Keeping Up

 

Keeping up

When I was five years old or so, I begged my dad

to build us a fort in our backyard. What kid doesn't

harbor fantasies of fighting off pirates and pillagers

from behind the walls of indestructible yellow pine?

Caving in to my incessant pleading, my dad and I

made a special trip to Sutherland Lumber Company.

For the next couple of weeks, when he had spare

time, my dad and I labored over our masterpiece;

mostly I just pretended to hammer non-existent

nails with my plastic hardware, taking cues from

dad saying, “Make sure the heads are flat against

the wood. You don't want to get cut by them.”

After it was finished, I stood in amazement of what

was surely a new wonder of the world. The blue

swings,the smooth, metal monkey-bars, and that thing

you skin the cat on. My friends came over nearly

every day to play. Some weeks later my best friend

had a construction crew at his house, in his backyard.

His fort dwarfed mine in size and accessories.

It had a yellow rope-net to climb, more swings,

even one of those damned swirly tire swings

underneath the main support. Where my fort

was open, his had a colorful tarp covering.

From then on we mostly played at his house.

I went to visit him years later, after I had moved

to Kansas. We talked about random snippets of our

childhood since we didn't have much in common.

As I left, I noticed his fort was still there; the wood

faded and cracking, the once colorful tarp ceiling in tatters.

 

Reviews

[LisetteCanWrite!]

What a wonderful childhood story.. I loved playing outdoors as a child.. and the bar where you "skinned the cat" caught my attention.. you must have been into the uneven bars.. I loved that in high school. Great job and while it's sad to see the tattered remains of such a beautiful creation such as your friend's fort.. how they must have loved it for it to still be standing! It certainly gave you a conversation piece as well as this writing to share!