15 for 15 Contest --- Closed

Sandy walked with Mom through the woods. The air was full of rustles from the great green trees that spread overhead, and the calls of the birds that filled them. Sandy liked walking in the woods, seeing all the different trees as they followed the winding path.

Mom left Sandy with some other children in a play park with swings and a slide, and went to fetch some ice cream for them both. But Sandy didn't want to swing. She spotted a squirrel scampering sleekly through the bars of the low fence, and went scampering after it into the woods again.

The squirrel led her into a wilder part of the woods. Although the breeze was still warm, the thick branches overhead made deep shadows. She lost the squirrel among the undergrowth. Looking up, she noticed one huge tree right in front of her, its trunk as wide as three men side by side. The moss stood out thickly on its trunk like a carpet.

Her eyes traced up the long trunk to a shaded patch high above her head. In the patch was a large knot, as though a large branch had broken off long ago. Sandy looked deeper into it. She could pick out a face in there, made out of wood, looking at her with a twisted grin, a trail of moss like a green beard. It winked.

Sandy was transfixed by the two wooden eyes, the long gnarled branch for a nose, willing the face to move again. It didn't. She wondered about the tree - surely it wouldn't have many visitors out here in the dark wild wood. She took a few sweets from her pocket that she'd been saving for later.

"Here you go, Mister Elm Tree," she said, and scampered off back to the swings to wait for Mom.