Something Between Two Trees

I was typing on my laptop in my room. And from the living room, I was called by younger cousin. She begged to be taken home. At the time, Arga, Nia's younger brother, was playing at my house. When the clock struck 9 p.m. , Arga asked to be taken home. Arga was 5 years lod at the time. At first, I refused and asked the people at home to take Arga, but no one wanted to.

And so, it was I who drove Arga home. That night, my grandfather was chatting with a neighbour next door, and the two parents were sitting on the front porch. On the other hand, I felt somewhat relieved because at least there would be someone observing me when I went across the street to go home.

I ventured to walk about 50 meters from the house. As I walked and entered the yard area of Nia's house, I don't know why, but my eyes went straight to the bottom of the guava tree, and I saw a piece of burning coal. It was almost square in shape. I thought positively that it was the residue of burning leaves.

But I was confused as to why it was square. The more I observed it, the more the embers flared up and dimmed, which was strange. Like breathing the flame. And I was silent, Arga immediately ran away from me, heard the sound of the door from his house.

"Sis, thank you for taking me home!" Arga shouted from the his window.

"Go to bed soon, it's already late. Tomorrow you go to school!" I said.

I did not immediately return home. I stood still and focused on how dim and bright the embers were. And realized that the piece of ember was right in the middle of the guava tree. Then, I looked around the guava tree and didn't see any brooms or tools used to burn the leaves. And it was dark around the tree, although there were two houses behind it, but the lights on the porch were very poorly lit.

"Did I ask grandfather about this?"

"Nara, go back home. You have school tomorrow!" my grandfather shouted fro across the street.

Suddenly I remembered that I had been standing for a long time and from the other side of the road, I was called by my grandfather to go home. I ran to my grandfather and told him what I had seen earlier. My grandfather looked calm with my words. Not even a minute into my story, I ran back towards the embers. I don't know why I wanted to make sure again, wheter what I saw was real. And sure enough, the embers had disappeared without the slightest trace. I had to scrape the ground around embers that I saw. There was no ash or burning residue there. The ground was spotlessly clean.

"Oh, no, the embers are gone. I was sure it was here" I grumbled.

I had mixed feelings tonight. There was definitely a sense of dread in my heart. While I was still shivering with this, I heard the sound of conversation from the direction in front of me. And sure enough, I saw two people sitting on piece of rubble. They both startled me. And I immediately asked, "Wuri, Sita did you see the embers there?" They replied that they didn't see anything under the guava tree, but they both noticed my strange behaviour since I took Arga home.

"Seriously, you two didn't see it?"

"Why would we lie. Already there, you better go home." Sita said to me.

With the umpteent statement from the two of them, I believed that if I was the only one who saw it, the didn't. Then, I decided to go back home. Since that incident, I have not dared to look at the two water guava tree at night, expecially on friday nights. However, the two guava tree had been cut down 10 years ago because half of the land was built for a car parking area.