“Watch your thumb Erik” his Dad said as Erik was about to drive the last nail.
“There! We built it Dad!”
“Well…you mostly built it Erik…it’s YOUR tree house…I just kinda watched a lot.”
“Let’s go down to the yard and look at it!” Erik said excitedly.
They climbed down the slats that were nailed into the old oak tree and when they got down to the grass
they looked up at the handywork.
“It’s the greatest tree house ever Dad!”
“It sure is! Enjoy it and try to be careful. It IS a long way to fall.”
“I know…I will.” Erik couldn’t stop looking up at the finished project and soon his neck started to hurt.
Erik’s Dad had left and the boy hadn’t even noticed, he had been so enthralled at the sight of his “masterpiece”.
“Wait until my buddies see this!” Erik thought.
This would be the exclusive “boy’s clubhouse” with no girls allowed…EVER!. At least, that was the plan. It was way past twilight now and Erik knew that Dad’s rules said that Erik or any of his friends were not allowed to go up into the treehouse at night. Also either Erik’s Mom or Dad had to be home when he went up there. Other things like not leaving any food there and stuff but mainly it was Erik’s private refuge from the trials of boyhood and a few rules didn’t make it any less terrific.
Erik could hardly sleep that night and since it was Friday, he could spend all day Saturday in his treehouse if he wanted. He was thinking about which of his friends he would “honor” by being the first invitee and because he was so tired out by his home building labors he fell sound asleep.

The next morning before even the birds were chirping Erik was up and dressed and out into the backyard. His treehouse sure looked great in the early morning light! Erik climbed up the slats and crawled into his house. A gray squirrel was there in the corner looking up, and then left, then right and all around the interior of the structure.
“This is about the finest tree house I ever did see!”…said…the…squirrel???
“What?” exclaimed Erik.
“THIS IS ABOUT THE….”
“OK OK….I get it….I’m not deaf!” Erik held up his hand to quiet the squirrel. “Quiet the squirrel?”
“You….you….just talked.” Erik whispered in amazement.
“Ah…yeah…I guess I did…didn’t I?”
“Yeah….and you still are…talking that is.”
“Weird!” exclaimed the squirrel.
Just then a mockingbird flew into the open window and whistled. “Whew…this is some tree house huh?”
“Yeah, I was just tellin’ the kid….”
“WAIT! What’s goin’ on here?”
Two Robins were sitting on the window sill and whistling and nodding their heads. “Nice huh?”
“Yeah….real nice!” the birds chirped to each other.
Erik rubbed his eyes, shook his head then all the animals began to talk at each other all at once.
Erik put his fingers to his mouth like his Father had taught him and whistled a loud shrill “TWEET!!!”
They all nodded and looked at Erik as if waiting for the next command.
“You can’t all talk at once!”
Two more squirrels came in.”Hey Ted…what’s up?”
“Yo…Howie….some tree house huh?”
“Wait….do you mean that you animals can ALL talk?”
“Huh…yeah….I….guess we can….couldn’t yesterday….well….not to humans.” remarked the mockingbird.
“Well…not even five minutes ago….outside the tree house.”
“Wait here!” the mockingbird waddled out of the window frame and sat on the limb…“Chirp…tweet….chirp…” was all that anyone heard until she stepped back into the tree house.
“I was saying that I think….NO I KNOW….that this treehouse is magic!” the mockingbird said.
Then one of the squirrels went outside and could only chatter until he stepped back inside….”WOW!”
All of a sudden Erik was speaking to the mockingbird and his english language changed into bird chirps and the bird was shaking his head in agreement to what Erik was saying. Then as Erik turned to the squirrels he began chattering and they nodded in agreement also.
Then Erik heard the squirrel chatter “I’m getting’ hungry…gotta get goin!”
“Sure” chattered Erik and then chirped a goodbye to the mockingbird as she flew off to look for bugs and worms.
Then Erik was alone in his wonderful treehouse. And as he looked out of the window the squirrel in the next tree winked at him, chattered a long chatter but Erik didn’t have a clue as to what the squirrel was trying to say. The mockingbird winked too but Erik couldn’t understand the whistling and it sounded just like normal bird chirps to him now.
And believe it or not Erik was never able to communicate with the birds and squirrels ever again. But he would never forget that one special first morning at his tree house…and actually never told another soul about it …until now.