The Hollow Tree

One Fall afternoon two brothers Caleb and Jackson were on there way home from school but they decided to walk home a different way through the dead forest. They call it the dead forest because no leaves ever grow on the trees there.

Caleb and Jackson decided to walk through there because they were getting bullied and they noticed the bullies were taking their usual route for some reason so Caleb and Jackson decided to walk through the dead forest. As they walk through the forest the sun shines through the tree branches bringing light to their path.

Caleb saids to Jackson “hey little bro, do you want to play hide and seek?

Jackson saids “sure, but if I win you have to do the dishes for mom, so if you can’t find me in 3 minutes I win!”

“Okay little bro.” saids Caleb.

Caleb starts counting to thirty and Jackson takes off running, looking for the best hiding spot. Without looking at the ground while running Jackson trips on a tree root and falls inside of a hollow tree.

“Ouch” saids Jackson. He scraped the side of his face and he’s bleeding. Well I guess this can be my hiding spot, Caleb will never find me here hehe.”

Caleb stops counting, he opens his eyes and start searching for Jackson. He looks inside bushes, behind trees, and he still can’t find his brother. Five minutes pass by and Caleb starts to get worried. So he shouts out his brother’s name.

“Jackson! Okay you win.... Jackson please come out already! I’m getting worried!”

“Over here Caleb!” Jackson shouts.

Caleb starts running over to the sound of his brother’s voice. He finds him with a cut on his face.

“Jackson what happened?” Caleb sighed with a concerned voice, wondering if his mother would be upset at him for letting his brother get hurt.

“I fell, I fell inside this tree.” Jackson said.

“Well that is a good hiding spot little bro. Caleb laughs and He pats Jackson on the head.”

As Jackson steps out the tree, Caleb notices something above the hollow part of the tree. Another hollow but way smaller. Down inside it There’s a little black book in the tree.

“Whoa, Check this out bro!” ‘There’s a black book inside this tree!’

Jackson said, “wow is it a dairy or something? It looks so old and dirty.”

Caleb shrugged, “well I’m not sure if it’s a dairy but hey let’s look at it when we get home, it’s getting late, I don’t want mom to worry about us.”

So as the boys get home, Jackson walks through the door first and his mother notices the mark on his face.

“Caleb! What happened to Jackson’s face?” His Mother blurts out.

“We were playing hide and seek and Jackson told me he tripped and fell-“

“mom it’s not his fault I really did fall and I fell inside a hollow tree! It was awesome! Caleb couldn’t even find me for five minutes straight, that’s why he’s going to wash the dishes after we eat, because I won.” Jackson preached.

She laughs, “okay well just be more careful next time we don’t need anymore hospital bills.”

After dinner Caleb washes the dishes just as he promised Jackson. Then he goes into Jackson’s room with the little black book.

“Hey little bro, look do you want to open it first?” Caleb insists.

Jackson looks at Caleb with a confused face, ‘Really you want me to open it first?’ “You found it.” Jackson replied.

Caleb then said, “well if you didn’t fall into the tree I wouldn’t never noticed the book so you can do the honors.”

“Hmmm okay that’s fair enough” Jackson shrugged.

So they examine the book and there’s a latch on it. Jackson opens the latch and he opens the book. Jackson eyes gets big with a gasp.

“What is it?” Caleb pleaded..

“There’s a secret compartment in this book and a key with a folded up paper.” Jackson Babbled.

Caleb opens the folded up paper and on the top left there’s a riddle. He begins to read it.

Inside the dead forest

You will find and you will see.

Once found you own what it may be.

Around the hollow tree.

Beside the lions face

There lies a place.

“Huh...it’s a riddle of some kind.” Caleb explains.

“a riddle to treasure! We’re going to be Rich!” Jackson shouts.

“Slow your roll bro we don’t even know what it is.” Caleb said.

On the unfolded paper there’s a drawing with the hollow tree and a bunch of trees surrounding it.

Caleb saids, “there’s not even a marker or anything indicating where whatever it is we may find.”

Jackson stares at the map looking for a possible clue.

“Well that’ll be too easy Caleb” Jackson saids. “It’s probably something really big and mysterious so they can’t put something like that just out in the open on paper.”

“You’re right Jackson, hmmm....well tomorrow after school we will check the area out, I’ll just tell mom we will be playing outside a little longer.”

After the boys got off the bus they went to the dead forest once again...looking for whatever it may be.

“The map saids it’ll be around that hollow tree I fell into.” Saids Jackson’s.

“It also saids besides the lion’s face, whatever that means.” Caleb adds.

“I know!” Jackson shouts.

“What if the lion’s face is a tree with a face of a lion?

“That’s a good idea Jackson! And beside the lion’s face there’s a place...?”

The boys stop at the tree that Jackson fell into and start to look all around for the face of a lion on any tree.

“Jackson! Jackson! Come over here! I found the lions face!” Caleb shouts.

Jackson runs over to Caleb.

“Whoa that’s crazy! This tree really dose has a face of a lion!” Jackson saids with a huge smile on his face.

The tree they came across has two holes as eyes and a mouth shaped of a lion on it, almost as if some craved it into the the tree. The tree also has a oddly shaped mane.

Jackson pulls out the map and reads the riddle again.

Inside the dead forest,

You will find and you will see.

Once found you own what it may be.

Around the hollow tree.

Beside the lions face,

There lies a place.

Caleb begins to look around him at the ground next to the tree with the face of a lion there’s moss on the ground not to far from it but everywhere else in the dead forest is just grass. Brown and green grass, so he wonders why is that area mossy.

“Hey Jackson look!” Caleb points at the mossy patch.

“I think it maybe under there.”

The boys look at the patch and start to lift up the moss and they see a metal latch and above the latch are words engraved in the hatch.

Caleb reads the message.

“My dear daughter Charlotte , I left something inside for you.

Love your dad Charles Fischer”

The boys look at each other and say “that’s grandpas name.”

“I think we need to have a long conversation with mom.’” Caleb suggest.

“Let’s cover this back up”

So the two boys went back home and told there mom what they found in the dead forest.

Then they also told her they found their grandfather’s name on a hidden bunker.

“Yup, that’s your grandfather.... He also had a thing for riddles, he left me something but I could never figure it out.” Their mother saids.

“What was it mom” Jackson saids excitedly.

“It was a riddle about a black book and a hollow tree, it goes like this.”

“Oh black book, black book where could you be?

Stuck up a hollow tree, where no leaves would be.” Their mother said confusingly.

“Grandpa’s talking about the dead forest mom!” Jackson shouts.

“The dead forest?” His mother saids with a confused look on her face.

“Yes it’s a patch of woods where no leaves grow on the trees.” Caleb saids.

Their mothers eyes get big. “You boys must take me there, but we will go early tomorrow morning.... since there’s no school.”

Charlotte’s alarm clock goes off at 5:30am She yawns. “Well Its time to wake the boys.”

She gets up out of bed and opens the drawer on her night stand. She takes out a photo of her father Charles, she looks at it and saids “oh pa what are you trying to tell me.”

Charlotte’s Father had passed away when she was twelve. She wasn’t as close with him as her mother but she still loved him very much. Her Mother and Father grew up poor, they didn’t have much and it was struggle just to get food. But her Father did everything he could to make sure it was food on the table for Charlotte and her mother. There were even times when Charles didn’t eat, but he made sure his family was fed. Charlotte places the photo back into the drawer, and closes it.

She goes into both of the boy’s room and wake them.

“Time to get up, put on something warm it’ll be a little chilly out.” She commands.

The boys get up and get ready and they bring their backpacks, and a flashlight.

Jackson decided to bring his bat. As they head out the door Caleb starts to chuckle at Jackson.

“What’s so funny?” Jackson said.

“Why are you bringing a bat?” Caleb teased, turning away trying to hold in his laugh.

“Well you never know what you may encounter in that bunker, could be r-ra-rats or s-s-spiders down there.” Jackson stuttered.

“I’m sure there no rats down there honey.” his mother reassured.

They all get in the car and Caleb and Jackson tell their mon where to go.

She parks on the side walk leading into the dead forest. They take their flashlights out because the sun hasn’t raisin yet. Jackson leads the way to the hollow tree. Then to the lion’s face and Caleb points over at the mossy patch. And they began to lift up the mossy patch, and their mother sees the engraved message on the hatch. She reads it aloud .

“My dear daughter Charlotte , I left something inside for you.

Love your dad Charles Fischer”

She gasps as tears come down her face.

Caleb hands his mother the little black book. She opens it and takes the key out.

She gets on her knees and began to unlock the old rusted lock on the hatch of the bunker.

It unlocks the boys look at each other with a nervous look.

Charlotte wipes away her tears with the back of her hand. She sniffs. “You boys ready?”

They both say “yes.”

“Okay, I’ll go in first, Jackson you follow me and Caleb you close the hatch.”

Charlotte climbs down into the bunker, it’s pitch black so she turns on the flashlight.

Jackson climbs down and turns on his flashlight as well. Caleb closes the hatch and climbs down. Charlotte notices a letter on a table. Charlotte opens the letter. She reads it aloud.

“Dear Charlotte, I haven’t met you yet but I already feel like you’re a daddy’s girl. You have helped me change my ways, I’ve become a better man and I promise i will do all I can to make sure you and your mother are safe and will have food to eat. I promise to look after you and care for you. I have took money out of my savings $20,000 I hid it in the bunker… My friend Tommy said I can hide it here, I love you so much already baby girl. I can’t wait to hold you, I can’t wait to see if you have my eyes. Love Charles.”

“Oh Pa.” Charlotte sobs.

They search the bunker for the $20,000 and they find it inside of an old bed.