MY MOSTLY HAPPY LIFE: Autobiography of a Climbing Tree

Chapter 15 - Esther and Meg Grow Up

It was almost inevitable, during the period when Donna was sculpting her memorial to Princess, that Meg and Esther would become friends.

They continued to enjoy each other's company throughout their childhoods, but it was not until a Girl Scout outing at a rustic, scout-owned site in Forsythia Forest that they became best friends.

An accident sealed their bond.

Meg, observing the collapse of a campfire that had been injudiciously built on an incline, instinctively grabbed at a burning log, fearing that it would roll toward a sleeping bag in its path and cause a forest fire.

She caught it with the palms of both hands, and threw it back onto the fire before anything else could ignite.

But at a cost.

After being treated at a local hospital for burns, she came home with hands so heavily bandaged that she could not turn a page or hold a book.

Meg loved to read.

Meg had to read.

Meg could not live without a constant stream of words flowing from a printed page.

Enter Esther.

To comfort and entertain her inured friend, Esther began to read aloud in much the same way that Meg's mother had once read aloud from Ethan's Best Friend. She did this while they were nestled in my branches - Meg's hands being useless, Esther had to hoist her up - which means that I got to listen to all of the stories.

The two girls' friendship survived adolescence, continued to grow, and thrived during their turbulent years as young adults.

They remain friends to this day, and still spend long hours every week with me and my fellow trees.

Esther, in fact, met the man that she would fall in love with in our park.

And Meg never would have fallen in love at all, if Esther hadn't resumed her old habit of reading aloud.

But before I talk about that, I want to tell you a few new things about the Swerling family, and remind you that Sam and Ghita raised their children in a sprawling penthouse apartment on the seventh floor of The Darlington Building, across the street from Sam's park.

Esther's family also lived in the Darlington, in a three-bedroom apartment on the fifth floor.

Esther loved living two floors below her grandparents.

Sam loved working in the same building where he lived.

When his children were young, and despite the early success of his inventions, he worked exclusively at a large table in his breakfast nook. Since the tools of his trade were no more sophisticated than a sketch pad, a number two pencil, a clipboard, several rulers, and a double-hinged compass, that was all the space he needed.

Sam typed his business correspondence on an Underwood Deluxe portable typewriter, and he made all of his business calls on the family telephone when the children were at school.

In a little room off the master bedroom, barely big enough for two metal file cabinets, a desk, and a phone, Ghita kept all the ledgers, paid all the bills, and did all of the company's bookkeeping.

After working this way for many years, two things happened that caused Sam to make some changes. First, his business tripled, quadrupled, and then expanded to six times its original size. The growth generated more paperwork, necessitated larger blueprints, and required more space. Not much more space. But more than could be provided by a larger table in a breakfast nook.