Summer's Child

Hazy Shade of Winter

On Christmas Eve, when they were 8, Harry and Jillian exchanged gifts in the treehouse in his backyard. It was his treehouse, but it didn't feel like his. He and his father didn't build it. Edward Styles wasn't handy. His dad could do basic things with a hammer, but didn't have time or inclination to build even this basic shelter. He could tell you how an engine run, but he wouldn't do much more than change the oil. So, the treehouse felt like it belonged to the house, until it belonged to him and Jillian. Which started their first December.

It was during better days, so Jillian's dad was picking her up, Harry vaguely remembered that her family may have even been going to a relative's house the next day to celebrate. Edward Styles had invited them over for Christmas ham as well, back when he tried to make overtures to not just Jillian but her family.

It wasn't charity, the reason they claimed they declined over and over. It was symbiotic, the invitation, because it meant he and Harry wouldn't be alone like they usually were on holidays. Occasionally, a colleague would invite them to a Thanksgiving feast. Harry swore it was just to make England sucks jokes.

That first holiday, after Harry and Jillian had become inseparable, they were trying to prolong their time together, and they'd gone to his treehouse to hide. It was cold, and much less comfortable than it had been those first September weeks of friendship. They'd played all day up there then.

It was Jillian's idea. "Let's hide in the treehouse! Besides, I have a present for you!" Her eyes had glinted with her secret, before mischievousness became dangerous.

He'd nearly ripped his good trousers going up the wood slats after her. She moved quicker in her dress and tights than he expected.

He got his second foot off the ladder and was trying to find his center of gravity when Jillian thrust a round object from her pocket under his nose. He grabbed the trap door to keep from breaking a leg.

"Here!" She trilled and then clapped her hands in front of her.

"Careful!" He yelped. "I nearly fell."

"Sorry, I'm excited, that's all." Shed folded her hands and looked down.

Harry didn't like that. So he reached out and touched her elbow to rewind the moment. "What is it?"

Her eyes flashed up and she grinned, handed him an object with the face she'd shared when she'd snuck two pieces of candy from the front bins at the five and dime."

"It's a rock." He didn't mean to sound so flat, like the plains of Kansas they had just learned about in social studies. He wasn't sure what he thought she'd be getting him. They were both kids and though they collected change and did lemonade stands, neither of them even had a paper route. But a rock? Why was she so excited? Candy was way better.

"It's a rock!" Her eyes were lit up. She took the rock from him and pulled a tube sock with a red stripe at the top from her pocket. He had a suspicion she'd found the sock in his room. His eyes got bigger than the lenses of his glasses when she dropped the rock down the tube of the sock and whipped it at the corner of the floor. She felt around the clearly rounded shape at the bottom of the sock, screwed up her eyebrows and whacked it again. She smiled when she felt it that time.

Jillian upturned the sock.

Crystals! And the back porch light hit them just right. They shown, some made rainbows.

She'd brought him science, she was the best friend ever. "Oh! I thought it was just a rock!" The structures Inside had been a revelation. He was pretty sure his seven dwarves present paled in comparison. Though they could make up a story to play to. The dwarves could mine the rocks.