Under the Bending Tree

Lara hated moving. It never seemed like she owned all that much but seeing the plethora of moving boxes in front of her, it was hard to imagine all this fitting into her small one-bedroom apartment back in the city. With her mom in the hospital, it was more important than ever for Lara to be closer. However, even with the decent salary she made at her graphic design job, homes in the area were impossible to afford. She tried every possible subdivision in town before finally finding a match. Nestled on the edge of the forest, far from the life in town, this old home was being sold for a steal. And Lara could see why. The home itself seemed as though someone had tried to tear it apart from the inside. Floorboards were half uprooted, there were holes in the ceiling, and it was clear the house had been neglected from the outside. In the yard, there were half filled holes every five or six feet. Lara was not pleased to find herself the new owner of this mess, but she knew a thing or two about home improvement and she was sure her mom had some reliable contractors she could call. Besides, the important thing was to be nearby for her mom.

“Well, first things first!”, Lara thought to herself. She grabbed one of the boxes marked ‘clothes’ and headed to the master bedroom closet. She opened the door and gasped. “You have got to be kidding me. This closet won’t even fit my hangers”, Lara mumbled with disgust. “I can’t believe they would even make a closet this shallow. Especially for the master bedroom!” The closet was about a foot and a half deep, barely able to contain the clothes hangers Lara was putting up. Lara managed to get most of her hangers into the closet before deciding to start unpacking some of the clothing that she was sure were getting wrinkled from being stuffed inside the boxes. She was about halfway down the length of the closet before one of her sweaters fell of the hanger causing it to knock on the back of the closet. Surprised by how hollow the noise had been, Lara ignored the fallen sweater and knocked on the wood paneling of the closet instead. “If this is hollow, that means there might be more space back there. This place is already a wreck, I might as well do a little investigating of my own.” After searching the sides of the back panel, Lara managed to find a corner that stuck out just enough to get a screwdriver behind. Once she was able to get her fingers behind the panel, she pulled at it until it came loose and she easily moved it to the opposite wall before taking in what laid behind it.

In front of Lara was a generously sized walk in closet full of shelving and more than enough space for her entire wardrobe. The issue, however, was what the panel had been hiding. There were stacks of plastic containers and cardboard boxes inside the closet. Lara inspected the label on the first few boxes and was surprised to see that they were all personal items. ‘Family Albums’ was plastered across the side of most of the containers. A few of the midsize boxes had cards and handwritten notes. As she sifted through one of the boxes, she noticed something buried at the bottom. Lara carefully grasped it and pulled it towards her. In her hand was a small, leather bound, black book. It seemed to be relatively worn and had a gold ribbon between the pages that was frayed at the end. “Who would leave all of this behind?” Lara wondered. It was with this discovery that all thought of her clothing was abandoned. All Lara could think about was who this book had belonged to. And why they had left it, along with so many personal items, hidden behind a panel in her closet. Unfortunately for Lara, her curiosity would have to wait. The silence of the house was cut short by her phone ringing in the living room.

As she got off the phone with her mother and prepared to meet her at the hospital, Lara felt the unsettling feeling of being watched. She turned to look out her window and was met by a pair of sunken eyes. The eyes belonged to a man standing in the next-door neighbor’s yard and staring into Lara’s living room. “Christ. I don’t have time for this.” Lara thought, “Mental note to always keep those curtains closed. Creep.” Already running late to her visit with her mom, Lara felt it wasn’t worth the time to put this guy in his place just yet. Besides, she wasn’t keen on starting her first day in her new home by cussing out a weird old man.

Making sure the door was locked behind her, Lara headed down the driveway to her car. “You must be the new neighbor” said a raspy voice. A chill ran down Lara’s spine at the sound of the voice. There was something about it that made the hair on the back of her neck stand up and her palms sweat. “Y-yeah, that’s me. Haha. I’m Lara”, she said as she turned around. In front of her were those same sunken eyes that stared at her in the living room. Up close, she saw the man had rough, leather-like skin that seemed permanently tanned. Though he was old and well past his prime, Lara could tell he was still active and outdoorsy. His clothes were old and worn but she could see the handle of a well-maintained hunting knife at his side. The man didn’t reply to her but instead gave her a slow look up and down before turning and heading back to his house. “Just my luck. I move into this dump and my neighbor is a freak.” Lara decided she wasn’t going to mention the neighbor to her mom just yet. There was no need to make her worry over nothing. She took one last look out her rear view mirror and shuddered at the sight of the neighbor just standing in his yard staring into her car. A sense of panic stayed with her long after he disappeared from her mirror.

Lara returned home well after the sun had set. After a day spent in the hospital with her mom, the doctor had pulled her aside as she was leaving. Her mom was only getting worse and the bills were piling up. Desperate to escape from the stress and sadness of it all, Lara was decided on reading the little black book she had found earlier. Maybe reading about someone else’s life would ease her weary mind for a bit. Lara immediately felt that uneasy feeling again as soon as the lights came on in the living room. She couldn’t see outside but she knew more than likely her creep of a neighbor was sitting in the dark just watching her. She shuddered before moving quickly over to the window and pulling shut the curtains. “Alright mystery book, give me something good” she thought as she settled onto the couch with the book.

The pages were slightly yellowed and smelled of dust as if it had been years since the book had been opened. She was surprised to find that it was the diary of a woman, Annie, who used to live in the house. Lara was immediately drawn to this woman, as if she knew her. She followed along with the story as Annie married her long time love, Ron, and began their life together. It seemed that after a few good investments, Ron, had gotten a nice amount of money for the couple to use as a base for the family they so badly wanted to grow. Lara was devastated to read about Annie’s grief and devastation the day Ron died. Ron was shot in a hunting accident while with his friend, Larry but Annie made it clear she suspected Larry had shot Ron on purpose after he had heard about the couple’s new riches. Lara was horrified to read Annie’s accounts of Larry’s constant harassment of her and his obvious attempts to get to her money. But what stopped Lara in her tracks were the last pages of the book. There was a hastily drawn map from what looked to be the house back towards a river with an ‘X’ in red ink over a tree. On the next page was a note written in that same red ink.

“My dearest Ron,

We never got to start the family we always wanted. And I never got to bring that damn Larry to justice for what he did to you. I managed to keep him from what we had for this long, but I fear with this sickness I may not have long left.

Larry has become more desperate in his attempts to find our money and gave me no choice but to hide it where he may never find it. That money was supposed to be our future and I’ll be damned if I let that go to a person like Larry. If I am well again, I plan to donate the money to those who need it more than this old lady. I hope we will be together again, Ron.

Fortune awaits us under the bending tree where we carved our names.

With love,

Your Annie.”

As she closed the book, the sun was just rising. She was too busy processing all that she had read to even care how much time had passed. Thoughts of these people and the lives they lived swam in her head. She felt sad for Ron and even worse for poor Annie. Lara opened the book to look at the map again. “A small fortune is hidden in my own backyard - if this map is correct. That could change everything for me and mom. But…this can’t possibly be true…can it?” Lara thought about her mother’s medical bills and how she needed new treatment. “I’m sorry, Ron and Annie. But if there’s any chance I could help my mom, I’ve got to try”, she said to the ceiling.

Lara was certain she had seen a shovel in the garage earlier. So with the book in one hand and the shovel in the other, she headed outside. Lara felt slightly insane as she trudged through the forest, following the path the map laid out for her. “At least if I don’t find anything, I can laugh about it later”, she thought as the river came into view. Scanning the area, Lara didn’t immediately see any trees. “This was stupid. I’m such an idiot for coming out here.” Lara turned around to head back home when she saw it. An old and bent tree sat to her right with the names Ron and Annie in a heart facing the river. “There’s no way.” Lara muttered breathlessly.

Almost without thinking, Lara started digging in front of the tree. After a few minutes, she finally found something. A large envelope, discolored and covered in dirt, sat in front of her. Lara picked up the envelope and opened it. There were stacks of bills inside. She carefully counted a few with shaking hands. “Oh my god! There’s got to be at least $20,000 in here! I can’t believe it was real. This is more than enough to pay mom’s bills!” Lara couldn’t believe her luck. She closed the envelope and was about to grab her shovel when she felt something sharp in the small of her back. A chill ran down her spine causing the hairs on the back of her neck to stand up as a familiar raspy voice whispered in her ear. Suddenly, Lara didn’t think it was luck that brought her here.