When Becca and I first found that old fort in the woods, it was nothing special. Just a bunch of huge boards nailed together to create a rectangular room. The wooden floor was covered in dirt and leaves. An old bench was overturned. But when we discovered that fort, something clicked in our minds and we both looked at each other, thinking Oh yeah. We are going to fix up this fort.

The next day we brought supplies to the fort. We swept the floor, spread out a tarp for the ceiling, righted the bench, and added our own little stool. I had brought it from my attic. Mom said she hadn’t used it in years and I could have it. Becca tacked some funny drawings to the wall. Pictures of her brothers where they are extra fat and have unibrows. Pictures of our evil third grade teacher Mrs. Jackson whacking kids. The fort was becoming a fun place.

Becca and I got together next morning and filled paper bags with things we would need for our fort; a hammer, nails, twine, scissors, a small broom and dustpan, rope, towels, napkins, a giant plastic bag to keep things in so they stay clean, even an old bucket to use as a toilet. Becca grabbed an old lawn chair from her house to put in. I took one of our four umbrellas and laid it on the bench, just in case we ever got caught in the rain. With a black marker we wrote “Becca and Catherine’s Fort” on the door. We worked together to make a rope swing in a nearby tree, then took turns testing it out.

By lunch the fort was truly our own. We ran to my house and Mom gave us peanut butter sandwiches and two cans of Pepsi. That made me think of something else; we needed a trash for our fort. I got two beach pails from the shed. One for trash, one for recyclables. We ate at the fort and kept on swinging on our rope. We tried to walk across a fallen tree without falling off. And I got the honor of being the first one to use the bucket toilet.

In the distance Becca and I heard a loud whistle blow. “What was that?” Becca asked.

“That’s my mom’s code for her wanting us to come back,” I said. “We’d better go.”

Becca closed the door of the fort and used a rock to keep it from opening. We ran thru the woods, dodging thorn bushes and branches and roots. “See you tomorrow fort!” Becca called behind us. And I couldn’t wait until we would go back the next day.