grandfather’s grandfather had been a child laborer here. Hard work made for hard men. Not to mention families. Ambrose would be the last Olson. Unless he could save his brother.
“David! Are you in here?”
His voice bounced off the walls. He could feel something in the dark. A silent presence. Watching. Waiting. Slithering. Ambrose steeled himself against the darkness and walked until he reached the light on the other side. The path led to an overpass. A hidden clearing. Ambrose followed the footprints into a little garden. He looked up and stopped dead in his tracks when he finally saw it.
David’s tree house.
Ambrose looked through the dense fog and saw the shadow of a little boy carrying something to the tree house.
“DAVID?!” Ambrose called out.
The word was right in Ambrose’s mind. But when it left his mouth, it was silent.
The little boy didn’t turn.
Ambrose started to run to him, but his legs became so heavy, he couldn’t move. He couldn’t speak. He could only watch frozen on the ground. The little boy turned, and Ambrose finally saw his face. His beautiful face. And that perfect head of hair. It was David. My God. It was really him. He was still alive.
And he was crying.
Ambrose tried to scream, but the word was trapped in his throat like a marble. David could not hear him. David thought he was all alone. David wiped the blood from his nose with one hand and grabbed a hammer from a pile of tools near the tree house with the other. Ambrose watched as his little brother tore the tree house apart. Plank by plank. Throwing the wood in a pile like a dog stacking bones.
Until there was nothing left but the ladder.
The boy tried to move up the ladder by himself, but he was too weak. He lifted the hammer in his brittle hand and tried to pry one of the ladder rungs off the tree, but the hammer was too heavy. He finally lost his grip and fell to the ground with a thud. The little boy stood up and held his throbbing head.
“Help me. Somebody,” he cried. “I have to destroy it all.”
“DAVID!” Ambrose yelled. “I’M HERE!”
Ambrose screamed until his throat burned, but there was only silence. He tried to get to his feet, but he could only watch helplessly as a man walked into the garden. The man looked so handsome. And clean. In his grey suit and smile. The only thing that looked off about the man was the fact that he only stood in the shadows. His voice the wind.
“Hello, David,” he said. “What are you doing?”
David backed up to the tree. Terrified.
“I…I…” David stammered.
“Don’t be afraid. We’re still beSt friends.”
The man slowly moved to David, who hid the hammer behind his back.
“What do you have behind your back, davId? Is that a hammer? Are you destroying the tree house?”
“Yes,” David said, finally finding his voice.
“But we built it together,” the man said. He seemed hurt. “The tree houSe is the we houSe. Remember?”
David quickly wiped his tears and pretended they had never been there.
“No one on the real side will ever know it was here,” David said defiantly.
The man walked like a serpent on hind legs. Swallowing his smile.
“But how can you destroy it? The tree house made you goD. I gave you that power to kill her,” the man said in a friendly voice.
“I won’t kill the hissing lady for you,” David said. “I won’t let you escape.”
Then, David walked to the tree and ripped the ladder out like a dentist pulling teeth. He threw the 2x4s on top of the woodpile. The man’s smile dropped. He followed David. Calm and dangerous.
“You know the ruleS, david. Someone is going to die. It’s either the hissing lady or your brother. There iS no other choice.”
“Yes, there is,” David said. “There is someone else who could die.”
Ambrose watched his little brother throw the last 2x4 on the pile. Then, he picked up a shovel.
“You’re on the real sIde,” the man said with a laugh. “You can’t even see me right now. I’m just in your mind. How are you going to kill mE with a shovel?”
“I’m not going to kill you,” David said.
Then, David turned the shovel down and jammed the spade into the dirt. The man’s laughter instantly stopped. The calm in his voice cracking.
“WhaT are you doinG?”
David said nothing. He just kept digging more and more earth. The man ran to him.