A Life in my Perspective

Chapter 4 - The Secret Place

As I climbed up, I started to imagine what would be up here… I was thinking that there would be a whole house up there even though it lacked in size. I was thinking it would be so much more spectacular than it actually was. It was just a space. But a space I shared with him. Our space. That no one else could take or have. A space with a wooden floor made out of old planks of wood. The walls were made of many twigs that I guess had been found in the forest that surrounded us.

I stood up when I got to the top and looked round. The space was limited and the roof was low but somehow, it seemed special. I was the only one that he had ever brought up here.

“So did you find this place or build it?” I asked him as he was grabbing his balance as he stood up from the ladder.

“I built it, when I was young” he replied

“Did you do it with your parents when they were around?”

“No, I did it here when I was living at this house; I did it when I was 10. Paul helped me. At that time there were only 3 people living at the house. It was quite small. But because there were so little people here, the care workers had so much more time for us kids so we used to have a day that we would spend with them. Mine was Saturday.”

“And you spent that time building this?!”

“Yeah, it took a long time.”

“Well it’s awesome” I said looking round in amazement.

“Thanks” he smirked.

We spent the next 30 minutes talking about the house and the people in it. He told me people to watch out for and people who would be good friends. By the end I had a good idea of who to talk to. But I didn’t want to introduce myself yet. I didn’t feel comfortable with that. But now, I feel comfortable around Ryan, I don’t know why? It’s just something about him that makes it really easy for me to talk to.

“It’s 6:57, we should probably head back” He said casually.

“What happens when we’re late?” I asked.

“I don’t know, I’ve never really been late before, I guess you get grounded”

“Urg but we are 5 minutes away from the house” I said worried that I wouldn’t be able to come out and enjoy this wonderful treehouse.

“Can you run?” he asked.

“Yeah” I said remembering the time I ran away from dad.

“Well let’s run” he said climbing down from the treehouse first.

I followed him and stepped down the ladder that was against the tree. On the last two steps, he lifted me up and put me on the floor.

“Let’s go” he said looking at me.

We both ran as fast as we could, tracing our paths to lead back to the house. All I could think of was the images of dad racing in his car behind me which made me run even faster. I over took him by quite a few meters.

“Geez you’re fast!” he said panting like a dog.

“Come on let’s go!” I said trying to coach him on.

We both ran at the same speed and I looked at my watch just as we got in the gates and it said 6:59. We continued running until we got in the door where we found Paul and Sam waiting with their arms crossed looking at their watches. Behind them was a crowd of people to see what was going on.

They both looked at us and shook their heads.

“We back now aren’t we” Ryan said fed up and out of breath starting to walk away.

“Go on everyone dinner is at the table” Sam said as she looked at me disappointedly.

“That was a close call guys, I don’t want to see that happening again” she explained to us.

“What’s so special that happenes at 7 anyway?”

“curfew” she said unimpressed

“oo, maybe I’ll stay out till 8, I  might even die” I said pretending to be scared

“Megan eat now” she raised her voice.

“Okay” I said as I rolled my eyes and stared walking upstairs to my room.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Sam asked

“To my room” I replied like she was dumb to not guess.

“Why?” she asked

“Getting changed”

And before she could reply to it, I ran upstairs and went to my room.