Page 15 of What Comes After

“Yeah. What else do you think we need to do?” he returned.

Shaking my head slowly, I marveled at what we’d just accomplished. My dad and I built a treehouse in our backyard. It had taken us weeks to accomplish it, and I was convinced we were never going to get to this point.

But it seemed we finally made it.

“I don’t know. I thought you were going to tell me there was something else that needed to be done. This felt like a never-ending project.”

My dad came to stand beside me. He placed his hand on the top of my head and said, “We could have gotten it done much sooner, but it wouldn’t have been done right. That’s one of the hard lessons you’ll learn in life. If you try to take shortcuts, whatever you’re trying to build will eventually fall apart. Then you’ll have to start all over again. It’ll cost you a lot in the end.”

“Money?” I asked.

“Sometimes. But that’s usually not the worst of it. More often than not, you lose time you can’t ever get back, and time is your most precious resource,” he explained.

I had a feeling my dad was imparting some great wisdom upon me, and although I heard what he was saying, I don’t think the lesson was penetrating the way he might have hoped.

I merely shrugged my shoulders, looked up at my dad, and questioned him, “Since it’s done, can I go and get Devyn? I want to show her it, now that we’ve completed it.”

He let out a laugh before he replied, “Yeah. But I’ll tell you right now that there is one more little thing you’ll want to take care of with this treehouse.”

I felt the confusion in my face. “You said we were done building it.”

“I know, because we are. But if you’re planning to have Devyn come over, you need to make it a place she’ll want to be.”

“Why wouldn’t she want to be here?” I asked, needing more of an explanation for something I didn’t seem to understand.

I could tell my dad had something going through his mind after I’d asked my question that he didn’t plan on telling me, because he had the same look on his face that he’d get whenever my mom asked him if he’d eaten any of the chocolate chips she needed for the Christmas cookies.

Instead of giving me a straight answer, my dad asked, “Theo, how do you think our house would be if we didn’t have any furniture in it?”

“I don’t think I can get a couch up there, Dad.”

“You don’t need a couch. Although, we could probably find something smaller that would fit up there. What I’m trying to say is that you need to figure out how to make the place into more than just a box made out of wood. You need blankets, pillows, games, or Legos. Maybe you’ll want a table or some books in there. Think about it, decide, and I can help you get anything up there that you can’t manage on your own.”

I nodded. “Okay. Thanks, Dad.”

He smiled at me and jerked his head to the side. “No problem, kid. Go get Devyn, so you can show her what you built.”

Not wanting to waste another minute, I took off across the street and made it to Devyn’s house. I didn’t wait at the door for very long when she opened it. “Hi, Theo.”

“It’s ready,” I declared.

“Really?”

“Yep.”

“Does this mean I can finally come over and see it?” she asked me.

“That’s why I came over here to get you,” I told her.

She was so excited. “Okay. Come in and wait for me for a second. I have to put on my sneakers.”

I walked inside and waited. Then she called out, “Hey, Mom, I’m going over to Theo’s to see his new treehouse.”

“Okay. Make sure you’re back by dinnertime,” her mom replied.

“I will.”

A minute later, Devyn and I were walking past my house into the backyard. As soon as it came into view, she looked up and said, “Wow. It’s magnificent. You built this?”

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