My family live on a farm, some of us go missing.

My grandpa was always smiling. Even when he was asleep, which he was often. I’d often stumble upon him snoring under one of the trees in the field. There was an older tree with thick, gnarled branches covered in bark flaking off in large sheets that was his favourite. He said it was weathered and sturdy like he was.

I asked him where grandma had gone. I was a child and we had been out trying to milk the cows. He stopped and looked up at me.

“Well, she went for a walk deep into the forest.”

He pointed through the barn doors and towards the treeline that led to a massive forest bordering our property.

“She has gone to get us more food and will not come back, but the food will.”

I asked why grandma didn’t say goodbye and that if she was upset with me. He chuckled and said she was only in a hurry, but she had left a message for me. That she loved me very much and would always be thinking of me. He asked if i understood and I nodded. He laughed and pat me on the head. I always loved his laugh, full of mirth and loud.

He went missing one afternoon. I had saw him earlier that day sleeping under his tree. Twigs had blown over him in his sleep covering him like a patchy blanket. He hadn’t packed a bag or taken his car. He simply didn’t show up for dinner and his chair remains empty.

My mom had passed when I was little so I had only my dad left. We threw ourselves into farm work for the next few days, at night sitting together in silence, playing chess or sipping glasses of whiskey. We got several new bottles after the first week.

I asked him one night where he thought grandpa had gone. He stared ahead and replied in a flat tone.

“He’s dead, or gone where we shouldn’t follow.”

I tried to get him to elaborate further and he refused. He never told me where it was he thought grandpa had went. After awhile I got angry and demanded answers. I was shouting and grabbed his shirt. I was drunk. We fought and both went to bed with regrets.

That night there was a storm and a great crash even louder than the thunder from outside. In the morning we found several trees had been uprooted. Barn doors hung open and wet crops scattered the grass. Grandpa’s tree had collasped in the storm. Its large branches sunk into the dirt wherever they had landed. The trunk had split in two and it took us weeks to break it up and clear it out.

The sun was hot but slowly starting to aproach the horizon. We had been working late that day as we had nearly finished breaking up the trunk and its branches. We never did finish.

I got started digging out an area around the former base of the tree to begin pulling up all its roots. About halfway through i felt my shovel hit something a different texture than dirt. I heard a wet squealch and brought back my shovel to find it covered in a dripping greyish black substance.

We don’t know how my grandpa’s body got burried underneath the tree. It was tangled and crushed between many of the roots as if they had grown around him and suddenly constricted like a snake.

I can still remember the look on my dads face. Horror. He wept and I sat there with him. After awhile he stood up without a word and began striding towards the treeline. I caught up to him and asked what he was doing. When he met my eyes now his face held only anger.

He told me to move and with that look on his face I almost did. We stood there frozen in time as I studied his expression. His body wss rigid and his hands were clenched by his side. He was gritting his teeth and his eyes were dark. When he spoke his voice was low and measured.

“You’re mother didn’t die when you were young. The tall grass pulled her unground, you were in her arms. I only had enough time to grab you before she was gone.”

He wasnt looking at me anymore. I didn’t try to stop him as he pushed past me and into the forest. When I went to take a step after him something deep in my gut told me I would never come back if I followed. So I didn’t. I watched him slowly disapear into the bushes while I called his name. He never looked back.

I thought I was going to leave. I packed up my car and went to bed last night for what I thought was the last time in this house. I woke up to the sound of laughter. It was coming from the forest. It was just as loud and full of mirth as I remember. I can still hear him laughing now.