Shawn, Delilah: The Willow Tree of Truth
The kids huddled in behind Shawn as he made his decision, placing one foot over the other and managing to move towards the Weeping Willow tree's veil of branches that draped across the ground like a curtain. As Shawn got closer, he saw the tree was anywhere between 30 and 40 feet tall, bark a brownish-gray color, with grooves in it. The branches, on the other hand, had soft, even surfaces. The leaves were a deep yellowish-green, light brownish-yellow, and narrow. When he got closer to the tree, he stepped into it's shadow which was long and towering.
Though Shawn was the only one experiencing what was happening, the other children were well aware that he was experiencing something. The began to realize, to the extent that children can, that the shadow cast upon him was one of both space and time by something moving in this twisted dimension below the visible universe that they called their daily lives. Somewhere deep inside they knew this. Perhaps it was in their dreams when they brushed up against the truth, when their defenses were down for maintenance, that’s when pieces of this secret world normally slipped through.
Shawn, who was now clearly heading toward the curtain of the tree's branches, felt an involuntary idea press into it his head.