This is something I wrote around age 12.
The truth is that yes, the tree had a face, but it took a little imagination to see it. It happened to be the only dead tree in the forest and stuck out from all the green foliage. I had moved into a new neighborhood and the best way to make new friends was to share creepy stories. We built wood forts and called it “The Creepy Wood Club”. We even had a password to get in. To me, the forest was a magical place with the face tree being the center of it, the lord of the woods. To me, it was as mystical as the Lost Woods in Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. I even used the music from the game in a movie I made called “Spirit”. It was one of my earliest live action films, shot on VHS, and without any editing. It was sort of a ripoff of Ghostbusters, where my friends and I (using plastic toy proton packs) would fight against ghosts. Supposedly, all the ghostly activity was coming from this spiritual tree. Unfortunately, the tree fell down before we finished the movie, so we explained that once the tree fell, all the ghosts disappeared. End of story. Years later, I watched the movie. It was so awful, I recorded over the only VHS tape that existed. Today, I would love to see it again. Getting rid of my old work, no matter how bad, is something I always regret. Keep everything you do. Lock it up in a trunk, put it in a closet. One day, you’ll be glad you did.
