Page 80 (1/2)

A shakes his head "No I’ you to h the cupboards until he finds two trays The food we’ve es to fit on the, too

"Here," he says, handing me one of the trays Then he leads ?" I ask I don’t even havefar

"Look up," he says

At first, all I see is the tree Then I look closer and see the tree house

"Nice," I say, finding the ladder

"There’s a pulley systeo up and drop it down"

These parents have thought of everything

As I balance the trays, A heads up the ladder and sends a platfor to be, but I put one of the trays on, and Aoff We repeat this for the second tray, and then it’sI’ve read about in a book It never occurred to me that kids could actually have tree houses in their backyards

There’s an open door at the top, and I clih A has lit some of the candles, so the air flickers as I pullcabin stuck in the air There isn’t uitar and some notebooks, a small bookshelf with an old encyclopedia on it A has put the trays in the middle of the floor, since there isn’t any table and there aren’t any chairs

"Pretty cool, isn’t it?" A says

"Yeah"

"It’s all his His parents don’t come up here"

"I love it"

I take the plates, napkins, and silverware from one of the trays and set the table that isn’t a table When I’ for each of us As we sit across from each other, we comment on the food--it’s all turned out better than it has any reason to be The sauce on the pasta primavera tastes like a spice I can’t quite identify--I ask A what it is, and he doesn’t reht have put it in I don’t remember, either It was all just part of the improvisation

There’s a carafe of water on one of the trays, and that’s all we need We could have wine We could have vodka We could have Cherry Cokes It would all be the saht, intoxicated by air The food is our music The walls are our warhts low I’ve just taken ue I catch A watching ar on

"What?" I ask

He leans over and kisses me

"That," he says

"Oh," I say "That"

"Yes, that"

We hang there, waiting for the kiss to leave the rooht