Don't Climb the Trees in Everglade Terrace

There were always long shadows on Everglade Terrace. Even on the sunniest of noons the gloom reached out across the street toward the finely mowed lawns of the Willow Grove housing development. Every Willow Grove child knew that something was not right about the curious park across the way though, of course, this understanding didn't prevent the inevitable. Each summer, there were reports of missing children and despite all the grown up furor about how kidnappings were on the rise the local children all knew what really happened.

The stupid children would climb the trees in Everglade Terrace.

And that was that. They never came back. The police would do the cursory harassment of the local oddball residents, the firemen would dredge the river, and the photographs would appear on the milk boxes in the school cafeteria but the shrewd children all knew better. You never climb the trees in Everglade Terrace.