Cast: 3 actors, gender flexible. Expansion possible. It is 1910. Annabelle, a quiet 11-year-old, and her depressed and lonely great-aunt Leaf develop a secret ritual of storytelling. Each night the old lady sends the child into the woods to look for the ghost of her dead husband. Each night the girl brings back stories—made-up "proof" of her uncle—to cheer up the old woman. Annabelle's fibs grow into stories, and her stories grow into tall tales. As she wanders deeper into the forest each night, she soon comes to believe her own stories are true. The shared adventure, both dangerous and hopeful, serves as a dual passage for the child into adolescence and the old woman into a more peaceful death. A tale from the dark woods of the Hudson River Valley—and the darker woods of the imagination. Single set. Approximate running time: 40 minutes.