At first, he saw nothing obvious. On closer inspection, he noticed something at the edge of the trail. He squatted down to have a closer look. There was no mistake. It was definitely a large acorn. I can t believe it! he exclaimed. Where in the world did this come from?
For the longest time, Matt stared at the acorn. He knew acorns came from oak trees but in this region of the country, there were absolutely no oak trees growing anywhere. It was well known that oaks were not native to the area. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't think of a logical explanation as to how the acorn came to be at the edge of the path. After thinking about it for some time, he finally concluded someone must have lost the acorn while hiking along the trail. Maybe that s what the squirrel was chattering about, he reasoned aloud, it probably had never seen an acorn before and wasn't sure if it was edible.
With absolute confidence he'd solved the unusual behaviour of the squirrel, he picked up the acorn and made his way back to the bench where he'd left his binoculars and backpack. He removed the pencil and pad from his backpack, and in his usual meticulous manner made some detailed notes concerning his find. He was careful to look at his watch and record the exact time. It was 1:30pm.
Following his note taking, Matt unzipped a small pocket on the side of his backpack and prepared to put the acorn into the pocket. In the process, however, the acorn slipped from his hand, bounced off his backpack and fell through the spaces in the bench.
The moment he bent down to look for the acorn, the squirrel suddenly appeared. In a flash, it darted under the bench and snatched the acorn. Before Matt could react, the squirrel headed off into the underbrush immediately behind the bench.
To say the least Matt was extremely annoyed. The squirrel had clearly stolen his evidence and he desperately wanted the acorn to show to his mom and dad. He slipped on his backpack, put his binoculars around his neck and stepped off the trail into the brush behind the bench.
In reality, he knew he didn t have a chance of catching the squirrel. Even if he did, there was no way he d be able to recover the acorn it had taken from him. On the other hand, he thought it was worth having a look just in case the squirrel dropped it near the trail.
To his surprise, the squirrel was sitting a few meters away. The instant it saw him, it began chattering and slowly moved toward a large dead tree standing at the base of a nearby hill.
Although the tree was still intact, it had obviously been dead for many years. Its large branches were devoid of bark and bleached grey from years of weathering. To Matt, it reminded him of a huge skeleton, silently standing with open arms as if guarding the hill behind it.
Since the tree wasn t a great distance away from the path, Matt decided to follow the squirrel at least to the tree. He was hopeful that somewhere along the way the squirrel might drop the acorn.
For some reason though, the more he hiked toward the old tree the louder his dad's words (about staying on the trail) echoed through his mind. At one point, he hesitated for a moment as he considered turning back. On the other hand, he reasoned, the old tree wasn't very far away and there was still a chance he might recover the acorn.
Even though the little voice in his head kept telling him he should go back, his curiosity was stronger. There was no other way to explain it. It was just something he had to do.
When the squirrel reached the tree, it scrambled part way up the trunk and jumped onto a large branch. As Matt drew closer, the animal began chattering loudly and quickly scurried into a crotch where two massive branches met. Seconds later it suddenly disappeared from view.
That's it! exclaimed Matt. It probably stashes its food in there! Then, as if by magic, the squirrel reappeared. It sprang from the tree and quickly disappeared into a nearby thicket of bushes. Having discovered the squirrel s hiding spot, Matt was soon overcome with an uncontrollable urge to climb the tree for a closer look. He knew climbing dead trees was risky business. He d never had a mishap climbing such trees himself, but was well aware of the risks.
A year earlier, one of his friends had broken an arm because of a nasty tumble from a dead tree. In spite of the risks involved, he slowly began walking around the tree randomly pulling on branches as he attempted to determine the tree s overall condition.
Moments later, he concluded the tree was still reasonably sound. In addition, he reasoned, the area of interest wasn t much further up the tree than he was tall. A piece of cake, he whispered to himself.
Neatly, he placed his backpack and binoculars at the base of the tree and slowly pulled himself up to the nearest branch. Carefully creeping along, he made his way to the crotch area where the squirrel had disappeared from view.
At the point where the two massive branches met, he found a large hole that went deep into the trunk of the tree. At first glance, he couldn t see anything when he looked down the hole. On closer inspection though, he saw a faint glimmer of light from inside the hole. Slowly, he shifted his position to get a better view.
It was one of the last things he remembered. There was a massive crack as the branch broke. The next sound he heard was the dull thud of his body slamming into the ground at the base of the tree. For a fleeting instant, he recalled the tiny little voice in his head that told him he shouldn't climb dead trees.