Mae swung the shotgun around with her strong arms. The man in the yellow suit tried to dodge the hit, but it was too late. With a dull thud, the gun smashed into the back of his skull. The man fell to the floor with a loud moan. And at that very moment, riding through the pine trees just in time to see it all, came the Treegap constable.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" the constable asked.
No one said anything. They just stood there with astonished faces. Winnie clung to Tuck and shivered. Mae had put herself at risk in order to protect Winnie.
"You," the constable said loudly, pointing at Mae, "You'd better hope this here man don't die, or we'll have ourselves a real problem. You'll be off to the gallows before you can spread a secret!"
"But he was trying to take me away!" Winnie screamed angrily.
"That's was these here people have done isn't it?" the constable asked.
Winnie looked from Tuck to Jessie to Mae and Miles.
"No, I came cause I wanted to. The Tucks have been nothing but nice to me and I love them!" She cried.
"Well, that don't make no difference now," replied the constable.
And with that he handcuffed Mae and put her on the Tucks fat, old horse, and hoisted Winnie up with him. They rode off into the horizon leaving Tuck, Miles, and Jessie all alone.
Winnie was up in her room sobbing. When the constable had brought her home, Winnie's parents were ecstatic. But then Winnie told her parents that she hadn't been kidnapped, but she had runaway and loved the Tucks. Her father had said, "What! How can you love a bunch of kidnapping hobos?" Winnie got very angry and yelled at him, so he spanked her.
"I hate them all!" Winnie said to her quietly, "Why can't they see I'm not a little girl anymore?"
All of a sudden Winnie got an idea. She had runaway once, she could do it again. Her second story bedroom was only a small jump to the ground. Quickly Winnie grabbed a backpack from her closet. In it she threw her favourite dress and shoes, her blanket, teddy bear, and the music box her grandfather had given to her. Slowly, and carefully, Winnie lowered herself out the window and onto the soft grass outside. Jesse was sitting outside the fence.
"Winnie!" he cried.
"Shhh!" Winnie said, "They don't know I'm out here. Help me, I am going to toss my backpack over the fence, then I'll climb under."
Jesse looked at her with surprised but happy eyes. Winnie tossed the backpack over, and then she squeezed herself through a small opening under the fence.
"Let's get outta here before they notice I'm gone. Otheriwse I'll really get it." Winnie whispered.
The two of them ran as fast as they could heading back to the Tucks cottage. Half way there Winnie had to stop. She set down her bag and tried to catch her breath.
"J-Jessie, I'm t-too t-tired."
Jessie scooped up Winnie and her bag and ran the rest of the way to the cottage.
Back at the cottage Winnie explained to the Tuck men what happened when she got home.
"Well, that's quite a story little lady." Tuck said sympathetically.
"Pa, look at the time," whispered Miles.
It was almost 10:30! Winnie yawned loudly.
"I think it's time someone went to sleep," laughed Tuck.
"No, No," yawned Winnie some more, "We need to save Mae,"
"Don't you worry about that, we've got it all set up. I'll wake you when we leave," said Tuck comfortingly.
"Well, alright then," said a very tired Winnie as she curled up with Tuck and drifted into a deep peaceful sleep.
Sunshine streamed through the open window in the Tuck's living room.
"Oh no! I slept through it all! Tuck! Miles! Jessie!" Winnie cried.
All three men came streaming down the stairs. Jessie tripped and fell. Normally Winnie would have laughed, but she was too worried.
"It's alright child," exclaimed a frightened Tuck, "You were so tired I couldn't wake you, but it wouldn't have mattered anyway."
"Why not?" asked a still worried Winnie.
That constable sat by Ma's cell all night and never moved once," explained Miles.
"We'd better get goin' sighed Tuck, "The hangin's scheduled for 11:00."
The melancholy glaze came back into Tuck's weary eyes. The atmosphere in the room changed and the four of them sadly walked to town.
Poor Mae. Her eyes darted around looking for them. Winnie wanted so bad to jump out grab Mae, and run.
"This woman here is being hanged for the murder of the man in the yellow suit or as some of you know him, ," the constable explained.
Winnie gasped. The man in the yellow suit had a name. Suddenly Winnie realized he was a real person. Whether Winnie like it or not Mae had done a very terrible crime and now she was being punished for it.
The horse ran out from under Mae. Winnie's head snapped up. Mae was fighting to keep the rope from trying to strangle her. Her body went limp and anyone could tell she really was dead.
"But how?" whispered a shocked Miles.
"Impossible" stated Tuck equally surprised.
Jessie just stood there eyes wide, jaw dropped.
"I thought you said she couldn't die," Winnie said, a tear rolling down her cheek, "You lied to me! You're a bunch of lying kidnappers!"
Tuck grabbed her shoulder, "Winnie shh, we didn't lie to you. I don't understand either."
"I don't believe you!"Winnie cried angrily.
"Come we'll show you," said an anxious Tuck sighing.
Tuck slowly took the shotgun off the wall. He handed it to Miles. With shaking hands Miles took it and pulled the trigger. Tucks limp body lay on the floor. A pool of dark, red blood was starting to form under neither him.
Winnie just stood there. Her eyes were filled with fear and horror. Tuck's own son had killed him.
"I don't understand," Miles said in pain.
We've got to figure it out," replied Jessie. "But first we've got to get Winnie on our side."
"How?" asked Miles.
"I have no clue," Jessie whispered.
"Wait, I have an idea," Miles suddenly exclaimed. "If we get Winnie to drink the water then we can shoot her and she'll see she won't be able to die either."
"That might just work, but how do you plan on getting her to drink it. She'll never trust us again." Jessie questioned.
"Watch!" said an excited Miles. "Winnie, do you want a drink of water to make you feel better?"
Winnie nodded not wanting to fight back anymore. Miles nodded back and went to the cupboard and took a pitcher down and a glass. He poured the water into the glass and gave it to Winnie who drank the entire glass slowly. Miles picked up the shotgun quickly and pulled the trigger. Winnie jumped.
"What are you doing," she cried rubbing the spot over her heart where the bullet had hit her.
Jessie and Miles just stood there smiling.
Winnie realized she had just been shot and hadn't died. The look on her face asked the question "How?"
"The water I gave you was really water we had stored from the spring," explained Miles.
"You mean, now I am like you. Immortal and unchanging"
"Well, unchanging yes, but from what just happened with Ma and Pa I don't know about immortal," said a suddenly sad Jessie.
"We are three kids without parents, what are we going to do? How are we going to survive?" asked Winnie.
"I don't know," said Miles, "but what I do know is we have to find out why Ma and Pa died."
The three of them looked at each other and then held hands, Winnie in the middle, and walked towards the wood together.
As Miles, Jessie, and Winnie entered the wood, Winnie stopped.
"What if we don't find anything?" Winnie asked shivering from the cold.
Jessie hugged her and said, "Then I guess we go on wondering."
Miles' face lit up. "Winnie would you be interested in being our sister."
Jessie frowned as Winnie's eyes and face lit up as bright as the stars in the night sky above.
Before Jessie could say anything Winnie shouted, "Yes, I'd love to!"
The three new Tucks walked for hours searching for some kind of clue to why their parents died. Finally, it got so dark and Winnie got so tired, Miles decided it was time to give up.
"I guess we'll never know why," Jessie said solemnly.
100 years later
Winnie awoke to sunshine and warmth. Her pillow felt wet as it had every morning for the past century. The Tucks were all long gone. Miles had been killed 40 years ago in a carpentry accident. He had lost control of his hand saw and slaughtered himself. Jessie on the other hand and killed himself out of anger 3 years ago. He was sitting on the edge of the pond when he burst out in sudden rage. He came into the house furious, took the gun off its hook above the door and shot himself. Winnie had had to bury his body all alone.
Like always, Winnie got up, got dressed, brushed her hair and teeth, and ate breakfast. Living this lowly life in the body of a 10 year old girl was starting to get on her nerves. Winnie wasn't strong enough to do much and she had to tell her parents she was running away and never coming back was extremely hard to do, especially since she couldn't go to their funerals in fear someone would recognize her.
12 years earlier the wood had been bulldozed over. The secret would remain hidden forever.
Winnie quickly took a wooden crate and a rope from the shed in the back of the small cottage and took them around to the big tree by the pond. She tied a lasso loop around the tree and made another loop at the other end of the rope she made it so her feet couldn't touch the ground. Then Winnie tipped the crate up length ways and stood on it. She slid her head through the loop and tightened it. The crate was kicked over and there was silence.
An old man was walking down by an old cottage that looked like it had been there for centuries. Hanging from a tree was a young girl around the age of ten. The man took her limp body down from the tree and carried her back to town.