BETWEEN THE TREES

by
Frank Harper
A young boy lives with his rather horrible Grandmother in a wooden shack by the woods.
He is treated terribly and his Grandmother makes him do all sorts of horrid chores and strenuous
housework.
She tells him that if he doesn't behave and do as he's told, the monsters will take him away in the
middle of the night and eat him up.
One day while washing the dishes, the boy is so tired, he nearly nods off and drops a plate,
smashing it to pieces.
This makes his Grandmother very cross indeed, and she scolds him, throwing the boy into his room
and locking the door.
The boy cries himself into a restless sleep.
But in the middle of the night he is woken by a peculiar sound. He wakes to find a cluster of
bubbles floating above his head, making little flute-like noises as they popped.
As the boy becomes fully alert and gives the bubbles his full attention, they begin to form a trail,
leading towards the door. Hopping out of bed with his teddy bear, the boy follows as the trail leads
him toward his locked bedroom door, which swings open gently as he approaches.
Making his way down the hallway, he stops to peer in on his sleeping, snoring Grandmother. Her
obnoxious snores shaking the room. (all we see of her at this point is her horrible yellow-toed feet
sticking out of the bed in the foreground.)
Creeping past his Grandmothers bedroom the boy leaves the shack via the back door, carefully
closing the door behind him.
The bubbles float out over the garden and lead into the dark woods.
The boy follows, and makes his way through the forest, crouching under bows and branches.
As he proceeds he starts to become aware of a light in the distance, and a peculiar music on the air,
as if an orchestra were tuning their instruments.
The boy comes to a large clearing in the trees, and there, around a camp-fire, a large, horned
creature sits playing a peculiar looking bugle (the source of the bubbles) he is accompanied by 2
small, hooded figures, each holding a different musical instrument. A large cart is off to the side.
The boy is hiding behind a tree, but shifting his weight, he breaks a stick underfoot, causing all eyes
to turn his way.
The boy freezes in terror as the large creature stands, and lurches its way towards him. Towering
over him.
But the creature simply bows, and welcomes the boy.
And as he does so, the 2 mysterious other characters, lower their hoods revealing themselves to also
be children.

The boy looks on confused...

So the creature explains who he and his companions are (a travelling band for the dejected and
downtrodden) and that the boy is welcome to join them. The two children play a TA-DA!! to
celebrate.
The boy considers the offer, but tells the creature that he mustn't leave his Grandmother, as she'd be
very cross with him if he did.
The creature smiles and nods, and with a wave of his hand he conjures a small flute out of thin air
and presents it to the boy. Telling him that if he should change his mind, he need but play a tune on
it, and it would lead him back to them.
And so the boy turns back for home, back through the woods, back into the shack, down the hall
and back into bed.
The next morning he is woken abruptly by his Grandmother shouting for him.
He had trailed mud all over the floor, and his Grandmother was furious, and raging.
She demanded to know what he had been up to, and so, timidly, the boy told her. All about the giant
creature and the other children he had seen in the night.
After a short silence his Grandmother simply laughed, and laughed at his seemingly absurd story.
Claiming that the boy must be bonkers!
This enrages the boy! Who angrily swears that he's not lying!
His Grandmothers mood becomes stern. Again warning the boy that his disobedience will cause the
monsters to come and take him away.
The boy erupts in a fit of rage, claiming that the old woman is a liar, and that the only real monster
around here was her!
This was the final straw, and the old woman beats the boy black and blue, before throwing him into
his room and locking the door.
The boy nurses his bruises, angrily looking at the door. Then he pulls the flute out of his pocket and
sits waiting for the night to come.
Listening through the walls to his Grandmothers snores, ensuring that she is asleep, the boy takes up
the small flute and blows a note.
Bubbles shoot out from the instrument, as they did the previous night, forming a trail in the air
leading toward the locked door, which again, miraculously creaks opens.
Creeping past his Grandmothers room once more, the boy heads for the exit with his teddy.
He opens the back door, to find the creature stood directly outside, with his cart all packed up and
ready to go. The two children sat in the back, smiling expectantly at the boy.
The creature motions for the boy to hop aboard.

Stepping forward, the boy heads toward the cart, but the door slams shut behind him.
His Grandmother wakes with a start, and then a low, angry grumble.
She heads to the boys room, but finds the door wide open and the room empty.
Furious now, she heads to the back door., which she too finds ajar.
Taking a step out into the dawn air, she finds a tattered old teddy bear and a set of track marks
leading off into the woods.
Realising that the boy was gone for good she screams and shouts.
Sat in the back of the cart with his new friends making music, the boy hears his Grandmothers
anguished cries echoing across the valley, he looks up for a moment, but then goes back to playing
songs gleefully.
And the creature wheels them off into the distance.