As I Was Walking in the Park

She welcomed me to the class and pulled out her seating chart. The room had tables instead of desks with two students seated at each. She looked down the chart and found one table with only one person assigned and quickly wrote my name in the vacant place. Then she pointed to the table and my heart seemed to flip again as I saw the vacant place - now my place - was next to the boy from the park.

I moved over and sat down and then turned to the boy as he did to me. "Hi. I'm Karen Shepard. They just moved me here from Ms Harvard's class."

He smiled a very friendly smile back and replied, "Hi. I'm Erik Wilder. Welcome to our world of green and wiggly things."

I gave a little laugh and just then the bell rang and Ms Green started class.

Over the next four days we spoke to each other just a little. Mostly we were busy listening as this class did seem to move a little more quickly than others I had taken. I didn't mind this and actually like the heightened pace. I did notice that Erik also appeared to thrive on the greater challenge. When we did speak, however, I quickly discovered he had a sharp wit and a good sense of humor. I suspected he was probably quite bright. (This was confirmed some two weeks later when we got back the first test and he beat me by three points.)

On Friday of that week we had lab and I discovered that the two people at each table would work as partners. On Thursday we had been told that this lab would be about using the microscope. The microscopes available were not binocular and we were told repeatedly that while we would only look with one eye we should not shut the other one tightly closed.

I got to class a little ahead of Erik and was already examining the microscope on our table when he came up beside me. I turned and burst out laughing. He had a black patch over one eye and was holding a tiny toy cutlass. "Arggg. I'm not expecting trouble with using just the one eye, Mate." As I have said, he had an interesting sense of humor.

I couldn't help myself and laughed even harder as did a couple of other nearby students. Erik joined us and then as class started he removed the patch and put the toy away. He changed instantly from pirate to serious student and we spent the next forty minutes learning to focus and otherwise operate the device in front of us.

Over the next three weeks we found that we worked well together. Our minds seemed to think alike and we never had difficulty settling on an approach to a problem or sharing tasks. Outside of class I only saw him occasionally in the halls or across the room at lunch time but I had found myself quite comfortable with him.

One Saturday morning I woke to find a clear sky of blue so intense it almost hurt to look at it. The temperature was warm for mid October - a high of seventy two predicted with only a very slight breeze. Perfect fall weather. I did have a novel to finish for English class but otherwise the day was open and I gave intense consideration to deciding how to spend it. I could put the novel off until tomorrow. I could get it out of the way. I could sit inside and watch a movie or something. I could take the novel and maybe something else to read and head out into our woods and enjoy this perfect fall day. This intense consideration took all of about two and a half seconds and I immediately headed downstairs.

After a quick breakfast I decided to pack a lunch and just eat outside. Mom and Dad had someplace they were going anyway so I just told them I'd be out in the woods and would be back by supper time. Then I stuffed the lunch, a couple of water bottles, and the novel, as well as some other reading material intended just for my own enjoyment into a small back pack and headed out back.

When we had first moved here the three of us had walked the boundaries so I knew where our land ended and someone else's started even though there was only more woods surrounding ours. Now I just headed out, following the stream for a ways, and watching for a likely place to just sit comfortably and settle down to my reading. Several hundred yards back I was getting near the edge of our property when I saw a large tree with a couple of branches about seven feet off the ground. These branches formed a fork that looked just right to settle into. (I said I still climbed trees.) It wasn't difficult to get up there and I found I had been right. When I settled on the fork and leaned back against the trunk everything seemed to fit against me as though it had been designed to do so. I did have a blanket with me and I folded this behind my back leaving me resting as easily as in an upholstered chair.

I pulled out the novel and began to work my way through the remaining portion. A couple of times I stopped for a short time to eat a little snack and drink some water, but mostly I just kept going. The temperature was perfect, the breeze only enough to make a slight rustling sound in the brightly colored autumn leaves. There were occasional sounds of squirrels or other small animals rushing around gathering nuts or something and probably storing them for winter. We had already had enough cool nights that most of the bugs were history and nothing was left to disturb me.

I finished the required reading and I think I may have even dozed off slightly for a few minutes. I was just beginning to consider seeing about lunch when I heard someone moving through the leaves nearby. It sounded like just a single person, moving slowly, probably just enjoying the fine weather as I was myself. I leaned over and peered through the vale of leaves still remaining on the trees. To my total surprise I saw that the pilgrim moving slowly in my direction was none other than Erik, my lab partner.

He was some twenty feet from my tree and obviously hadn't noticed me when I called out, "Hi. What are you doing out here?"

He looked up with a totally startled expression on his face. It took him just a couple of seconds to recognize me through the leafy shroud. Then he replied, "Hi, yourself. I could ask you the same question. But perhaps it's just that you think you are a bird or something."

I laughed and began to swing down to the ground. "No, I just found a comfortable place to read. Just finished that novel for English next week. As to what I'm doing here, I live here."

He slowly looked around then said, "And all this time I thought you lived in a house like other people."

Again I laughed and said, "Well, I do but the house is just a short way in that direction." I pointed and added, "Now you know why I'm here, so tell me just why are you?"

He shook his head back and forth. "You really live here? I'm here because my house is just a short way in that direction." He then pointed in the direction almost directly opposite the way I had.

Both of us were lost in the surprise. I realized that in the time I had lived here I had never been around to the road on which his house was located and neither of us had discussed where we lived. He had a small pack with his lunch also and we quickly spread the blanket below the tree where I had been perched and sat down. We ended up sharing each other's lunch and talking. I found that he lived on the place adjoining ours along one side, some sixty or so acres. He had decided to just walk upstream a little today to see where the creek came from before it flowed onto his parents' land.

We ended up spending the afternoon together, walking through the woods on both properties. I found that the stream continued onto his land where it had been dammed to form a six acre lake. It still flowed on beyond that but he told me the lake was great for swimming in warmer weather. There were several small waterfalls on our side which he hadn't seen before and I showed him those.

I learned a little more about him, too. His father was a professional engineer who owned a small engineering and construction company. His mother worked for the company also, handling the finances and many of the administrative tasks. In turn I told him about my dad, an electrical engineer, now into engineering management. My mom was the head of human resources for another company in town. I found that he was an only child also and had lived here for the past eight years. Another thing we discovered was that we both had birthdays in October. His had been the previous week and mine was coming up in about ten days, so we were within two or three weeks of being the same age.

I learned he enjoyed the out of doors as much as I did and had tried backpacking, snowshoeing, and kayaking and liked all of them. He even had his own kayak and promised to let me try it out. We learned that we had several likes and dislikes in common, but I didn't really find that surprising. From the way we had gotten along I would have expected that we were quite a bit alike.

As it neared sundown we finally split up and each headed back to our own home but said we should come out here again some time. At supper I told my parents about being surprised to find my biology partner lived directly in back of us, even if a little ways off. Mom and Dad glanced at each other and I believe they were thinking that I was happy to find someone my own age nearby. If so, they were right.

At school we continued to work together, perhaps a little more friendly now that we knew each other a little better. On two more Saturdays we took lunches and met out in the woods. By chance we discovered we both liked to play chess, but only as an interesting diversion. Neither of us were destined to become world champion or anything. Erik had a portable chess set which he brought out with him that third Saturday and we spent several hours across the checkered board. But the real interest then wasn't the game. We did play to win but a lot of our time was spent in conversation - just learning more about each other.

Ten days before Thanksgiving we had a biology project. Each pair was supposed to research a topic and put together both a written report as well as an oral presentation. We had some time to work on it at school but not nearly enough for the way we wanted to handle it, so I suggested we get together that weekend. We were going to meet out in the woods and do our planning but when Saturday dawned it was to a gray sky and a cold drizzle. By the time I had finished breakfast it didn't look like it was going to let us and the woods would definitely not be a good place to try and work. I called Erik and suggested he come over to my house and we could work here. He agreed and a half hour later he knocked on the door.

I introduced him to my parents and then we went into the room I used for study. This room was a combination library and study. Both of my parents used it as well as I did myself when we wanted a quiet place to work. It contained three desks and a work table, a computer system - two actually - and a number of book shelves. Well, my family were kind of nerds also - it wasn't just me.

We spent the entire morning putting our project together and about twelve thirty Mom stuck her head in and suggested that Erik might want to stay for lunch. I hadn't even noticed the time but suddenly realized I was getting hungry and quickly urged him to stay. He agreed and in a few minutes she called us in to some hot soup and sandwiches.

By about two thirty we had pretty well finished everything and moved to the family room where there was a chess board. (Mom and Dad liked to play also. I guess that's where I got it from.) We played a few games and finally Erik left to head back home.

Over the rest of that year he came over several times and I spent a few Saturdays at his house. Usually it was for some school project but we also found time to just talk or play games. We had found that we both enjoyed other board games as well, usually strategy ones, and there were three or four we played quite regularly. Always it was competition when we played but never cutthroat, and thankfully we were pretty evenly matched.

By April the weather had changed enough that we could sometimes spend the day out in the woods again and we resumed our all day treks. I don't mean to give the impression that Erik and I had become deeply involved with each other. No, we were friends - good friends - but that was all. We didn't spend all of our time together or anything. There were two or three girls I got together with and I know Erik spent time with some of the guys from school. As for the opposite genders ... Well, I had been asked out a few times and gone to movies and once or twice to a school dance, but I wasn't really getting involved with anyone. I know Erik dated a few girls also but he didn't have any serious relationship either.

We were more like brother and sister. Perhaps that may have been part of our relationship since we both lacked siblings. We even confided in each other about our dates, laughing at funny situations which had arisen and telling of our disappointments.

School was rapidly coming to a close when one Saturday in late May we had taken lunches out and were spending the day in the woods. We were over near the boundary between our two properties, sitting on a blanket eating, when the sky began to cloud up. It began to look like a spring shower might be about to start. We hurriedly finished our food and were just stuffing everything back into the packs when the first drops of rain began to fall.

It looked like the kind of rain that would come down very hard for a short time, taper off and then probably clear up again completely. Anyway we knew that if it broke like that we'd both be soaked before we could make it back to either of our houses. The drops began to fall a little faster and we looked around for some kind of shelter. There were some thick evergreens growing near in a dense clump over towards the stream and we headed under them.

We got there just in time as the storm turned loose in earnest. We moved back next to a couple of large trunks in the center of the grove where the branches overhead were thick enough that only a few drops got through during the next fifteen minutes as the storm went from a hard downpour to more gentle rain to only an occasional lagging drop or two.

While we were waiting for it to abate I said something about how it would be nice if we had some kind of shelter for cases like this. "Maybe we could bring a waterproof tarp or something," I suggested.

Erik looked thoughtfully around. "Yeah, probably, but something a slightly more solid would be a little better."

Sarcastically I teased, "Yes, maybe we should just build a house out here."

He laughed and said, "Maybe even a whole mansion," but I saw a thoughtful look move over his face. The rain finally let up but we remained in our small hideaway until a few drips began to make their way through the overhanging needles. We then decided we'd probably be better off back out in the reappeared sunshine and moved to find a large rock which had already almost dried.

CHAPTER 4

We shared our work, we shared our fun

Joy and sadness for both were one

Each other's goals became our own

We built together neither one alone

Three weeks later school had ended when one Saturday Erik called and said he had an idea he'd like to discuss. Could I meet him out near the grove where we had waited out that rain? I agreed and headed out.

He was already there when I arrived and I saw he was holding a spiral bound notebook. "OK, what did you want to discuss?" I asked.

Now he seemed slightly shy. "Well, it's an idea I had. You know when we were out here you said something about having a shelter."

"Sure. It would be nice to have somewhere dry if a storm comes up."

"Well, I got to thinking. It would be even nicer if we had somewhere sheltered enough we could stay dry even if it was raining. Somewhere we could go to just read or play games or talk or something without worrying about the weather at all."

"You mean a shack or something?" I asked.

"Sort of. What I was thinking about was something like this." He opened the notebook and showed me a sketch of a small enclosure. I looked more closely as he turned the page and I saw the cube sketched into the branches of a large tree.

"A tree house!" I exclaimed. "Could we really make something good enough to be worthwhile?"

"I don't see why not."

"Just where did you have in mind?" I asked, my interest growing.

"Come on and I'll show you." He led the way for a couple of hundred feet and as we entered a small clearing he pointed to a huge maple. It was, in fact, the maple in which I had been perched that first time I met him out here. I looked at it a little more critically. There were several quite sturdy branches some ten or twelve feet off the ground. Branches eight or more inches in diameter.

"I've looked and I'm sure it is quite strong enough to let us put up, say, an eight by eight box. Here, look at this." He turned the notebook to another page and I saw a more detailed drawing, almost construction plans. I could see how the branches were used to support the weight and how the entire structure was anchored to the trunk itself.

I looked more closely. There was a small door and two windows on opposite sides. It had a sloped shed roof and a small overhang which would allow the water to drain away while still permitting cross ventilation. I looked back up at Erik. "Do you really think we could build this? I asked.

"Sure. It's on your property so we'd have to get permission from your parents." It was on our land but only by about fifty feet or so. "I'm sure I could get the materials through my dad and it wouldn't cost too much. I think we could even get the truck almost back here so we wouldn't have to carry things very far."

I could hear the excitement in his voice and I'll admit I was growing a little excited myself. I looked at the drawings again. "How do we get up there? Do we have to climb the tree each time?"

"I was thinking about a set of steps on a rope or chain. Not really a rope ladder, but wood plank steps connected by a rope. We could pull it up into the tree house when we weren't using it." I could visualize us climbing inside and closing off the rest of the world, dry and snug while rain poured down outside. We could read or play chess or just talk. Yes, I was definitely coming to like the idea.

I looked up at him again. "I think it would be great if we can do it. Have you said anything to your parents yet?"

"No, I was waiting to see if you liked the idea first."

"Well, I do."

"Why don't you come over to my place and we'll see if we can put together some better plans. I know it will go better if we can show my dad that we've given this some serious consideration."

I readily agreed. Erik brought out a tape and we spent a few minutes getting some measurements of branch size and locations. Then we headed over to his house and were soon in his study making detailed sketches which we then changed into computer drawings. Erik seemed pretty familiar with the CAD program and I had used it myself enough to be able to easily work with it.

In a few hours we had something resembling real plans. Then we spent some time putting together a bill of materials. By late that afternoon we had everything ready and before I went back home Erik promised to talk with his dad that night.

The next day Erik called and said his dad thought the plans just might work. In fact he had looked over them, done some kind of analysis, and even gone out to examine the tree. He had said it looked like a sound design but because the tree limbs weren't stress graded lumber he suggested adding a couple of steel rods to anchor the structure to the trunk a little more. Overall, though, he said that if my parents gave permission we should be able to build it. He even said we could probably get most of the materials from leftovers his business had lying around.