The Tree House

Long, unwashed hair partially covered the face of the girl who slipped through the back door of the house. Her clothes were filthy from spending many nights sleeping in the surrounding forest. Cold bare feet left behind muddy prints on the tiled flooring as she crept around the kitchen.

She swiped the fruit from the fruit bowl sitting prettily in the middle of the table – not the apples, she hated those, but the pears, the two bananas and an orange. In a high cupboard she found a packet of muesli and some chocolate biscuits. She grabbed them greedily; she hadn't tasted chocolate for months.

It was as she had her head in the fridge, debating whether she would be able to carry a carton of milk along with her other finds, when someone screamed.

Startled, she dropped the milk and the carton split, spilling milk all over the floor. A woman was standing in the doorway. She wore clean, fashionable clothes and her blonde hair was fluffy and voluminous from having just been blow-dried.

"What are you doing in my house?" she cried shrilly. The girl made a sound like a scared rabbit and, clutching the goods tightly to her chest, made a run for it out the back door. The woman hesitated before pursuing her, though she gave up as soon as she saw the girl leap over the six foot tall wooden fence that lined the back garden. Presumably she had thrown the food over first and disappeared into the forest with it.

On the other side of the fence the girl gathered up her things – disappointed that the biscuits were undoubtedly broken now – and made her way back where she had come from. It wasn't far.

She had discovered the tree house a few weeks ago and no-one had been to claim it since she had been there so she decided it was theirs. The wood of the tree house was worn and decaying from years of neglect. There had been nothing in it except some leaves and a couple of squirrels when the girl first stumbled across it.

There wasn't a rope or a ladder or anything of the sort to help the girl get inside the shelter of the tree house now so she had to make do with climbing the tree. Luckily she was light and spry. There was a hole in the floor from where she could enter the tree house and two empty squares in the walls acted as windows. It wasn't great for keeping warm but it kept her dry when it rained and it was safe from interfering, nosey adults.

The girl gently placed the loot on the floor. In the corner of the tree house was a pile of dry brown leaves and on top of this pile was a sleeping girl, younger than the first. She too had ragged clothes and was unclean. The older girl shook her sister awake.

"Suzie, I've brought us some food," she said quietly. Suzie opened her eyes slowly and licked her cracked lips. She was shivering so her sister pulled her in close and hugged her to warm her up. They embraced for a long while; once they parted they shared some of the food, knowing not to eat it all as they didn't know when they would have the chance to get more again.

The girl watched her little sister eat slowly and wondered if running away had been the right thing to do for them. They could never go back to the nightmare they had been living before.