The tree house by Jack He

I loved that treehouse. It was carved in wood and had been here for me every step of the way. The treehouse brought me so much memories than I could barely count. Some people say that you could never have attachments to objects. However, this treehouse was the last gift she gave to me and I really do hope that no matter what she is now, she will remember how much I love her.

We were so happy in the treehouse. In the hot summer afternoons, we would climb up into the treehouse and stay there until when the stars come out. We would laugh at the jokes we made, share our personal feelings with each other. At that time, we were so happy.

Her parents forbid her from seeing me in that treehouse. Despite their warnings, she still came. I remember one time that she was no allowed to even go out of the house. So, she snuck out of the house to meet me just like we planned everyday.

However, it was the summer afternoon of July the 20^th 1996 that truly changed my entire life. I won her heart that day and we got married just a few days after. I remember her tender lips on mine while in that treehouse. We was kissing passionately and sharing our love to the future that we’ll create.

We had our first son after being married for 2 years. Sadly, we had to move to another house and say good bye to the treehouse that had accompanied though everything. However, we would still visit it every week with our baby boy and tell him about how we spend time in that old and damp tree house. We used to play hide and seek there every Sunday and our baby boy John never got tired of it.

However, looks like God hadn’t planned a happily ever after for us. I remember that day in the treehouse of 2017. Our son had already graduated from university and already have a family of his own. We were hanging around in the tree house when it happened. My wife suddenly had a terrible headache and fainted in my arms.

I was stunned. Searching her eyes for something, anything out of this mess, I found nothing. She has been having these headache for a while now. I keep telling her that she should see a doctor. But, she said it was nothing. When I took her to the hospital, my suspicions were confirmed. Her eyes were clouded and the doctor says got the last stages of the brain tumour. I knelt down by her bed then, weeping like a little kid into her arms.

Suddenly, her eyes become clear as the sky and she whispered in my ear the last sentence with a clear memory.

She told me, “ Ethan, don’t you ever blame this on yourself and don’t you ever cut down that tree house, you hear me!”

There she was, clutching my arm with a grip of steel. I felt hollow inside, like everything has been shattered inside me . But, the worst part is, I couldn’t start to imagine a life without her, my Julia. I slowly nodded and her eyes became cloudy again and she hadn’t been able to identify her own husband since.

My father always told me that life was like a box of chocolates, you’ll never know what path lays ahead.(And yeah, my father got that from the movie, Forest Gump) However, after what I experience, I fully disagree. If life had so many possibilities, then why does destiny punish a whole and joyful family like us? Out of all the possibilities of the happy life, why did destiny choose this cursed and sorrowful ending for our family? Can’t destiny see that we have not sinned?

I hope that this world rots in hell for what it has done to our family and me. I crave that someone or something will pay for this, all of this. At that instant, I thought of the treehouse, the stupid treehouse. It bears so much memories and it hurt just to think of it right now. Every summer afternoon I spend there with my wife always bring a fresh amount of tears in my eyes.

After weeping for who knows how long in chair in the hallway in the hospital. I finally got my bearing and made my decision. I was going to cut that wrenched tree house and no one is going to stop me.

Just then, my son rushed though the hallways and spotted me.

“Oh god! I got the first ticket to New York. Where is my mom, can I see her?”

Seeing the grim line my face, he stiffened and asked in a barely audible voice. “Father are you okay?” I clenched my teeth and started toward the hospital entrance. My son grabbed my shoulder but I shrugged it of.

“Who was he to stop me from what had to be done.”

I marched on out of hospital ignoring my son babbling behind me. I hopped into the car and son, fast as lightening, went into the passengers seat.

“At least tell me where are we going?”

“To the tree house.” I answered bluntly.

My son’s eyes eyes grew wide and his posture became very still. “You are not thinking about cutting it down are you?”

“Yes, I will cut it down, and no one will stop me.”

My son burst into tears like a child, “No! No! Father you can’t do this you just can’t”

“I can and I will.” I answered shortly.

Suddenly, my son grab for the steering wheel and the car lurched on one side. I was angry and disgusted by my son’s idiocy. “What are you doing, John!” I screamed at his face.

“My son’s face was teary but determined at the same time.

“I’ll rather die in a car trash than seeing you chop down that tree house.”

“How dare you question what I do.” I wrenched the steering wheel for his hand and pushed back into his leather seat. However, my son wasn’t planning to give up that easily. After a few moments when I truly thought that he was unconscious, he sprang up like a rubber band grappled for the steering wheel again. This time, the car went of the road and into the forest.

The car tumbled down and down, with a broke father and son inside it. When the car finally stopped, I checked for any injuries a broken rib and nerve dislocation and so on. Cosmically, what I found was only a bruised leg, nothing else. However, my son injuries were so much worse. He ankle was a weird angle and his nose was bleeding badly.

I stared my son for a while, should I continue to walk and cut down the tree house, or should I save my son? I though the times I and my wife were hanging out in that damned tree house and I thought about how much hurt it would cost me if I didn’t cut it down. So, I gritted my teeth and with difficulty, stepped out of the car.

That night I cut down the tree house and my son when he was fully recovered, told me that he would have no father like me. If cutting down the tree house were to make me feel better, I didn’t.

It only me lose more.

In summer afternoons, since my car is ruined, I would always take a run until I reached the our tree house. At first, I couldn’t even bear the sight of the tree house. But, in time, I learned to control my sorrow my anger and my despair. Not a single day that I do not think of her, and every night I felt lonely in my warm and cosy bed.

When I look at the tree house’s ashes now, I know that I should hate that tree house. I should walk away and laugh to myself that it’s over. However, it was tree house that conveys happy memories to me. It was the tree house that made me who I am today. But, most importantly, it was the tree house that let me met her. Even when I cut the tree house down, I was still thinking about her and her last words about not cutting the tree house down. Thinking about that now, I knew that I had let her down. I learned to face reality during the years after I cut it down. I sowed my heart so that nobody could get in. However one thing still tends to rip my heart open again, that is the man I turned my self into.

I finally knew what my father meant from the quote from Forest Gump. Life is a box of chocolates, and it has many kind chocolates inside. It does not matter what life throws at you, what matters is what kind of chocolate you pick what it happens. And that choice is what affects you in your whole life.