tree-spirits

Now tell me what you__e afraid of.___ncle Nathan is right about this tree. It__ got some kind of spirit in it. And it doesn__ want me to leave._ I saw my dad smile and shake his head. ____ serious, Dad. You can__ send those guys up here again. The tree will try to kill them before it lets them take me down. Didn__ you see it happen?___ saw a couple of accidents___nd Ronnie fell yesterday, but somehow I__ able to be up in this tree no problem. I got up here without any ropes or ladders. Don__ you find that mysterious? Uncle Nathan doesn__. Grandfather doesn__.___hey are both superstitious, that__ all.___ know,_ I said. __nd what about that, Dad? You__e spouted all your legends and myths at me my whole life, and now you suddenly don__ care about them? That doesn__ make any sense.__e sighed so deeply I could hear it. __ study those legends to get to know our culture, our heritage. I don__ believe that they are literal truths.___ut what about the mermaids?_ I pressed. __emember the big story you told about the singing boat and the killer whale? It was you who told me that maybe the story was wrong and it wasn__ a singing boat; it was a mermaid under the boat.___ remember, but I had a real mermaid staring me in the face at the time. There isn__ anything like that going on right now.___ hear whispers coming from the tree. It moves on its own. It is warmer than it should be___ou__e been up there too long. You__e delirious.__ grunted at him. __t started before I climbed up!__ad rubbed a hand over his face. __ don__ know what you want me to do here.__ turned on the camera and flipped the digital pictures until I found that one with the face. I stuck it in the bucket and lowered it down to my dad and told him to take a look.__s that as good as a mermaid right in front of you?__e studied the picture a moment and then replied, __ always see faces in the knots of trees. Who doesn__? I think that__ why so many people create horror stories about them.