The Little Tree
This is a true story, or so I’m told…
Once there was a man who lived in an older apartment in a nice part of town. The walls and floors were wooden and kind of rickety but he liked it nonetheless. The man kept mostly to himself although he occasionally had over a few friends for a drink or coffee which was quite usual for a man of his age and demeanor.
One fine day in January, after he had finished cleaning his apartment and disposing of the various decorations the man noticed something odd in the corner of his apartment. He walked over to take a closer look at what appeared to be a little tree growing out of his floor. That’s odd he thought, but for some reason decided to leave it. The man kept an eye on the tree and over the weeks it appeared to grow, he started giving it water and actually became quite fond of it.
A couple of months later, the little tree had grown almost a foot tall and started to resemble a little Christmas tree. That’s very odd he thought, and realized he’d never really thought about where the tree had come from. Perhaps it was a cutting that had fallen off his Christmas tree and landed just right and planted itself in the floor. Well, that was fortunate he mused, but what about the roots, they must be bothering his neighbor, and if they’re not now, they will be soon.
The man decided to pay his downstairs neighbor a visit to discuss the tree.
The man knocked on his neighbor’s door but got no reply. The man was about to turn around and head back up when he thought to try the door, if it was unlocked he could take a quick peek to see how far the roots had gotten. He slowly tried the door handle and to his surprise, the handle turned completely, the door was unlocked.
Carefully, the man pushed the door open… and was met with a ghastly stench! Like nothing he’d ever smelled before. As he choked on the stench he pushed forward into the room, there in the corner was a gigantic Christmas tree pushing up into the ceiling, and at the bottom of that tree was his neighbor, wrapped in tinsel and decomposing!
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