Not What It Seems!

By Shanaya Kacheria

Urg! Stupid tree! It was getting on my nerves. Its gnarled branches were crawling like creepers and had invaded my square shaped window. I pleased with Grandma Elora to get the monstrosity out of my sight. Grandma patiently listened to me, before she began telling me her own tale about the tree. The tree had brought her a lot of goodwill. It had helped her come to terms with Grandpa’s unexpected demise.

Grandma narrated so many endearing episodes about the tree, it peaked my curiosity. So I hopped across to the regal laburnum to explore it. I sat under its wide spread shade and rested my head against its perforated bark. Aha! An instant surge of inspiration seeped through me, calling out my name. My black micro tip pen scratched across the lines of my black page and filled it in seconds.

Content with my writing, I stood up and circled the massive laburnum. I stumbled upon a keyhole-shaped opening in the crust of its bark. Peep Peep! Just then a white-breasted nightingale fluttered above me and dropped a golden key at my feet. My hands shook with anticipation as I picked the key and unlocked the keyhole. A long sprawling hallway stared at me in the distance. I took a shaky step inside and jumped nervously, when the bark opening slammed shut behind me. Suddenly the space was flooded with blinding white light. As its haze receded, I glimpsed four white ceramic doors.

The first had a dusty library with not a soul in it. The second was an art room flooded with red inked messages instead of drawings. The third displayed a felt pin board listing possible suspects for a gory murder. I kept twisting the rusty knob of the fourth door, but it reflected to open. “Humph!” I gave up after a while and trudged to the bark opening feeling unnerved and unsettled. Oh gosh! The bark opening refused to budge. A slight creak made me turn. What I spotted sent me sent a wave of fear down my spine. “Your Grandpa was murdered! – XOXO”….. was scrawled in dripping blood on the face of the fourth door.

By Shanaya Kacheria