Once they exchanged
relevant data such as what were their favourite colours, their favourite
Kool-Aid colours and favourite cartoon shows, they carried the small desk,
chairs and empty pitcher and glasses back to Olivia’s home. Olivia, Georgia,
and Jarrod lived in a house with the largest tree he ever seen right in the
very middle of their front lawn. Hanging from one branch was a tire swing. Doggie
went immediately over to the tree and lifted up one leg in appreciation of its
grandeur.
“Wow!” he said, “Look at
the size of that tree! Is the fort in there?”
“Nah,” said Jarrod, “Our
dad won’t let us build anything in there. He says it would de-value the
property.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that if we were
to sell our house, we would get more money if there wasn’t a tree house in the
front yard.”
“I would pay a million
dollars for a tree house,” exclaimed Cash, showing a complete lack of realty
economics.
“I would pay two million
dollars!” said Chick, raising the ante.
“You don’t have two
million dollars, silly,” said Olivia, “Only famous people have millions of
dollars. Our dad told us that because he works in a bank.”
“What’s a bank?” asked
Cash.
“A bank is a building
where people go and give money to my dad and he keeps it safe for them.”
“Like a piggy bank?”
“Yes, like a piggy bank.”
“Your dad works in a
piggy bank?”
“I didn’t say that. I
said he works in a people bank.”
“Oh,” said Cash, trying
to picture why people would go into a people bank when they could just use a
piggy bank like he does.
The six of them put the
desk and chairs in the garage and the girls started up the back stairs to a
door.
“You guys have to wait
here. Mom doesn’t like other kids in the house.”
Jarrod picked up a
football on the lawn and tossed it to Adam, who tossed it to Chick, who tossed
it back to Jarrod. Cash watched in anticipation. He had never thrown or even
caught a football before although he seen lots of other kids do it.
“Catch!” called Jarrod as
he chucked the ball hard at Cash. He dodged before it hit him. The ball landed
behind him and he ran to get it. He picked it up and tried to put a hand around
it but found he couldn’t.
“You are supposed to
catch it, kid,” said Jarrod, "throw it back."
He inspected the
football. As balls go, it was the worst he had ever seen. The ends weren’t
sharp but there looked to be a shoelace or something sewn into the middle of
it.
“What happened to your
ball?” he asked Jarrod as he pointed at the stitches.
“That’s what it is
supposed to look like. It’s a real football not a toy one,” replied Jarrod,
“You are supposed to put your fingers on the laces and then throw it.”
“Throw it to me, Cash!”
said Adam, over by the willow tree.
Cash awkwardly put his
hands on the laces but could only manage a finger. He more heaved than threw it
towards Adam who was too far away. The ball bounced far in front of him. Adam
ran up to it and kicked it towards Jarrod who caught it expertly.
“You’ve never thrown a
football?” asked Adam.
“No.”
“That’s so weird,"
said Chick.
"How come you’ve
never thrown a football?” asked Adam.
Cash didn’t know what to
say. They heard a door slam shut and Georgia and Olivia appeared from around
the corner. Bother were wearing clean clothes with no Kool-Aid stains on them.
“Mom says we can only go
to the Fort for a little bit because Dad will be home soon and we are going to
have supper,” said Olivia.
“Okay,” said Jarrod,
throwing the football to Adam. “Get this, this kid has never seen a football
before.”
“So?" said Olivia,
"You’ve never seen a bar of soap before.”
The others laughed. Cash
laughed too, but he didn’t like the way Jarrod kept calling him 'this kid'. Of
course he had not seen a real football before, he just got here. Plus his Dad
didn't like sports.
They took the football
with them, although it became apparent that the girls had no interest in
playing. The boys threw the ball amongst themselves. Jarrod never threw it to
Cash but Chick did and sometimes Adam. Cash made sure to never throw the ball
to Jarrod. Although Cash never caught one pass and spent most of the time
chasing the bouncing ball all over the road, he was having fun. Doggie was
excited to chase the ball where ever it went, including into the roadside ditch
on occasion. He would bark at it until one
of the boys picked it up in which case he would chase it again until it once
again bounced into the ditch. Cash was very happy to find out there were kids
his own age living in his neighbourhood and there was a fort!
Occasionally he would
glance over at Olivia and Georgia, who were using their hands to talk in their
secret language. He couldn't wait to learn how to talk with his hands too. His
mom would be so impressed with him.
They reached the corner
where the Kool-Aid stand had been and turned down Rattletip Road. It felt
strange to walk past his driveway. What Cash wanted to do was run in and tell
his Mom about his new friends but he also really wanted to see this fort. The
fort won out. He could always tell his Mom about his new friends later and
maybe even tell her about the secret fort.
They Squiresed over the
ditch on the side of the road and into a small trail he never noticed before.
The girls led the procession, first Olivia then Georgia. Doggie ran back and
forth between the boys and the girls as Adam, Jarrod, Cash and finally Chick brought
up the rear. Cash tried not to be scared. The trees were dark and full of
shadows and the sunlight didn't get through the trees very well.
“Are we allowed to be
back here?” asked Cash anxiously as he looked back to see what little he could
of the road.
“Sure we are,” replied Chick
behind him, “this is part of our property.”
“I don’t see any fort
though,” Cash said, “And what if we get lost? My mom will be really mad. I have
to get the eggs.”
Chick smiled and told Cash
to look back towards the road.
"Why?" he asked
as he turned. When nobody answered, he turned back around to find that he was
alone. There was nobody there. They all had disappeared.
“Hey! Where did they go?”
asked Cash, looking at Doggie, who cocked his head at him.
A stream of water that
came from nowhere hit him on the chest. Doggie started barking excitedly at a
clump of bushes in front of them. He could hear laughter behind it and the top
of Adam's head. Cash walked towards the bushes, noticing there were a pile of
logs behind it, built up like a wall. It was nearly as tall as him. Poking out
over the top of the log wall and covered in leaves there was the fluorescent
orange business end of a water gun.
“I see you!” he exclaimed,
although he truly didn't. However he figured if he said that they would give
away where they were.
“Halt!” said Jarrod,
standing up and aiming the water gun at Doggie and Cash, “No one gains access
to The Fort without the password. What’s the password?”
“Well, I don’t know,”
replied Cash, he had a worrisome suspicion that they wouldn’t let him in the
Fort without knowing the password and nobody had told him what the password was
so therefore he wouldn’t be allowed to enter the Fort.
“Then you may not enter
The Fort,” said Jarrod.
Adam popped up beside
Jarrod.
“There is no password, Cash.
We are just playing soldiers. It's what we do.”
Jarrod lowered his water gun and Olivia and Georgia stood up from their hiding
spots. Cash noticed they were also holding water guns.
Cash smiled from ear to ear and followed Adam
past Jarrod through the bushes.
Adam explained the Fort
was actually an old cabin some other kids
made years ago before he was born. Apparently some of the parents told them
they weren’t allowed to make a cabin and so it was never finished. There was a
doorway but the walls were barely taller than Cash. He could see there was no
roof, except for one corner which had been made with a piece of plywood and was
covered in old branches and dead leaves.
A lot of it was covered
in moss. There were some stumps made into seats and a tree which had fallen aSquires
the back made for a natural wall. There was another tree right beside the cabin
shell. Nailed to its trunk were boards which led up to a wooden seat on a
branch high up.
"That's our
look-out," said Adam, "you can see our house and your house from up
there."
"It's called the
Look Out," added Chick.
“That’s because Jarrod
will throw water balloons at you if you aren’t careful,” said Olivia, "so
you need to look out."
Under the corner with the
roof there was an old toy box. Adam opened it to show Cash it was full of
comics, water guns and other toys and
tools including a small axe, a hammer and a small shovel.
For the rest of the
afternoon, the group hung out in the fort, telling each other and Cash of past
adventures and the established hierarchy for The Fort, which would be forgotten
by the same time tomorrow. Doggie made a bed for himself and was passed the
time chewing on an exceptionally delicious stick he brought in. Georgia and Chick
played quietly with some toy animals in the box. Olivia and Adam explained some
of the rules of the Fort to Cash as Jarrod sat on the box and read a comic
book.
The rules were quite easy
to remember. He was to tell nobody about the Fort and grownups weren’t ever,
ever allowed in. If he needed to pee, he had to do it far away from the Fort,
no peeing inside. The password was ‘there is no password’ until they changed
it. Later they decided to make Doggie the official Dog of the Fort to which
Doggie accepted with relative humility although he wasn’t too enthusiastic on
wearing the crown of leaves the girls made for him. He preferred to chew his
stick in peace.
Georgia made some motions
to Olivia who translated.
"Georgia says she
thinks we need a name for our gang."
"Yeah, that would be
so cool," said Cash, "I've never been in a gang before."
With much discussion of
possible names for their group it was Georgia who came up with the name the
'Kool-Aid' gang, because they all loved Kool-Aid and they were cool.
Olivia smiled. This had
turned out to be a very good day. She made some money from the Kool-Aid stand
and made a new friend. Despite being a boy Cash was nice and relatively clean.
He still was wearing the faint whispers of Kool-Aid on his upper lip. For some
reason, it seemed to fit him.
“Cash! Dinner!”
"Oh-oh, there's your
mommy calling," said Jarrod from his comic.
"Yeah, your mommy's
calling," copied Adam.
Cash and Olivia stood up
and she pointed him towards his house. Through the trees they could just barely
see his mother on their front porch. She took his hand and led him out of the
fort and around it to a small path that led right to his property. Doggie
followed them enthusiastically.
"Follow Doggie and
you'll get home no problem," she said.
"But I want to stay
here with you guys," Cash said.
As if on cue, they heard
another voice calling.
“That's our mom,” said
Olivia, “we have to get going too. But don't worry, maybe we can play tomorrow.”
“I would like that very
much. Maybe you can come over for a play date!” said Cash, eyes lighting up.
Olivia smiled. She looked
Cash square in the eyes. He had very nice eyes.
“You have nice eyes,”
said Olivia, “Sure we can have a play date. But you don't say play date. That's
for babies. We just say 'come over and play'."
Cash smiled too. He heard
his mom calling again and yelled back.
“Coming!”
He waved to the others.
“Bye everyone, see you
tomorrow!”
They all said good bye in
their own ways; Olivia and Chick actually said bye, Georgia waved the international
sign of good bye, Adam said 'seeya' and Jarrod grunted. Olivia watched to make
sure Cash got out of the woods before she turned to Georgia.
"Okay, Georgia let's
go. Jarrod, we're leaving. Bye Chick, bye Adam," she said for the two of
them. She knew Jarrod would follow them
on his own terms. Adam and Chick would leave soon after. It was the usual way
they left the fort when Mom called.
At dinner she told her
mom and dad of the new boy in the neighbourhood and how he bought everyone
Kool-Aid. Georgia also tried to sign about her day. Her Mom was very
interested, her Dad, as was usual said nothing and once dinner was over went to
his usual chair to watch his shows. Jarrod sat down beside him as he usually
did while Mom, Georgia and her practiced sign language.
For the rest of the
evening Olivia found her thoughts turning back to the new boy and his funny
moustache. It was a nice feeling to meet a new friend.
