Their Treehouse

The third step up the ladder creaked like it always did. Four, five, six, seven and at last, Drew hauled himself up and into the treehouse. Lila was already there, sitting cross-legged beside the rickety drawing table, the soft afternoon light making her skin glow as she turned towards the entrance. They’d spent forever trying to build an escape hatch in the far corner. They dreamed of having an easy way to jump out of the treehouse, either a fireman’s pole or steep slide to quickly hide in the bushes when their parents came looking for them. Their mothers hadn't agreed to it though, so they were stuck with the flimsy ladder as the one and only way in and out of their shared treehouse.

“You’re late.” Was Lila’s greeting.

Drew rolled his eyes, “I’m still mad at you.”

“I’m sorry, okay? Can we please play marbles?” Lila had the small, scratched up balls clustered inside a frayed shoelace that was tied into a circle. “My brother bought me a new one. You can use it if you like.” She opened her first and revealed a shiny marble almost twice the size of the ones on the table. A swirl of pink inside the clear glass faded into magenta and then purple before black smoke seemed to envelop the bottom quarter of the marble.

Drew had never been so angry at Lila than he was in that moment but seeing her hesitant smile, her wide eyes blinking up at him and her eagerness to play marbles, not because it was a particularly fun game, but because she wanted to share her new gift with her best friend, made him want to roll over and do whatever she asked. Like always.

He sighed and nodded. “Fine, we’ll play but I haven’t forgiven you.”

Lila squealed and clapped her hands. “That’s ok. You should be mad at me, I deserve it.”

What a strange thing to say, Drew wondered, but kept his thoughts to himself. Lila might be only eight years old but Drew always thought she was wise beyond her years.   

Lila handed him the shiny new marble and grabbed one of the scarred ones that lived in a tin box on the small bookshelf next to her. Lila went first, as was tradition, and scattered the marbles inside the circle with one straight shot. Two marbles popped out of the circle to Lila’s delight and she snatched them up.

Lila’s father had taught them how to play marbles after he and Drew’s father had built them this treehouse. It had initially been built with the idea that Lila’s brother would enjoy having a place to escape to in the no-man’s-land between their two farmhouses, but Kyle was almost a teenager – too old to play with Drew who was roughly three years younger. When Lila had asked if she could see it one afternoon, Drew had already been there, reading one of his favourite Spiderman comic books. What was supposed to be a quick visit had turned into a whole afternoon of arguing which superhero universe, Marvel or DC, was better. They’d eventually agreed to disagree and decorated the place with plenty of superhero drawings – Marvel, DC and even made up some of their own. 

Drew shot the new marble and it blasted through a clump in the center. One marble jumped out of the circle while another teetered on the edge, unsure if it wanted to be out or not. Before it settled, Lila shot her old marble, knocking that undecided glass ball out of the circle. Drew went to grab it, but Lila snatched it from the table, as quick as a whip.

“That marble was mine!” Drew yelled.

“I knocked it out of the circle!” Lila insisted.

“Stop taking what’s mine! Stop taking from me!” Drew stood up, his anger from earlier boiling through his veins too mighty for him to control. He grabbed the table and launched it in the air before it toppled to the ground. The marbles crashed to the floor and scattered, getting lost under the small bookshelf and stools, as if they were trying to hide from Drew’s fury.

Lila, though, wasn’t scared. She sat, still in the same crossed-legged position, smiling up at him. “It was never my intention to take her from you. It was never my intention to hurt you, my sweet Drew.”

Drew crumbled to the floor. His eyes pinched and burned as they welled with tears. He blinked them away and tried his damned hardest to focus on Lila. With every blink, she aged. Her youthful innocence morphed with time, her chubby cheeks fading away to reveal slender cheekbones. Her long blond hair was now cropped to her shoulders. Her eyes darkened with makeup and her dirty overalls transformed into the flowy sundress he’d last seen her in. She'd insisted on wearing her wedge sandals to her friend's bridal shower, even though she'd had to drive through a torrential downpour.

The treehouse aged as she did. The wooden planks sagged with time, the colourful drawings had dulled until they were mere shadows of their former selves and the air was thick with the stench of mildew. Dust had settled on everything but the overturned table; a testament to the fact that it had been years since Drew was last here.

“I’m so sorry, Drew.” Lila never dropped her smile. “You will fight through this, my love. You will know happiness again.”

Lila pressed both her hands to her lips and released them to Drew, blowing him one last kiss before her image faded away. Drew had learned in his third-year health psychology class that it was perfectly normal to be angry at the dead. He’d always thought that the dead were undeserving of such bitterness, but here he was furious at his childhood best friend. His first love. The mother of his unborn child.

Drew’s phone buzzed and he removed it from his pocket to see a text from his sister: Where are you? Lila’s parents didn’t agree to host the reception just for you to disappear after the funeral.

Drew took a deep breath and spied the pink and black marble by his foot. It was not as shiny as it’d once been. There was a deep scrape along one side from when Lila had fallen on the playground with it in her hand over a decade ago. He wiped the marble on his suit jacket, gave it a kiss and placed it in his breast pocket.

He turned to the treehouse’s entrance, descended a couple of steps and then jumped the rest of the way, wishing, for the millionth time, for that escape hatch.