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You give Jason enough time to get to the ground then hurry back to the typewriter. There’s nothing else on the page you read, so you flip through those on the table. As you do you notice the name Isaac in several places. At last you come to page one. The title reads //The Spirit Tree,// and beside it Jason has sketched a pine tree. You start to read Deep in the forest there was a pine tree that remained the same from year to year and from season to season. Despite fires and floods that devastated the rest of the forest, this tree was never destroyed. The Indians believed that this tree gave them supernatural powers- powers to see into the future and power to travel into the past- for it was the way station for spirits, both evil and good. Hovering in its upper branches, the spirits waited patiently until the time was right to possess the bodies of those who kept vigil or passed in its shadow. Because of its sacred nature this one tree was never to be disturbed. No pinecones could be picked, no branches cut. Elders of the tribe often consulted the tree when seeking answers to problems, and young Indian men were required to sit alone in its shadow on the night before they were to become braves.

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