Crush

Fourteen

"Wow," Maddie said as she ducked through the doorway. "This is really cool. I always wanted a tree house."

"Sorry about the dust," Tess said. "We haven't been up here since September so we haven't cleaned it up in a while."

"Do you come up here a lot?" Maddie asked, limping over to the open window on the far side. She leaned out and waved to Will and Lizzie who were laying on the pontoon drying out.

"Not as much as when we were kids. We used to come up here with chips and soft drinks and play cards. Sometimes we'd bring up sleeping bags and stay overnight. We haven't done that in ages though."

"It's a great view," Maddie said, leaning further out of the window.

"Check this out," Tess said. She pushed open the skylight she'd installed with Will a few years ago and propped it up with a piece of wood.

"Can you see the stars through that?" Maddie asked, standing underneath it and looking up.

"You can when it gets dark," Tess said.

Maddie sneezed and shook her head. "Something dropped on me." She went to wipe it away but Tess realised what it was a second before Maddie smeared black across her face.

Tess grabbed Maddie's hand and said, "Wait." She licked a finger on her other hand and pressed it lightly onto the black piece of cane trash that had landed on Maddie's cheek just below her eye. Tess managed to take it off without it crumbling and showed Maddie under the light. "See? It's a piece of cane trash. Black snow."

"Black snow," Maddie repeated, peering at it.

"Yeah, from cane fires. It was probably caught up in the skylight."

Maddie looked up from the cane trash on Tess's finger and into Tess's eyes and her breath caught in her throat. Tess blinked and wiped her hand off on her shorts and turned away. "Do you want a drink?" she asked. "We brought some up in the Esky."

"Sure," Maddie said.

"I'll be right back," Tess said, and disappeared through the doorway.

Maddie looked around at the weathered wood and old crates and cushions scattered around. Her mother would never let her have anything like this when she was a kid. Her father definitely wouldn't have been able to make her one. If she'd insisted on having a tree house, they would have ordered it from a catalogue, or in more recent years, had it built specially. It certainly would not have been built out of old bits of wood and doors, like this one was. The fact that the corners weren't square, and the roof leaked little shafts of light made Maddie feel at ease.

∞

When Tess came back, she was holding two cups and had a plastic container tucked under her arm. She handed a cup to Maddie and said, "I hope you like ginger beer. Pop makes it himself."

Maddie took a cup and said, "Thanks." She took a sip and smiled. Tess sat down on one of the crates and pulled one out for Maddie. Maddie sat down and Tess watched as she looked around at the tree house. It wasn't much and she really hoped Maddie would look past the recycled windows and wood.

"You're so lucky growing up in a place like this," Maddie said.

"In a tree house?"

Maddie laughed. "No. In Chesterfield. It's so... quiet."

Outside, Will whooped and there was a splash and then a squeal from Lizzie. Maddie and Tess both laughed.

"Not too quiet," Tess said, shifting her weight so she could curl her foot up underneath her.