Elaborate Plans

Alex stood by the cut-out door of Shane's treehouse with his arms folded across his chest, staring out across the yard at nothing.

It had been several months since the boys had gone up there. The treehouse, which had been everything from a pirate ship to an old west fort, had over the past year or so taken a backseat to more athletic albeit less imaginative pastimes such as bicycle races and Frisbee games.

But today the treehouse was just a treehouse, a quiet place where the two of them could be alone.

"Maybe your mom'll change her mind," Shane suggested uncertainly.

Alex turned around to face him.

"No she won't." His voice was husky with the tears he was struggling to hold back. "She's already been looking at houses and schools and stuff online. She wants to leave before the end of summer."

Shane had known for a long time that Alex's parents were in an unhappy marriage and that his dad drank too much, but the fact that they were in the middle of a divorce and Alex and his mom were moving to a different state had come as a complete shock.

"But Las Vegas is so far away," Shane stated.

Alex nodded his head in agreement, not trusting his voice.

"Isn't it too far away for your dad to visit? Hasn't he complained about that?"

"He doesn't care." Alex was no longer able to fight back his tears. They trickled freely down his cheeks. "He's not even going to fight for custody or visitation rights or anything. He doesn't even care that we're leaving! He doesn't even want us in his life anymore!" He turned away from Shane to stare out over the yard again.

Shane didn't know what to say. He had a feeling that nothing he could say would fix the situation, so he just walked over in silence to drape a comforting arm over his friend's shoulders.

"Don't look at me," Alex sniffled. "I'm c...crying."

"It's okay," Shane assured him. "You can cry if you need to." The truth was he sort of felt like crying himself.

"D...Dad says only babies cry."

"Well, your dad's wrong. And he's kind of mean if he said that. Hey, even if your mom won't change her mind about moving I won't let her take you."

"What d...do you mean?" Alex swiped at his tears with the back of his hand.

"I mean we'll run away together where no one will find us. We'll...we'll run away to the forest. We can build a cabin and go fishing in the lake every day, just the two of us. Remember the lake we took you fishing at last summer?"

"Where we chased frogs on the bank?" Alex recalled.

"Yeah." Shane nodded his head. "And Dad accidentally turned the boat over and we all fell in the water. That's where we'll go and you won't have to move to Las Vegas."

"We can't do that," Alex sighed. "We don't know how to build a cabin. Only adults can do stuff like that."

"Well then we'll...um...run away and join the circus! We can learn how to ride horses and do tricks on them, or we can learn how to juggle or walk on a tightrope or something." Shane was well aware that he was talking nonsense, but he was desperate to get Alex's mind off of his situation and equally desperate to get his own mind off of losing his best friend.

Alex, however, was in no mood to be distracted or cheered up.

"You're being stupid," he mumbled, shrugging Shane's arm off his shoulders.

"You don't want to join the circus? You liked it when your mom took us to the circus, didn't you? I thought it was fun."

"Yeah, it was fun," Alex agreed. "But that doesn't mean I want to join the circus and put my head in a lion's mouth."

"Well I never said you had to do that," Shane told him. "Okay, since you don't like any of my ideas then where do you want to go?"

Alex gave his shoulders a desultory shrug, unable to think about anything other than the unpleasant reality of his imminent relocation to Nevada.

"Don't know," he mumbled, shrugging his shoulders again.

"You can't think of anything?"

"No. I...maybe I should just go home."

"No, come on." Shane reached out to grasp his friend's shoulder again. "I'm just trying to make you feel better."

"I know. I just..." Alex shrugged his shoulders and allowed his voice to trail off.

"We could start a band and go on tour!" Shane blurted out. "I could play the drums. I know I'm not very good yet since I've only had two lessons, but I bet I'll get better if I practice a lot. And you can learn to play the guitar or you can be the singer."

Alex emitted an involuntary snort and one corner of his mouth twitched upward for a brief moment. It was the closest he had come to a smile all afternoon, and Shane found that somewhat encouraging.

"Are you kidding, Shane? You've heard me sing."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. You're..."

"Awful." This time his lips managed an actual full-fledged smile.

"Okay, no band, then. We could stow away on a submarine and live underwater, or we could become archaeologists like Indiana Jones and travel all over the world digging up weird artifacts."

"I'd rather sail away to a desert island," Alex commented. "We could catch fish and build a grass hut or something to live in."

"Yes!" Shane agreed enthusiastically, thrilled that Alex seemed to be cheering up a little bit. "And we could climb up palm trees and pick coconuts."

"We'd have to figure out how to break them open. I saw someone do it on TV and it looked really hard. We'd have to use a rock or something."

"Maybe we could make tools out of rocks like the cavemen did."

"If we got tired of eating fish we could try to catch a seagull." Alex was really getting into it now. "I wonder how they taste."

"Ewwww, gross!" Shane wrinkled up his nose and stuck out his tongue.

"Hey boys," Shane's mother called up to them. She was standing just below the treehouse with a loaded tray in her hands. "Are you ready for lunch? I made sandwiches and lemonade."

"They're not seagull sandwiches, are they?" Shane called back down to her.

"What?"

"Never mind. Can you leave them on the table? We'll come down in a minute. Thanks, Mom."

"Thanks," Alex chipped in.

"You're very welcome." Shane's mother set the tray down on the small metal lawn table and went back inside with a wry smile. Seagull sandwiches?

"You want to go eat?" Shane suggested.

"Sure," Alex agreed.

They climbed down from the treehouse on the rope ladder and raced each other to the sandwiches and lemonade on the table. Shane's mother had left them each a Hostess Cupcake for a treat too.

The sandwiches were roast beef and cheese, not seagull, and the boys devoured them in record time.

"You know we can't really run away and live on an island, or any of that other stuff we were talking about," Alex stated.

"I know," Shane replied, unwrapping his cupcake. "I wish we could, though. I don't want you to leave. I'm going to miss you."

"I'm going to miss you too."

"Hey, I know! We can be penpals and write each other letters. And we can talk on the phone."

"Yeah," Alex agreed. "Even if I make other friends in Las Vegas you're always gonna be my best friend." He turned to sprint off across the lawn. "Last one back up in the treehouse is a rotten egg!"

"It's not a treehouse!" Shane announced as he hurried to catch up. "It's our treefort on a desert island!"