Lio by Mark Tatulli for May 22, 2018

um… a skull tree?

The Halloween Tree? Somewhere, Ray Bradbury is smiling.

Go ahead, take a bite.

Well, it’s autumn (fall) here, Down Under, but we only have leaves falling from our trees.

If that tree got angry, would it throw skulls like the apple trees in Wizard of Oz threw apples?

Skullnuts!

Now son, did you think skulls grew on trees?!?

It’s early in the season… come back later for whole skeletons.

Deadwood?

I’d like to see the bees that pollinated that thing

That tree must have been skull king….

Don’t try to climb that tree, Lio!

“Are you saying my skulls aren’t fresh?”

“No, there’s just some MAGGOTS in them!”

Well, I’m stumped.

Remember in “Life of Pi” when Pi finds a human tooth inside a flower? Maybe this tree came from the same island.

Don’t be silly. Skulls grow under ground and have to be dug up. Hence the term, Skulduggery! Just ask Shakespeare’s Hamlet!

It must be Autumn where Lio lives. The skulls have ripened and are starting to fall. The Tree looks only too keen to provide!

Strange fruit?

So THAT’S where they come from. And then the humans grow around them. And then I eat the humans and plant the skulls.