The Compass in the Hollow Tree

Late one afternoon, when the shadows had begun to stretch long across the grass, Grandmother sat in her kitchen chair and spoke of a brass compass she had lost when she was a little girl. Her eyes glittered a little when she mentioned it, as if the compass were still pointing somewhere inside her. Astrid, who was twelve, listened closely. Her little brother Bo, who was seven, held his breath. 'Where did you lose it, Grandmother?' Astrid asked at last. Grandmother looked out the window toward the woods and smiled. 'In the Hollow Tree,' she said. 'But that was long ago. It surely isn't there anymore.'

Astrid and Bo exchanged a glance. That glance needed no words. When Grandmother had fallen asleep in her armchair, they pulled on their boots, tied their jackets snug, and gathered a small flashlight, an apple, and a wood-handled knife their father had given Astrid. 'We'll only go to the tree,' Astrid whispered, 'and be home before the stars come out.' Bo nodded gravely, as if he had a very important mission. The forest began just past Grandmother's apple tree. A path wound in among the birches, and from there they knew the oak stood somewhere deep inside, where the moss was thickest.

The path was soft beneath their boots and smelled of rain and pine resin. Bo walked in front and pointed at everything he saw: a yellow mushroom, a deer's hoofprint, a spider's web hanging like a necklace between two branches. Astrid let him lead, because she knew the forest felt smaller when one could point at it. After a while they came to a stream. It was not deep, but it was wide, and the water gurgled softly between the stones. Across the stream lay a mossy little wooden footbridge, so old that the moss had grown over the railing.

'Do you think it'll hold?' Bo whispered. Astrid laid a hand on the railing and pressed. The wood was damp but firm. 'It's been standing here a long time,' she said. 'It'll carry us.' They crossed one step at a time, and the bridge sighed gently beneath them as if just waking up. Halfway across, Bo stopped and looked down into the water. A small silver fish shivered past and vanished beneath a stone. 'Hello,' Bo whispered to the fish. Astrid smiled. On the other side, the forest felt at once a little different, more secret, like a room one has just stepped into.