Nothing's What it Seems - Halloween Stories 2022

The Tree

"I'm going to play outside!" My daughter Annie, announced, as she came running through the kitchen with her arms full of her favorite dolls, which was all of them.

I chuckled as she attempted to open the sliding door to the backyard without dropping any of her dolls.

"Here, let me help" as I slid the door open for her.

"Thank you, daddy!" She yelled as she took off running towards the giant tree that stands tall in the center of our large yard. Her little legs couldn't keep up with the speed she was running, as she soon tripped and fell to the ground sending her dolls flying, scattering them all around her. She got back up quickly and shouted, "I'm okay!"

"Be careful," I shouted back.

She nodded and picked up her dolls then continued running. I chuckled again as I shut the door.

Since she turned five years old a few months ago, Annie has become increasingly fond of the tree in the backyard. She loves to play near and around it whenever she's outside. She sits against it and reads her favorite books to it and even pretends to show the tree the pictures. She's done nothing unusual, just the typical five-year-old imagination stuff.

After a while of her playing outside, I hear the sound of the sliding door slowly being tugged open.

"Daddy!"

"Yes, sweetie, what is it?" I answered as I stood up from the couch where I had been sitting reading a book and made my way back to the kitchen.

"Can we have a drink and a snack, please?"

"Yes, you can, what do you want?"

"Strawberries and grapes. My friend, Jenna, wants just strawberries. Lots of them because she's really hungry."

"How about I give you some extra strawberries and you and your friend can share them." I told her, figuring her 'friend' was one of her dolls and strawberries are Annie's favorite snack.

"Okay."

I cut up some strawberries making sure to cut up a couple extra for her 'friend' and put them into one of her snack bowls along with some grapes.

"And what would you two like to drink?" I asked as I put the fruit away.

"Water, please."

"Coming right up."

I filled up a couple of sippy cups with water then handed the bowl of fruit to Annie.

"Can we eat outside?" She asked.

"Sure, I'll help you carry your drinks out there."

"Okay." She opened the door again and we both made our way to the tree where she had her dolls all set up waiting for her.

"You can put Jenna's water down right there." She pointed to a spot in the grass a short distance away from the dolls. "She's sitting there." Annie added.

Chalking it up to an imaginary friend, I sat one of the sippy cups down in the spot Annie told me then handed her, her sippy cup of water.