He didn’t want to go back to the forest, too many memories. Too much he knew he’d have to explain if he went back. It just felt wrong to be there. He still arrived promptly at eleven to find Benjamin sat atop the spruce pine. “Well my nameless partner in crime why don’t you and I take a look a what I brought?” Benjamin boasted.

“What is this junk?”

“We’re going to build a tree house! Because you never know, things can change in these woods. And I figured you’d know the perfect place to build it. Since, y’know you know everything about this place…” Jax didn’t know how he felt about Benjamin. Wordlessly he led him down to the spring.

“Oh my. This is quite the spot for a tree house.” Benjamin gawked at the before him. If a tree house was to go anywhere, it had to be here. A set of trees outlined the perimeter of a large pond that ran into a stream. Years ago someone built a bridge from one side of the small stream to another. Construction began that day. Benjamin didn’t really do much. It was his idea, but he wasn’t familiar at all with building.

“Ben, can you hand me those nails?”

“Did you just call me Ben?”

“Yeah, what’s it to ya?” That was enough to silence Ben for the rest of the hour, out of the blue Ben whispered.

“Jax, your name is Jax.”

“H-how do you know that?”
“I know everything in these woods Jax, even you.” Ben didn’t even glance up, his tone was eerily calm. Construction lasted three more days and for those three days Benjamin didn’t say a word. Jax was utterly terrified. That boy Ben went from zero to sixty real fast. On the fourth day the tree house was finished. It was kind of rickety, not that impressive, and would probably fail any tree house code or test given to it. But it was theirs. They worked hard to make it a reality, and to Ben and Jax it was perfect. That day some switch flipped for Ben and he was no longer eerie and distant.

“Ben, stay here I’ll be right back with a surprise…” When Jax returned he had a knapsack balanced between his shoulders.

“Watcha got Jax?”

“Climb on up and I’ll show ya Benny!”

“Did you really just call me Benny?” Ben laughed, well more or less snorted. Jax was in a golden mood, on a roller coaster that only goes up. Maybe things were finally looking up for him. Once they were both in the tree Jax pulled out two glasses, a tiny bottle of sparkling cider, and a candle.

“We’ve got to toast the new tree house!”

“C’mon Jax, how in the world are we supposed to light that thing without a match!” Jax pulled out two sticks.

“I’m gonna show ya a trick an old friend of mine taught me…” Jax held a stick in each hand and started creating friction between them. Within a couple seconds there was a spark and a small flame.

“Geez Jax, you’re a regular old southern boy scout!” Their laughter filled up the tree house with a sense of home. Something Ben wasn’t used to. The candle was lit and placed in the center of the tree house. Meanwhile Ben popped the top off and poured the sparkling cider.

“To the tree house.”

“To the tree house!” Ben recited. The boys raised their glasses and clinked them together. Just like the bubbles in their drinks their moods were light and airy.

“Jax you know what we should do? We should sleep out here tonight!”

“That sounds like a grand idea Ben. We’ll sleep under the stars and live like real men under the stars!”

“I’ll gather some blankets and you can gather some food!” The boys clambered down hastily and ran in separate directions to their houses. By the time they reconvened with all of the supplies night had fallen. They laid out all of the blankets and pillows and arranged their food and water supply. With snacks upon snacks Ben and Jax could survive up there forever.

Once everything was organized Ben and Jax settled themselves under the blankets. Laying in the tree house staring at the ceiling Jax spoke up. “I’m really glad we did this.”

“Me too. Jax, why did you start calling me Ben though?”

“You remind me of someone I used to know. He and I were close and we always shortened each other’s names. Simple as that.”

“So you’re name isn’t just Jax?”

“Nope.”

“Who was the friend? Is he still around here?”

“To tell you that I’d have to tell you more about the woods, and I’d rather not.”

“Jax, you know everything about the woods. It shouldn’t be that hard to tell me ‘bout it.”

“Go to bed Ben.”

“No.”

“Ben, please.”

“Ben, please nothing. I want to know Jax! I deserve to know! I’ve been nothing but honest with you since day one…”

“Fine.”

“Just tell me why you hate the woods. I hear people talk, but they never say what happened to make you hate it here so much.” Jax got up and gazed out the window.

“It was a summer ago, maybe two. I can’t even remember anymore and it honestly scares me. I would come out here with my older brother, Matthew, Matt. We’d hang out here everyday just like we did when we were younger. We basically grew up in the woods. We just did fun things, we just liked hanging out together. Except this one day didn’t go quite like the others. It was wet out from the rainstorm the night before and everything was slippery. He dared me to climb up a tree…the spruce pine. So I did. I stayed close to the ground though because I didn’t want to fall. But being the older brother, Matt was determined to out-do me. He kept goin’ higher and higher even when I begged him to come down. His foot slipped. Then he panicked and lost his grip. Hit his head on a bunch of branches on the way down. There were cuts all over his forehead and he was bleeding everywhere. Broke his arm too. I was scared out of my mind, but just like a good older brother does he kept me calm. We got back to the house and mama took him to the hospital. I wanted to come with but they wouldn’t let me. I remember when he got home he was still nothin’ but smiles. The last thing he said to me was ‘see Jaxtin! I’m fine bud, we’ll be back out there tomorrow!’ but he died in his sleep that night. The doctor didn’t check him for any head trauma. He fractured his skull and a vein tore in the space between the brain and the skull, there wasn’t even a chance for us to stop the bleeding. And he didn’t make it through the night. I woke up and he was just…gone.”

“Jax. I’m… s-so sorry. I had no idea.” Jaxtin turned to see a few tears slip from Ben’s eyes.

“Now ya see, this is part of the reason I didn’t wanna tell you.” Jax whispered, on the verge of tears himself. The pain of losing a best friend, who was also his brother, could never really be dulled. He sauntered over to Ben who was standing in the middle of the tree house and hugged him.

“You’re not gonna up and leave me now are ya?”

“Now why would I do that?” Jax stifled a laugh. He could think of quite a few reasons why Ben would and could do that. Jax ruffled Ben’s hair and sighed.

“I don’t know. Not many people wanted to be my friend after the accident. I guess they thought I’d push ‘em out of a tree the second we were alone. I figured you’d be the same when you found out.”

“You’ve got nothing to worry about. I’ll be bothering you until we’re old and gray!” Ben reassured. Jax pulled back all the blankets and sat back down, like always Ben followed suit. Laying in the dark Ben broke the comfortable silence that had loomed over them since the bomb had been dropped.

“So…I remind you of Matthew?” he enquired.

“Yes, you do. Always by my side, always thinkin’ of something new to do, and always testing my nerves and back talking,” Ben chuckled knowing full well he had a little bit of attitude, “you kind of look like him too, y’all got the same eyes, that’s about it though.” Jax couldn’t see them in the darkness of the tree house, but he knew the exact shade of brown that Matthew and Ben shared.

“Hey Benjamin?”

“Yeah Jaxtin?”

“Thanks.”

“No problem.”