Well, It's Still There: Sort Of...

"We've expanded it, with your mom and sister's help." Ellie said and I slowly closed my mouth from where it had been hanging limp like a screen door with no spring.

Calling what was up in that redwood now 'a tree-house' would be like calling the Mona Lisa 'a painting': the thing was two stories high (not counting the attic), wrapped all the way around the tree, and stood out a good ten feet from the trunk on the 'ground' floor. I had personally known boys in Mexico that would gladly have become suicide bombers to give their family a house like that.

"What the hell did you do to our tree house?" I finally managed to whisper as I stood there poleaxed.

"Oh, it all got reused somewhere in there." Angelica said with pride. "Not a single board or even nail went to waste."

"Do you want to see inside?" Ellie asked, with a note of...

'Wait, is she coming on to me?' I thought, still too surprised by what had happened to our little hideaway in the branches to realize that this was the logical next step from the way they had been behaving towards Maya all night...