Well, some time after the girl's came running, the six of us yung'uns sat huddled together in the shade of Old Joe. He was an ancient, gnarled oak tree that had stood his ground through many a battle against weather, fire, and flood. Normally we would perch high above the ground in the safety of his twisted branches and imagined he listened attentively to our tall tales and gratefully applauded our vivid imaginations. When a gentle ebbing breeze whispered by, we were left with the impression that Old Joe was clapping hundreds of leafy hands together in rapt appreciation. But today would not be one of those days.
I could see the treefall off in the distance where Loblolly had transformed into the Scarlet injun and all of those other hideous entities. It was now unholy ground, and we would never step foot on that tainted parcel again. Lob was still very distant and weak but he had gained enough composure to try to explain what had happened to him when he died and came back to life.
Me and Merle were dazed and could remember nothing further than having watched Loblolly die, and then falling asleep ourselves from the sheer grief of it before he had miraculously sprung back to life. We did not know if we had died, too, but Loblolly wrote about it in his journal once and it seemed so fantastically unreal that even though it had happened directly to us no one could believe it.
YOU ARE READING
The Hollow
FantasyA small group of young country bumpkins - and The Exquisite One who is so much more - meet in an intriguing hollow - and trigger the beginning of the end of their world as they know it. Meet Shortstraw, Bluebell, Loblolly, Primrose, Daylily, and Mer...
