Beyond the Hedge

Beyond Ashley

I was done with this place.

How could a guy literally a year older than me have this much money to have his own makeshift house in the woods when my friends back home had to work for everything they wanted? Maybe the Elders liked Reggie's side better. They surely had enough money all this time to buy anything but decided not to give it to the Hedge.

Reggie wasn't lying when he said he had a few tools that could help me. He had a whole surveillance system inside of this treehouse. This place makes me want to stop calling it a treehouse. Each time I think, "Oh! This is normal"-BOOM! Something pops up that isn't in a regular backyard treehouse. This place was more of a mansion than Aunt L's place was.

I looked, for the millionth time, at all the screens lined up next to each other. Computers were giving out codes to other computers next to them and making the "BeeDoop. BeeDoop" sounds they were known to make. I almost expected a robot servant to pop out at any moment to ask if I wanted refreshments.

Reggie watched from the doorway, yeah, doorway, as I sat down on one of the spin chairs I had grown to love. It was light blue and the armrests glowed with codes from the computer like they were synced.

"Could you see everyone here, Red?" I asked, looking at one screen. I looked at all the screens and I zoomed in on one in particular. A little girl in a bright pink dress smiled at a man that was holding a doll. She said something to him and I caught the word "me".

I waved Reggie over, eyes still glued to the computer. "Come look at this."

We watched as the man reached out and touched the little girl's hair and then touched the bald doll's head. They were in the girl's room, I'm guessing. There were Princess decorations in the background.The doll, which had nothing but a white-ish cloth as a dress, grew hair like a regular person. I gasped. The old man did magic. I looked at Reggie and he smiled. He leaned on my chair and then turned to me.

"That's my niece." Before I could interrupt him he shook his head. "Look. There's more." Reggie whispered.

"He does this every time." Reggie muttered to himself.

I turned my eyes back to the screen that caught my attention when I first walked in. The man said something to the little girl as she giggled and the white material turned to the color of the little girl's dress. He handed it over to her as she laughed and gave him a bear hug. The guy looked like he had the world. Reggie pointed to the man.

"That's my dad." He said proudly.

Reggie Senior looked so much like my Reggie. He acted the same way too. You could see it when the old man laughed when the little girl twirled the doll around her.

"What's her name?" I whispered. I had no idea why but I felt like I had to. It was just Reggie and I in the camera room, but it felt like one of those times to stay as quite as possible.

"Quinn. Her real name is Quincy. She's five." Reggie's eyes sparkled when he saw how happy the little girl was. Quinn looked up at an angle that almost looked like she was staring straight at the camera.

"Do they know that the cameras are placed there?" I got up from the chair so Reggie could sit and he turned the volume up. The cameras had microphones.

I watched as he worked, like he was so comfortable in his own place. He looked like he spent more time here than at his "castle" where his family was. I wonder how long he stayed here, keeping watch over everyone he loves.

"Abuelo!" Quinn squealed, when Reggie Senior picked her up and gave her a piggyback ride. She held onto her new doll and her grandpa's shoulder so she wouldn't fall.