Miles To Go

Chapter Six

Calvin watched Gerald pat Miles's shoulder and Miles give him a weak smile. Was it something I said? He wondered. Maybe his chicken wasn't done.

Mystified, Calvin unlatched the gate and opened it. A few cows, chewing on what was left of the summer grass, looked up.

While he had Miles hold the gate closed, he and Gerald went and shoved a round bail of hay out of the little shack a few yards away. Together they rolled it over to the fence and through the gate when Miles opened it. Then Gerald heaved the thing into the hay ring and Miles shut the gate.

"See, they're coming." Calvin said as he took Gerald's hand and pulled him back from the hay ring to allow the cows to approach their food.

As cows approached, so did a heifer and her calf. The calf was white and sparkling in the morning sun.

"It's so white..." Miles said, eyes wide. "How can it be so clean?"

Calvin shrugged. "Its name is Angel Baby. Come on, she's tame, you can pet her." He led the other two towards the calf and said soothing words to it so it wouldn't scamper away.

Both Gerald and Miles petted it, and before long, Gerald was hugging it. "It's so soft..." He said.

"Well...we fed the cows." Calvin said. "You guys want to go see my tree house now?"

"Sure." Miles said. His face had regained some of its color and his smile wasn't forced anymore.

Calvin led them out of the cow field and then around the fence until they met up with a trail that led to his tree house.

"Dang..." Gerald said as they approached it. "That's a nice tree house."

Setting in the branches of a large oak was a small playhouse. It was built with quality boards, had a neat shingled roof, and a small four by three foot long porch of sorts that was covered by the roof.

"Thanks." Calvin beamed. "Conor and I built it the summer before last."

Miles's head was tilted to the side as he studied the structure. "How do you get up there though?"

Calvin's eyes widened. "Oh shit...where'd the ladder go?" He ran up to the tree and circled around the trunk until he found it. The rope ladder was broken and lying in the leaves, its ends tattered and frayed. "Oh no..." Calvin scooped it up. "The damn squirrels chewed through it!"

Gerald took the ladder from Calvin and looked it over. "Damn...yeah, something definitely chewed it."

Frustrated, Calvin kicked the fallen leaves beneath him. "Damn it! Now I'll have to go home and get the extension ladder just to get up there. I really wanted to show you guys the inside..."

Miles was looking around at the trees and their branches above them. "There's no need. Gerald and I can climb up there and reattach the rope ladder right now." He looked down then and gave Calvin a smile.

Calvin's brow creased. "What? But there's no branches low enough to climb up the tree."

Miles shook his head and waved a hand as if to say, 'no big deal'. "Come on, Gerald." He said. "We'll just hop to it by climbing that tree over there." He pointed to a nearby tree.

Gerald looked at the tree and then back at Miles, his eyes narrowed with uncertainty. "That tree?"

"Yeah."

The pair walked over to it and looked up at it. Calvin watched in silence as Gerald grabbed the only branch he could reach and began trying to pull himself up, his boots scraping at the trunk as he tried to give himself a push.