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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story about a summer afternoon spent in a treehouse.

Posted in Summer on Oct 26, 2022

Submissions are closed

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✍️ 303 stories

“The Dimness of the Night” by Sofia Gasque

Submitted to Contest #50

“You thought I wouldn’t come.” The air blew through the wooden planks, creeping up Blake’s neck. It was a late summer afternoon. The sun was setting so that only the sharpness of her jaw and her nose were visible, surrounded by long shadows. There was a silence that penetrated her ears. Her eyes closed as she hugged her knees against her chest. She rocked back and forth with the wooden floor cracking louder and louder. Tears rolled down her cheeks but only a slight glimmer could be seen in the dim light.  “Blake,” He said, “You heard ...

1 comment 1
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“Her” by A.d Bunni

Submitted to Contest #50

-Her-The warm afternoon sun filters through the honey tinted leaves of the large oak tree. A late summer breeze drifts through the windows of the tree house, a slightly chilly gust, reminding me and her that these warm summer days would soon come to an end. I rest my head in her lap and she runs her fingers through my hair. Her dark hair occasionally falls onto my head and we would both laugh as she playfully brushes it away from my face. Her hand is in mine and I trace patterns on her palm. She smells like lavender and honey and coffee and ...

12 comments 12
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“I Love You” by Megan Prause

Submitted to Contest #50

Katrina smiled as she inhaled the scent of apple blossoms surrounding her. The sun warmed boards below her felt comforting on her back as she gazed at the wooden walls around her and reminisced on all of the memories she had made in this treehouse. Hours spent reading and discovering the worlds of Harry, Anne, Laura, and countless others. Of writing her own stories in honor of her literary heroes. Of tears shed over friends lost and unrequited loves of adolescence. There were both good and painful memories made in this old treehouse. Today...

1 comment 1
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“The Tardis ” by Beth Lawrence

Submitted to Contest #50

Every time Harry came here, the experience was the same. He’d climb his way up the wooden slats, paying careful attention to every grip and hand hold. Despite having done this countless times, the experience brought him immeasurable joy. How blessed he was, to have been born into this family. To have inherited such a undeniably amazing retreat. If people only knew.The boys at school didn’t know. They wouldn’t care. Harry was just the odd one, and always would be. It didn’t matter that he was intelligent, thoughtful, caring and grateful. They...

8 comments 8
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“Memories of a treehouse” by Pamela Berglund

Submitted to Contest #50

I remember when I was just five waking up from a horrible nightmare. In my nightmare I found myself falling from a huge oak tree and breaking my leg in two places. So you need to understand why I tremble with fear when looking down from a tall building or an open window. Of course such fears were irrational since I lived with my parents on the fifteenth floor of an apartment house in Brooklyn. Like any other five year old I knew that it was a bad dream and I completely forgot about the dream until my parents and I finally settled into a b...

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“My sweet tree boy” by Alexandra Grenier

Submitted to Contest #50

"It's so loud down there. I wish I could tell them to be quiet."  I ran my finger across the carpet. I started thinking about when I was little. How I'd hide out here for hours while everyone played outside. I wanted to play with them but I was scared. I was scared of them. One day I gained enough courage to ask a group: if I could play with them. They said no. They thought I was disgusting because I stayed up here all day. Then they started spreading rumors about me. Saying that I didn't know how to speak and that I was in love wit...

1 comment 1
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“Summer Wonders” by Ashwin Noveau

Submitted to Contest #50

Maybe it was the way the sun reflected in the water or the way it shined through the leaves, but that old summer afternoon, when you could just feel the heat in your lungs leave you while the sunset approached. That summer afternoon she just knew. Maybe it's to say she knew for a while. Nobody wanted to know before, least of all her. But in that moment, surrounded by her childhood haven. There was no need in denying it The faint laughter of the children could be heard as it was carried in the wind and it only made her sadder. As if sh...

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“That’s the Life ” by Tabetha Paulsen

Submitted to Contest #50

It was a sunny summer morning when Jenna woke up to the squirrels lurking into the Tree-house windows. She wiped her eyes with her hands and stretched in the rays of the morning sun. Saying good morning to the birds and also the other wildlife rustling in the dense woods that Jenna now calls home. Jenna realized that moving from her small studio flat; located in Central South America, to the large Treehouse her grandfather built for her to be closer to family. She realized she no longer has to be worried about the hustle and bustle of City l...

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“She walks the Earth, He walks the Heavens” by Spirited Wings

Submitted to Contest #50

Wavering leaves, stuck tightly to the interweaving branches of the majestic tree, shiver in the icy breeze that dances through my hiding place. There’s a slight burnt smell: bitter and smoky. Through the half-open roof of the structure, golden rays glow warmly, dappling the floor with splashes of heat. Dots of dried glue feel rubbery and leave a clay-like substance on my feet. I trace the designs on the wooden paneled ceiling with a finger.It slaloms on the back of a pearly-scaled dragon, follows the yellow brick road and joins Alice down a ...

1 comment 1
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“A perfect afternoon” by Emma Taylor

Submitted to Contest #50

“What if I tie a rope around a branch and then around my neck?” The curve of Joe’s lip points upwards, but his eyes are vacant, hazy and lost. “I would never get over it.” I tilt my head back and fight away the tears. Joe moves over to me and pulls me into his chest. He kisses the top of my head and rubs his left cheek over my mane. “I will never leave you.” He whispers, running his fingers down my arm. I take his hand, and we wander into the only place we are free. Fragrances of minty grass and damp earth flow freely through our noses, ...

4 comments 4
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“Leisure Memorised” by Sachin Bakshi

Submitted to Contest #50

It was 17th June 2014, one of the hottest days of Indian summers. My friend who came back home from U.S. on 15th June called me and offered me to accompany him for a visit to his farm house in Siswan village area on way to Baddi from Chandigarh. I accepted his offer and we left Chandigarh at 10:00 a.m. . At 10:40 a.m. , we reached his farmhouse. There was a tree house in his farm, which his father had made by a team of people specialised in wooden crafts from Saharanpur. It was a dream tree house to see . I was mesmerized to see the beauty o...

1 comment 1
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“The Rattlesnake ” by Kameron Metcalf

Submitted to Contest #50

The wind blew by in soft gusts, carrying the gentle smell of freshly cut grass to Micah’s nose. The sun was out in full force, and he had taken refuge in the wooden structure that used to house him on days just like this so many years ago. The old treehouse had actually held up rather beautifully. He looked around at the beams and felt a smile spread across his lips as memories came flooding back to him.  He was too tall to stand in the treehouse. At 6 foot 4, he was a grown man, and he considered briefly what it had been like to have ...

4 comments 4
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“Finding Safety” by Nico Grace

Submitted to Contest #50

It was the last place he should have gone. But it was the first, the only one he thought of. Safety was a feeling, not a location. And for him, there was no other place that came close. As he climbed the wooden ladder and pushed open the trap door, that feeling settled over him, a warm weight even through the chill of rain-drenched clothing. The darkness inside the tree-house was soft. Welcomed him. Like coming home in a way he never felt in his own haunted residence. A fragrance of used books and fresh paint filled the space, note...

3 comments 3
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“Where the Birds Come to Nest” by Spencer Pinkus

Submitted to Contest #50

How did I end up here? Literally, how did I end up here? A fully grown man hiding in his grandparents’ treehouse like a naughty school boy in the middle of a heatwave. It’s ridiculous.  Up here, where the birds come to nest, the branches are thick and tangled, and the towering trunk reaches high into the sky. *We arrived at Grandmother Stevenson’s Hertfordshire house at ten o’clock this morning. It was my wife’s idea. She had decided that after all the troubles of the past few months what we really needed was to...

3 comments 3
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“Spirit Board In Summer” by Marian Reiley

Submitted to Contest #50

"You gotta do it!" Darik said. "If you don't I'll tell everyone you're a weenie!" Billy, not at all interested in scary things, had been over to visit his friend Darik. The pair had been friends since kindergarten. Now they were sixth graders; almost teens! While there was no one else Billy would like to hang out with on a lazy June day, he hated when Darik made him do things. He wasn't going to chicken out though, not in their secret tree house. They had built it together in Darik's backyard, it was where they did all the stuff they didn'...

6 comments 6
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