We spent the day running around the neighborhood chasing the imaginary and embracing the impossible as things I thought were a part of my soon to be gone childhood were still there. I was having fun jumping over obstacles and leaping into danger. Wendy said nothing could harm us, she said ‘I guarn’tee it’. Naturally, I took that as invitation to do the dumbest things I would ever do, I climbed the tallest tree in the neighborhood.
We made it almost to the top and looked around at the houses that looked like dolls or ants would walk out from them. The wind blew slightly and I looked to Wendy as she stared into the distance.
“So pretty,” she said and then looked down.
“It’s incredible,” I replied.
“Yeah.”
If only my mouth could come up with the words my brain was thinking, but I thought it was be weird. Looking back, I regretted saying the words I wanted to say at that moment but I was told by friends, books, and television that I was too young to think of that four-letter word. The word ‘love’ existed only to state my desire of food, video games, and siting with a bowl of cereal watching Saturday morning cartoons. I wasn’t supposed to think that way about girls.
Yes, I had a similar feeling for Coleen, but I was in fifth grade and her association with Megan and the others soured any future that a “MASH” fortune teller ever preached. I almost sent her a special Vantine’s Day card but chickened out because I didn’t care to hear the chorus of “Jeff and Coleen, sitting in a tree.” However, at that moment, I was sitting in a tree with Wendy.
“I can see my house from here,” she said and pointed ahead of us.
I could barely make out the roof, but it was a building beyond the tree line of the woods so, I assumed it was hers.
“Wendy?”
“Yes?”
“Do you think they’re really going to tell their parents?”
“Yeah, they’ll do it. It’s what they do. And you know what I’m gonna do? I’m gonna live in this tree. Make my own house.”
“Could we build slides. Make our own big version of ‘Chutes and Ladders’?”
Wendy nodded.
“What are you doing in that tree!” A shrill voice cut through the air.
I looked around before recalling no one else was with us in the tree. There were, however, several people standing at the bottom of the tree.

There was a brief flash of red lights and the whine of a fire engine’s siren as it sped down the road in order to park in front of the tree.
“Here comes a ladder. Now we need some chutes,” Wendy replied.
“What are we going to do?”
“We’re going to climb down just as we got up here.”
I nodded and followed Wendy down the tree.

She made it look so easy as she gracefully jumped form branch to branch while I, more cautious of falling, took it slowly until I could see who was at the bottom of the tree: All of the MACS moms, three firemen and the MACS. I think they secretly hoped we would fall from the tree and gather got their wish as I placed my hand on what I could only describe as a wooden spike and felt enough pain to allow my other hand to let go and I felt myself fall along the collapsing branches.
“Stop falling.” Wendy’s voice was calm, a bit too calm for the situation but I stopped falling and found my feet firmly on a large branch wide enough to stand without having to balance.
“You okay?”
I only nodded as the rush of what had just occurred finally hit my brain and how I could have gone splat at the bottom or impaled myself on a branch.
“Nothing’s going to happen to you. Even when we get to the bottom, it’s gonna be cool.”
I looked at Wendy as she smiled at me. A right-minded boy would be freaking out at his near-death experience and the even nearer-death experience at the hands of several mothers who would then tell my mother. It would have to be a closed casket funeral.
The impatient faces below grew more and more impatient as we steadily made our way down. A fireman’s radio squawked radio gibberish as we jumped down the last four feet to the ground.
“Are you—” fireman was abruptly cut off by Megan’s mom.
“What were you doing up there?” She asked with so much anger that I could feel the words against my face. I looked to see Megan with her arms crossed and a partial smile on her face. She would allow her mother to dog the dirty work.
“I am telling your mothers. Where do you live?” She asked Wendy.
“Behind the woods.”
“Behind the woods? No one lives behind the woods.”
“I do. It’s a big ol’ house. You can’t miss it if you know where to find it.”
“That’s the girl who hit me, mom!” Shonda yelled out and pointed an accusing finger at Wendy.
“And I’ll do it again if you wanna get in my face again.”
“What is your mother’s name? I want to speak to her.” Megan’s mom continued to be the spokesman for the group. The fireman had given up and went back to his truck.
“I call her mama.”
“What is her name?
“Her name’s Mary Anne, but it’s best if you call her ‘ma’am’!” A voice bellowed out form behind everyone. It was Wendy’s sister, Anna, and she stood on the sidewalk with her hands behind her back.
“Are you, her mother?”
“No, I’m Anna. She’s my sister, Wendy.”
“Do you know she’s climbing trees and jeopardizing their lives?”
“It don’t surprise me. They’re just a-larking,” Anna replied with a dismissive wave of her hand. “She’s always climbing trees. I used to climb trees. You probably did it too. Kind of kid thing.”
Megan’s mother’s face collapsed in on itself as she was losing an argument to a level-headed teenage whose voice never lost its happy tone.
“What is your address?”
“That I’m not sure of, we just moved in and all. Tell you what, I’ll take my sister and friend home and I’ll come back with my parents.”
“You do that,” Megan’s mom replied, and the other adults agreed. The MACS’ looked puzzled.
“Mom, you just can’t let her go!” Shonda shouted at her mother. “She made me eat dirt!”
“We’ll all meet back here, or at your house, Mrs. Pounders, or at the Stephensons. Just let us know when we come back.”
The crowd dispersed and the three of us walked down the street.
“Mama and Pa are going to enjoy this.”
“They won’t be mad?”
“Pssh,” Anna replied. “Papa will be as happy as a dead pig in the sunshine.”
“Is that a good thing?” I whispered to Wendy.
“Yep.”