( Write a story about a day spent in a treehouse)

If you can imagine, and I suspect most of you can, being a teenage girl just old enough to be considered responsible, but not old enough to get a proper job. I am that girl and I have a whole summer ahead of me. A whole boring summer!  

Circumstances have created this place where I am in life, that while not horrible, it certainly is not what I would wish for!   

“What would I wish for?” , you ask, even rhetorically.  

And I would smile slightly, even bigger inside where I know the truth lies, “ I would wish for plenty of money, no responsibilities, unlimited time at the mall or pool, scads and scads of boys, all mad for me of course, and ice cream!”

There you have the wish…here is the reality.

My parents both work, I have an eight year old brother who I must look after this summer, I cannot have friends over while my parents aren’t home and they both monitor my cell phone use like a couple of bloodhounds! I think I’m skunked!

And so the summer has begun, my little brother is a good kid except he lives and breathes for his tree house. He wants to spend every waking hour up in a tree looking at bug bodies or stones or sorting and playing with his action figures.  

My Dad took me aside and spoke to me grownup to grownup, yah right, he wants me up there in the tree if the kid is up there in the tree, Simple as that! So I must find something to do , up there in the treehouse or get my brother to enjoy the real house or the ground. Forget it! He’ll never want to stay out of his beloved tree house.

~~~~~

I’ve thrown my sleeping bag over a wooden bench my Dad built into one wall and on a shelf also built in, I have a boom box playing low but cool music.  

“What do you want to do today?” I ask my brother Sam.

He shrugs and doesn’t bother to answer just makes some laser sounds like a superhero might make!   

“Come on, Sam, work with me here, it’s a long summer and we’re in this together! We can do this the easy way with a little fun or the hard way with constant fights and tattling to Mom and Dad!” “It’s really up to you, are you going to cooperate?”

He sits there for a few minutes or so poking a June bug with his finger to see if it is dead or alive and finally he has an answer.

“I know you like to write stories, so I will help you write a story this morning if you help me hook up the sprinkler this afternoon.” “What do you think?”

Well, I’m delighted he answered me at all and I have to laugh as it seems preposterous he could help me write a story sitting up in a treehouse.

“Do you mean like Shakespeare ...shall I compare you to a summers day!.?” I asked.

Another long silent pause from him as I’m sure he had no clue what I was talking about but then he replied.

“Nope, I want to write a story about this bug...this plain ugly June Bug!”      

And so it began….

I’d write a few lines or a paragraph and then hesitate for some thoughts or additions from Sam. A few times I found him looking at me or gazing at the June bug but he was engaged in the story. I was delighted! It went rather quickly! Sam adding cute ideas and lines. As it progressed Sam ended up sitting cross legged in front of me really into this effort. and this is what we wrote!   

JUNIE’S PLAIN BORING BROWNNESS!

Junie thought that no one really looked at her. She thought her plain brown color was boring.  She was sure if no one looked at her, they would never see her kindness. If only they could see how beautiful she felt inside, especially beautiful when she was being kind or helpful. It gave her a very pleasurable feeling, like warmth. If only this wonderful feeling could improve her outside self, make her colorful or give her beautiful markings but she was just a plain round brown bug.

Junie thought about this day and night. Always the last thing she thought about before her rest each day was, how can she improve how the world sees her. Crawling along the edge of the birdbath, she sees her reflection in the water. 

Plain brown, plain boring brown, plain all one color and shade of boring brown, with a sigh she concludes she is just boring beyond words! If only, if only, if only she could improve how she looks, maybe someone would look at her twice and see her goodness.

Flying off now to the garden, Junie is looking for color! She is sure color is the answer! Red, she will look for red! Buzzing here, buzzing there, at last Junie spots red tomatoes. On the ground below the tomato plant, an over ripe tomato has been squished and left to rot. Junie flies into this messy tomato and tries to cover her body in Red! Oh goodness, she certainly didn’t expect it to be this wet and soggy but she continues to cover her wings with this spoiled pasty tomato.

Dragging herself off to a tall blade of grass, Junie waits for the sun to dry her. Flying would be impossible until she is dry. Sitting in the sun all Junie can think of is this is the time of day when she usually practices kindness in one way or another.   

As she sits drying, the silver maple overhead is shedding its seed pods, bits of this seed debris floats on the breeze and when it gets to Junie it sticks fast to her wet soggy wings. Maybe, just maybe, this was not such a good idea. It may take hours to dry enough for her to fly so folks can see her new beauty and when they notice her at last, they will see her kindness.

As time passes she is getting more and more discouraged. Her wings are incredibly heavy, flying is impossible, she has no idea how she really looks but she feels terrible.   

Leaving her blade of grass, she slowly crawls along until she comes upon her friend Joe, the woolybear caterpillar.

“Yo, who goes there?” Asks Joe the caterpillar. “It’s me, Junie!”  

The caterpillar seems confused and a bit dismayed. “What has happened to you?” He asked.    

Junie explains that she wanted to look better so folks would see the beauty of the real her instead of her plain brownness, she thought red might help, but it is not working out at all!  

Joe, flexing his body and inching forward says, “Hmmmm? This is strange, I have never noticed your brownness, only your kindness and that is beautiful!”

She continues on trying to find some water to soak off the mess she has created.   

Thump!! Suddenly she is being held in the pincher hands of a praying mantis!  

“STOP!” Yells Junie, “Please don’t eat me, it’s me Junie!” Turning his head slowly this way and that so his strange eyes could see her clearly he finally recognizes his friend Junie.   

“What in heavens has gone wrong with you Girl?” “Did someone step on you and squish you?” Junie tries again to explain what she was trying to do, trying to cover up her plain boring brownness so folks would see the real her, but now, she was almost someone’s lunch!  

“Well you wasted your time as far as I’m concerned,” said the praying mantis, “I just know you as sweet and kind, that is the “real” beauty!”

Now she is so very sad, her wings are heavy and the thick tomato mess has dried. She may never fly again and even worse, the day is almost gone and she hasn’t been kind even once!

Finally pulling herself up on a patio brick, she lays there exhausted. She hears the loud purrrrr, purrrr of her feline friend KittyKitty. Crawling up onto KittyKitty’s paw Junie gets her attention.   

“KittyKitty, can you think of a way to help me get clean?” “I know you are very clean and lick your fur and wash your face, so maybe you can think of a way to help me, I am so sad!”

“You my friend are a mess” KittyKitty says as she stretches and yawns. “I won’t even ask what kind of mischief you were up to to end up like this!   

“Well we can try a thing or two, I have never had to clean up a pretty brown bug before!”   

“You think I’m pretty?” Asked Junie.    

“Well of course, you are one of the kindness friends I have and it makes you GLOW with beauty.”     

And so KittyKitty tells Junie to climb aboard her tail.

KittyKitty says, “No matter what, HANG ON for dear life!”

Junie slowly climbs onto KittyKitty’s soft fur, burrows in to hold on tight to her tail, closes her eyes and wishes good thoughts.   

The next thing she knows, she is moving left and right, left and right, like the twitching of a cat’s tail but not just twitching , this tail is in the dog’s watering pan.   

Back and forth, into the water and out, into the water and out!  Many times!   

Finally the movement stops.   

Junie opens her eyes and a huge smile radiates from her face.   

She is clean! She is plain brown! She is plain boring brown!   

She is herself again but along the way, this day, she learned that most folks see more than just the way a creature looks, they saw her kindness all along!   

Junie feels all new and clean, she feels like a million dollars and as she looks around she realizes she still has time to be kind to someone or something in need.   

She opens her wings, they are perfect again, she flies off and as she crosses a sunbeam her wings seem to glisten!

She lands on a beautiful flower and for the first time in her life, Junie feels beautiful too!

~~~~~

“Oh my gosh,” she says to Sam. “We’ve actually written a whole story!”

“Yep!” Says Sam, “Pretty awesome!” “And we wrote it in a treehouse!” “Maybe by the end of summer we will have enough stories for a book!” “We can call the book, Treehouse Stories!”

“And now for lunch from the cooler and then the sprinkler!” He yells.