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After two hours of incessant digging, Jesse stopped and straightened out, wiping his forehead.
“I’m beat,” he released a heavy sigh, holding his lower back with both his hands.
“Me, too,” Hyde nodded, throwing away the shovel. “Looks like there’s nothing there.”
All three gazed blankly into the empty hole that gaped at them, mocking their failure. The tree still stood there, victorious over time, over people, over them.
“But, there has to be!” Rene shrieked, unable to believe that they’d come all this way and found nothing.
“Maybe someone found it already. That was a long time ago,” Hyde offered a plausible explanation, raking his hair with his fingers, as he always did when he was short of an answer.
“No, no, I can’t believe that,” Rene was still shaking her head in disbelief. “The box has to be here!”
Hyde came from behind her, and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her on the neck. He could feel her body quivering, refusing to believe the truth that arose out of the empty hole.
“I was sure…” she said, a little more silently, her voice trailing off.
“Fuck!” Jesse shouted angrily, slamming his shovel against the tree, which suddenly released a hollow sound.
Hyde and Rene immediately turned to face him.
“What?” Jesse shrugged his shoulders. “I’m pissed, I did all this digging for nothing, and now…”
“Shhh,” Hyde pressed his index finger onto his lips. “Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?” Jesse asked.
“The sound the tree made?” Hyde explained.
“It sounded dull. So what?”
“It didn’t sound dull, silly,” Rene smiled at him, “it sounded hollow. You know what that mean
s?”
“It’s empty inside,” Hyde grinned.
“And if it’s empty on the inside, then…”
“Maybe there’s something inside!!” Hyde and Rene shouted at the same time.
“You are a genius!” Rene rushed over to Jesse, grabbed his face in her palms and kissed him soundly on the cheek.
Hyde grabbed the shovel and started hitting the bottom of the tree with it. After a few heavy blows, it started to crack. Slowly but surely, the crack was getting bigger and bigger, until finally Hyde kicked it with his heavy boot. His foot fell into the tree and he tried hard to set himself free.
They helped him and once his foot was out, they were shocked to see that the tree was completely hollow on the inside. And there, at the very bottom, nestled cozily among the inside roots, a purple box lay, with a heart keyhole.
“But, how is this possible?” Rene asked, taking a step back.
The tree was healthy. Its branches were starting to blossom with green leaves, and it looked just like any other tree in the woods. And yet, it was completely hollow on the inside.
“Haven’t you learned not to question these things?” Jesse grinned, pushing them aside and taking out the box. “Here,” he offered it to Rene.
She hesitated a little, before she accepted it solemnly into her hands. It felt light, like she was holding nothing at all.
“I’m scared,” she told them, with a weak smile on her face.
“We’re here,” Hyde assured her. “If you want, open it. If you don’t want to open it, we’ll hide it somewhere, like your grandfather did.”
