. "Fine. But I hope you know that I will not have her become a part of this family, Oncie. I just won't stand for it."
"What are you even talking about?" the Once-asked, completely bewildered. He could have sworn that they had just been talking about Norma's job status and not additions to her family that actually existed.
"If you weren't in love with her then you'd follow my completely sensible suggestion of firing her," his mother said matter-of-factly.
"No, I wouldn't," the Once-ler insisted. "I like Norma. She's a good secretary and how could I possibly fire her after what her poor cousin Emily has been through?"
"What does her cousin have to do with anything?" his mother demanded.
But the Once-ler just shook his head. "You do not want to know, believe me."
"Where is that Lorax taking you?" his mother asked worriedly, switching tracks abruptly.
The Once-ler shrugged. "I don't know. Out into the forest, I guess."
"You can't possibly do that!" his mother shouted.
The Once-ler stared blankly at his mother. "Why not?"
There couldn't possibly be anything to the theory that his family knew that the Lorax was right and were in explicably trying to hide the truth from him. There just couldn't.
"He'll probably chop you up and eat you or something!" she burst out.
The Once-ler's jaw dropped. "I-I really don't think that-"
"Oh, but he would! And he'd feed you to all of those horrible little forest animals and say that it's perfectly natural because that's how nature works!" his mother insisted. The Once-ler was pretty sure nature didn't chop people into small pieces when it killed them but his mother had always had a tendency to be a little dramatic.
"But the Lorax holds tree funerals," the Once-ler protested. The same thing that made him an unreliable source about the environment made him too good of a person to do something like that.
"The Lorax doesn't think that the trees are the epitome of evil," his mother said pointedly.
"He doesn't think that I'm the epitome of evil," the Once-ler protested but secretly he was far from sure. He couldn't actually recall the Lorax having a big problem with anyone but him, after all. Well, that and his family but that was practically the same thing. And even before he had chopped down more than one tree he wouldn't just let them be friends.
As if sensing his uncertainty, his mother pounced. "No? Then why does he keep trying to destroy everything you've worked for?"
"He's just worried," the Once-ler claimed.
"How long are you going to keep defending him, Oncie?" his mother challenged.
The Lorax asked the same thing about his family.
"Mom, the Lorax isn't going to hurt me," the Once-ler insisted.
"I wish I had your faith in the world," his mother sniffed, making the Once-ler feel as if he were about five and knew nothing about the world at all instead of the worldy and successful businessman he was growing into. At least he hadn't disclosed the whole attempted murder issue.
"I can take care of myself, Mom," the Once-ler said patiently.
"I never said you couldn't!" his mother exclaimed, holding up her hands.
"Then why don't you want me to go?" he asked, choosing to ignore the fact that five minutes ago she had accused the Lorax of planning to kill him.
"I just don't know what you think you're going to get out of it," his mother told him. "Some people just refuse to face reality to matter what kind of evidence there is."
"The Lorax says that I'm that kind of a person," the Once-ler said gloomily.
"Well, of course he would," his mother said easily. "He's just projer-um…projecting!"
"He promised that after tomorrow he'll stop pestering me, assuming that he's not right." Suddenly anxious, he asked, "He's not right, is he?"
"Oncie, how can you even ask me that?" his mother looked wounded but he did not feel guilty – he didn't. "I would never steer you wrong!"
The Once-ler relaxed. "I know. I do. I'm sorry."
"Then why are you planning on going?" His mother just couldn't understand it.
And honestly, he was having a difficult time remembering why he was wasting his time, too. Still, he had always been taught that you should keep your promises unless you had a good reason not to and simply not wanting to go wasn't a very good reason. "It's only one day and the chance that the Lorax does do what he says is worth the risk that he won't."
"If you say so," his mother said skeptically. She snapped her fingers. "Hey, I have an idea! Let's have a family meeting that has nothing whatsoever to do with your plan to throw everything away on the whims of a giant orange peanut!"
As everyone gathered around, the Once-ler rolled his eyes.
Like he'd fall for that one again.
The Once-ler finally escaped from the 'family meeting' by taking a leaf out of the Lorax's book and pretending to go to the bathroom before climbing out the window. He snuck into his room to get a sleeping bag and a pillow before heading back outside. He figured that this way he'd have more peace tonight and tomorrow when the Lorax came.
Besides, it had been awhile since he slept under the stars anyway. He didn't need to anymore as his finances were extremely secure but why not take the time every now and then?
He looked around carefully, searching for any sign that the Lorax might be right. As usual, he found nothing.
The sky was clear and he could see hundreds if not thousands of stars staring back at him. He knew that at least one of them was probably a planet but he didn't know enough about the subject to know which one. He wasn't even sure he was picking out the constellations right. They were nice to look at, though, regardless of whether or not he knew what any of it meant. If things were really that bad then the smog would cover the sky, wouldn't it? Light certainly did the trick in a city he had passed through on his way here.
A few of the trees had been cut down in the area when his family had first gotten his permission to cut down a few trees but it was only a few stumps, maybe a dozen. And then, of course, there was the tree that started it all, still with its ring of rocks. Looking at what was essentially a tree corpse was a bit disconcerting but hardly an emergency. Stumps provided good places to sit, anyway. He wasn't anywhere approaching an old man but he still didn't enjoy sitting on the ground half as much as he used to when he was younger.
But, those few stumps aside (stumps that he imagined were present in many areas of the forest which could cause distress to someone like the Lorax but not be a problem), there were trees as far as he could see. They were tall and proud and colorful, swaying gently in the breeze and occasionally tufts would drop onto the ground or go blowing into the wind.
There was still plenty of fruit hanging from the trees so his activities were hardly causing any of the animals that were still clearly in the area to go hungry. The animals were rarely to be found around him anymore but he had thought that was the Lorax and the Lorax insisted it was his family. If even the Lorax didn't think they were avoiding him because he was actively killing them then chances were that he wasn't.
Looking around at this paradise he'd been lucky enough to stumble upon, the Once-ler knew that there was nothing that the Lorax could show him that would convince him that any of this was in danger or that he was wrong in what he did.
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