“The Eel Tree” – FWG Flash Fiction for 8/10/2024

Nature takes many forms, often repeating herself.

The prompt is:

https://pixabay.com/photos/renaissance-bathrooms-parody-13405

THE EEL TREE

Gerald saw movement as he and Joanna approached the tree.

“Is that tree moving?”

Joanna smiled and nodded vigorously. “That’s what I wanted to show you. This tree’s bark and roots move like it’s alive.”

He looked at her sidelong. “Well, of course it’s alive. It’s a tree—”

“No. I mean, it moves like a…I don’t know. Like a bunch of snakes, only slowly.”

They stopped and stared at the tree across a small pool of water. The trunk and root system of the tree slowly undulated. At the base of the tree, its roots, with their sharply peaked backs, stretched across the surface of the ground for several feet, wrapping around the slime-covered pool.

“They look more like eels than snakes,” Gerald whispered.

“Whatever. I wonder what happens if we touch them.”

She walked around the still water, but Gerald held his ground.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he said.

Joanna gave him one of her seriously? looks. “What’re you afraid of? It’s a tree, not some alien monster.”

But he wasn’t dissuaded. “We don’t know what makes it move like that. Maybe it …I don’t know, maybe it’s infected somehow.”

She laughed out loud. “Or maybe there are little gnomes inside dancing like a dragon on Chinese New Year,” she snarled as she turned away.

When she bent over, Gerald noticed a ripple in the pond.

“Ah, Joanna—”

She ran her hand across the smooth bark of the trunk and down its sensuous surface to the biggest of the roots, which writhed even more excitedly.

Distracted, Gerald didn’t notice the ripple grow longer and wider, until a root-tentacle reached out of the water, grabbed Joanna by the ankle, and dragged her under.

To this day, the sight of garden gnomes sends shivers down his spine.

THE END