Simon was all smiles as he half dragged her a long down the path away from the boathouse until they came to a clearing to the left. It was quiet there, the big house no longer in sight, and the woods were almost silent save for the chirp or two of birds and insects.

The clearing, however, was not empty. A large tree rose in the center with a two story treehouse nestled in it's branches. "My dad and grandpop built this for Uncle Peter. Monty's too afraid of it. But there's a rope ladder and a slide in the back!"

As ominous as Simon might seem, he was just trying to be nice here.

"It's kind of empty. It was too cold to be up in there until two weeks ago and Uncle Peter keeps saying he's going to help fix part of the roof but he's busy." Excuses. Adults like to give them. "Do you like to climb?"