“I told you, Mom! We’ll use this for Peony, and this pile for a super tiny fort!” I told my mom for the millionth time.
“Won’t Peony need a bigger pen, though?” My mom worried.
“Mom!” I complained. “For the billionth time: This pile is for Peony. It is enough for a big enough pen. This pile is for a fort. Me and Anne really want one. There is enough for both!” I had to explain very carefully. My mom finally understood and let us take some wood.
“Wow, and it only took a half hour.” Anne grumbled.
“I know! But at least she let us take some.” I agreed. We counted and planned and got ready for our treehouse. We were ready. I glanced back at the stones.
“Oh, Kate! We’ll worry about them later! They’ll still be here.” Anne assured me. “We can bounce and float later. Oh, but maybe we should bring a ring.”
“Why?”
“To bounce up trees to find the perfect one or...hey I wonder if it’s harder to jump while holding something!” Anne got distracted so easily.
“Okay, I’ll grab some rings.” I smiled.
“Okay, grab two different colors so we don’t get them mixed up.” Anne told me. I grabbed a blue and a purple.
“Ooh, ooh! Can I use the blue?” Anne asked. “Just so I can check out trees. The purple one probably does the same thing. I just like blue.”
“Okay!” I laughed and put them in my pocket. “Got them.”
“Let’s go!”
We walked through the forest to find the perfect tree to build a treehouse. Anne bounced up every tree she thought looked good. I didn’t put the purple ring on because I was using two hands to pull the wood and nails on a tarp.
“Maybe I should put the ring on.” I panted. “So I can float while I pull this...and I don’t step in more mud!” I let the part of the tarp I was holding fall to the ground. I dug the ring out of my pocket and slipped it on.
“Aw, I’m not floating.” I complained. “Maybe it is just the blue stone.” I raised my hands in exasperation. As my hands flailed down at the wood, the would floated, with a slight purple aura. The wood floated wherever I moved my hand.
“Anne...are you seeing this?” I marveled.
“Oh. My. God-oh-my-god-look-it’s-floating-do-you-know-what-this-means?!” Anne shrieked. “The other colors might have different powers too! We need to test them!” Anne floated down and pulled off the ring.
“Wha….wh…?” I couldn’t even talk. “Purple….” I was absolutely speechless watching that piece of wood float in the air. Wherever I moved my ring hand, the wood followed.
“Come on, Kate!” Anne urged. “We have to check out the other stones!”
“Yeah...yeah...just…” I muttered, dazed. “Just a sec…” I waved my hand around. I flicked my hand left and the wood shot left. I flicked my hand up and the wood shot up, higher than the trees and came falling down. I put my hand in front of it before it hit the ground and it stopped midair. I flicked my hand down and the wood dropped, the purple aura disappearing.
My jaw was still dropped.
“Kate!” Anne implored. “Oh-ther stones!” Cue the Ding! idea lightbulb.
“We can use the purple ring to build the tree house!” I exclaimed.
“Ooh!” Anne grinned. “We just need to find a tree! How about that one?”
“I dunno. Why don’t you....float up there?”
“Oh, right!” Anne put the ring back on and floated up a tall tree. “Hey, it’s really tall, a lot of branches...the branches are perfect for building and hiding the treehouse!”
“Yes!” I cheered. “Let’s do it!” We spent the rest of the day starting our treehouse. It was much easier with the stones. I floated the wood up, and Anne, who was floating up in the tree, would nail them together.
It was near sunset when I said, “Okay, we have the floor down. Let’s start the walls tomorrow.” Anne agreed and we walked home talking about the rings.
“So, if all the different colors have different powers, what other powers could there be?” Anne wondered.
“Well, blue makes you fly, purple lets you move stuff around, so...the others are probably super cool!” I laughed. Our treehouse only had the floors done, but we were planning to do more.
“Should we do wood walls and a wood roof? Or maybe just a wooden gate around it? Or lots of windows?” We finally decided to do wood walls and a wood roof, but have two windows on each wall.
“It’ll be great!” Anne declared.