Slowly…ever so slowly, the tree started, for lack of a better term, to ungrow. The trunk started get smaller in diameter; the limbs started to retract. It got faster, until in under two minutes it was nothing more that an acorn again. There was a gaping hole in the roof of the underground cave and the second boy fell backwards where the first boy caught him. -----“Have you lost what little mind you have!?” In a very weak voice the second boy answered. “What? You told me it was my turn…so I fixed it.” -----“And we both know that you can’t do much of nothing now, for at least an hour. Did you really want to waste that much time?” “No, but since I left the chainsaw at home…” -----“Ha-ha-ha. Very funny.” “I didn’t see you pulling out an ax. Besides, this kind of crap runs in my family; about time I got to use it for something worthwhile.” -----“Your grandmother had that gift…you know it skipped your parents. So what if you have it, it’s weaker in you. If Granny Mag was alive today she’d…” “She’d be happy somebody took after her.” -----“She’d beat you and you know it.” “Look, the worst that would happen is that Death would show up and I could challenge him outright instead of us having to go find him.” -----“Your brain’s gone soggy. You know damn good and well that once you’re dead, he has you. No challenge will get you out of it. It would be me that would have to challenge him and you know my luck at games…you’d both be lost.” The second boy pulled himself back up and stood. “Look. See, I’m already feeling better. You worry for nothing.” He started walking. -----“Uh, Einstein, the door is over here; you’re going back out that way.” “Oh, yeah…” He rubbed his eyes and shook his head. “Sorry, got lost there for a minute.” The first boy shook his head. -----“You ain’t gonna be happy till you’re dead.” The second boy sat back down next to his friend. Fumbling around in his pack, he pulled out a thick leather glove and a small glass vial with a glass stopper sealed with a soft wax. He unsealed the vial and put on the glove. -----“Now what do you think you’re doing?” “Just in case.” He reached down and picked up a very small sliver of door that was left on the ground and slid it into the vial. Taking the glove off, the restoppered it and mashed the wax back around it. -----“What makes you think that the door pieces still have the curse on them?” “Look at the glove.” They both looked down at where the second boy had laid the glove and it was already starting to turn to a pile of dust.