Save it for a rainy day

The ragtag fishermen group was casting the day away. It was mid-June, and the sun was at full power. Hot and muggy, but not a turn off for the kids. They didn’t mind the heat like older people did. The youngest Joe was only nine, and the oldest was Kayla at twelve. The ones in between were Ed at ten and Andy, who was on the verge of elven.

They were in their go-to fishing spot, a bank on the river. Just about every kind of fish could be caught in the river. Bass, Bluegill, Catfish, and everything in-between. They had been out here for almost thirty minutes, and the only thing they had was a bite that Joe said he got, but the others thought he might have just rubbed up against a stick.

“Man, why ain't we catching anything?” Ed asked. 

“Probably because you smell something awful," Kayla responded. 

“Very fun- Ed’s words were cut off by an enormous clap of thunder. 

“Well, shit.” Andy huffed. 

“Think we can make it back home before it hits?” Ed asked.

“We don’t need to go home, we got the treehouse, remember," Andy said.

“I forgot about that,” Kayla said,

The treehouse was something that they didn’t go to often, but it was great when they got caught by the weather. They had only gone there two other times this year, and they were in the Spring when the rainy season hit. It had hit hard too. The group of friends had to help the older lady that lived down the street in the field. The field sunk down and was prone to flood. She had asked them for help moving some furniture because she alone since her husband passed away when they were in diapers. She wanted to move some furniture upstairs just in case it got into the house. She said it had happened in the seventies and she expected it to happen again.

She turned out to be right. It had rained for almost a week straight and flooded. School was called off for a few days, and the only two roads in and out of the area they lived in was flooded as well. Keeping everyone stuck in a place without a choice. Water did get into the old lady’s house, but just to the front door, but she had paid the group for helping her. 

The four of them decided to put the money into a few things for the treehouse. Mainly things to do when they got stuck in there when the weather turned bad. Joe had gotten a pair of Velcro gloves and a little ball that would stick to the gloves, form the dollar store. Kayla had gotten two coloring books and a pack of coloring pencils. Ed had gotten a bouncy ball to throw across the wall. Finally, Andy had gotten some newspapers (for the comics, it was 2008, and the election cartoons were his favorite ) and a used paperback. All of these things were for them to use on a rainy day, much like today.

“So what’s the deal, we race there?” Joe asked. 

“I say we do, even though it won’t matter, I'll still win," Ed said. Ed was the only person who played sports in school but still could get beat in a race.

They reeled in their poles and packed the tackle box. They wouldn’t race until they got to their bikes. Because they had to climb up the bank and get to the railroad tracks. Then they would walk across the train trestle over the river and get to their bikes that were parked under the massive interstate bridge.

They walked and talked, poles over their shoulders, cutting up while trying to keep their balance. Trains didn’t run on this rack much more, but every now and then, you could here one blow it’s a whistle in the late evening. They were directly over the river when the first drop of rain hit Joe’s forehead. “Uh oh, we better hurry.” 

They walked over the trusses as fast as they could, and by the time they got to their bikes, they heard another clap of lighting. Ed was the last one on his bike. He had to put the tackle box in the milk crate he zip-tied to the front of the bike. He was only a few seconds behind the others, but they were all peddling fast down the dirt road. When the asphalt road came into view, the rain was starting up.

They all turned left when the dirt road ended. Right, you would cross the railroad tracks, and it let to the main road. Straight would take you to the holler where a cluster of houses, including all of theirs, were located. They headed left riding along a field that had some cows lying in the area. After almost a minute of riding, they turned off what seemed to be just a small hole in the massive tree line, but was actually a pathway they had cleared out to ride their bikes through the woods to the treehouse.

The sky was already Turing grey with rain clouds, but when they ducked into the woods, it might have been nighttime. They all had these lights on their tires that glowed in the dark and were bright in the dense woods.

Even though the path to the treehouse was grown up, the treehouse and surrounding area were cleared out, and there was a huge weeping willow tree. They used the tree to park their bikes to keep them dry.

When they call the treehouse, the treehouse, they use that term loosely. The house wasn’t actually in a tree. They would have to build one if they wanted that, and none of them knew how to make stuff, let alone know where to get the material for the project. However, they did find an old house tucked away in the trees, so they all agreed that it justified to call it a treehouse. None of them knew who owned the rundown house, but it was abandoned what must have been over twenty years ago. They even asked their parents if they knew, and they didn’t even know a house had been that deep in the woods. Since even their parents saw there was no problem with it, they claimed it as their own.

The house was little more than a shack, it only had three different rooms. The front porch had a gaping hole in the floor on the far left side, and the right window had been broken long ago. Other than the place being dirty and old, everything else had been okay with it. The last owner had left a lot of stuff in it. They had found out that the person's favorite tobacco was Prince Albert, they found four empty tin cans around the house. Some plates and bowls had also been left. It had no running water or electricity, but they had brought a few batteries powered camping lamps to see. They also made sure to keep snacks stocked inside in case they got hungry. Overall they loved the little treehouse. It was their own little haven from the bipolar weather that Kentucky had to offer.

They all burst into the treehouse, they were all on the verge of soaking. “ I was the first in, I win," Joe said. 

“Doesn’t look like you won," Kayla said, pointing at his dripping shirt.

They all stood there, soaking in the dampness and darkness of their run-down treehouse. The house had three rooms, a bedroom, bathroom, and the biggest one in the kitchen and living room area that they were now standing in. Andy went started turning on the battery-powered lamps throughout the room. Even though the house had three bedrooms, they only used the big one. There was no mattress on the bed, so any naps had to be taken on the couch only big enough for one. The bathroom was of little use with no running water, but there was a well behind the house.

The rain came in full force now. It was hard and with big droplets. Along with claps of thunder and streaks of lighting said that they would be here a while. Andy already had his paperback open and was reading. He was the only one out of the group who actually enjoyed reading, even just for fun. Kayla busted out her coloring book and pencils and went at it. Joe and Ed played with the velcro ball game.

After what was only thirty minutes seemed much longer when you were bored. Ed and Joe were already bored, Kayla was getting there, but not entirely, but Andy still was engaged with his book. The rain hadn’t let up yet, either. There was no hope of going outside soon, and their stash of actives was about to be up.

Ed had went and got his big bouncy ball. It was white, now turning black because of how dirty it got. It was big enough that he couldn’t get his hand all the way around it completely. It was all rubber and had some weight to it. He was bouncing it off the wall while hovering around the room. 

“Ughhhhh,” Joe said. 

  “Tell me about it," Kayla said. 

“I got an idea,” Ed said. 

“What’s that?” Joe asked. 

“Dodge ball!” And Ed through the ball at Joe. Ed only wanted to scare Joe and wanted the ball to go in-between his legs. Joe was standing on the opposite said in the room. Ed launched the ball. It did go through Joe's legs but didn’t stop there. There was a weak spot in the lower wall, and instead of bouncing off the wall, it went through it.

They didn’t know what to think for a second. Andy looked up from his book. “What in the world did you do?” 

“I…. I don’t know exactly," Ed said.

“Why did it just go through it like that?” Kayla asked.

Joe got down on his knees where the plank broke. “look, the plank wasn’t nailed it, it was placed there, and it ended up dry rotting.” 

“That means there could be something in there,” Andy said. “The last person to live might have hidden stuff away.” 

“Or it could just be rat as big as Joe,” Kayla said. With her being the oldest a lot of the time, she was the voice of reason.

“I just don’t know.” Joe knocked on the surrounding planks. “ I can’t tell if the others had been messed with. These might have been nailed back, but they could easily be taken off.” 

“Here try this,” Andy emerged with an old hammer. “Found it in a toolbox under the sink,” and handed it to Joe.

There were no objections to doing this because they were all mesmerized by the possibility that this old house held secrets from the past.

Joe grabbed the hammer, it looked almost as old as this house. He prayed off some of the nails and used the stick to break loose the boards. It wasn’t super hard because the nails weren’t in all the away. Almost like it was done in a hurry. The wood itself was mostly dry rotted, so it either came off the wall or broke off.

Joe had made a hole big enough to get both hands into the wall. It was pure blackness in there. “Get me one of those lamps before I reach in here.” 

Ed ran over the counter and grabbed the lamp and hand it to him.

 Joe put it beside the dark hole in the wall. He didn’t see anything that would bite him. Turing the lamp sideways and pushing it in a little bit, he didn’t see any bugs or rats. He pulled the lamp back and reaches a hand in there. He got up to his elbow, “I think I feel something.” He reached around a little more. “Might be a box. It’s heavy.” He pulled his arm out and positioned himself better and put both hands inside the hole. He was able to pull out what had been hidden inside the wall. 

It was a dark green military ammo box. Dust covered it, but it was easy to tell what it was. “Woah!” Andy said.

The others sat there in stunned silence. Deep down, they didn’t think they would find anything, but here in front of them was something hidden by the previous owner.

The side of the box read: U.S.M.C., Colt 1911, .45 A.C.P.

“The guy was a Marine. That’s like the elite guys,” Ed said. “Pop it open there, Joe.” 

Joe took his dust-covered hands and flipped up the handle that released the little bar holding it down. He took items out one by one just in case something fragile was inside. He pulled out a bunch of small handgun bullets but no gun with it. He found a few of what had to be bullets to a larger gun, a rifle because they doubled the size of the handgun bullets. A deck of playing cards was there. A half-empty pack of Camels cigarettes, and of course, an empty tin can of Price Albert chewing tobacco. Then Joe grabbed something that scared him. 

A hand grenade. It was the heaviest thing he grabbed and almost dropped. The pin was still inside.” Wha… what do I do,” he asked nervously.

“Hold on, it could be a dud….” Ed was cut off.

“Or it could be real!” Joe yelled. 

“Listen to me, my papaw was in the army. It could just be a training grenade, look at the bottom, slowly,” Ed said. 

Joe carefully raised the potential explosive above his head. “There’s a hole,” he said. 

“See were good; it’s a training grenade. They don’t practice with real ones.” 

“Thank God," Kayla said, “Joe could have blown all of us up.” 

“Scared me to death,” Joe said and wiped his sweating forehead with the back of his hand. He set the harmless grenade down and went back to the box. He the last thing he pulled out was a handful of pictures. They were old and taken on a polaroid camera—much earlier than the digital handheld cameras that were becoming popular.

“My mom told me that this is how they used to take pictures. Before the Cannon, she got at Walmart.” Kayla said. 

The pictures were of men in a jungle looking area. There was some of an army base, there was one picture with four rough-looking men standing in a dense forest with rifles hung over their shoulders. One had a cigarette in his mouth, and the rest of the pack strapped to his helmet. One looked like he had a joker playing card in his helmet. Another with bullets surrounding his. The last guy had a can of Price Alberts secured to his.

They all knew that this was their guy, the owner. That was the only answer they got that day. By the time the rain had quit and the sun broke through the clouds, they had more questions than they wanted. Why was this stuff hidden? Where is the guy? His name? Where those his friends? Why hide those items that reminded him of his friends? There were many more questions to be asked about what they found. A lot of them would most likely go unanswered.

One thing they did know for sure is that their treehouse held secrets they couldn’t imagine, and all it took was a rainy summer day to find it.