Amelia's Treehouse

The young woman with the red hair opened her silver laptop, and began quickly skimming  through the emails of her colleagues. She stared at the screen as her professor’s email read: Your paper on biotechnology is top notch. I would like to invite you to the Chancellor’s award dinner held at the Prescott two weeks from now…’ The email went on, enticing her to go with free meals and drinks provided by stellar breweries, but she was stuck. Being noticed for being knowledgeable in the subject she loved the most was something she wanted her whole life, but she felt uncertain. 

“Hey, Amelia. Do you mind if I borrow some of the almond milk you bought? I forgot to purchase some of my own,” said the nervous one with the statement turquoise frames. 

Not lifting her eyes from the laptop screen, Amelia replied “Yeah go ahead. And don’t call me Amelia. That’s too formal. It’s Amy.” The two had just begun a new adventure; the first year of university, and what better than a new roommate. As the plucky one grabbed the almond milk from the fridge and poured it into her bowl of Cheerios, Amy slammed her laptop shut and proceeded to call her friend. 

The line began ringing, but nobody picked up so she decided to leave a message. 

“Cal, it’s Amy. Are you free today? I was planning on going to the treehouse, and yes that one. Please tell me you’re free! I hope you’re not dodging this call for Emmanuel. Anyways, get back to me, stat.” She ended the call and waited 20 minutes. In annoyance, Amy gave up on her childhood best friend, and stood up. She grabbed her car keys and began making her way out, passing Stacey. Almost automatically, she backed up and looked suspiciously at Stacey. Still buried in her bowl of cereal, she looked up and a trickle of almond milk fell out onto her chin. 

“Do you wanna come with me?”, Amy asked. 

“To your treehouse? Aren’t you going there with one of your old friends, I don’t want to intrude..” she said nervously.

“Well she didn’t pick up. You should come.” 

As Amy made her way towards the door to leave, Stacey tipped the cereal bowl up and tilted her head, drinking the remainder of milk left in the bowl. Hastily, she left it in the kitchen sink and proceeded to leave and lock the residence.

The car ride to Amy’s childhood home was quiet. The girls barely spoke, even the radio was mute since they didn’t know each other’s taste in music. Stacey looked out the window and viewed blurs of green fir trees, then nothing but freeway, and then a small town by the name of London, Ontario. They began closing in on Amy’s home and they passed by big beautiful homes. Finally they reached a yellow bungalow, with a lawn up front, however was now a tough brownish colour. The place didn’t look like it had been cared for in awhile. 

“So, this is us.” Amy walked around the house, past a FOR SALE sign and straight to the backyard. Stacey followed carefully. “Are you sure we should be here? I get the feeling someone’s gonna pop up any second.”

Assuredly, Amy said “Stacey, it’s fine. It’s been deserted for awhile.”

They made their way up the old ladder and into the treehouse. Its condition was surprisingly quite good. A little bit of wood chipped down the walls, a brown wooden stool still remained intact and some leftover acorn tops scattered on the floor. Stacey lightly kicked a few around the ground and Amy marked, “My parents told me not to… feed the squirrels. But I still did,” she said as she cracked a small smile. 

The treehouse was nothing special, but also contained some of the most formative memories of Amelia’s life, and was therefore the most important thing in the world. 

“I bet you've got a lot of stories, being here since you were little.”

“Oh boy do I…” Amy replied. Her face looked confused, as if it were trying to decide if it was happy or not. 

“You gonna tell me any?” Stacey asked with curiosity. “There’s gotta be a reason why we’re here, and why you wanted to come now.” 

“Alrighty then, take a seat.” Amy took a second to look out the opening in the treehouse and peered outside. She rested her elbows on the wooden rails before joining Stacey. 

“My family and I have lived here since I was born. So I lived in that house, in this treehouse, for a very long time.” She paused, and recounted her very first memories there. Stacey stared at her in excitement, waiting for the story to begin. 

“I used to come up here all the time. The kids in the neighbourhood weren’t the nicest to me; they just saw us and our house and thought I wasn’t cool enough to play with them. Except Callie, of course. She lived three blocks from here and she was loaded, still is actually. She was good to me. I was gonna invite her, but obviously she’s busy.”

“Are you sure you wanna hear about this, my life?” Amy looked at the floor, avoiding Stacey’s glance.

Without a doubt, Stacey responded with a strong yes. So Amy continued. 

“I actually had my first kiss here.” Amy and Stacey giggled at the thought of a young Amy having her first smooch here.

“We were in eighth grade and his name was Jonah. He had light brown hair, and great blue eyes. He would always catch me staring right into them during class. I would always talk about him at home to my older sister Nella.”

“I didn’t know you had a sister!” With a disappointed look Amy said, “She moved away with her boyfriend right after she graduated. I guess she didn’t want anything to do with us anymore.” Stacey looked down, regretting her question. 

“But it’s okay, we all stay in touch so no harm done really. My parents called Jonah’s and invited him over for dinner. I was so angry at them and I said ‘WHAT WERE YOU THINKING NOW HE’S GONNA KNOW I LIKE HIM MOM WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?!’ I was full of rage and anger but the moment he got here that night I immediately composed myself and put on my favourite white frilly top.”

“The dinner was awkward at first, but I’m surprised how well he held himself. Boys at 14 were way more immature then. After we ate I told him about the treehouse and I saw the curious look on his face so I grabbed his hand and dragged him up.” Amy looked to her right and envisioned the moment perfectly. “Right there. It happened right there. I used to have little throw pillows and we sat on them. We spent a few minutes playing cards and I was beating the shit out of him in Suits. We both stopped laying down cards at the same time and I leaned in and kissed him! I ended up ruining the cards so we just continued kissing.” They laughed cheerfully as Stacey’s imagination soared. 

“That is exactly like something out of a rom-com. How did you get it so perfectly?” Amy laughed, “Dude it’s my life! You only live once right?” The girls smiled at each other, but Stacey looked intrigued and wanted to hear more.

“I had lots of sleepovers in the summer. But there was one night that I’ll never forget.” Amy flashed back to the hottest summer in 2014. She had invited her school friends to join her in a little slumber party, as young girls do. Unfortunately, Amy picked the worst possible day. The weather went up to 45 degrees Celsius that night. Sweaty and packed together in the treehouse, the six girls moaned and groaned like crazy. The ice cubes from their soda drinks melted instantly, leaving them with warm diluted fizz. 

Stacey asked curiously, “Why didn’t you all just go inside, like your house? You must’ve had air conditioning.”

“Dude, we were so out of it. When I tell you I was melting, I was MELTING.” Chuckles escaped both of their mouths as Amy neared the end of that story. 

“My old friend Dinah finally said ‘wait, why don’t we just go inside?’ In an instant, we all ran down the ladder and into the house. We all came straight to the living room where the big fan was and just sat in front while my dad tried watching Seinfeld through our sweaty backs. Apparently we passed out like half an hour later.” 

“Your life sounds super interesting. I’m sure I would have wanted to be friends with you.” Stacey looked shamefully at the acorn tops on the floor. 

“What about you Stace? Any interesting childhood stories? Any weird old friends?” Amy asked curiously and with the right intention, but it seemed as if she already knew the answer.

“I didn’t really have any friends growing up. Everyone singled me out for having glasses and I guess I just looked weird to them. I’m used to doing everything alone. No siblings and my parents worked all the time. They wanted me to take every chance to study and get grades, I never got the chance to hang out or socialize. And after a while that never became something that I wanted.” Amy looked sympathetically towards Stacey, who still had her eyes glued to the acorns. 

“But, I guess that’s why I was so excited to come here, to university. No one knows me. I came from Alberta, so Guelph is a long ride and no one that I know applied here. So in a way I’m thankful for the experiences I’ve had.” Stacey broke out into a smile.

“I’m glad you’ve found a way to make something good out of the cards you’ve been dealt. I’m still trying to do that.”

“But continue. I like hearing about your life, I can almost live it through my own eyes.” With ease, Amy pressed on. 

“When my friends and I got into high school, this place became more and more popular, mostly in grade 11 and 12. We started hanging out more, going to parties, talking to boys; full on maturing. I started dating a guy in grade 11.” “No chance his name was Jonah?” asked Stacey. 

“Nope! Jonah actually moved out of town that year. Anyways we dated for about 5 months, until one day I was told he cheated on me with an older girl. I was devastated and my day was already going terribly. I remember it so vividly.”

Amy had a minor leg injury and was therefore not able to make it to the first basketball game of the season. On top of that, Nella had just moved out and Amy didn’t have anyone to lean on at home. She ran all the way home from school, her bag and clothes soaking wet from the rain and her own tears. She arrived home and stormed into her bedroom. She grabbed everything that her boyfriend had given her including pictures, stuffed animals and other sentimental items and she stuffed them into her soggy backpack.

“I rushed up the ladder and nearly fell, it was so wet and the rain was beating down.” Stacey continued staring intently at Amy, captivated by her storytelling abilities. 

“I tossed my bag upside down and let the rain fall onto everything. I was so hurt by what he did. All of the pictures I printed of us, I ripped apart into small pieces, I even took the liberty of pulling apart the teddy bear he got me. Her name was Bonnie.” In an attempt to be funny, Stacey muttered “That’s a good name for a bear.” Amy giggled at that.

“I cried myself to sleep, right here in the rain. My parents tried to drag me inside but I stayed put. It was Saturday the next day, I woke up to the sound of birds chirping and squirrels squeaking. The sunlight poured in through this nook.” She pointed at the small window area. Stacey asserted, “How very poetic.” “I can be sometimes.”

“I was determined to start anew and forget about what he did to me, so I moved on. But the feeling was something that struck me so strongly.”

“But hey, you moved on right?” 

“You’re not the only one that was happy to get out of town.” “Well what could have been so bad? It’s a beautiful town. And even if that was bad, why are you back now, why would you wanna relive it?”

Amy uttered, “Closure.” Stacey then realized that the next story was not going to be one with a funny joke or a little lesson to learn. 

“If you don’t wanna say” “--It’s okay. I came here for a reason, and I asked you here for a reason.”

“It happened in grade 12. In early October, I hosted a party. The treehouse became a popular hangout location since it was packed inside. I had a little bit to drink, not too much though I could still think and make decisions and all that. The stoners occupied this part but they left briefly. I was chatting inside with a friend, when I caught him staring at me. He was attractive  and mysterious and I felt myself being pulled towards him, like I had no control. We exited together and spoke on the porch. He came from another school and won my heart in an instant.” 

“We came up here. We started making out, and it felt fine. He wanted more. I refused but he…  persisted.” The music was pumping loudly inside and everyone was either drunk or stoned. He pushed harder and harder and Amy screamed from the top of her lungs but no one could hear. Stacey’s eyes welled up with water. Amy watched people moving inside the house from her nook, as he forced himself deeper into her. He pulled on her hair and slapped her across the face while slowly taking her away.

Through tears, Amy continued. “Long story short, he left me. He buckled his belt and walked out like nothing happened. I leaned against this wall and sunk to the floor. I couldn’t even muster up the energy to cry or to clean myself. My underwear was past my knee, my bra was unclasped and I just stared across.” Amy repeated history and stared directly across, right at the wall. 

She snapped back to reality and heard sniffling from Stacey. She grabbed her hand and held it, tears streaming down her eyes as well. 

“I was never the same after that. My friends looked at me like everyone else looked at me: mournfully. They pitied me but they didn’t want me to move on when that’s all I wanted to do. I had to face him every day, because he was rich and popular and everyone thought I was overreacting. I only had my family to rely on, but they also just pitied me. When they looked at me, that’s all they could see. Even today.” 

Stacey mentioned, “That’s why you came back. For closure.” Amy nodded her head in confirmation.

“I need to get rid of this. All this time I felt like he was holding me back, but it was me. I let myself get deeper and deeper into nothingness. You know, I read an email today, saying that my bio paper was great and that I was invited to an awards dinner. It’s literally everything I have ever wanted! So why is it so hard for me to give in? I feel so--”

“-Stuck,” said Stacey. “I understand. Because the last time you fully let yourself go, you got hurt. And you’re afraid that it might happen again.”

Amy asked curiously, “Tell me again why you’re not going into psychology?” They both giggled. 

“My advice to you is, to trust yourself. Trust that life will have your back again. And I know that he is still roaming around freely out there, but he has to live with himself and with what he did to you, everyday. He has to live with himself and that is the scariest thing that a guilty person can do.” 

Amy grasped Stacey’s hand and cracked a smile. “You know, I’m glad I brought you.” Stacey replied, “I’m glad I came.”

The two girls stood and brushed themselves off. Amy glanced at the time, at which it was just past noon. “Do you wanna grab a bite? I know a great diner in town.” Stacey nodded her head gladly. The ride to the restaurant was more relaxed and friendly, now that the new roommates understood each other. Suddenly, Amy received a call and let it play through the speakers.

“Hello?”

“Amy! Where are you right now? I saw you called me but I was busy with Manu. He’s being a total douche right now.”

“Cal, did you listen to my message?” By the sound of awkward silence from the other end, the answer was clear. 

“Look Cal I asked you if you wanted to come with me to the treehouse, from back home.”

“Oh yeah totally, I’ll come. Why do you wanna go there? Don’t you have some unfinished business?” Although Cal had good intentions, the way she spoke gave the impression that she didn’t care. 

“I actually already went, I’m in the car with my roommate.” Amy gestured her head to the speaker and Stacey said “Hello. I’m Stacey.” She pushed her frames up nervously.

Unfazed, Cal said, “Oh uh okay. So you don’t need me then.”

“I’ll talk to you later Cal!” Amy hung up and let out a sigh of relief. 

“Onwards?” Amy asked. Stacey confirmed, “Onwards.”