The Boy Next Door

Chapter Seventeen (E)

 

When Alex got to the platform of his treehouse, it was quiet, but a good quiet. He hadn’t been here for a couple days, the longest period of time he had been away from it since moving in. The south side of the building was poorly patched from the years of wear and tear. His workmanship had improved as he aged, but the south side would forever be scared from the beginning when he had moved into the house with his dad.

“Alex.” His dad said, speaking to him for the time in several hours, the time it had taken them to drive to the new place. “I’m going to find the grocery store. You can start unpacking.”

“Okay daddy.” Alex said

He was young and short, his white hair was cropped short, but still managing to stick out at random, his checks were natural flushed. The large pieces of furniture was already in place in the correct rooms and Alex, who had packed everything away in boxes and labelled them with the room they belonged to in his messy hand writing, had an easy time unpacking everything. In his closet his discovered a crawl way in the back corner that lead to a secret room, covered in faded red wallpaper and a small round window in the top wall of his reach. A secret room –something he had always wanted and finally got, just not in the way he expected.

After a few hours his dad still hadn’t come back, so Alex went into the backyard to explore. There was no fence, which was a great disappointment to him, since he wouldn’t be able to have a puppy if there wasn’t a fence. A large tree in the yard looked inviting, as he looked around it, bare feet on the dry grass, he spotted a rope ladder dangling down out of sight from the back door and kitchen window. Looking up, the tree just seemed to tower over him, bending over to squash him as a moment’s notice. Never one to be daunted by such things, Alex began to climb hand over hand and foot over foot by rickety rung making his way up.

At the time there was nothing but the platform, it was sturdy enough and made of rough wood, but it was well constructed. Standing on the platform Alex’s could picture in his overactive imagination the castle he could built with his dad. There would be stairs and rooms and he if he could convince his dad to build it for him. After everything that has happened over the last few years, this could be a welcome break from reality, something positive to turn their attention and efforts into. The sound of a car pulling up send him climbing down the ladder excited to tell his dad about what he had found in the backyard.

“Hi daddy!” Alex squeaked running up to greet his dad, a huge smile painted on his face “Did you found the grocery store?”

“No, Alex, I didn’t.” He dad said feeling tired. It would be one of the last times he would call his son by his name “Did you di as I asked and unpacked everything?”

“I did.” Alex proudly said, walking into the house ready to show off his hard work.

For years Alex had been organizing and cleaning the house, since his mum was sick so often, that it wouldn’t have been done otherwise, so he knew where everything went and were it was meant to be, just like it was in the old house. He loved the way it turned out and couldn’t wait for his dad to see it.

“What have you done?” his dad asked, freezing in the living room, his voice was a dangerously quiet and calm.