In 500... (or less)

The Tree in Robbers Roost

The perfect hiking trip. It was all that was on my mind as I listened to the light crackling of my fire and gazed upon the stars.

It was easy to see why outlaws chose this place as a hideout, Robbers Roost Canyon was rugged and remote, far from civilization. It was a forbidding place, a place you didn't wander into lightly, or it might cost you your life.

"Hey! Hey you, over here." I swear I imagined it. The nearest person had to be 10 miles away.I looked around for second, then reasoned it away. I was imagining things.

"Over this way!" The voice was clearer and more emphatic.

I squinted in the darkness. All I could see was the soft orange glow on the sage bushes and the hollow of an old tree.

"Yeah, over here!" I was looking more intently at the tree, perhaps someone was hiding behind it.

I reached down to grab my knife as I got up. Maybe it was fellow hiker, lost in the wilderness. One can never be too sure.

"Yes, yes, bring the knife," the voice said. "I need help."

I warily approached the tree, expecting a person to emerge from behind it at any second."Down here," the voice beckoned. It seemed to come from the base of the tree.

I shined my flashlight at the base of the tree. There was a thick tangle of roots exposed above the ground. It seemed impossible that any person, even a child could have wedged themselves inside.

"That light is bright!"

"Sorry," I found myself saying. Did I accidentally have peyote or something?

"It's not from the fire," the voice continued. "You don't have a lantern. How are you doing that?"

"What do you mean?"

"That light, it's coming from that thing you're holding," the voice seemed genuinely confused.

"My flashlight?" I asked.

"Flash....light?" I wracked my brain trying to figure out what could have caused this hallucination. Maybe I had fallen asleep by the fire and was dreaming the whole thing.

"Yeah, a flashlight." I shook it in my hand to show whoever was hiding around the tree.

"Never saw one," the voice said. "Look, you gotta help me. You a friend of Butch's?"

"Butch?"

"Cassidy," the voice answered. "Or maybe you know Elzy or Sundance."

I was at a loss, but couldn't help but think of Paul Newman.

"Um, no," I managed to stutter. "They've been dead for a long time."

"Figures. Say can you cut me loose from here? Under the tree."

I shined the light under the tree. There wasn't anyone there.

"That thing...er, flashlight is some kind of bright! I'm seeing spots!"

I looked more closely, falling backwards with shock as I made the realization that the roots had grown into the shape of human skeleton.

"How did you get in there?" I asked.

"I hid here when I was being chased by a posse," the voice answered. "Got stuck and been here ever since. Can't say how long."

Now how exactly do you tell a person that they've become part of the tree?