Our First Day

‘Hey, Fred! Look there! We’ve a tree house here as well’, cried Alex, entering the garden of their new house, along with their father. They had been living in a comfortable house in Philadelphia for around 10 years. Mr and Mrs D’Souza had decorated it themselves with some of the most unique and special accessories. These included a few Picasso cushions and souvenirs they bought on their honeymoon in Paris, some mesmerizing still art paintings they bought on their trip to Italy and a beautiful carpet they had bought when they went to India.

But a month ago when Mrs D’Souza died, her lonely husband decided to move to a new house. He was not able to keep up after his wife’s death. His old house always reminded him of her love. His bed reminded him of those cosy snuggly moments they used to spend together. For the sake of his own and his children’s health, he decided to move to a new place. He bought a house about 20 miles away from his old one. It was an old but well-built house with 3 bedrooms, living room, a kitchen and a bathroom. There was a garden in front of it which was full of trees.

‘Oh yes! Alex, I’m so excited to go up there and play in it.’, said Fred, excitedly.

They looked towards their father hopefully with gleaming eyes.

‘I know what you’re thinking. But, no!’, said their father inanimately.

‘Please, dad! Just for an hour!’, pleaded 4-year old  Fred.

‘I said no! Just come inside and help me unpacking.’

‘Dad, we promise we’ll unpack all our stuff ourselves. But, first let us go up there. Just for a few minutes.’, said Alex.

‘But, it’s very dangerous there. It’s an old tree house and seems too weak to handle your weight. You’ll fall down and hurt yourself.’, said their father a little irritably.

‘No, papa! Nothing will happen. We’ll be very careful.’, pleaded Alex again.

This to and fro conversation went on for a few minutes. Finally, their father gave in.

‘Okay! Let me go in and keep this stuff in the living room. Then, you can use that ladder to go up.’, said their father pointing towards a wooden ladder kept nearby. ‘But do not enter the tree house.Just peek into it and come back. I’ll get it renovated and then you can play in it.’

The boys nodded agreeably. Their father went inside the living room. As he kept his bag on the chair, he heard someone scream outside. Alex, he thought. He ran towards the garden to find his two boys inside the tree house. As soon as he had gone inside, the kids had climbed up the ladder and went inside the tree house. As they reached the end of the tree house, the first half of it behind them, which was touching the wooden ladder, had broken and fallen down along with the ladder.

‘Oh god! Don’t worry, Alex, Fred! I’m coming up there. Don’t worry!, shouted Mr D’Souza from the garden, looking upward towards the tree house and running towards the fallen ladder. He picked up the ladder and started climbing it hastily.

He reached the end of the ladder and realised that there was a certain distance left between the ladder and the tree house because of the collapse of a certain part of the latter. He tried to estimate the distance between the ladder and tree house and reached the conclusion that his arm can not reach the boys  from where he was standing. He looked here and there to find something he could hold on to to reach nearer the tree house. He saw a branch connecting the ladder to it. He held that branch and started climbing it. When he finally reached nearer  and thought he was at the safe distance from his kids, he lent out his hand first to the little one, Fred, whose face was red and wet from crying.

Just when he lent out his hand, a storm started. It made it difficult for them to see. Mr D’Souza rubbed his eyes for a few seconds to get off dirt and see more clearly. After unfurling his arm and persuading the little dreaded kid for some time, he finally grabbed Fred in his left arm and looked towards the ladder before starting towards it. He was shocked to see that the ladder had again fallen down, most likely due to the storm.

He decided to drop off Fred back at the tree house, go down the tree, pick up the ladder and come back up again. But as soon as Alex extended his arm to help Fred inside the tree house again, Fred began crying even more loudly and refused to leave his father. Finally, Mr D’Souza gave in and decided to go down the tree along with Fred. He carried Fred on his back and started going down. As he went down a few steps, he got bruised by a thorn and started bleeding. They finally reached the ground. Mr D’Souza dropped off Fred on the green grass and stormed towards the ladder. He picked it up and kept it along the tree. He started looking here and there hastily. Unable to find anything useful, he went into the living room and unpacked a box. He took the rope used to pack that box and returned to the garden. He tied the ladder to the tree as high as his hand could reach with that rope to protect it from falling again due to the ongoing storm. After making sure that the rope was tight enough to protect the ladder by pulling it a few times, he climbed it up. Again after reaching the end of the ladder, he climbed up the branch he had used previously to get nearer to the tree. He extended his hand to Alex and helped him reach the ladder which he climbed down first and then his father came after him. Finally, after an hour of struggle, they finally reached the smooth and spiky grass of the garden which looked greener to them at that time than it usually was.