Throughtout the night, Karyn felt her body slowly breaking apart as it turned into nutrients for the young tree. It didn't hurt; kinda tickled a little. Karyn thought about how life would be after a month before her mind got hazy and finally ceased to function at all when her brain followed after the rest of her body and turned into nutrients. Her clothes flattened out and deflated, her body was broken down to the basic needs of the tree. As the night passed on the nutrients were drawn from Karyn's clothes and into the ground. By morning, nothing was left but her clothes and the stone.
Mike hated his job. It was good, honest work, but he wanted better. He pulled up to the curb in front of Jon's house early in the morning. He figured he could work early and have the rest of the to make up with his girl. He'd done her real bad last night. Pulling the lawn mower from the bed of his truck, he noticed the tree.
"Must've planted a new tree." Mike thought. but then, he noticed something under the tree and walked over to investigate. It's a pile of clothes, he discovered. Just laid out under the tree. Situated to look like someone was sleeping. Kind of curled up on their side. A t-shirt, a pair of jeans, sneakers. He didn't know why someone would do that, but the clothes were in the way of his cutting the grass. So, he walked back to his truck and grabbed a garbage bag and returned to the tree. He reached down and picked up the jeans. To his surprise, a pair of powder blue panties fell out.
"That's weird." He mummbled softly. Noticing also that each of the sneakers also had a sock sticking out of it. Then, he checked the t-shirt and just as he thought, he found a bra lying inside! As he finished stuffing the abandonned clothing into the bag, he noticed something else. a reddish-metallic looking stone. It found it sort of pretty. He wasn't one to collect rocks, but he felt it called to him. He picked it and put it in his pocket. He tossed the bag into the back of his truck and began to cut the yard. For some reason while he was working his mind kept wondering towards the odd stone in his pocket. Finally, he pulled it out.
"I wish I knew why you feel so important!" Mike said to the little rock. Just then, the magical stone began to grow warm in hand....
