Just the House Settling In

I'm not absolutely sure what kind of story it's going to be yet. I just felt like writing, but I didn't plan it out much. I did write it to seem a little weird on purpose, though. I love scary stories, so that's what I'm leaning towards.

The next day, I went about business as usual. My life wasn't some horror movie, as far as I was concerned. Maybe if I had asked my sister if she had heard those noises last night, I would have gotten an interesting answer. If this was some spooky story, I would have asked her if she had heard the noises the next morning and she would have had no idea what I was talking about, making me look like a loon. But I didn't ask, because I had already solved this mystery the night before. I didn't even think about it. I spent an hour or two of that summer day playing Pokemon Sapphire before walking out to explore the woods.

I mentioned earlier that the I had already spent much of my childhood in those same woods, and that was true for me. See, my grandfather owned the land our old house was on, as well as the land the new one was on. For generations my family had owned a decent amount of farmland there. Later as the nearby town grew, the agriculture industry became more mechanized (and workers were more rare, I imagine) my grandfather decided to retire the farm. He and some of his friends planted rows and rows of Pine trees over the farm, with the idea of selling the lumber to cover the taxes on the land. That was back in the 1960's or 70's, and those Pines still stand, now around 90-110 ft tall on average. The way they were all planted at once and in a uniform way caused them to grow as a curious little forest. As they grew so near one another, sunlight rarely made it down below the first few branches, so now they are mostly around the same height, with all the healthy leaves and branches near the top, while the 60+ feet of trunk below are relatively bare of new growth. Beneath the curious canopy of tall bare Pines there are stirrings of younger bushes and saplings of Pine, Oak, and most often Sweetgum. This trend persists among most of my family's land, so even though I had never been to the woods on this side of the highway before, it felt safe to me. Of course, back then I didn't know much about whose woods they were or why they looked like they did. HERE is a picture from my room of how those woods looked after the area was harvested for lumber, but they used to be much thicker. Much darker.

So I set off northward into the woods, coincidentally in the direction closest to the corner of the trailer where my room was, the opposite direction from the highway so I could maximize the area of exploration. Most of the woods in that direction are rows of pines as I just spent too much time explaining, but every once in a while there would be a break in the monotony. I came across a small clearing with surprisingly tall green grass, on one side of which was a long-forgotten pile of man-made refuse I could only barely notice sticking out of a thick blanket of dirt, moss, and grass. It wasn't terribly intriguing to me at the time, so I continued on. Several minutes later I found a large Oak tree tearing its way out of the 'canopy' of tall, thin pines. This thing must have been here for a centuries, I thought. The roots around the oak made it impossible for the Pines to grow well nearby. Beneath the oak was a large shaded area dominated by roots and damp dark earth. An old shopping cart was left in the area as well, turned on its side. I played around the roots, testing my balance and practicing my swordsmanship, pretending to be Wesley from the Princess Bride. After a few minutes I ventured on.

Some time later, I noticed my path was no longer as useful. I had been  The rows of the pines were no longer neat rows. In fact, the pines were now interspersed with trees of similar height. I realized I must be venturing to the outskirts of my family's land. Sunlight trickled through the now thinning green roof I had been using for shade. I thought maybe I ought to turn back. I hoped I would be able to find my way back if I did. Looking around, I had already lost track of which way I had come through before. I noticed a landmark, though, and I walked towards it. It was an old car, faded red, in the middle of the woods. Even more curious, it was upside-down. The doors were halfway open; I remember because saplings and vines wormed their way from the ground up through the open windows. I don't recall the make model of the car, sadly, but I did look for it at the time. I stood there and inspected it for quite a time, peeking into the cab from above what had been the bottom of the doors, but was now the top. The inside was surprisingly clean, some dirt and spiderwebs aside. I wondered how it got here, in the middle of the woods. Of course I came to the conclusion, as you probably have, that this car had been there before the trees.

STAY TUNED FOR PART 3?!?! THE THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM?!?!