When Secret Places Collide

Tara

The low growl of an engine reaches the tree house. "What is that?" I ask. I join Martie at the small window. A red ATV comes into view through the dark. The man riding it is tall and skinny like Martie. His knees almost touch the handle bars. The man's nose is large and hooked and he wears thin glasses that make his eyes look beady.

"Crap, that's my dad. Duck down," Martie orders me. He places his hand on my shoulder and gives it a slight shove towards the floor.

"What? Why?" I ask refusing to move.

Martie looks at me with dread in his eyes. "Because, my dad will definitely kill me if he know that there is a girl up here and even more so if he knows that you have been sneaking on to his land for years." I raise an eyebrow at him.

"Martin Lavone, are you up there?" A deep, serious voice calls up from the ground.

"Please." He says very softly. I nod and sit on the floor with my back to the wall with the window. "Yeah, I'm here." Martie hollers back down to his father. He opens the trap down and mouths me a thank you before blowing out the candle and climbing down the ladder.

I hear the quiet thud and rustle of leaves when Martie jumps to the ground. Immediately, his father begins to yell, "Why are you all the way out here in the dark? Don't you know that you should have been home hours ago?"

"Yes, I'm sorry, It's just that-"

Martie's father continues to talk over Martie, not allowing him the give an explanation.

"No, Martie, when your mother and I grounded you, we told you that you could go anywhere on the property, but not off of it. It seems that we are going to have to rethink that. Don't you think?"

"Well-"

"And of all the places, you come to this disgusting tree house. Martie, you are not a child anymore. You can't run off and hide in your tree house. That old pile of rotten wood and rusty nails is a death trap. I'm going to take it down."

I gasp, but cover my mouth with my hands. I hope that they didn't hear. I inch my way up the wall and turn my head enough so that I am able to glance out the window and see Martie and his father.

"Dad," Martie says, "you can't just rip this down. I won't let you."

"Yes I can and yes you will. Now get on, we are going home, you will serve the rest of your time inside the walls of my house." Martie's father reaches for his arm, but Martie yanks it away.

"No."

"What?"

"I said, no."

Martie takes several, large steps away from his father and scurries up the tree and back into the tree house.

Martie's dad doesn't say another word, he just makes an exasperated noise and gets back on his ATV.