The Remembering Tree by HR Mason

Author:HR Mason
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781922679239
Publisher: Tangled Tree Publishing

Seventeen

Gemma sat at the kitchen table, nursing her third cup of coffee, praying for the first light of morning to come quickly. She had been awake all night long, unable to get the strange singing and the witch in the tree out of her mind. She had gone upstairs to try to sleep but had simply lain there in the dark, eyes wide with fear, startling at every strange noise she heard.

Finally, at around five o’clock, she’d crept downstairs and made a pot of coffee. She thought about the effigy in the tree and shuddered. She’d hidden it in a box on the porch, not quite sure what to do with it. Who would do such a thing? She barely even knew anyone in Beacon Shores.

Her first thought when she’d seen it was to call Eric, but it was already well past 11:00 p.m., so she’d thought better of it, not wanting to wake him. She knew he would have been there in minutes, though, if she’d made the call. She had no doubt.

Eric always showed up around seven in the morning, so she decided to wait and tell him about it then. To keep her mind off things, she’d typed away at her laptop for the past two hours, working on her book, hoping that focusing on Pearl’s life would help her forget about her own.

When six thirty rolled around, she heard Opal rummaging around in her room upstairs, getting ready for school. Opal and Ryder always arrived a bit early and played music outside before school started. Gemma was glad her daughter was oblivious to what had happened. Opal had no idea about the night she’d had, and Gemma planned to keep it that way.

Thirty minutes later, Opal came downstairs, grabbed the breakfast Gemma had prepared for her, kissed her mother goodbye, and headed out the door to school. Not even five minutes later, she heard the crunch of gravel as Eric’s truck pulled into the driveway. She waited, his steaming coffee mug in her hands, for him to knock twice on the door and call, “Hello,” as he came into the kitchen. Their morning routine was well rehearsed.

As he walked into the kitchen, his warm smile immediately disappeared when he saw Gemma. She had tried her best to conceal her emotions, and though she had been mildly successful with Opal, Eric picked up on her state of mind immediately.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, forehead creased with concern as he gently took his coffee mug from her hands. “You look like you’ve been awake all night.”

“I have been,” she answered, sinking into the dining room chair.

“What happened?” He sipped his coffee and settled his kind eyes on her.

“Something really strange and scary,” Gemma began.

“Tell me.”

“Well, I was upstairs writing late last night, and I heard something really weird. It was a girl singing.”

“A girl singing?”

“Yes.” She nodded. “It was this odd song. I actually heard it once before, right after I first moved in, but I never figured out where it was coming from then either.

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