I’m myself, Scout and Fact. We’re standing on a white sand beach under a dazzling sun; Elizabeth and Tesla are lying on towels behind me. I’m looking at Scout’s back and he is younger, when I had hair. He points to the ocean, to an immense tree in the water. It’s woven from thousands of smaller trees and its canopy casts a shadow that could cover a fleet of battleships. Scout wades into the ocean and I know we’re swimming.
“Bugs live there.” I look over my shoulder to Fact but his face is unreadable. I remember dark soil and slow moving centipedes the size of dogs with oily, segmented carapaces.
Halfway to the tree we stop, treading water and Scout points to an inflatable orange raft, but I change my mind and we keep swimming.
At the tree’s base, millions of roots with tiny beach stones web outward into shallows. We climb, our hands and feet slipping on coated sand, mantling chimneys, wedging fists into channels and as we climb I’m also moving toward the tree’s center, in increasing shadow, passing through chambers that close on our backs.
There is a room with a natural altar twined from the floor, and Scout stops. Fact imagines the lifecycles of beetles, small to large, their transformations from soft, translucent eggs into skittering clawed adults, but I haven’t seen any. I realize they’re hiding from us, scared. Scout has found a path out toward daylight but I haven’t figured out the purpose of the altar room. Fact says we’ve missed the point and Scout is too far ahead and I leave.
We emerge onto the arm of a massive branch flecked with moss and Scout pulls a vine from the wall, bracing himself.
“Elizabeth and Tesla.” Fact points to the beach, and we wave to each other.
Then I dive, hundreds of feet into the ocean again. When we have returned to the beach, Scout continues walking into the jungle while Fact and I sit down on towels with E & T.
Out in the water, the tree’s canopy is slowly boiling into a giant, gray raincloud and the sun is dimming.
“The weather is turning. I knew we shouldn’t have wasted time in the tree.” I look back at Fact and laugh.
Beautiful.