Happy Memories in My Treehouse

ESL 51 Mon/Wed

The treehouse

When I was a little girl, there were many places I used to go playing, but only one place held the happiest memories of my childhood. It was by far, the coolest place I had as a child, it made me feel happy, private and empowered; my treehouse. It was built by my dad and uncle and it took about 3 months to be finished. Every day after school, my sisters and I would go straight to my father’s studio to get the latest news on the treehouse project. It had been our reward for getting good grades at school and that particular reason, made us proud and happy. I had the treehouse since I was 6 years old and until I was about 12, I shared it with my two older sisters and occasionally my oldest brother, but as shocking as it may sound, we hardly ever fought over it. It was our special place for “secret” reunions where we had our most creative ideas to do some pranks on the neighbors or to plan a birthday surprise for our parents. We hid there when we were in trouble and had brunch every other Sunday, but the best part of the treehouse were the giant windows on the east and west side that allowed us to see the stars at night. That was precisely our favorite activity; spotting satellites, shooting stars and constellations. The treehouse made my sisters and I famous among the kids on the block, ours was the only one in the neighborhood. Being invited to it was a privilege everyone wanted, so over the years we received all sorts of innocent bribes from random kids, that spent their allowances for a virtual ticket to the coolest ‘fort’ they had ever seen. Once we had our parents’ permission we would bring over the contestants, until it came a day where every child in the street had enjoyed the fun of being in our treehouse. After 4 years of countless adventures our tree’s life came to an end when the electric company requested my parents to cut it down. My dad didn’t really have a choice when he took down the tree along with the fort, but before he did it, he and my mother had done their best effort to lessen the pain by explaining me and my sisters how we were not little girls anymore, and pointing out that we had different recreational activities by then, so we decided to take our last trip to our treehouse, we spent the day inside remembering all the special moments we had had in it, and in the morning, after a last picture of us with our dear tree, we said goodbye to it and closed a chapter of our childhood that will live with us forever.