"You can't climb that one!" I said "It has poison ivy under it."
Did he listen? Not exactly. He gazed upward at the branches while I stood behind. I climbed onto the wooden structure under the lower branches and prepared to hoist myself up.
"You go first." I backed away as he took my place.
"Its pretty unstable."he replied doubtfully, still staring up into the brittle branches.
I smiled knowingly. "Follow me."
I ran over to the other pine tree in our yard, only a few feet away. It had been struck by lightning a while back, leaving an intricate pattern of raw bark.
"Guys, don't!" Cried my sister from the rope swing. " Dad said that since it got struck by lightning it's not safe to climb anymore."
"Its ok, Taylor, I've climbed it dozens of times since then." I answered back, already pulling myself up onto the lowest branch.
Much as she protested, I continued to climb higher, and Nate followed at a slower pace. I knew this tree well, and this was probably about my gazillionth time climbing it.
Nate and his two sisters had come over early that day because their parents needed to pick somebody up from the airport. I didn't understand why we had to babysit them. The oldest one, Jaclyn, was 18. Nate was 16, a year older than me, and Kathy was 14. I was pretty sure their mom was just looking for any excuse for a play date. Not that I minded, these guys were some of my best friends.
I tried to climb as fast and as gracefully as I could. I was clumsy on the ground, but here in the large pine tree I was "in my element." Lets face it. I may have been showing off a little bit, but I was sick of all the boys assuming that, simply because I was a girl, I couldn't do so called "boy things" as well as any other guy. I was always a bit of a Tomboy, even though my cute braids, slight touch of makeup, and girly pink sweater balanced things out.
I was thankful that Nate never seemed to treat me as if I was unable to do anything he was.
"We kind of turned this tree into a house." I commented, still climbing with ease.
Nate was still below me, so he looked up at me, his blue eyes especially blue in the sunlight, and his freckles standing out a bit more than usual.
"That's cool." He said.
I could tell he was trying hard to keep up with me, so I stopped in our so called "living room" and sat down on a branch while leaning on the crooked one behind me.
"This is our living room." I said matter of factly. "See, that's the tv cause it's just a big opening in the branches, and you can see the road and cars and stuff. And this," I motioned to the branch I was sitting on "is the couch."
I climbed a few branches higher so he could take a turn sitting on the couch and enjoying the view.
"So do you have other rooms too?"
"Well, it's not quite as elaborate as a real house, but higher up we have the dining room, and at the top we have bedrooms and a lookout."
"This tree is so neat. I love it."
"I know, right?" I replied. I had always loved this tree.
Just then, we heard my sister call to us again, a bit earnestly. She had stayed on the ground, even though she was my usual climbing partner.
"Guys, I would come down if I were you." She yelled "You're pretty high."
"We're only going to the dining room, Tay." I peered through the leaves at her small figure all the way down on the ground.
"Just hurry."
We continued to climb, this time Nate taking the lead. He had gotten a head start while I was talking to Taylor.
"So," he began "where's the dining room?"
"Oh, up just a little higher. " I replied while trying not to mess up my braids as I was climbing. I failed miserably.
I knew my braids looked absolutely frayed and loose so I just decided to say it so when he saw me again he wouldn't be disconcerted by my mammoth face.
" This tree is messing with my braids." I said. "They probably look terrible right now." Then I laughed a little at myself.
"Nah, they look good."
I couldn't think of anything to say to that, it hadn't been the answer I was expecting, so I replied with a simple "that's good."
I felt so stupid after that, but honestly, what does one say in that situation?
Once we finally reached the dining room, I pointed out the "dining room table," (aka two branches intertwined together with knots, so it can actually hold stuff) and the two branch benches. I sat on one side of the table and told him to sit on the other side.
"This side's better, I think, but hey, at least that side still has a bench." I said, laughing a bit as he slid on the branch.
I remembered that I had told my sister I wouldn't go any higher than the dining room, but I really wanted to see the makeshift bedrooms again, more for my sake, since I hadn't climbed this tree in a while.
" The bedrooms are a little higher up." I stated, then added "Mine has a horse statue in it." I was talking about a little twig sticking out of the tree in my supposed "bedroom" which looked exactly like a horse's head. It was my favourite part.
" Can you show me?"
"Sure" and I continued my ascent up the trunk of this huge tree.
Upon reaching the bedroom portion of the tree, I showed Nate who's bedroom was where (even though each bedroom was literally a branch) and we looked for my horse statue but didn't see it, which left us both very disappointed.
"We should probably head down." I sighed. I hated to leave this tree, my tree.
" It's beautiful up here." noted Nate. " I love this tree. "
"Same, but don't you have trees at your house to climb?"
"Yeagh, but they're not like this one."
"Oh, I see." I paused. "You know," I started again " when I was younger, like when we first moved here, I used to just come up here, at about this spot, and just talk to this tree. I named it and everything. I would tell it secrets and thank it for letting me climb it. It was pretty weird."
Nate started to climb back down, and looked at me for a second. "Not that weird. I think everyone has their own tree like that."
I climbed back down as easily as I came up, grabbing onto branches and dropping myself, using my arms to hold me up.
" Yeagh, I guess you're right." I agreed. "So, what about you?"
He turned. "What do you mean?"
"Do you have a special tree?"
"Yeagh, kinda." He was about to add more, but unfortunately Taylor interrupted him again with another request that we come down, even though she herself was in the living room.
"We're on our way down now, Taylor." I shouted downwards.
Then I looked up at Nate. "I gotta show you our staircase." I said with a smile in my eyes. "Come on."
I found my way to the staircase, which was a bunch of branch stubs arranged in a downward pattern around the tree trunk. I stepped on each branch, then swung off onto the ground with a thud. Nate soon followed in my footsteps.
Now on the ground, Nate gazed upwards into the branches of the tree once more.
"That was awesome." He smiled, and for the third time that day he said " I love that tree."